Introduction

This “2024 Zero-Click Search Study” by SparkToro is very interesting, and it has been on my mind a lot this last week. 

This is very interesting as someone focused on Lead Gen and Data. By and large, this is the B2B world and non-e-commerce searching. See the image below from their study. For America, of 1000 Google searches, ONLY 1% get ad click-throughs.  And ONLY 360 of 1000 search results will end up on someone's website other than a Google property, that is 36%. In the European Union (EU) the ads rise to 1.4%, and organic search goes to 370 non-Google properties.

My money would go to SEO and content marketing. Focusing on research and intent-focused keywords never tops searches or even traffic. Search engines are starting to answer simple question searches, thus the lack of traffic. 

At SaturnOne, we have a tool that finds the keywords actually driving lead conversion! It's more valuable than I realized.

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What is a “Zero-Click” search?

Simply a search where a user does not click through to any other page. 

Why? 

• The query is answered. E.g. “How to spell…”
• The wrong type of results.
• Changed query based on what is seen.

With AI search results, this will grow and grow, most of us believe. Does AI make a big change in the Google data? Not yet, they and others argue… but I am with the majority that it will, super fast. I use AI for deep research and finding relevant links to visit. For deep research, a conversation with AI is so much more effective than keyword-based research.

“In the United States, just under 60% of mobile web and desktop searches in Datos’ panel ended this way.” That is huge! Then almost 30% go to another Google property such as YouTube, Google Images, Google Maps, Google Flights, Google Hotels, the Google App Store, etc. This is why the constant “monopoly” investigations.

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Brand Building?

If you are branding build you might want to build content for the “zero-click” answers. Currently, Google does show the web links and logos, sometimes showing data of products lists of related and/or “popular” products.

Lead Generation?

“For every 1,000 searches on Google in the United States, 360 clicks make it to a non-Google-owned, non-Google-ad-paying property”, otherwise know as organic search traffic. The traffic to our websites, where we have the opportunity to engage and generate leads. The gold!

1% Paid Click-Through

While the study itself talks about the uncertainty of this number, it is nonetheless small. “Search marketers often manage 4%, 5%, even 10%+ CTRs on their paid search ads, which would seem to contradict the data…”. This is a case of “all” versus specific context, to be sure. If your CTR includes branded keywords, of course much higher. And the fact that 20% of all searches have no ads at all. So, as with all of marketing, your mileage will vary greatly depending on context. 

Impact on Lead Generation

Should you change your strategy or marketing mix based on this information? Not in itself. However, I highly recommend better analytics and revenue and ROI reporting for better decision-making. Yes, shamelessly, this is the focus at SaturnOne.io. 

Things To Consider

• Business vs. marketing goals
• Revenue measurement and real ROI
• Trends and direction of your marketing effort
• Content marketing vs. ad mix

Business Goals vs. Marketing Goals

One of the biggest users of content marketing and SEO for lead generation is technology and SaaS companies. We, yes, SaturnOne is one, often use content from the middle of the funnel (MOFU) and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) to answer prospect questions. Usually, there are not “zero-click” searchers. So it is good marketing to continue this if it makes sense financially. 

To know this, you need to know the ROI of your lead generation efforts. Executives should consider this when approving marketing efforts, and marketers should include this in marketing analysis and reporting.

Here is a typical SaaS business case, in which the business goals and reality should direct the marketing strategy. In this in-depth article, “Business Goals vs. Marketing Goals” I go into business and marketing goal balance and business with identical products but with different budget constraints. This directly relates to marketing action and the importance of long-term content and SEO efforts… and measuring their ROI.

Measurement, Revenue, and Real ROI

While lead gen is not e-commerce where you can measure the transactions in realtime you can often calculate the estimated value of a lead from industry norms or your own historical data. Below are actual screenshots from SaturnOne’s landing page detail analytics and then a few executive widgets to show top-level aggregate results of marketing efforts

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We can connect ad costs and leads generated in real-time to build dashboards that suit and needs. There are several models we can use to generate revenue and cost and from these calculate the ROI. 

Conclusion: Trends and Direction of Your Marketing Effort

Things to consider:

• CAC (customer acquisition costs)
• Lead flow
• Revenue and ROI
• 1% click thoughts
• 36% organic click-through to non-Google websites

Ultimately, we want to decide where we get the most value from our marketing dollars and ensure sufficient lead flow to support the business's needs.

With the cost of advertising continuing to grow and competition growing, it is more important than ever to measure the current value and trends so that you can make more informed decisions. 

Ads may produce good CAC, but not enough lead flow.

Content marketing and SEO may take longer but have a higher lead flow and better ROI over time. 

Not to mention management costs… so often overlooked in my experience. 

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