Zero Click Marketing: how to make an impact without relying on clicks

For over a decade, the click has been the official currency of digital marketing. CTR, CPC, website traffic… everything revolved around that tiny gesture separating a curious user from a potential customer. But digital behaviour has evolved: today users no longer need to leave a platform to get informed, compare, or even buy.

This is where the Zero Click Marketing phenomenon emerges: a way to create impact and value without the user clicking. It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s exactly where the digital ecosystem is heading: closed platforms, generative AI, and integrated experiences where the decision happens inside, not outside.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The new user journey: from click to context

• Why the click no longer explains everything

• How to leverage Zero Click Marketing

• The metrics that matter in the Zero Click era

The new user journey: from click to context

Think of something as common as planning a trip: you search for “things to do in Lisbon” and Google already shows maps, reviews, schedules, and ticket prices—without you opening another tab.

Or on TikTok: you watch a backpack review with an integrated buy button. Or on ChatGPT: someone asks for “best data analytics tools” and the model cites several brands.

In all these scenarios, users make decisions without visiting external websites, yet brands present in those contexts gain authority, recall, and consideration. The click disappears, but the impact doesn’t.

Why the click no longer explains everything

Google, Meta, Amazon, and TikTok want users to stay within their environments. That’s why they keep integrating more features: comparison tools, forms, reviews, and even payment gateways.

The result:

• Less traffic to websites,
• More time and interaction within platforms,
• New spaces to gain visibility without relying on the click.

This requires a mindset shift. It’s no longer enough to optimise for CTR; now you must optimise for contextual presence—to show up at the moment and place where users decide.

How to leverage Zero Click Marketing

The challenge isn’t to resist, but to understand how to capitalise on it. Here are the strategies leading brands are using (and that we at Adsmurai help measure and scale):

1. Optimise for visibility, not just traffic

The new SEO is built on context, not clicks. The fastest-growing brands know how to structure information to appear in AI Overviews, snippets, or AI summaries.

Example: a furniture brand optimises its guide “how to choose a sofa for a small living room” with clear data and natural language. Google can use that snippet directly in its AI summary. The user doesn’t enter the site, but the brand gains visibility and authority.

Through Adsmurai Data Services, we apply this logic to our measurement and analysis projects too, helping brands understand which content types drive real impact in no-click environments.

2. Create native, measurable content within each platform

Success is no longer measured by visits, but by interaction. On TikTok or Instagram, it’s not about the link in bio—it’s about how many people save, share, or comment on your content.

Real case: A clothing brand launched its Home (House) campaign on TikTok with native content and no external redirects. The impact was huge: massive awareness, a 12% sales lift, and engagement well above the fashion sector average.

The trick is to design content to live inside the platform and to measure its impact without relying on the click. That’s where Adsmurai’s expertise in cross-platform analysis comes in, integrating data from Meta, TikTok, Google, and other channels into a single visual environment like Adsmurai Marketing Platform (AMP) or Looker Studio dashboards.

3. Participate in the generative AI ecosystem

More and more users rely on tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot to seek information. And yes, brands are already being mentioned in those answers.

Tools like Adsmurai’s Brand Tracker let you monitor how AI “talks” about your brand, which contexts you appear in, and against which competitors. That intel is gold for spotting new visibility opportunities and fine-tuning your SEO-AI content strategy.

In other words: if AI cites you, your brand is gaining presence—no clicks required.

4. Produce “citable”, authoritative content

AI models feed on trustworthy sources. Publishing proprietary studies, original data, or market reports is a direct way to enter that loop of implicit visibility.

Example: a food brand publishes an analysis on healthy consumption in Europe. Google or ChatGPT may include excerpts of that content in automated answers. There’s no click, but there is recognition and relevance.

At Adsmurai, we help brands understand the true value of those impacts by integrating AI mentions, contextual impressions, and attention metrics into their data ecosystem.

The metrics that matter in the Zero Click era

Forget CTR as the only KPI. Today we measure different things—more qualitative and aligned with real digital behaviour.

• Share of Voice: how often your brand is mentioned versus competitors.
• Contextual visibility: how many environments your brand appears in without clicks (AI, videos, reviews, etc.).
• AI brand mentions: frequency and context of your appearances across generative platforms.
• On-platform engagement: saves, shares, comments, or in-app interactions.
• Time on screen: how long you actually occupy the user’s screen.

These metrics don’t live in Google Analytics. That’s why data integration is key: with tools like AMP and Looker Studio, Adsmurai helps marketing teams visualise, compare, and value global impact, regardless of where the interaction happens.

Inspiring Zero Click Marketing use cases in action

• Wallapop (Spain): optimised product feeds with dynamic information and geographic relevance, appearing organically in local searches and auto-suggestions. More discovery, less reliance on clicks.
• Furniture brand: structured product pages with enriched data (dimensions, materials, colours), enabling presence in AI summaries and Google visual results.
• Sneaker brand: creates immersive TikTok and YouTube Shorts content focused on stories, challenges, and community. Everything happens within the platform, but the effect on sales and awareness is measurable.

Across all cases, the common denominator is the ability to measure beyond the click—and that’s where Adsmurai’s Data & Analytics solutions make the difference.

From click to context: the future of digital marketing

Zero Click Marketing doesn’t remove the importance of traffic or conversion, but it does reorder priorities. Today the challenge isn’t driving people to your site, but getting your brand into the conversations where decisions are made.

Brands that can read and interpret this new landscape (through data, visibility, and integrated measurement) will lead the next chapter of digital marketing.

And one thing is clear: clicks may fade… but data won’t. The future belongs to those who can analyse it.