Marketing best practices are changing again. Are you ready to ride the wave?
By Adam Mohrbacher
It can seem too cliché to say it, but these days, nothing truly stays the same for long. Even the internet search engine, long a fixture of our digital lives, is shifting dramatically. You’ve likely noticed in your daily searches that there are a lot of new additions to your search engine results page (SERP). No longer is the SERP composed of a simple list of organic and sponsored results. AI summaries, structured snippets and more routinely appear alongside these traditional results. These changes have led to the rise of zero click marketing. Zero click marketers attempt to have their company’s content surfaced within these features and deliver value to users without requiring them to leave the SERP. Here’s how you can increase your business’s chances of ranking well and building valuable brand awareness in this new normal.
Why zero click marketing and why now?
The biggest reason why your agency must pay attention to zero click marketing is that the data already indicates how dramatically AI is altering search. In recent years, search engines have gotten much better at interpreting user questions, pulling out precise answers and presenting them in a variety of search “features” like:
- AI overviews which synthesize information from multiple sources and provide a quick answer
- Featured or structured snippets that pull in a short passage directly from a high quality webpage
- Rich results like visuals, rankings and carousels
- Knowledge panels, which typically appear on the side of the SERP and include pictures, information, social media links, related content and more
Partially due to these features, studies show nearly 59% of Google searches in the U.S. and almost 60% in the European Union resulted in zero clicks on the results page.[i] New technologies like AI have also demonstrably reduced clicks, with Google users who saw an AI summary clicking a traditional result in 8% of visits versus 15% when no AI summary appeared.[ii]
Overcoming these obstacles and connecting with customers on the SERP requires changing how you view search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing. You must pivot from prioritizing website traffic above all else to providing helpful, impactful information wherever potential customers choose to engage online.
Always focus on answers first
One of the best ways to leverage the promise of zero click marketing is by adjusting your content output. Today, the dominant model is still to select a keyword and then build a post around it. Marketers will start with a keyword-padded intro section to entice readers and set the table before delivering the actual meat and potatoes further down the page. Zero click marketers flip that structure on its head. Rather than starting with scene setting, you answer a prospect’s question within the first 40-60 words of your content asset.
After you cover the answer, you can then provide additional details and proof points. These could include tangible, real-world examples or original data, all delivered with a strong, unique POV.
Making this shift successfully
Pulling off this approach requires more than simply reformatting your posts. It also necessitates shifting the type of content you produce. In traditional marketing, your content choices are largely dictated by keyword volume and competition. With zero click marketing, that principle still applies to some degree, but customer intent also must be factored into the equation. Once you center intent, you will find that your posts write themselves, as you can quickly begin generating high quality content that addresses audience needs right off the bat.
Zero click marketing: a quick checklist
To further improve your content’s odds of being surfaced in search features like AI summaries, review it against the following checklist:
- Use question-based subheads that reflect real questions people might type into a search bar
- Place crystal clear answers at the top of each section
- Keep all definitions short, clear, and entirely free from jargon
- When possible, use bullets or numbered lists in your posts
- Skip long intros and get right to the point
- Always ask yourself: Could someone skim this and get the answer they need?
Adopting each of these best practices will make your content irresistible for contemporary search engines, as they will be able to quickly digest, understand and extract insights they believe will be most valuable to their users.
Final thoughts Zero click marketing is one of the latest trends in search, but it is anything but a passing fad. As technology progresses, the semantic and analytical capabilities of search engines will only continue to grow as well. Positioning your agency for success in this quickly shifting landscape means rethinking your approach to content and SEO strategies from the ground up. Elements like search volume still matter. But they are now just one of many considerations for how you source and structure your content. Agencies that put answers first and center intent will generate valuable awareness for their business, while those that don’t will unfortunately be left behind.
[i] 2024 Zero-Click Search Study: For every 1,000 EU Google Searches, only 374 clicks go to the Open Web. In the US, it’s 360. – SparkToro
