Ziff Davis, Graphite, and Glenn Gabe each try to measure what AI answers do to search traffic, and each measurement comes with a stated limit, so most items below rest on one executive, one vendor, or one analyst’s small sample, with the hedges kept.
Measuring The Damage: Three Attempts To Size AI Search
A publisher CEO, an AEO consultancy, and an independent analyst put numbers on AI search from three angles. Each admits what its figures cannot show.
- Ziff Davis Reports 37% Drop in Google Referrals, Cites AI Impression Ratio CEO Vivek Shah said Google referrals fell about 37% year over year and estimated AI impressions at close to ten times the clicks from Google Search. The click total appears to cover all Search results, so the ratio is not an AI click-through rate.
- Graphite: AI Hits 76B Sessions, Can’t Size It Against Search Graphite, which sells AEO services, uses Similarweb estimates to put six AI assistants at 76 billion monthly sessions, up 37 percent in a year. The same report withdraws its March comparison with search because the authors can no longer measure it reliably.
- French Search Console data shows AI Overviews cutting clicks on some sites Glenn Gabe’s Search Console data from five French sites shows clicks and CTR falling at three after the July 22 launch, while two held steady. The sample is five sites chosen by one analyst, so it shows a split, not a rate.
Reading The Reports: What Ads And Analytics Tools Hide
Two reporting surfaces matter for anyone proving AI search impact in paid and organic work. One hides activity, and the other can double it.
- Agency Finds No Trace of Longer AI Mode Queries in Ads Data Eskimoz, which supplied its own data from more than 400 Google Ads accounts, found no growth in long queries even where ads run inside AI Mode. Its author reads that as the search terms report hiding AI activity, not proof it is absent.
- Google Analytics Adds Data Manager Hub, With a Double-Counting Warning The open-beta hub maps data streams, product links, and imports in one admin page. Google’s own documentation warns that running the same pipeline in two places can log conversions twice.
Today’s Quick Hits
- AI Mode Follow-Up Ads Are Now Showing Up in U.S. Conversations Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz saw ads under second, third, and fourth AI Mode answers as of at least November 6, and Google has made no new statement.
- Google Appears to Test AI Summaries Above and Inside Search Ads Brodie Clark spotted a mobile layout with a generated summary over the sponsored block and another under each ad, and Google has not confirmed it.
- Google Ads Beta Page Posts Weekly AI Creative Insights One practitioner’s screenshot shows a Beta Asset activity page with weekly AI cards, and Google has documented neither the page nor who gets it.
- Book Online Buttons Appear on Business Profiles Without Booking Software Four local SEOs report buttons on profiles with no booking partner, some leading to errors, and Google has not said whether it is a bug.
- Bing tests a Shopping tab that quizzes users before showing results A single screenshot shows three questions on entry to Bing Shopping, with listings reshaped around the answers and no announcement from Microsoft.