TL;DR: Discovery hasn't declined; it's shifted. As AI search reshapes how customers find brands, investing more in paid won't close the gap. CMOs need a unified visibility foundation where paid, organic, and structured data reinforce each other – so their brand shows up whether the answer comes from Google, an AI Overview, or ChatGPT.
Earlier this year, OpenAI announced plans to introduce ads into ChatGPT – a sign that AI search platforms are starting to explore paid media. This moment feels like déjà vu for many CMOs (especially those who remember the turn of the millennium – hello, my fellow elder millennials).
When Google introduced paid search in the early 2000s, it completely revolutionized the advertising industry (and it reshaped how brands reach customers). Two decades later, marketing built itself around that model: impressions, clicks, conversions. But when most searches don't result in a click, that model becomes irrelevant.
The question now is whether AI search will rewrite those rules again.
The honest answer: it already is.
For CMOs and marketing leaders, this creates a paradox. You're being asked to drive growth in a system that was built around the click, just as the click becomes less central to how customers discover brands.
The click model is straining from both ends
The current paid search landscape is under pressure from two directions at once. CPCs are rising, and click volume is declining.
On the organic side, AI engines like ChatGPT and Gemini are answering questions that once drove steady traffic. Customers are getting recommendations, summaries, and comparisons inside AI conversations without ever visiting a website. In fact, 69% of Google searches now end without a click.
On the paid side, the natural response has been to invest more in paid to fill the gap left by declining organic traffic. But as competition intensifies, paid is becoming less and less reliable and less effective at driving discovery. Even though clicks are down, cost per click is actually going up. In 2025, Google CPC increased 5% YOY. This means brands paid more money to reach fewer people.
The reason is straightforward: as organic visibility declines, more brands compete for a smaller number of paid impressions. That increased competition drives costs up. More demand = less inventory. Less inventory = higher cost per click.
So, investing more in paid isn't closing the gap. Instead, it's funding a race to the bottom.
This is why marketers need to start looking beyond the click and focus on how their brand shows up across the entire search ecosystem.
Search demand is increasing, even though clicks aren't
The counterintuitive reality: total search demand isn't falling. If you include AI conversations, it's actually increasing.
Between January and May 2025, AI traffic increased by a whopping 527%. Meanwhile, Google Search grew by over 20% in 2024. (Google's 2025 search data isn't out yet, but it should be soon.)
So, we know that customers are asking more questions than ever. But if they're getting their answers from a Google AI Overview, or a conversation with ChatGPT, that interaction may never show up in web analytics.
In other words, discovery is still happening. It's just becoming harder to track – because it's invisible to the measurement systems CMOs have relied on.
The real problem isn't declining demand. It's that brands are being left out of AI-generated answers altogether. And without visibility into that, they're optimizing against the wrong signal.
AI search doesn't separate paid from organic – it brings them together
In the AI era, paid media won't disappear. But its role is going to change.
For years, paid and organic search operated as separate strategies. One team managed CPC and conversions. Another focused on rankings and content. But AI search doesn't treat those signals separately. They synthesize information from across the web, drawing from the signals that best describe a brand and its offerings.
Our research shows that the majority of those sources are actually within a brand's control. Those sources include things like:
Location and product pages on your website
Listings across directories and maps
Reviews and reputation signals
Structured data embedded on your website
Consistent brand information across the web
The implication for CMOs is huge. When that data is fragmented or inconsistent, it isn't that AI systems struggle to cite your brand. They simply leave it out. The question isn't whether you're ranking – it's whether you're included or excluded from the answer entirely.
Paid is a signal, not the whole strategy
Paid media plays a different role in this ecosystem. It signals demand and competitiveness within a category. But paid works best when it reinforces strong underlying signals: accurate listings, structured website content, and consistent brand data.
Simply put, paid spend, organic visibility, and structured data are no longer separate strategies. Together, they form a unified visibility system that influences how your brand shows up across both traditional and AI-driven search.
Paid can still drive traffic. But the brands AI cites aren't the ones that outspent everyone. They're the ones whose data AI already trusts.
Here's how to connect them in practice:
Mine AI prompts for paid keyword intel. The questions customers ask ChatGPT or Gemini about your category are intent signals. Use them to expand and sharpen paid keyword targeting, especially for conversational and long-tail terms your current strategy may be missing.
Audit what AI says, then match your ad copy. If AI describes your brand differently than your paid creative does, you're running two stories. Your ads should reinforce what AI is already building around you.
Use visibility gaps to guide smart ad spending. Visibility tools, like Yext Scout, show you which markets and regions your brand is underperforming in AI visibility. Those are the markets where paid spend should be concentrated – keeping your brand present while you build the data foundation to close the gap. In regions where your AI visibility is already strong, or where the competitive landscape is low, pull back and let the organic signal carry the weight.
Structure landing pages for both paid and organic channels. Clean, structured content improves AI citation likelihood and conversion rates simultaneously.
The goal: every paid dollar reinforces a data signal, and every data signal improves paid relevance.
The visibility equation for CMOs
The arrival of ads in AI search signals that discovery is entering a new phase. As that shift unfolds, the brands that get cited and chosen will be the ones that understand how paid, organic, and data signals work together to shape visibility.
That's a different budget conversation than most CMOs are having today. Instead of allocating separately to paid, SEO, and data infrastructure, the question becomes: what's the right investment mix to build a visibility foundation that makes all three more effective?
If you're ready to learn more about how AI search is reshaping paid strategy and measurement, check out the Visibility Brief podcast from Yext. It's a series of candid conversations about where discovery is headed — and what that means for brands planning their next move. Find all the episodes right here.
