Part 2 of our four-part series on the evolving AI search landscape and what B2B leaders need to know to stay competitive.
If your paid search spend has been climbing while results have been declining, you are not imagining it. And it is not your campaigns.
The environment has changed. Understanding why is the first step to responding effectively.
According to Skai's most recent quarterly data, paid search spend climbed 17% year-over-year while clicks grew just 2%, as impressions fell 6%. CPC rose 14%, the cost of holding the same traffic in a market where AI answers resolve more queries before a click ever happens.
Dreamdata's B2B-specific analysis adds detail: non-branded CPCs increased 29% while click-through rates fell 26%. Paid search's share of B2B advertising budgets fell as companies pulled back from increasingly expensive inventory.
This is not a seasonal fluctuation. It traces directly to how AI Overviews are reshaping the search results page.
When AI Overviews appear at the top of a search page, they answer the user's question before they click anything. Seer Interactive's data shows paid CTR dropped 68% on queries where AI Overviews appear, falling from 19.7% to 6.34%.
For B2B companies, the exposure is disproportionately high. ROAST data shows AI Overviews now appear on 54% of tracked B2B keywords, compared to 22% for B2C. The keywords most important to B2B buyers — service categories, solution comparisons, vendor evaluations — are exactly where AI Overviews are most prevalent.
Google's decision to replace the traditional search interface with a fully AI-powered experience signals these pressures are permanent, not transitional.
Here is what most executive teams miss when they focus on click volume: 65% of industries are reporting improved conversion rates despite higher costs and lower volume.
When a buyer engages with an AI Overview before clicking an ad, they arrive more informed and with higher purchase intent. AI is doing the educational work that landing pages used to handle. Companies capturing this are not trying to generate more clicks. They are building conversion infrastructure to capitalize on fewer, higher-intent visitors.
Three practical responses work:
Prioritize bottom-funnel efficiency. Concentrate paid spend on high-intent terms where conversion rates justify the higher CPC. Pause campaigns generating volume without proportional pipeline.
Build for the AI-qualified buyer. Buyers arriving from AI-influenced searches have higher expectations for immediate relevance. If your conversion path was designed for top-of-funnel traffic, it may be underperforming with the visitors you are actually getting.
For a full picture of how AI is reshaping paid media, download our AI Search Report.