Let’s talk about the elephant in the boardroom: AI search.
You’ve probably heard the terms getting thrown around, ChatGPT traffic, Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), “AI visibility.”
And sooner or later, someone pipes up:
“Are we missing something?”
“Should we move budget from SEO into AI optimisation?”
Fair questions.
So, we ran the data across real e‑commerce brands, millions in sales, multiple countries, and a mix of categories.
We looked at where traffic comes from, how it performs, and more importantly: what actually drives revenue.
Short version?
AI search traffic is real. It’s growing.
But it’s nowhere near replacing Google or Bing.
The perception gap is wide, wider than most CMOs realise.
1. The Hype vs The Reality
At a recent webinar, we asked marketers how much revenue they thought ChatGPT was driving for big e‑commerce players. Guesses landed in the six-figure range.
One retailer we looked at, millions in annual revenue, well-established brand, made just $2,000 from ChatGPT across six months.
Total. That’s not even one decent day of Google Ads.
Across the whole dataset, AI traffic contributed less than 1% of revenue in nearly every case.
And yet, a LinkedIn poll showed 30–40% of marketers think ChatGPT will overtake Google organic and paid search in six months.
That’s not just optimistic. It’s wrong, by a lot.
2. What We Measured
We looked at brands selling fashion, homewares, lifestyle gear, and niche goods. Some big, some mid-market, some small but high-performing.
Metrics we tracked:
- Traffic: sessions, users, new users
- Engagement: bounce rate, dwell time, pages per visit
- Conversions: transactions, conversion rate, revenue per visit, AOV
- Brand signals: branded search volume, niche size, domain strength
And we tracked sources including:
- Google Organic
- Google Ads
- Bing Organic
- Bing Ads
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Gemini
Not just what gets traffic, what converts. What makes money.
3. Where the Money Actually Comes From
Here’s what the revenue breakdown looked like:
| Channel | Revenue | Share of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Google Paid | $247.5M | 64.3% |
| Google Organic | $122.9M | 31.9% |
| Bing Organic | $11.3M | 2.9% |
| Bing Paid | $3.4M | 0.9% |
| ChatGPT (Direct) | $44.6K | 0.012% |
| Perplexity (Direct) | $6.4K | 0.002% |
| Gemini (Direct) | $384 | 0.0001% |
Let’s be clear: 96% of all revenue from search is still coming from Google. Add Bing, and it’s more like 99.9%.
Weirdly, Bing Ads outperformed ChatGPT traffic by 76×, and most brands haven’t even maxed out Bing yet.
4. Why Execs Get Stuck on This
There’s a logic trap that’s easy to fall into. I’ve seen it firsthand in CMO strategy calls:
“If ChatGPT is the future, shouldn’t we invest early?”
“Why scale Bing or Google Ads when AI is the trend?”
Because, right now, one is driving millions in revenue. The other isn’t. It’s that simple. You wouldn’t move your sales team off email because Slack’s having a moment.
5. Conversion Performance: Still No Contest
We broke down conversion rate by channel:
- Bing Organic: 3.55%
- Bing Paid: 2.62%
- Google Paid: 2.59%
- Google Organic: 2.20%
- ChatGPT Direct: 1.05%
- ChatGPT Referral: 1.22%
- Perplexity Direct: 1.75%
And revenue per visit:
- Bing Organic: $9.05
- Google Paid: $4.99
- Google Organic: $4.28
- ChatGPT Direct: $1.93
- ChatGPT Referral: $2.42
The differences aren’t subtle. Traffic from search engines is more qualified and more likely to convert.
One client quipped that ChatGPT traffic was like “a distracted window shopper who leaves before asking a single question.” Brutal. But fair.
6. Bigger Baskets, Better Buyers
Average Order Value told a similar story:
- Bing Paid: $463
- Bing Organic: $382
- Google Organic: $345
- ChatGPT Direct: $179
- ChatGPT Referral: $328
- Perplexity Referral: $554 (tiny sample though, not scalable)
Yes, Perplexity looks high here, but it’s from a handful of sessions.
You wouldn’t bet your forecast on that.
7. Who’s Actually Engaging?
Search users behave like shoppers. AI users…not so much.
