The digital search landscape is undergoing a radical transformation, with Google’s AI- powered overviews and generative search tools dramatically changing how franchise brands find and engage prospects. AI competitors, including Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Grok, add to this disruption, redefining not just user behavior but marketing strategies, advertising costs, and measurement standards.

From Blue Links to AI Summaries: The Great Search Shift

Google’s introduction of AI Overviews—dynamic, AI-generated summaries at the top of search results—has fundamentally changed the hierarchy of search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead of “blue-link” lists where rankings drove traffic, users now receive direct answers or overviews, often without ever visiting a website.

This “zero-click” phenomenon is becoming the new normal, and early 2025 data shows how impactful it’s been:

  • Organic traffic declines range from 18% to 64% when AI Overviews are present, especially for informational sites.
  • The click-through rate (CTR) for the top organic result drops by 34.5% when AI Overviews appear.
  • Organic CTR on AI Overview (AIO) searches slid from 1.41% to just 0.64% year- over-year.
  • Paid search is also affected, with noticeable losses to paid CTR noted.

AI Overviews, Zero-Click Searches, and Brand Visibility

Zero-click searches—where users find their answer within Google’s AI results and don’t click any organic or paid links—now dominate search, accounting for 58.5% of U.S. searches and up to 65% globally. This means:

  • Franchise websites are getting less organic traffic and fewer lead inquiries from traditional channels.
  • Paid ad results sink further down the page, contributing to both lower impressions and clicks while driving up competition and per-click costs.

Even with these declines, inclusion in AI Overviews and featured snippets offers new paths for visibility, sometimes independent of traditional rankings. About 75% of sources cited in AI Overviews were in the top 10 organic results, but lower-ranked sites can be cited if their content is authoritative, clear, and well-structured.

Impacts to Paid Media and Organic SEO Strategies

The rise of AI is prompting marketers to rethink their approach to both paid media and SEO.

For paid search, this means budget efficiency is now paramount. As ad slots shrink, Cost- Per-Click (CPC) rises. Industry reporting shows a 13% year-over-year rise in CPC, with a 53% CTR decline for some terms when AI Overviews are active. Marketers should reconsider keyword targeting and focus on high-value, intent-driven queries while using AI-powered campaign tools like Google’s Performance Max to boost performance.

For SEO, ranking in the traditional top results matters less because users rarely scroll, with many stopping at the AI Overview. Instead, content must be structured for AI “digestibility”, including:

  • Clear answers
  • FAQ schema
  • Strong E-E-A-T qualities (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Appearing as a cited source in AI Overviews and answer boxes is now more valuable than holding the traditional first position in the blue-link list.

The Franchisee Journey: Authority Over Traffic

So what does all this mean for reaching franchisee prospects? In today’s environment, franchisee prospects are often completing early research exclusively within AI Overviews and summary features—meaning:

  • Fewer franchisee candidates visit actual franchise websites and portals.
  • Discovery relies less on high search rank and more on brand authority and expert content referenced in AI-generated answers.
  • Brands may see overall visibility increase (brands are “seen” more often), but with fewer trackable website clicks, leading to the need to update traditional KPIs.

Solutions: How Franchise Brands Can Get Ahead

To remain competitive and thrive in this changing landscape, franchise development teams should engage as many of these strategies as possible.

Invest in Person-Level Advertising

Person-level advertising—using data and AI to target individual prospects with hyper-relevant, personalized messaging—can help reduce your brand’s dependence on Google’s AI Mode. This type of targeting allows direct outreach to high-intent candidates, side-stepping crowded, AI-dominated search environments and putting franchise opportunities in front of motivated individuals earlier in their purchasing journey.

When brands shift budgets from broad, non-specific targeting to mid-funnel and bottom-funnel campaigns aimed at pre-qualified, high-propensity candidates, conversion rates rise and cost per lead decreases. Technologies, like Franchise Ninja, supply highly detailed data on in-market franchise candidates, enabling precision targeting that traditional top-of-funnel digital ads cannot match.

Optimize for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Existing and new website content should be designed for featured snippets and inclusion in direct answer results. Content should be clear, offer unique insights, and provide direct answers to commonly searched questions. Format content with bullets, short summaries, and FAQs for easy reading and summarization.

Alongside these efforts, be sure to include schema markup for FAQ, How-To, and Q&A content to improve AI readability.

Build Brand Authority and E-E-A-T

Strive to become a thought leader and authority in the franchise space as a whole, and within your industry vertical. Original content should be prioritized with long-form content that showcases your leadership’s expertise, highlights franchisee stories and interviews, and detailed guides on topics of interest to prospects at the top of the list.

High-authority citations from news, business directories, and industry sites can boost trustworthiness with both users and AI crawlers.

Rework Paid Campaigns for AI Search

Brands should consider shifting paid search budgets toward high-intent, lower-funnel keywords where AI is less likely to dominate the answers. AI search interprets user intent beyond exact keywords. This means brands must develop ad copy, offers, and landing pages that capture a broader range of user needs and contexts.

Final Thoughts

The rise of AI in search is forcing a historic reset of digital franchise marketing. Franchise brands can’t afford to rely solely on past SEO or paid search playbooks. Instead, survival—and success—requires shifting to optimization for AI Overviews, investing in authority and original content, and embracing the rise of person-level advertising.

Brands that adapt early, invest in “citation-ready” content, and embrace mid- to lower-funnel ad targeting will enjoy powerful visibility, even as traditional clickthrough rates decline. For franchise development, this means a proactive, omnichannel—and ultimately AI-aware—strategy must now be at the center of every growth plan.