Do Google AI Citations actually matter to publishers?

The answer is "Yes", but for a surprising reason.

Here's what we know:

1. The "best" place to rank with the highest Click-through Rate (CTR) is ranking #1 organically. This hasn't changed

2. Google AI Overviews dramatically drop CTRs to publishers. Almost every study shows a 50-60% drop when AI Overviews are present

3. Google doesn't share a lot of data on AI Overviews, but the little data we have indicates that AI Citation CTRs are significantly lower than regular search results

So far, the data doesn't look promising.

But something happens when your brand shows up in AI Overviews that impacts traffic, which makes AI Citations 100% worth it.