Google just posted a monster quarter — search ad revenue up 19% year on year, cloud breaking $20 billion for the first time, and products built on Gemini growing over 800%. But behind the headline numbers lies a more nuanced story for brands and marketing leaders trying to figure out where to place their bets.

The "doomish narrative" that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews are gutting Google Search simply isn't supported by the data. Google Search is still growing. Queries are at an all-time high. And AI Overviews are actively driving that growth, not cannibalising it.

But that doesn't mean everything is rosy for the brands appearing in those results.

In this episode, Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) and Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) break down:

• Why Google's 19% ad revenue surge may actually be fuelled by brands panicking about organic traffic losses — and whether that panic is justified

• How AI Overviews are reshaping click behaviour, with impressions staying stable but clickthrough rates shifting in ways that don't always hurt conversions

• The rise of "personal intelligence" in search — where two users searching the same query could see entirely different results — and what that means for keyword rank trackers

• Why Google's long-term vision looks far more like AI Mode than traditional blue links, and how quickly that transition could happen

• The emerging "agentic commerce" trend where Google becomes a marketplace that completes transactions without users ever visiting your website

• How AI chatbots like Claude are creating entirely new brand ranking systems — with only three recommendation slots instead of ten organic positions

• What the earnings call doesn't tell you: the DOJ antitrust case, competitive pressure from ChatGPT and Claude, and whether Gemini is an underdog in its own right

Charlie shares her framework for how marketing leaders should allocate budget in this shifting landscape — the 80/20 rule that prioritises what's already working while leaving room for strategic experimentation.

As Charlie explains in the episode:

"If people are still scared in 2026, it's because they haven't yet shifted their SEO strategy to understand how AI Overviews and other AI platforms are part of that search journey."

Whether you're weighing up organic versus paid, trying to figure out how agentic search affects your eCommerce strategy, or simply trying to make sense of what Google's numbers actually mean for your business — this episode gives you a clear-eyed breakdown of where search is heading and what to do about it.

Get the podcast show notes:

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-74/

Listen on your favourite podcast player instead:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/googles-revenue-is-exploding-but-are-brands-winning-too/id1161818237?i=1000765508727

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1KIX7OCYzx9DCe7qUg4pBm?si=uxQkVJ20QR-7mnghSFAY6w

Listen to these episodes next:

ChatGPT Sends 21% of Its Traffic to Google. Here’s Why That Matters.

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-73/

What Does AI Really Think of Your Brand?

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-71/

Do Rankings Still Matter with AI Search?

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-66/

A new Semrush study — analysing over a billion lines of clickstream data across 17 months — has revealed something that changes how we should think about ChatGPT as a search channel: 21% of all ChatGPT referral clicks go straight to Google.

That's not a quirk. It's a pattern — and it's growing.

ChatGPT referral traffic to websites grew 206% year on year (January 2025 vs January 2026), even as ChatGPT's own traffic has plateaued near a billion monthly visits. The platform is no longer just a chatbot. It's becoming a doorway to the open internet — and Google is its biggest beneficiary.

But here's what makes this data so important for marketing leaders: ChatGPT is absorbing more and more of the research phase. Users are making purchase decisions inside their AI conversations before they ever click through to a website. If your brand isn't showing up in those conversations, you're invisible at the most critical point in the buyer journey.

In this episode, Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) and Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) break down the full Semrush report and explain what it means for your search strategy:

💡 Why 21% of ChatGPT's outbound clicks going to Google means your SEO foundation matters more than ever — not less

💡 The 206% year-on-year increase in ChatGPT referral traffic and why the "ChatGPT doesn't send traffic" objection is now dead

💡 How 30% of all ChatGPT referral traffic goes to just 10 domains — and what the remaining 70% means for your business

💡 Why only 35% of ChatGPT queries trigger a live web search (down from 46%) and what that means for how quickly your optimisation efforts show results

💡 The critical difference between ChatGPT prompts and Google keywords — and why your content strategy needs to account for both

💡 How to use your Google Analytics data to identify which AI platforms are actually driving referral traffic and conversions for your business

💡 Why businesses with clear positioning and well-defined customer personas will dominate in AI search — and why generic brands will struggle

As Charlie explains:

"ChatGPT is a new search channel. People are searching within ChatGPT. It's now part of the search journey to finally find the business or the product that they actually want. We need to optimise for all of the channels where we know that our customers are having touchpoints."

The businesses building their AI search strategies now — not waiting for the dust to settle — are the ones that will hold the advantage as ChatGPT's referral traffic continues to grow. This episode gives you the data and the framework to act on it.

Watch this on YouTube instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP8V1BBhPcU

Read Semrush's report:

⁠https://www.semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/

Get the Show Notes:

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-73/

Follow Charlie Marchant on LinkedIn for the latest in AI Search Optimisation:

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemarchant/⁠

Request a free marketing review:

⁠https://exposureninja.com/review⁠

Try Semrush for FREE:

⁠https://thankyouninjas.com⁠

Listen to these episodes next:

If My SEO Traffic Dropped, Here's Exactly What I'd Do

⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/378/⁠

What Does AI Really Think of Your Brand?

⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-71/⁠

How To Write a Marketing RFP (That Actually Gets Results)

⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/377/