How to Adapt Your Customer Journeys & Success Metrics for AI-Powered Search

We can hear it now. We can see the kids’ eyes roll.

“Back in my day, you typed in a query, got a list of websites, and clicked on the top ones until you found what you needed.” Not anymore, Grandpa. That stings even the youngest of our SEOs.

Search used to be so simple, but like all good tech, search evolved to provide users with more. We’ve spent some time outlining the changes to the search landscape and user behaviors, but it’s time to map out their effect on data and success metrics.

Think about it: If user behavior has evolved with the technology, your strategy for customer journeys needs to change, and so will your measurement of success. Let’s get you up to speed.

Disruptions in Search & Data

Let’s get this out of the way—AI is not killing SEO. It’s changing it.

While this feels like a sudden disruption, AI has been behind the scenes in search algorithms for years. A few things are behind the alarm bells.

One study notes the rise in searches that don’t result in clicks. The zero-click phenomenon isn’t new either, nor is it exclusive to AI overviews. It goes back to the introduction of rich results (things like images and knowledge panels) in SERPS.

The second alarm bell is the drop in Google’s share of the search market. Yes—YouTube and ChatGPT saw some gains, but Google’s share is still over 80%. You still need SEO and paid search.

Bonus: Many SEO and paid media strategies impact your ability to populate these new features and channels that cut into traditional clicks. These “disruptions” in the landscape look for helpful content, so focusing on top listings could mean showing up in these features.

Visibility is the new traffic. Ensure your brand appears in new SERP features and LLMs, click or no click. What may not lead to a click today could lead to a click in a later search—perhaps a direct search or even a call.

To recap some content strategies for the AI-powered search landscape and LLMs:

• User intent isn’t going anywhere. Identify the phrases and terms that matter to leads.
• Focus on good content structuring, such as clear headings, bullet points, tables, and Q&A formats.
• Work with an SEO team to help your website populate features via technical optimization, such as schema markup and LLMS.txt files.
• Use AI to help you generate new content ideas, while relying on human creativity and expertise to bring them to life.

So, the disruption isn’t AI per se. The shift is the additional variables added to customer journeys that impact how marketing success is measured.

The customer journey as an omnichannel experience has expanded, meaning more variables to track in your metrics.

While you evolve your content and channel strategy, your digital marketing goals stay the same—drive quality leads and buyers. To do that, however, there’s a change needed in how you gather data for success metrics.

Why? Think about this:

• Getting the correct information doesn’t always require a click; therefore, relying on measuring traffic and clicks provides a narrow view of brand presence.
• Traditional attribution models never tell the whole story, especially in B2B, where the customer journey is longer. There are many variables beyond search > show up > click.
• Your audience is influenced in many ways and many places, including social media, YouTube, and AI platforms. That needs to be accounted for.

It’s now about a journey within an omnichannel experience, not just topping the list and tracking bulk traffic. It’s time to look at traffic fluctuations differently by investigating customer journeys in detail: where they come from, the keywords used, zero-click SERPs viewed, the pages visited, and all the steps taken to conversion.

To do this, you need tools to help you expand upon bulk metrics like traffic to see the details within customer journeys.

Looking at channel sources under Referrals in GA4

When opening up Google Analytics, many companies are noticing year-over-year declines in overall traffic due to the evolving search landscape and behavior. Though traffic isn’t enough to determine success, Google Analytics is still the go-to tool to start data gathering.

Google Analytics quantifies traffic by source, landing page performance, and overall conversions. Once you’ve gathered baseline traffic metrics, particularly for organic and paid sources, it’s essential not to overlook referral traffic. What was once a catch-all is now a major success metric, with channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity included.

Using Google Search Console, you can see traffic, clicks, and visibility, giving you the thousand-foot view. Many companies are seeing dips in clicks but a rise in impressions.This increase in visibility via impressions helps show that your SEO efforts are working. Now, it’s time to dig deeper.

OuterBox uses AccuRanker to see where client websites show and rank in various channels, including LLMs. We can evaluate how specific keywords are trending, how competitors rank, terms populating AI overviews, and what’s driving visibility and engagement beyond impressions and clicks. We also use ahrefs.com, which gives insight into keyword performance and brand visibility.

Finally, you need to understand how that filters into leads, given visibility can be less direct than clicks. You must understand how those customer journeys go from zero-click results to action.

A lead in LOOP showing our agency appearing in a ChatGPT search, followed up by a direct site visit.

Takeaways for Your Business

People still need products and services and search for them. How they search and engage is changing, but intent will always be the catalyst. While tracking website traffic or counting leads matters, online growth requires a more nuanced view of your presence across channels and how they work together to address intent as a brand experience.

So, it’s time to adapt and evolve your marketing by positioning your brand in the new search era with an omnichannel experience using intent. Then, do the same for metrics, looking at those journeys in detail versus strictly focusing on volume.