A widely cited study found a 61% CTR drop tied to AI Overviews. The number is real, but it
gets misquoted as "AI Overviews cut organic CTR by 61%" across the board, which is not what
was measured.
What was actually measured
The 61% figure is the CTR drop for queries where an AI Overview appears ABOVE the organic
results, compared to the same query type without an AI Overview present. It is not a blanket
number across all search traffic.
Where the impact concentrates
- Informational "what is / how to" queries: largest measured impact
- Transactional / commercial-intent queries: comparatively smaller impact
- Branded queries: minimal impact, people searching your brand name still click through
The practical read
If most of your organic traffic is informational content, expect CTR compression specifically
on the queries that trigger an AI Overview — not site-wide. Search Console's query-level data
will show you exactly which queries have impressions growing while clicks stay flat; that
pattern is the AI Overview signature.
The response is not to abandon informational content — being the cited source inside an
Overview still drives some referral clicks — but to weight commercial/transactional query
tracking more heavily as the currently more reliable traffic base.
Full study breakdown:
AI Overviews CTR drop study, explained
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