AI Search + Zero-Click Results

Saima

Summary 

AI search is reshaping how buyers discover solutions — most searches now end without a click. ABM teams are well-positioned to win in this new landscape. Here’s how to:

• Align content to buyer intent
• Boost AI visibility
• Track influence, not just clicks

Why ABM Teams Are Built to Win AI Search 

The rise of AI-powered search has a lot of us reconsidering our approach to content creation. We’re seeing fewer clicks, less site traffic, and a growing gap between the content we create and the attribution data we rely on. Over the past few months, I’ve realized revenue teams that have embraced ABM have a significant advantage in this new world. The playbook we’ve been refining for years aligns perfectly with what AI search engines now prioritize: ungated content with relevance, authority, and specificity. 

AI Search Is an Opportunity for ABM Teams 

According to Ahrefs, AI-generated traffic made up only 0.5% of total traffic — but drove 12.1% of new user sign-ups. That’s a 23x higher conversion rate than traditional organic search traffic. At the same time, more than half of all Google searches — 58% — now end without a click. 

For marketers who depend on form fills and gated content, this feels like a loss. But for ABM teams, it’s a win. We’ve never played the volume game. And at 6sense, we’ve been beating the "ungate your content" drum for years.  

ABM already prioritizes precision, persona-specific content, consistency, and intent-based timing. AI systems are built to surface the most relevant, helpful content — and ABM is built to deliver it. 

How Brand Authority Drives AI Visibility 

Buyers now use AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity to get answers instantly, without needing to visit a site. This shift means content must be helpful and visible even when buyers don’t click. 

AI systems act as trust filters. They’re trained to recognize authority, expertise, and semantic clarity. AI overviews rely on similar signals as traditional SEO: E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), page quality, structured formatting, and relevance to user intent (SEO.com). 

This makes brand consistency a strategic advantage. Brands that show up with a unified voice, focused expertise, and topic authority are more likely to be cited. 

In short: brand visibility is now semantic. Your message travels through AI, not just through ads, search, or social. And your buyers are forming opinions before they ever visit your site. 

Why ABM Content Performs Well in AI Search 

This shift toward AI-moderated discovery plays directly into ABM’s strengths. The tactics we've spent years perfecting are the exact ones that AI favors: 

• Persona Research helps anticipate natural language queries and buying-stage questions 
• Account-Specific Content delivers exactly the kind of detailed, niche information AI systems cite 
• Buying Group Coverage builds comprehensive topic authority 
• Consistent Messaging Across Channels reinforces AI trust signals 

ABM creates the type of visibility that matters now: relevance to a known audience, expressed clearly, and backed by brand authority. 

How to Create ABM Content AI Can Find and Use 

If you’re optimizing ABM content for AI discovery and zero-click behavior, it’s time to get intentional. Here’s what I believe will work in this new world: 

⭐ Align ABM Content to Buyer Questions and Stages 

Use intent signals to create modular content that speaks directly to a buyer’s needs at every stage — awareness, consideration, and decision. Address specific questions you get at each stage for key buyer personas.  

⭐ Format ABM Content for AI Search and Summaries 

Use formats that AI can parse and summarize: 

• Start with a direct answer 
• Include schema markup 
• Use question-based headers 
• Write in short, structured blocks 
• Republish key content in community platforms, Q&A sites, and trusted forums 

AI engines favor sources that match their formatting expectations and appear in trusted third-party spaces — not just on your owned domain. 

⭐ Distribute Your Content for AI Discovery 

You know how we talk about an end to “spray and pray” marketing? Well, this is the end to “publish and pray” content creation. Your best ABM content should be: 

• Promoted via programmatic and display to known personas 
• Delivered in channels that match intent and stage 
• Reused in outbound messaging from SDRs and AEs 
• Indexed via Google’s crawlable sources, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more 

Make sure your most helpful, high-authority content is the first thing buyers see. The table below shows what this approach looks like in practice. 

How to Track the Impact of Content in the Age of AI and Zero-Click Search 

From our own experience and recent 6sense benchmark research, we’ve learned that ABM teams track nearly 50% more advanced metrics than their peers — things like buying-group engagement, opportunity progression, and intent velocity. 

Here’s what we recommend tracking in the age of AI search: 

• Share of voice in zero-click and AI-overview test queries 
• Movement of in-market accounts through the lifecycle 
• Semantic association (e.g., is your brand linked with key topics in AI summaries?) 
• Conversion rate from high-intent, low-click sources 
• Consistency of brand mention across forums, AI engines, and earned media 
• Influence-based attribution — not just sourced 

To quote the attribution report: “57% of marketers now use both sourced and influenced attribution.” That’s a reflection of how complex, indirect, and AI-mediated modern buying journeys have become. 

Your 90-Day Plan to Build Brand Authority for AI Search 

Week 1: Brand Authority + Technical Content Audit 

Assess + Optimize 

• Search your brand in Google SGE, ChatGPT, and Perplexity: What appears? What doesn’t? 
• Identify which topics you’re semantically associated with and where you’re absent. 
• Conduct a technical content audit: 
  • Ensure pages are crawlable (check robots.txt, canonical tags, page load speed) 
  • Verify metadata is complete and accurate (titles, descriptions, H1/H2 structure) 
  • Audit internal linking structure and content silos 
• Implement schema markup: 
  • Prioritize FAQPage, HowTo, and Article schema for informational assets 
  • Add author and publisher structured data to reinforce E-E-A-T 
• Reformat for AI readability: 
  • Use answer-first introductions 
  • Add clear subheads using natural-language questions 
  • Break up dense text with bullets and short paragraphs 

Month 1: Foundation Building 

• Ungate as much content as possible. 
• Refresh or create new content based on persona + buying stage. 
• Republish and distribute across AI-visible platforms like YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Quora. 
• Begin building your brand’s semantic presence around priority topics. 

Month 3: Authority Acceleration 

• Launch consistent thought leadership across owned and earned channels. 
• Track improvements in AI citation, share of voice, and topic visibility. 
• Double down on emerging topics where you’re gaining traction. 
• Expand use of structured formats and community distribution to deepen presence. 

Embed brand-to-demand thinking into how you plan, write, distribute, and measure content across the buyer’s journey. 

Why Brand-Driven ABM Creates Long-Term AI Success 

This shift to AI search marks an important shift in how buyers discover and evaluate solutions. While others scramble to retrofit SEO strategies, ABM teams can lean into what we’ve always done best: 

• Build real authority 
• Serve buyers at every stage 
• Align content to intent 
• Stay consistent and specific 

Brand authority compounds. And in an AI-mediated world, it creates a durable advantage that shows up in discovery, preference, and, ultimately, pipeline. 

If you’re experimenting with this yourself, I’d love to hear what you’re seeing. Let’s keep learning together.