Here's the uncomfortable truth nobody in marketing wants to say out loud: people have stopped clicking.

Not because your CTAs suck. Not because your landing pages are broken. But because they're getting what they need without ever visiting your site.

I saw a post from Amanda Natividad recently that hit me like a ton of bricks. She broke down some research showing that AI Overviews in search results have absolutely tanked click-through rates. We're talking a 61% drop in just a few months.

And it got me thinking: if nobody's clicking anymore, what the hell are we even optimizing for?

People are reading AI summaries and calling it a day. They're bouncing to YouTube for a quick explainer. They're checking Reddit threads. They're asking ChatGPT. They're doing literally everything except clicking through to your carefully crafted landing page.

The game has changed. And most of us are still playing by the old rules.

The Funnel Is Dead (Or At Least on Life Support)

If clicks are dying, then we need to ask ourselves a hard question: how do we actually drive action?

The traditional playbook went something like this: show up in search, get the click, optimize the funnel, track everything, convert.

But that playbook is broken.

Even when people do click, attribution is a mess. Social platforms strip referral data. Cross-device tracking is sketchy at best. And let's be honest, most of the energy we're spending on building the "perfect funnel" could probably be spent doing something that actually moves the needle.

I'm not saying funnels don't matter. But the obsession with tracking every micro-conversion and perfecting every step? That energy needs to go somewhere else.

The New Game: Show Up Where They Already Are

Think about old-school advertising for a second.

You couldn't force someone to buy by cold-calling them every week. But you could put your billboard on their daily commute. Run your ad in the paper they read every morning. Sponsor the local sports team they follow.

That's where we're headed again.

If people aren't clicking search results but they are watching YouTube videos? You need a video on YouTube with your message.

If they're digging through Reddit threads for real answers? You need to be part of that conversation.

If they're asking their LLM of choice? Your brand better be one of the sources it's pulling from.

This isn't about being everywhere. It's about being everywhere your audience actually is, with the same consistent message, so when they're ready to move, you're the obvious choice.

What This Actually Means for You

Stop chasing clicks.

Start chasing recall. Start chasing top-of-mind awareness. Start chasing being the brand people think of first when they're finally ready to act.

Here's what that looks like:

• Consistent messaging across platforms > perfect funnel optimization
• Being present where your audience is > obsessing over attribution
• Capturing the right attention > casting the widest net possible

You can't force someone to buy. But you can make damn sure you're visible wherever they're looking for answers.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Marketing isn't getting easier; it's getting harder.

The brands that win won't be the ones with the best funnels or the slickest attribution models. They'll be the ones who figured out how to stay relevant when nobody's clicking anymore.

They'll stop optimizing for traffic and start optimizing for memory.

So here's the real question: Are you optimizing for clicks, or are you optimizing to be remembered?

Because in 2026, only one of those strategies actually works.