Strike Up A Conversion: AI Search Traffic Converting Better Than Traditional Search

Last week, I wrote about how AI search, specifically being cited in an AI Overview, has led to both more organic and paid clicks than not being cited at all (to the tune of 35% and 91% more, respectively).

Microsoft’s Clarity blog recently took the research a step further within its own data, finding that not only are AI-driven traffic and clicks increasing, but so too are conversion rates.

“We found that traffic from AI-driven platforms grew by a blistering +155.6%,” says the post from Clarity, which looked at data from more than 1,200 sites over the last 8 months. “That surge dwarfs the steady gains from Search (+24.0%), Social (+21.5%), and Direct (+14.9%). … After analyzing one month of data and using smart events for conversion detection, we found that traffic from LLMs converted at rates traditional channels could only envy.”

As Clarity’s click-through rate table shows, LLM conversion rates were 1.66% for sign-up CTR (well above Search’s 0.15% and Direct’s 0.13%) and 1.34% for subscription CTR (above Search’s 0.55% and Direct’s 0.41%).

(Source: Microsoft Clarity)

“AI traffic consistently delivered more engaged, action-taking visitors,” the post says. “So while LLM referral traffic may be comparatively small, the readers LLMs send are more likely to convert.”

It’s a small sample size, sure, but one that’s not difficult to extrapolate considering the momentum going AI search’s way.

“AI referrals are not yet a tidal wave, but they are already sending disproportionately high-quality readers,” the blog says. “Publishers who ignore this shift risk being left behind when the share of AI traffic grows.”