The Real ROI of Being Mentioned by AI

It starts with a number: nearly 60% of searches in 2025 end without a click.

For a business invested in SEO for years, that’s a shock. You can rank #1, see your brand right at the top of Google, and still watch traffic slip away. Users are no longer clicking through — they’re reading answers directly inside Google’s AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, or Perplexity.

For marketers, this creates a new tension: how do you measure ROI when the old formula no longer holds? This is the puzzle of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — where visibility, authority, and influence matter just as much as traffic, and sometimes even more.

Why ROI Looks Different in AEO

For years, the maths of SEO was predictable. Rank higher, capture more clicks, convert a portion of that traffic, and tie it back to revenue. A marketer could build a solid ROI model just by knowing click-through rates for each position on the SERP.

Answer engines disrupt that logic. Instead of showing ten blue links, they generate synthesized responses, weaving together information from multiple sources. Sometimes your page earns a visible citation with a link; other times your content shapes the answer quietly, with no click at all.

This changes the very foundation of ROI:

• Visibility without traffic — citations influence how people perceive your brand, even when they never visit your site.

• Two layers of return — direct clicks that drive measurable conversions, plus authority lift from mentions that don’t bring visits but build trust.

• A new definition of authority — where structured data, accuracy, and trustworthiness outweigh backlinks or keyword density.

The shift is backed by numbers. Historically, the #1 organic result captured nearly 40% of all clicks, making rankings the cornerstone of ROI models. By 2025, the entire organic channel accounts for only about 40% of clicks, while zero-click searches surged to nearly 60%.

The takeaway is simple but profound: clicks are no longer the only way to measure success. In AEO, ROI must also account for the value of being mentioned — even if no one ever clicks through.

The ROI Measurement Challenge

On paper, tracking ROI in AEO looks simple: monitor mentions, clicks, and conversions. In practice, it’s far more complicated. Unlike SEO — where rankings and traffic were relatively transparent — AEO operates in an environment where visibility often goes unmeasured.

• Referral blind spots

Answer engines may cite your page without generating a single measurable visit. Even when links appear, they rarely preserve tracking parameters, leaving no way to connect exposure with visits.

• Attribution gaps

AEO often influences users early in the funnel. Someone may see your brand in an AI-generated answer, then return later through a branded search. Analytics usually logs that as “direct traffic,” breaking the chain between exposure and conversion.

• Fragmented data sources

GA4 captures assisted conversions, SEO tools track branded search growth and mentions, and custom scrapers monitor citations. None provide the full picture — and their signals often contradict one another.

• Missing benchmarks

SEO had CTR studies to model ROI. AEO lacks equivalent standards for citation frequency, visibility share, or recall. Early tracking features are emerging, but they remain inconsistent.

The result: ROI in AEO is real, but measuring it feels more like testing a hypothesis than running a clean calculation.

Traffic sources tracked in Ahrefs for one of our projects, showing the share driven by AI.

Tools and Methods to Measure AEO ROI

Measuring ROI in AEO isn’t impossible — but it does require piecing together multiple signals. No single dashboard will give the full picture, so marketers need to blend tools and methods to capture both direct and indirect value:

• Free Tools — GSC for branded search trends, GA4 for assisted conversions and AI-driven visits, and Bing Webmaster Tools for Copilot visibility.

• Paid Tools — SEMrush for AI Overview tracking, Ahrefs for citations and share of voice, plus Similarweb and SparkToro for zero-click search trends.

• Emerging Approaches — custom scrapers, brand lift surveys, and ad value models that convert citations into CPC-based worth.

• Combining Data — direct conversions from GA4, citation value from SEMrush/Ahrefs, and brand lift through query growth or rising direct traffic.

Taken together, these methods provide the beginnings of a workable model — one that treats AEO visibility not as a black box, but as a measurable contributor to growth.

Key Metrics That Actually Matter

Traditional SEO metrics don’t capture the full impact of AEO. These five provide a clearer picture of ROI:

• AI Citations — how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers.

• AI Share of Voice — your visibility compared to competitors across answer engines.

• Branded Search Growth — proof that citations drive recall and interest.

• Assisted Conversions — conversions influenced by earlier AI exposure, often logged as “direct.”

• Equivalent Ad Value — translating visibility into a dollar figure that stakeholders understand.

These metrics combine direct outcomes with indirect influence — the real measure of ROI in answer engines.

Final Thoughts on AEO ROI

Search is no longer defined by clicks alone. With answer engines, the real value comes from being visible, cited, and trusted inside AI-generated results — even when no visit follows. That shift makes ROI harder to track, but not impossible.

By blending tools like GA4, GSC, SEMrush, and Ahrefs with newer methods such as brand lift surveys and ad value modelling, marketers can connect AI-driven visibility to business outcomes. The key is focusing on the metrics that matter: citations, share of voice, branded recall, assisted conversions, and the equivalent media value of being included in answers.