Dwell time: Search channels (especially Bing) show consistent, longer sessions. Gemini stood out too, possibly people playing with it rather than buying.
Pages per session: Higher from search. Deeper browsing, more exploration.
Bounce rate: Lower from search. Higher from AI, people click, skim, leave.
AI tools are still more curiosity engines than checkout drivers.
8. The AI Growth Curve
Yes, there’s growth. A few brands saw ChatGPT referrals go from nothing in late 2024 to thousands per month by mid‑2025.
In some cases, revenue scaled 10× in six months.
Sounds impressive until you realise it’s scaling from $100 to $1,000.
One apparel brand saw a mini spike after being referenced in a Reddit thread and picked up by ChatGPT a week later. Cool moment — but hardly a pattern.
Forecasts suggest sessions might hit 5,000+ monthly in early 2026. Still nowhere near Google.
9. Brand Power ≠ AI Revenue
Across all niches, branded search volume totalled 10.6 million. AI traffic? Just 55,000 sessions.
We ran the numbers. The correlation between branded demand and AI revenue per session was, 0.13, not only weak, but negative.
In other words, being a household name doesn’t help much if the household isn’t asking ChatGPT about you.
10. What AI Might Influence Later
This bit is trickier, and honestly more interesting.
We saw examples where ChatGPT or Perplexity mentions lifted direct and branded traffic within 48–72 hours. Users didn’t click the link but searched the brand later or typed the URL in cold.
This was clearest in high-ticket or considered purchases, luxury goods, specialty items.
So yes, AI referrals might influence buying decisions. Just not in the same session, and not in a way that’s easy to track in your GA4 reports.
11. How Big Is the Gap?
Sessions volume by channel:
- Google Paid: 63.5M
- Direct: 48.8M
- Google Organic: 44.0M
- AI combined: ~55K
Even in strong niches, AI traffic barely registers. Branded search in fashion? 4.84M. AI search? Basically irrelevant.
That doesn’t mean AI won’t grow. It just means it’s nowhere close, yet.
12. The Forecast: Gradual, Not Sudden
Will AI search overtake traditional search?
Maybe one day. But not this year, and probably not next year either. Our forecasting shows slow, steady growth, not a takeover.
We’re not looking at a flip switch. We’re looking at a long dimmer dial.
13. What It Means for SEO
SEO still means Google.
If you’re chasing visibility and revenue, that’s where your effort should go. Organic and paid together are still the backbone of e‑commerce traffic.
Optimising for AI is worth doing, but it’s a side quest, not the main campaign.
14. What to Tell Your CEO
If your CEO or CMO asks, “Are we falling behind on AI search?” you can say confidently:
- Not in revenue terms.
- The brands making real money are still making it from Google and Bing.
- The shift to AI visibility is real, but slow.
- Layer it in, don’t flip the strategy.
- Review every six months with hard data. Not hot takes.
15. Final Word
Look, clicks are fun. Rankings are nice. But revenue is what pays the bills.
Right now, AI search isn’t paying much. Google and Bing are. The smart brands are doubling down on what works, while quietly prepping for what’s next.
If AI traffic explodes in two years, great, you’ll be ready. But don’t sink the boat trying to chase a ripple.
16. StudioHawk’s Real‑World Roadmap
If you’re running SEO in-house, here’s what we recommend:
- Track AI sources. GA4 filters for “gpt,” “perplexity,” etc.
- Dashboards matter. Keep AI traffic visible alongside Google/Bing.
- Product pages need answers. Top-of-page clarity. Use headings and structured data.
- Build topical clusters. AI often breaks questions down. Have content ready for the follow-ups.
- Schema, merchant feeds, clean product info. Feed the Google Shopping graph.
- Mentions matter. Get cited in blogs, Reddit, YouTube, wherever AI models look.
- Test AI agents. Try ChatGPT Shopping and Google’s AI mode. Spot friction before AI tools do.
Wrap Up
Stay calm. Keep SEO tight. Don’t waste money chasing shadows.
The brands that win will:
- Defend their Google and Bing real estate
- Experiment with AI safely
- Be ready when the volume arrives
We’ll be watching the data, and updating the strategy, as it does.
Don’t guess what AI search needs, build for it.
Grab the StudioHawk AI SEO Toolkit and get ahead while everyone else is still talking about it.
