I Have Repeatedly Made the Claim That AI Chatbot Traffic Converts Better Than Search Engine Traffic
I have repeatedly made the claim that AI chatbot traffic converts better than search engine traffic. My thinking was that ChatGPT or Perplexity users go through evaluation and exploration cycles (remember the Messy Middle) faster and are closer to a purchase intent when they click on an outgoing link.
But I Couldn’t Prove It at Scale. Until Now.
To prove this mental model right or wrong, Similarweb provided me with a large dataset of over 7 million referral sessions from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity with Google Search across September, October, and November in the U.S.
Same ‘Ol, Same ‘Ol
I want to start with a look at the top 10 landing pages because it’s representative of how to think about the rest of the data in this study.
About 80% of (Transactional) Traffic to Top the Top 10 Landing Pages Goes to Ecommerce Sites
And, it’s mostly to the same players you already know from Google Search because AI chatbot answers use search results to ground (think: weight) their answers.
AI Chatbot Traffic Is More Engaged
The big question I’m trying to answer is whether AI chatbot referrals convert better than search traffic.
I Looked at Two Metrics to Compare the Traffic Quality of Each Referral Source: Session Duration and the Number of Page Views per Session
High session duration in combination with a high number of (non-bounced) page views means users evaluate a product for longer and are more likely to buy when looking at transactional traffic.
Conclusion: What It All Means
The adoption of AI chatbots is going incredibly well. ChatGPT has over 300 million weekly users, Bing Chat seems to help the forever-second search engine finally gain market share, and we’ve hit a staggering 72% of companies that use AI in at least one business function.
Over 7 Million Referral Sessions from AI Chatbots and Google Search Reveal That:
* About 80% of transactional traffic goes to ecommerce sites, and the same players (Amazon, eBay, Walmart) dominate both in search and AI chatbots.
* AI chatbot referrals show higher engagement: They stay 2.3 minutes longer on average (10.4 vs. 8.1 minutes) and view more pages (12.4 vs. 11.8 pages on average).
* AI chatbots send significantly more traffic to homepages (22% average) compared to Google (10%) but still show higher engagement.
* Copilot and Perplexity showed faster growth in page views (15% and 22%) compared to Google (5%).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the main finding of this study?
A: The study found that AI chatbot traffic converts better than search engine traffic, with users staying longer and viewing more pages.
Q: What is the difference in engagement between AI chatbot referrals and search engine referrals?
A: AI chatbot referrals show higher engagement, with users staying 2.3 minutes longer on average and viewing more pages.
Q: What are the top 10 landing pages for AI chatbot traffic?
A: The top 10 landing pages for AI chatbot traffic are mostly ecommerce sites, with Amazon, eBay, and Walmart dominating.
Q: What is the future of AI chatbot traffic?
A: The adoption of AI chatbots is going incredibly well, with 72% of companies using AI in at least one business function. However, the future of AI chatbot traffic is uncertain, and it’s unclear whether it will continue to grow.
