Key Takeaways

  • LQ Digital research shows that over 40% of brand mentions in organic search results do not appear in AI search summaries for the same query, while 28% of brands cited by AI do not appear in organic results.
  • YouTube videos appear 4.3 times more often in AI summaries than in organic search, suggesting marketers should invest in content on this platform to boost AI visibility; Reddit is cited 3.9 times more often in organic search than in AI.
  • Query phrasing affects brand presence: evaluation and action-oriented questions are more likely to surface brands in organic search; category queries are more likely to produce brand results, at 63.9% in AI summaries and 55.7% in organic search.

Deeper Insights

AI search presents unique challenges for marketers. Although53% of consumerslack confidence in AI search results, therapid declineof organic traffic continues. As a result, marketers are forced to prioritize AI visibility to reach consumers, even though many are still figuring out the specific steps to achieve it.

Citations in AI summaries can differ significantly from organic search results. Overall, 46% of AI summary citations do not appear in organic results for the same query, while 54% of organic search citations do not appear in AI summaries.

Brands are not the only entities that vary in search results. For evaluation queries, publishers are cited at 40.5% in AI summaries versus 27.7% in organic search. For action-oriented questions, publishers are cited at 7.6% in AI summaries versus 4.8% in organic search. For category questions, publishers are cited more often in organic search at 13%, versus 6.6% in AI search.

For action-oriented queries, AI summaries cite social media and video more often, at 15.6%, versus 9% in organic search.

The "Same Query, Different Winners" study evaluated over 8,000 citations and more than 700 responses from organic search and AI summaries.

Search advertising has long been a key part of the advertising landscape. However, as companies like Google increasingly focus on AI search, brands face a steep learning curve and limited options. In May, Google introduced improvements to AI search ads, including ads aroundconversational search.