Google Just Gave Us (a Little) More Data from LLMs

With surprisingly little fanfare for such an anticipated development, Google rolled out default AI assistant reporting this month. As of June 7, all accounts now have a native AI Assistant channel to GA4’s Default Channel Group.

What It Means

It means a few things, but mostly, it means you can stop listening to the typical chorus of “SEO/CTR/[insert digital marketing practice hereI] is dead.” 

Spoiler alert: SEO is still very much alive. It just has a counterpart now in AEO/GEO, and marketers need to measure both. Aside from prompt tracking, we’ve all been somewhat in the dark for a bit on AI visibility data. We’re not totally out of it, but Google has kindly turned on a 15-watt lightbulb for us. 

Here’s What We Know Now 

Clicks from LLMs with referrers (remember the bolded phrase; it’s important). 

Also in the land of the living along with SEO is the CTR. She’s down, but she’s not out for the count. And counting clicks is exactly what we get here. With this new addition to GA4’s reports, the clicks in question are well-earned. Here’s a look at the journey they took to get counted in this report: 

1. Something got cited on an AI platform
2. The user deemed the information worthwhile and clicked
3. The click carried a refferer
4. It wasn’t in AIO/AI Mode

Here’s What We Still Don’t Know 

This is an exciting development, but keep in mind it’s early in the world of AI reporting, and there are plenty of things we still don’t know, such as: 

• Traffic from Google AI Overview and AI Mode. That information is still categorized under Organic, leaving us in the marketing community still patiently (or not so patiently) waiting to get full reporting for Google’s AI Overview and AI Mode. 
• Where dark traffic is coming from. Noticing your Direct traffic spiking recently? Yeah, us too. It’s likely largely from traffic via AI without referrers. AI sessions that arrive without referrer data land in Direct, coming from in-app browsers, mobile apps, and copy-pasted links.
• What the AI assistant said about your brand. We’re only measuring clicks here, not the content the AI assistant actually cited. 

Key Takeaways

As I was reviewing this update in a client’s GA4 dashboard, one thing that caught my eye above all else was the 20% conversion rate from AI assistants. The traffic count wasn’t incredibly high (see dark traffic comments above), but that conversion rate is *chef’s kiss*. 

Let’s put it in perspective; in this instance, it outperformed a healthy paid search campaign. Only by a little, but it’s still there. Although anecdotal, this supports research we at Xponent21 have been seeing about how well traffic from LLMs converts, like this study from Microsoft. Because of its extensive abilities for personalization, AI traffic can bring your brand gold-level quality prospects. 

We’ll be watching as AI reporting, particularly with Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, expands—we’ve been told it’s coming—and answer engine optimization gets more personalized. 

You can still be ahead of the curve with these industry developments. Make sure your brand and your online presence are prepped for all things AI by scheduling a call.