Search advertising remains digital advertising's largest category, but the behavior underneath it is moving. Time spent with browsers and search engines is declining while AI assistants absorb queries, and young users increasingly skip websites entirely.

This FAQ covers search advertising's scale, the AI-driven traffic shifts reshaping it, and how advertisers should redistribute demand-capture budgets in 2026.

How big is search advertising?

Search is still the largest digital ad category in the US. Search accounted for $102.9 billion of a record $258.6 billion in US digital advertising revenues in 2024, a $14.1 billion increase over 2023, according to the IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report cited by Search Engine Land. Search continues to own the largest market share of digital advertising at 39.8%, per the same report. The category's durability comes from intent: Search captures consumers at the moment they express a need. That same intent is exactly what AI assistants now intercept, which is why search advertising's future is being contested even as its revenues grow.

How are AI assistants changing search behavior?

Attention is migrating from search boxes to chat prompts. AI assistants were the breakout web category of 2025, with an 86% explosion in traffic and 101% YoY growth in time spent, while browsers and search engines declined 7%, per Sensor Tower data published with EMARKETER. ChatGPT is now the seventh-most-visited website globally. Users are also platform-agnostic: ChatGPT users flowed to Claude at nearly 50% month-over-month growth from April to May 2026, per Sensor Tower. For search advertisers, this means a growing share of commercial questions get answered in environments where traditional paid search ads do not yet exist at scale.

Are AI chatbots taking traffic away from brand websites?

Yes, and the losses are measurable in categories young users dominate. Software brand sites lost 43% of their young visitors over six months as chatbots absorbed search, schoolwork, and workflows, per a June 2026 EMARKETER Industry KPIs analysis. When an assistant answers the question directly, the click that search advertising monetizes never happens. This zero-click dynamic hits informational queries first, but commercial research is following as assistants improve product recommendations. Brands that depended on search-driven site traffic for both organic and paid conversion now need visibility inside AI answers, the discipline covered by generative engine optimization, alongside their bidding strategies.

What does the AI shift mean for Google?

Google remains the search incumbent under pressure from both directions. EMARKETER forecasts Google's US ad revenues will grow 5.6% in 2026, the slowest of the big three ad platforms, trailing Amazon's 17.9% and Meta's 14.2%, per a February 2026 EMARKETER article. Google is defending with its own AI: Gemini gained ground on ChatGPT with 25% of US daily active user share among AI assistants, per a March 2026 EMARKETER article. The strategic question for advertisers is not whether Google search ads keep working, they do, but whether incremental demand-capture dollars earn more in newer channels as query growth shifts.

Where are search-style ad budgets going next?

Demand-capture spending is spreading across three surfaces beyond classic search:

• AI chatbot ads. OpenAI's ChatGPT ad pilot has cut entry costs from roughly $200,000 to $10,000 through partners like Criteo, per EMARKETER, giving advertisers their first paid placement inside conversational answers.
• Retail media. Product searches increasingly start on marketplaces, where sponsored listings function as commerce search ads; Amazon alone will command $56.71 billion in US retail media ad spending in 2026, per an EMARKETER forecast.
• AI visibility work. Becoming the product an assistant recommends requires content, ratings, and data eligibility, per EMARKETER, an organic complement to paid capture.

How should advertisers adapt search strategy in 2026?

Defend the core while building positions in the channels intercepting intent:

• Keep funding proven search terms. With search still 39.8% of digital ad revenue, high-intent branded and commercial queries remain efficient.
• Test conversational placements early. Low ChatGPT minimums make AI chat a cheap learning channel before it matures.
• Treat retail media as product search. For brands sold through marketplaces, sponsored listings now capture the queries that once went to Google Shopping.
• Invest in AI answer visibility. Optimize content and product data so assistants cite and recommend the brand when no ad slot exists.
• Watch traffic data by cohort. Gen Z-heavy categories will feel the website-traffic decline first; measurement should track where lost search clicks actually went.

We prepared this article with the assistance of generative AI tools and stand behind its accuracy, quality, and originality.

EMARKETER forecast data was current at publication and may have changed. EMARKETER clients have access to up-to-date forecast data. To explore EMARKETER solutions, click here.