30-second summary:
- Zero click search presents advertisers with the opportunity to pro-long budgets during periods when the paid search landscape is hypercompetitive
- Brands can cash in on zero click searches for the organic element of their overall search strategy to gain visibility and drive conversions
- Barilla Group’s global digital & search marketing manager, Nitin Manhar Dhamelia advises on zero click search optimization and measurement
Historic context
Back in 1998 when Google was founded, it served 10,000 searches per day and by 2012 it was 3,500,000,000 searches per day. And in 2021, search volumes continue to explode with Google serving around 5,600,000,000[1] searches globally per day.
Its success in becoming a transitive verb was borne when Google tasked itself with bringing order to the chaos of the world’s knowledge. It knew that to achieve this magnitude of top-of-mind awareness, the key would be to create a window to the web that was inclusive, accessible, and easy to understand for the general population; it knew that inclusivity would accelerate adoption. Even today, the search giant is always working on improving the consumers’ search experience and 2021 saw several key algorithm updates roll out – passage ranking, page experience, page titles, MUM, mobile-first indexing, and more.
Not too far ahead in the future, Google is going to make it even easier for consumers to access information about brands. But why?
Micro funnels
Because people visit Google in key decision-making moments along the buyer journey – essentially, each Search session can be deemed a micro funnel. In fact, after the pandemic, there is no undoing the great reset. Nearly, 15 percent[2] of Google search queries Google attended were first of their kind. And 81 percent of consumers discovered new brands online during the pandemic.
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