Ziff Davis reported on November 6, 2026 that organic Google referrals to its sites fell about 37% year over year in the third quarter, while links to its pages appeared roughly 2.7 billion times in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. For PR and marketing teams, the lesson is that being cited by Google and being clicked from Google are now separate results that need separate measurement.
Last updated: November 12, 2026
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What are the key takeaways from the Ziff Davis earnings call?
The Ziff Davis third quarter 2026 call produced five findings that matter to PR and marketing teams.
- Ziff Davis said organic Google referrals fell about 37% year over year, after about 23% a year earlier, a two-year decline of more than 50%.
- Ziff Davis said links to its pages were shown about 2.7 billion times in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- Revenue fell only 5.6% to $289.3 million, because subscriptions, apps and newsletters do not depend on Google traffic.
- The "nearly 10 times" comparison sets AI impressions against all Google Search clicks, so it is not an AI click-through rate.
- Chief executive Vivek Shah said the company is open to licensing deals and that marketers increasingly weigh AI visibility when choosing media partners.
What did Ziff Davis report about Google referrals and revenue?
Ziff Davis Chief Executive Officer Vivek Shah told investors on November 6, 2026 that organic Google referrals to the company's properties fell about 37% year over year in the third quarter. Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: ZD) owns CNET, IGN, Everyday Health, RetailMeNot, Lose It! and Humble Bundle, among other brands. Shah said the technology and shopping brands face the steepest search declines in the portfolio.
| Measure | Q3 2026 result |
|---|
| Organic Google referrals | Down about 37% year over year (about 23% a year earlier) |
| Links shown in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | About 2.7 billion |
| Total revenue | $289.3 million, down 5.6% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $82.2 million, versus $97.8 million a year earlier |
| Technology and shopping revenue | $82.0 million, down 3.8% |
All figures come from the company's call, as published in the Motley Fool call transcript.
The 2.7 billion figure counts how many times links to Ziff Davis pages were shown inside Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, not how many times anyone clicked them. Shah said the number comes from Google Search Console, which reports it as AI impressions.
Matt G. Southern of Search Engine Journal noted that Shah's comparison sets those impressions against all clicks from Google Search, including clicks on AI links and every other result type. Google documents no separate AI click count as of November 8, so the ratio compares exposure with visits and is not an AI click-through rate, as Search Engine Journal's analysis explains. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has set a December 3 deadline for Google to give UK publishers AI impressions, clicks and click-through rates, which would allow a true click-through rate to be calculated.
Even as a loose ratio, the number matters. A publisher whose links were shown billions of times inside Google's AI answers is losing visits while keeping presence, and that is a different problem from being ignored.
Why did Ziff Davis revenue fall 5.6% when Google referrals fell 37%?
Ziff Davis revenue fell 5.6% because much of its income does not depend on Google traffic, according to Shah, who pointed to the company's subscription, app and newsletter businesses.
On earlier calls Shah described a rough framework: about a third of revenue depends on web traffic, and search is about 40% of that traffic. He said on November 6 that the split has shifted since the connectivity business was sold and as referrals fell, so treat it as an illustration. One third times 40% puts about 13% of revenue behind search traffic, and a 37% fall on that slice would cost roughly five points of revenue if income tracked visits one for one. That is close to the reported 5.6%, though part of the decline came from other causes, such as weaker healthcare professional advertising at MedPage Today. The five-point estimate is the author's arithmetic, not a company figure.
Named examples show the offsets. Shah said RetailMeNot's relaunched app lifted app commissions 25% year over year in September, and the technology and shopping revenue decline narrowed from 18% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to just under 4% in the third quarter of 2026. IGN, the largest property by search referrals, has held up because its game help traffic is map-heavy and hard to replicate, and it earns more from vertical and social video, including 196 million video views at San Diego Comic-Con, up 65% year over year.
Does being cited in Google AI answers pay for a publisher?
Not yet, by Shah's own account. He described a gap between how heavily Ziff Davis content is used in AI answers and how much the company earns from that use. He said the company remains open to licensing deals and expects its litigation against OpenAI to bring clarity, and he did not announce a licensing deal on the call.
The nearer-term payoff he named is commercial: marketers are weighing a publisher's AI visibility when they decide where to place spending. That connects directly to PR. Onclusive's 2027 Trends Report surveyed 255 communications professionals, and, as Everything-PR reported in its PR ownership of AI visibility survey, 75% said PR should own AI visibility while only 22% expect it to. If an outlet's value to advertisers includes how often AI systems show its links, an earned placement there carries citation exposure as well as audience.
What should PR teams measure when clicks stop telling the story?
PR teams should track four measures next to clicks: AI impressions, citations in AI answers for a fixed set of prompts, AI assistant referral sessions and branded search demand.
- AI impressions from the Search Console generative AI report show how often links to a brand's pages appear inside Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
- Weekly citation counts for a fixed prompt list show which sources ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google cite when buyers ask about a category.
- Referral sessions from AI assistants in web analytics show how many of those citations turn into visits.
- Branded search volume shows whether exposure in AI answers raises demand for the brand by name.
The reason is mechanical. Retrieval systems pull from sources that are frequently referenced, consistent and authoritative, so placements at trusted publishers raise the odds that a brand appears in an answer, and a click count cannot show that when the reader never leaves the answer.
Everything-PR's research points the same way. Its buying guides citation study found that buying guides took 63% of citations to the most-cited earned-media pages in five industries, and its video game media citation share study found Ziff Davis and Fandom among the most cited gaming sources. Teams that want to automate weekly tracking can review AI visibility tools compared, and newcomers can start with generative engine optimization basics and the GEO reference guide.
What should a brand do this quarter after the Ziff Davis numbers?
A brand should add citation and impression reporting to its monthly PR report this quarter, then reorder its media targets by how often AI systems cite them.
- Open the Search Console generative AI report, if the property has access, and divide AI impressions by total Search clicks for the same period. Label the result an exposure ratio, not a click-through rate.
- Write a fixed list of prompts that buyers in your category actually ask, and record which sources the major AI assistants cite for each one every week.
- Rank the publishers cited most often and pitch those outlets first, ahead of outlets chosen for audience size alone.
- Report impressions, citations and AI assistant referral sessions beside traffic, so a falling click line is read next to a rising exposure line.
My view is that the outlets losing clicks will keep their influence over what AI systems say, and that PR budgets should follow influence rather than visits.
