AI Overviews and B2B click loss: what the data says
BY DZAN VOLODER, FOUNDERLAST UPDATED 7 MIN READ
Recent studies show fewer clicks to traditional results when an AI Overview appears, and more clicks for brands cited inside it. The practical response is to earn citations in AI Overviews and measure leads, not only traffic.
What the studies found
Ahrefs found a 58% lower click rate for the top result when an AI Overview appears. Pew found people clicked a result in 8% of visits with an AI summary versus 15% without. Seer Interactive found that, on informational queries in 2025, brands cited in the AI Overview earned about 2.2 times the click rate of brands left out.
Why B2B is exposed
Many B2B queries are informational, which is exactly where AI Overviews appear most often.
What to do
Restructure key pages answer-first, track which queries show AI Overviews, and report citations beside leads. Google says no special optimization is needed to appear in AI Overviews: pages must be indexed, eligible for a snippet, and genuinely helpful.