Ziff Davis, the US publisher behind CNET, IGN, PCMag and RetailMeNot, says organic referrals from Google to its sites fell about 37% year on year in the third quarter.
Chief executive Vivek Shah gave the figure on the company's earnings call on 6 November and said the business was "not planning on a search recovery". He said Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode cited Ziff Davis content about 2.7 billion times in the quarter, nearly ten times the clicks those sites received from Google Search.
That matters to affiliate publishers because commerce content usually earns commission only when a reader clicks through to a retailer and buys.
Ziff Davis reported third-quarter revenue of $289.3m, down 5.6%, in results published on 5 November. Its Technology and Shopping division fell 3.8% to $82.0m and took a $29.6m goodwill impairment. Advertising and performance marketing revenue fell 7.7%, according to finance chief Bret Richter.
Shah said the company had been "very web dependent" for affiliate commerce and now sees social platforms as a growth channel. He said signed-in monthly users of the relaunched RetailMeNot app, rebuilt around cashback and verified codes, more than doubled, and app commissions in September were up 25% year on year.
The figures cover the whole company. Ziff Davis did not break out UK traffic or revenue, and it is not yet clear how much of the decline is down to AI features rather than other changes in search.
