Why Are AI Overviews Bypassing Your Website? How to Win the B2B Buyer Journey With Video

AI Overviews answer your buyer's questions right on the results page, so buyers no longer need to click through to your website to learn. If you are not part of those answers early in their journey, you are out of the picture. The way back in is to answer their real questions with in-depth video on YouTube, a third party that Google cites.

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Key Takeaways

• SEO gave buyers a list of links to click. GEO (generative engine optimization) is about showing up inside the summary an AI Overview or LLM writes for them.
• AI Overviews cite sources where there is a consensus from third parties. Your own website is not a third party. YouTube is.
• In a low-trust environment, buyers go about 80% of the way down their buyer journey before they are willing to talk to a salesperson.
• Long-form video that answers their questions in depth builds trust early, and in my experience those leads convert at something on the order of 3X.
• Cover the 80% of buyer questions that repeat. Some of my videos showed up in AI Overviews the next day.
• Watch clicks and retention. About 70% watched is the benchmark I am aware of for YouTube promoting a video something like 3X as much.

This fits inside a bigger picture. If you want the full view first, here's the bigger picture.

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO is search engine optimization. GEO is generative engine optimization. The difference is what the buyer sees when they search.

Remember the old way. Say you searched for the best software for B2B sales teams. You got a list of links, clicked one, and educated yourself on that site.

Now with an LLM or an AI Overview, the buyer gets an overview. It explains the answer to them rather than directing them to a site. It does cite sources, like HubSpot or Salesforce in my example. But those brands are cited because there is a consensus out there with third parties that they are good software for B2B sales teams. That consensus is telling the story and educating the buyer.

Why do AI Overviews bypass your website?

Because the buyer's questions are getting summarized on the results page. They do not need to go to your site, so you are not part of that conversation.

It used to be that buyers would go to your website, find your blog articles or whatever else you had there, and educate themselves until they were ready to talk to sales. That has fundamentally changed. We have AI Overviews now, and it is a low-trust environment.

How far do B2B buyers get before they talk to sales?

Approximately 80% of the way down their buyer journey. That is why the early part of the journey matters so much.

If buyers are not considering you at the beginning of their journey, you are out of the picture. They will not know you exist, or that you are legitimate, as they move down the funnel.

"So the game now is you've got to be able to be part of their buyer journey by giving them the content that's most helpful to them that's going to answer their questions." Dane Frederiksen

How does video win the buyer journey back?

By leaving breadcrumbs. If a buyer finds your content and you did a good job educating them as far as they need to go, they take the next step and watch the next video, and so on. It is not a straight line, but every video gives them a chance to spend time with you and build trust.

A B2B purchase takes a long time. Six months, a year, maybe a year and a half. The reason it takes so long is that buyers have all these questions. Long-form video that answers those questions in depth can compress that time.

By the time they are ready to talk to a salesperson, they are highly qualified leads. In my experience they convert at something on the order of 3X, because they have already made their decision. You were present at the beginning of their consideration set, you built trust, and you earned the right to have a sales conversation. What we are really trying to do is equip them.

Why does YouTube get cited in AI Overviews?

YouTube is a third party. It is different from your website, and that is a way you can win.

Citations inside an AI summary are not very visual. They do not stand out, and if the buyer gets what they need from the summary, they may not click the citation at all. But YouTube gets cited in AI Overviews and in other ways too. Google has a financial incentive to have YouTube videos show up, because it makes a lot of money from the ads.

Reddit also gets quoted, but that is a community, and you cannot really buy your way into it. You can buy your way into creating YouTube content.

Does video help B2B companies show up in AI Overviews?

Yes. I tested it. I made a video that gave a direct answer to that exact buyer question, in their language, and the answer was: yes, video content, specifically on YouTube.

For that question, several of my own videos showed up, some as soon as the next day. One was only 49 seconds. Another was a 15-minute interview with a GEO expert. So it is not about the length, and it is not about the views. It is about how well you answer the question, in enough depth to move the buyer to the next stage of their journey.

