How Can Google Ad Grants Compete with AI Summaries and Zero-Click Search?
As a result of Google transforming its search methodology into an AI conversational tool and shifting the location of text links in search results below the fold, the bulk of Google’s real estate on its search results pages is filled with AI overviews, featured snippets (text boxes of sources used to answer the question at position zero), YouTube links, along with “trending posts and discussions” and “people also asked” modules.
Google’s new search results pages are more curated and appeal to our human psychology in the sense that when a user asks a specific question, Google’s AI summary responds in a human-like manner, offering a quick response and a near-definitive answer to the query. The response time is quick, and it can provide immediate gratification. What used to take a significant amount of time for a user to comb through website copy, blogs, and discussion groups is now synthesized by AI and served up on a single page, broken down into neatly organized and compartmentalized bundles of information. It’s a real time saver, no doubt, and the block-form results are extremely convenient from a usability perspective.
Time is a limited commodity, and with full work and life schedules, Google’s AI mode and its newly designed search results pages seek to help in that area by significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to conduct research. Consumers of online information can now choose to manually sift through search results to form their own opinion, rely on AI summaries, or follow a hybrid model of the previous two methods.
It could be said, however, that this convenience will naturally contribute to a decline in the amount of human-led online search engagement, as users can simply make a full stop at AI summaries. To this point, a research study released last year by Bain & Company [1] surmised that 80% of users rely on AI summaries 40% of the time, resulting in 60% of those users never clicking through to actual websites. That study was published in February 2025. We can only infer these percentages have risen as AI summaries have become faster, more accurate, and more readily accepted since.
Forgoing the click-through has resulted in a behavior, facilitated by a reliance on LLMs and search engine AI overviews, that digital marketers refer to as “zero-click search” and “zero-click advertising.” Zero-click search is what we just described. Zero-click advertising, on the other hand, is when a user relies on the AI summary, identifies the source, and scripts the URL directly, which circumvents any paid-for digital advertising like Google Ads.
For nonprofits using Google Ad Grants to promote their foundations, this new paradigm of zero-clicks presents yet another challenge in addition to the competitive keyword auction. We at NOBLE SEO can see the net results of user reliance on LLMs, AI summaries, and zero-click behavior on ad grant accounts. The KPI data shows a distinct pattern and a disproportionate amount of impressions, with minimal to no clicks within historically high performing and optimized search campaigns.
While we are working to recalibrate our clients’ ad grant campaigns, it also means that nonprofits have to refocus on SEO fundamentals and website best practices. Here is what we are currently leaning into with our clients:
Content Building
Brand Authority
Structured Data
Semantic HTML
LLM Readability
Google EEAT
Find out more about how we can help your nonprofit navigate zero-clicks with an audit of your Google Ads Grant account and your website’s SEO.
You can also book a free consultation to discuss your biggest challenge to see if NOBLE SEO is the right fit for your organization.
Source:
[1] “Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing” By Natasha Sommerfeld, Megan McCurry, and Doug Harrington, Bain & Company.