A study by GrowthSRC Media reveals that the click-through rate (CTR) for the top organic Google result dropped significantly—from 28% to 19%, a 32% decline—coinciding with the rollout of Google's AI Overviews. The second position fared even worse, falling 39%, from 20.8% to 12.6%.
Click through rates are the rates at which searchers click links on Google to explore a website and/or make a move towards purchasing. They are a critical top of funnel metric for marketers.
While CTRs dropped significantly for positions 1–5 (average decline ~17.9%), positions 6–10 saw a 30.6% increase, indicating users are scrolling past AI-generated snippets to find the source pages. This means that AI generated content at the top of search results isn’t getting the results you would expect - buyers want messaging more direct and real rather than deciding to devote their time to what’s clearly an AI summary.
What can brands do as AI continues to affect search results? Broaden metrics to consider conversions, branded searches, social search visibility, mentions in AI outputs, and revenue impact. These may have more reliable information on buyer behavior.
And try alternate channels likeYouTube, TikTok, and Reddit to build awareness and drive traffic. Real content is performing well against generic AI summaries.
The economy is showing signs of slowing, which could affect discretionary e-commerce sales.
The Wall Street Journal reports that weak new manufacturing orders, low consumer expectations, and a third straight rise in unemployment claims are weighing on expectations for the rest of the year and 2026.
Tariffs are pushing prices higher, reducing consumer purchasing power and expect to further slow growth in H2 2025. All these factors are part of the Leading Economic Index (LEI), in which slowing performance can indicate weakness 6-7 months ahead. While recession hasn’t been forecasted, analysts are saying these factors indicate a coming slowdown.
What can brands do to react? Look into how a slow down could affect the sales or logistics of your products. Take news like this into consideration as you plan for expansion or holiday sales, while remembering changing economic conditions affect different sectors different ways - some products might even sell more during a downturn.