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Reference library · Digital attribution
Zero-Click Search
Zero-click search is a query where the user gets their answer directly on the results page — featured snippet, knowledge panel, local pack, PAA box — and never clicks through to a website. It is tracked as the share of total searches that produce no click at all, and it caps how much search demand can ever show up as trackable site traffic.
Formula
Worked example
A cosmetics brand's non-branded cluster ('best anti-aging serum') gets 40,000 searches a month in the Netherlands. Search Console plus paid reporting show 12,000 total clicks (organic + paid) to any result. Zero-click searches = 40,000 − 12,000 = 28,000, a 70% zero-click rate (28,000 / 40,000). The planner books those 28,000 as upper-funnel exposure only and discounts the expected click contribution of SEO/SEM for that cluster in the model.
How it is used
Planners pull impressions and clicks per keyword cluster from Search Console and Ads auction data, compute zero-click rate, then use it to discount click-based attribution and shift credit toward impression-based channels for the same audience. The rate swings widely by query type — branded and informational terms with snippets run 60-80% zero-click, transactional terms much lower. The recurring error is applying one blended account-level rate to every campaign, which hides which query types still convert into visits.
The common mistake
Segment zero-click rate by query type (branded, informational, transactional) instead of one blended figure, since blending masks which terms still drive clickable traffic.