How do you know which buyer questions to answer?

Go to your transcripts and find out what people are asking, in their words. Sales calls and chat transcripts are the source.

I think about the 80/20 rule. About 80% of the questions you hear will be the same:

1. What is it?
2. How does it work?
3. How much does it cost?
4. What do I do?
5. What about this versus that?

Think of those as the center swim lane of the funnel. People will have fringe questions on the outside, and toward the end they will have questions about their specific situation. But if you cover that 80% with video, that is a good plan. I think of it as content bingo: your bases are covered, and buyers can self-educate until they are ready to take a sales call.

How fast can video show up in AI search, and how do you measure it?

I saw some of my videos show up the next day. So it can go that fast.

On YouTube, packaging comes first. Thumbnails earn visual interest and titles earn the click. Then retention: the current benchmark I am aware of is that if viewers get about 70% of the way through, YouTube will promote the video something on the order of 3X as much. Completing 70% says you answered all the mini questions inside the big question and held their attention.

Here is the timeline:

• Within 24 hours: are people clicking, watching, and sticking around?
• Within two weeks: more aggregate data, plus the results of your thumbnail and title A/B tests. YouTube lets you test thumbnails and alternate titles, and those tests typically take a couple of days to two weeks.

What is the plan and build framework?

It is a 10-step framework in two halves.

Plan:

1. Goals. Answer the buyer questions, and check whether you are covering them.
2. Research. Are you showing up in AI search at all? Are these questions being answered by you?
3. What is possible. List all the possible buyer questions. Shoot for the 80% most common ones.
4. What is realistic. Who on your team can go on camera, and how often?
5. Approve the plan. Decide how you will cover the buyer journey with video.

Build:

6. Pick the question. Use specific buyer questions, in their language, from your transcripts or chat logs.
7. Make the video. Answer it in depth, fully, to get them to the next question in their journey.
8. Post and optimize. A thumbnail that converts, a good title and description, the transcript, chapters in the description, and a call to action with a UTM link or another way to track conversions.
9. Measure. Early data in 24 hours, better data after two weeks or a month.
10. Revise and repeat. Prioritize what to revise, and keep going until your bases are covered.

You are never really done. Buyer behavior changes, the market changes, and your product and services change as new things come up, like AI Overviews. The process is built around the revisions that come as you learn.

Get the free AEO Video Checklist

GEO, AEO, or AI search optimization: whatever you call it, the checklist helps you get your plan in order. Download the AEO Video Checklist here. If you want help with this, that is what I do. Reach out and I will help if I can.

Doing the thing is the easy part. The hard part is knowing where you're already winning and where you're invisible. That's exactly what our free AI Visibility Snapshot shows you, before you spend a dollar.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO (search engine optimization) is about ranking in a list of links the buyer clicks. GEO (generative engine optimization) is about being part of the answer an AI Overview or LLM writes, which explains the topic to the buyer instead of sending them to a site.

Why are AI Overviews reducing traffic to my website?

The buyer's questions are summarized on the results page, so they do not need to click through. If you are not part of that summary early in their journey, they may never learn you exist.

How far through the buying journey are B2B buyers before they contact sales?

Approximately 80% of the way. In a low-trust environment, buyers self-educate much further before they are willing to talk to a salesperson.

Why does YouTube get cited in Google AI Overviews?

YouTube is a third party, not your own website, and AI Overviews lean on third-party consensus. Google also has a financial incentive to surface YouTube videos, because it makes money from the ads.

Does the length of a video matter for AI Overviews?

No. One of Dane Frederiksen's cited videos was 49 seconds and another was a 15-minute interview. What matters is how well the video answers the buyer's question in depth.

How quickly can a video show up in AI Overviews?

Some of Dane Frederiksen's videos showed up the next day. Within 24 hours you can see clicks and watch behavior, and within two weeks you will have aggregate data and thumbnail and title test results.

What watch percentage helps YouTube promote a video?

