Three Ways AI Is Disrupting Search Marketing and How Growth Companies Can Adapt
For two decades, search engine marketing (SEM) has largely been about getting your website to the top of the page on Google for relevant searches, either by buying ads or earning the coveted #1 organic search result ranking—or both. But the rise of artificial intelligence is transforming how (and where) users search, how platforms serve results and how brands must show up.
For growth company teams and marketing leaders, these shifts present more than just tactical challenges—they can have strategic impact on your business. Read on for our views on this changing landscape and our recommendations for how to adapt.
#1: Google’s AI Overviews provide answers, but decrease clicks.
If you’ve done a Google search recently (who hasn’t?), you’ve likely received an AI-generated answer at the top of your results, what Google calls an “AI Overview” (AIO). In many cases, you’re getting the information you need and not clicking on any links. In fact, more than 58% of Google searches are “zero click searches,” according to a 2024 SparkToro study, and we believe this trend will likely accelerate. If you used to rank highly for these searches (or benefited from visitors going to those sites and discovering you), you may find your own traffic dropping.
Two ways to adapt:
- Prioritize mid- and bottom-of-funnel content. Not all traffic is created equal, and, according to Semrush, AIO is primarily affecting informational intent queries, which have less of an immediate commercial impact. With finite resources, we recommend focusing on creating and optimizing content to rank for high-value commercial intent queries such as comparisons, product reviews, pricing and use cases.
- Make it easy for Google to cite you in AIO. Interestingly, AIOs don’t just pull from the top organic search results. Rankings matter, but more companies now have a chance of being cited without needing to be at the top of the page. In our experience, you can increase your odds by using schema markup and structured formatting (like FAQs, lists, and definitions) that can be easily parsed and cited by AI systems, as well as by injecting the exact text of AIO into relevant articles.
#2: Generative AI is making it faster and easier to create content, but harder to stand out.
Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Jasper and Copy.ai have made content generation – blogs, assets, landing pages and ad copy – nearly instantaneous. As a result, content volume is exploding, but much of it is low-quality, often redundant and undifferentiated. Google has already responded by targeting "spammy" or unoriginal AI-generated content in their March 2024 core update, which further penalizes unhelpful pages. In many ways, AI has leveled the playing field on production, making it even more important for teams to focus on strategy and a differentiated content approach that helps your audience in unique ways.
Two ways to adapt:
- Create proprietary content. Proprietary content is any content that contains unique data, perspectives or insights that only your company can provide. We see many teams leveraging their own product data to publish insights or programmatic pages, conducting unique research, offering CEO or founder POVs, or developing podcasts and recorded events. These can garner meaningful backlinks, be injected into content to deepen authority and used in a variety of ways to help you stand out.
- Diversify your distribution. Ultimately, search is just one of many distribution channels, and with the amount of flux in the search landscape, there is a lot of risk in solely focusing on search engine marketing. Marketers can take advantage of AI tools to turn one high-quality asset into many (and many different formats) and amplify it across social media, email, PR and more. Getting in front of your target customers with valuable content early and often can help you stand out and maximize reach.
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#3: Searches are being done in AI tools, expanding what “search engine marketing” means.
While still early in the adoption curve, users are starting to turn to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and more to answer questions, get product recommendations and make decisions. According to data analyzed by SparkToro, Google still dominates share of search with an estimated 373 times as many searches as ChatGPT. But, Gartner went so far as to predict search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, and it’s always better to be on the leading edge of a trend than falling behind, especially if your audience has a higher likelihood of using AI tools. In fact, we’re already seeing ChatGPT emerge as a top referral source at many growth-stage companies, including those within the Summit portfolio.
How to adapt:
- Conduct audience research. Keyword research is helpful but no longer enough. Do you know if your target audience is using AI search tools? Do you know their pain points, buying triggers, media habits and sources of influence? We believe this understanding is critical to crafting a strategy that ensures your brand shows up where relevant to your audience, including AI tools and agents.
- Double down on brand awareness and your presence in prominently cited domains. Search engine marketing today goes beyond Google ads and traditional SEO. For example, according to a 2025 analysis by xFunnel, AI search engines cite third-party content the most, often from platforms like Reddit, YouTube, G2, GitHub and Medium. Managing your presence on these sites, contributing to forums, and even investing in PR can help. Brands need to consider how they appear in multiple environments because success on search is often correlated to success elsewhere.
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Traditional search engine marketing tactics like managing ads, scaling blog content and optimizing rankings still matter. But they’re no longer enough. AI is reshaping where searches happen, how results are served and what users expect.
This is both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers and brands. The challenge is that the old playbook won’t work on its own. The opportunity is that we get to be a part of writing the new one.
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The content herein reflects the views of Summit Partners and is intended for executives and operators considering partnering with Summit Partners. In recent years, technological advances have fueled the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (“AI”), and accordingly, the use of AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in a number of sectors. Due to the rate at which AI is improving and the scope of its potential application is therefore broadening as well as the ongoing and future regulation actions with respect to AI, at this time, it is unclear what impact (including, where relevant, opportunities) AI may have. Information herein is as of April 2025.
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