Digital marketing tactics that still work when AI answers first

Search still happens. The click often does not. SparkToro’s June 2026 analysis of Similarweb’s US panel found that in the first four months of 2026, 68.01 per cent of Google searches ended without a click. That is the backdrop for digital marketing tactics that still work when an AI answer sits at the top of the page. The job is not to win a war with Google. It is to keep demand on channels you can measure when the results page answers first.

Pew Research Center’s July 2025 short read, based on browsing data from 900 US adults in March 2025, shows why the old funnel leaks. Users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional result in 8 per cent of visits. Users who did not see one clicked in 15 per cent of visits. Clicks on a link inside the summary itself were 1 per cent of those visits. If your plan still assumes a blue link, you are planning for a smaller door.

What still earns a click, and what does not

SparkToro is explicit that SEO still matters, and that it will not refill the old traffic graph. The same June 2026 piece notes that branded searches, local businesses, and high-intent transactional queries are the categories still winning referrals. Treat that as a filter, not a slogan. If the query is “what is invoice factoring”, the AI answer will often be enough. If the query is your firm name plus “Port Louis”, or “book a table tonight”, the click is still the product.

Pew found that around 18 per cent of Google searches in March 2025 produced an AI summary, and that longer question-shaped queries produced them far more often. Sixty per cent of searches that began with who, what, when or why got a summary. One and two word searches did so only 8 per cent of the time. That is why a glossary page is a weak bet and a named product page is a stronger one. When AI Overviews shrink organic traffic is the 90-day defence of converting URLs. This page is the mix around that defence.

Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey, published 11 May 2026 from 401 marketing leaders, finds CMOs putting 15.3 per cent of marketing budgets into AI initiatives, while only 30 per cent report mature or fully developed AI readiness. Marketing budgets sit at 7.8 per cent of company revenue, effectively flat. 56 per cent of CMOs say they lack the budget to deliver the 2026 strategy. Spending more on AI tools does not replace an owned list, a local listing, or a conversation that never needed Google.

Digital marketing tactics that still work

Owned email and a named list

A reply in the inbox is not an AI Overview. It is a permission you already have. The tactic is dull on purpose. One list, one weekly note, one offer or one fact the recipient asked to hear. Count replies and revenue, not open-rate theatre. If you cannot name the last ten people who bought from an email, you do not have a list. You have a send.

This is also where first-party data systems earn their keep. A form that captures a job to be done, not a vague newsletter tick, is the asset. The model that summarises your blog for someone who never visits cannot take that list with it.

Local, branded, and high-intent pages

Keep the pages that still match a click. Google Business Profile, a phone number a human answers, opening hours that are true, a product SKU with a price and a stock state. Pew’s 8 per cent click rate is an average across all summarised queries. It is not a forecast for “buy 20kg flour Port Louis this afternoon”. Do not starve the pages that close. Do starve the explainers that now live inside the summary.

A place a person can walk into

The bakery window in the hero is the point. A special that exists on glass, a chalkboard, a stall, a clinic waiting room, or a trade-counter conversation does not need a SERP. SparkToro’s own advice, after the 68 per cent figure, is to find where the audience already pays attention and to stop treating site sessions as the only KPI. For a small firm that can mean the window, the market, the WhatsApp broadcast you already run, or the quarterly breakfast. Measure bookings and invoices, not impressions on a post nobody can prove they saw.

Proof that a hidden buyer can forward

Thought leadership that a non-buyer forwards still matters when the search click dies. The piece has to be short enough to send and specific enough to be wrong if it is wrong. Measuring B2B content ROI when attribution is broken is the measurement problem. The tactic is one artefact a month a sales lead would actually attach. Not a 3,000-word pillar nobody finishes.

What to stop funding first

Stop writing unbranded “what is” pages whose only job was to rank for a question Google now answers in 67 median words, Pew’s typical summary length. Keep a thin public version if customers still need it for trust. Do not staff it as a traffic engine.

Stop treating AI spend as a substitute for a list. Gartner’s AI-ready minority allocate 21.3 per cent of marketing budgets to AI, above the 15.3 per cent average, and still report budgets of 8.9 per cent of revenue. They are pairing tools with operating discipline. A five-person firm can skip the 21.3 per cent and still run the four tactics above. Digital transformation for SMEs starts with one workflow. Marketing is the same. Pick the list or the local page. Measure it for 30 days. Then decide whether a tool is the bottleneck.

Pew also recorded that users ended the session on 26 per cent of pages with an AI summary, against 16 per cent without one. That is a satisfied search, not a lead. Plan for it. Your public page can still be the source the summary cites. That is influence. It is not a pipeline number. Do not report citations as if they were form fills.

A 30-day mix for a small team

Week 1, export the last 90 days of converting URLs. Mark each as branded, local, transactional, or explainer. Freeze new spend on explainers. Week 2, send one email to people who already bought, with one specific next action. Week 3, fix the local listing and the phone that rings. Week 4, publish one proof note a hidden buyer can forward, and put the same fact on the window or the stall if you have one.

Digital marketing tactics that still work when AI answers first are the ones that never needed the blue link. Email you were given permission to send. A name people already search. A place they can walk into. A page a colleague can forward. Search remains a source of influence. It is no longer a reliable source of visits. Budget as if that were already true, because SparkToro’s Similarweb panel and Pew’s click counts both say it is.

Key takeaways

• Similarweb via SparkToro: 68.01 per cent of US Google searches in Jan to Apr 2026 ended without a click.
• Pew: 8 per cent clicked a traditional result when an AI summary appeared, 15 per cent when it did not. Summary-link clicks were 1 per cent.
• Fund owned email, local and branded pages, a physical place, and one forwardable proof note. Starve unbranded explainers.
• Gartner: 15.3 per cent of marketing budgets go to AI, 30 per cent of CMOs are ready to scale it. Tools are not a substitute for a list.
• Citations in an AI answer are influence. Count form fills and invoices separately.

FAQ

Sources

• SparkToro / Similarweb, “In 2026, Less than One Third of Google Searches Still Send a Click”, 9 June 2026. sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-less-than-one-third-of-google-searches-still-send-a-click/
• Pew Research Center, “Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results”, 22 July 2025. pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/…
• Gartner, “Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Finds CMOs Allocate 15.3% of Marketing Budgets to AI, But Only 30% Are Ready to Scale AI Capabilities”, 11 May 2026. gartner.com/…/cmos-allocate-15-point-3-percent-of-marketing-budgets-to-ai

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