About 70%. The benchmark Dane Frederiksen is aware of is that at around 70% completion, YouTube promotes the video something on the order of 3X as much.

Full Transcript

I'm going to show you exactly the difference between SEO and GEO, generative engine optimization and how it works in my full framework. So let's get into it. First of all, what's the difference between SEO and GEO? SEO is search engine optimization and GEO is generative engine optimization. So the difference is in search, when they're searching in Google or in LLMs, it comes up differently, right? Remember the old way where you would search for, let's say you're looking for what's the best software for B2B sales teams?

You would get a bunch of links and then they would click on a link and then they would educate themselves. Now with an LLM or an AI overview, they're getting an overview here. It's explaining this to them rather than directing them to a site. Now they are citing sources like right here, we've got HubSpot being cited. But the reason that they're citing these sources like Salesforce here is because there's a consensus out there with third parties that these are good software for B2B sales teams. And so it's that consensus which is helping to tell the story here and educate them.

So really what's happening is on the buyer journey, right, you know, the classic funnel here. You've got a buyer and they are educating themselves about a solution to their problem. So they're right here and they're on a journey going down the sales funnel, educating themselves by getting answers to questions that they have. And so it used to be that they would go to your website and then find your blog articles or whatever else you had there to help educate them and move them down the funnel until they were ready to talk to sales. But that's fundamentally changed. We have AI Overviews now and there's a low trust environment.

So buyers are going much further down their buyer journey until they're willing to talk to a salesperson, approximately 80% of the way there. So because of AI Overviews, now these questions that they're asking are getting summarized in that way I just showed you so that they are not going to your site. So you are not really part of that conversation. So if they're not considering you in the beginning of their journey, then you're just out of the picture. They're not going to be aware that you exist or that you're legitimate as they move down the funnel. So the game now is you've got to be able to be part of their buyer journey by giving them the content that's most helpful to them that's going to answer their questions.

So if they find your content and you've done a good job of helping educate them as far as they need to go to take the next step, then they can watch the next content and so on. Now it's not necessarily going to be a linear line. It's not quite the simple, but as long as you're giving them the breadcrumbs, you're giving an opportunity for them to spend time with you, to build trust with you. Because if they're going to be evaluating a B2B purchase, that's a long time. But I think what a year, it could be a year and a half, maybe six months. So the reason it takes from the start, the reason it takes so long is because they have all these questions.

But if you can compress that time by giving them long form video, which in-depth answers their questions, then you're building that trust, you're educating them, and by the time they're ready to talk to a salesperson, these are highly qualified leads, and they're going to convert something in the order of like three times the amount, because they've already made their decision. You were present in the beginning of their consideration set. You built trust and helped them move along. And so you have earned the right to have a sales conversation. Essentially, what we're trying to do is equip them. And so how video differs in the approach, if you look at the search results, things are being summarized here in AI search.

And there are citations like we talked about here, right? But that's not very visual. It doesn't really stand out. And if they get what they need from the summary here, they may not even click on the citation. That's really there just to kind of prove the point. But what can also happen is YouTube is a third party.

It's different than your website, and that's a way that you can win because YouTube is getting cited here. And it doesn't just get cited in these AI Overviews. It also gets cited in other ways. YouTube has a financial incentive to have Google, excuse me, Google has a financial incentive to have YouTube videos show up because it gets lots of money from the ads. So if I were to ask a question, and this is a test I did, does video help B2B companies show up in AI Overviews? I had a really good direct answer to that specific buyer question in their language.

So I said, yes, video content specifically on YouTube. That's basically what I answered in this video. Now, you'll know Reddit was quoted here, but that's a community, and you can't really buy your way into that. But you can buy your way into creating YouTube content. And if you make long form content that directly answers their questions, you can have a better chance of showing up in search results. And so for that specific question, does video help B2B companies show up in AI Overviews?

I have several pieces of content. Each one of these are videos from me. They're a little blurry here, but you can see my name right there. And some of these showed up as soon as next next day. So that's the timeline we're talking about here. This video was short.

It's only 49 seconds. This is a longer interview with a GEO expert at Cassie. And that's 15 minutes. So it's not about the length and it's not about the views. It's about how well can you answer their question in depth enough to move them to the next stage of their buying journey. Right.

So this is about being helpful. This is about building trust. And the way that you can evaluate if your plan is a good one is go to your transcripts and find out what are people asking? What are the questions that they're asking in their words? And if you're hearing a lot of the same questions, I like to think about 80-20 rule. A lot of the questions you're hearing are probably going to be 80% the same.

What is it? How does it work? How much does it cost? What do I do? What about this versus that? General questions.

And I think about it like this center swim lane in the funnel. People may have fringe questions on the outside. And towards the end, they have specific questions about what they're specific situation. But if you can get those 80% of those questions populated with video, that's a good plan. Because you've got your bases covered. I think of this as like content bingo.

You've got your bases covered and you've given them the opportunity to self-educate. So when they get there, 80% of the way through they're willing to take a sales call. Timeline to results. I saw my videos show up the next day in some of these. So I know that it can go that fast. What's going to happen though is when you put content on YouTube, there's this concept called packaging, which this is before I started doing optimized thumbnails.

But the thumbnails help to earn a visual interest. And the titles help. That's where you get the click. And so if you can get thumbnails and titles enticing enough, so they actually click. And then when they start watching these videos, we're looking for longer viewer retention. And so if you can hold their attention as they start the video, we want to get to ideally 70% of the way through is the current benchmark I'm aware of that basically YouTube is going to promote this something on the order of like three times as much.

Because what it's saying if they complete 70% is that you've done a good job of answering all the sort of mini questions within the big question. And you've held their attention because you had a good thumbnail. You had a good title that resonated and the content helped move them along to, you know, from one question to the next question in the funnel. So you can see within 24 hours, are people watching? Are they clicking? Are they sticking around?

Within two weeks, you'll have a better handle on sort of more juicy data, more aggregate data. And then you're also going to see the results of your A B test. So YouTube lets you put thumbnails and alternate titles up there. And those tests typically take, you know, a couple days to two weeks. So within two weeks, you're going to basically have a pretty good idea if this is working. And then what we're going to do is we're going to follow this framework, the plan and build framework, it's 10 steps.

You know, and we've already kind of covered where we were. The goals were to answer those buyer questions. Down here, we talked about the, are you covering those? So that's the goal. Then we're going to do a little research. Are we showing up at all in AI search?

Are these questions being answered by us? Then we look at sort of what's possible? What are all the possible buyer questions? And you know, I would shoot for those 80% most common ones. That's a more realistic assessment. You got to look at like who on your team can go on camera?

How frequently can you do these? And then once you have a plan of how you're going to go about covering the buyer journey with video, then you can approve your plan. And then we go into build mode. And so the way that that looks is we take the specific buyer questions in their language from your transcripts or chat receipts. And then you make a video answering that in depth fully to get them all the way to the next question in their journey. Then once we have the video, we're going to post it.

We're going to optimize that with a, you're going to have a good thumbnail that converts. We're going to have a good title, a good description. We're going to include the transcript. And we're going to have chapters in our YouTube description. And ideally a call to action that has like a UTM link or some way of tracking the conversion rate. So once we get that out there, in 24 hours, we can start to get some data after two weeks or a month.

We're going to get even better data. And then we'll know what we want to prioritize to revise. And then we just complete the process until we've covered all our bases here. And in a way, you'll never really be done because buyer behavior will change, the market will change, your product will change, your services will change as new things come up. Like AI Overviews. And so in the process that's built around that is the revisions that are going to come as you learn new information.

So that is basically how it works. I have a checklist for GEO or AEO, whatever you want to call it, some people call it AI search optimization. So there's a checklist to help you get your plan in order in the description there. And if you want help with this, that's what I do. com, just reach out and I'll help you if I can.

Most teams don't get this right on the first try. Here's how we approached it for a real team. Curious what it'd look like for you? Let's talk it through.