Social Rocket
Publishers are increasingly responding to declining organic search traffic with paid search. According to Similarweb data analysed by ADWEEK, the Top-100 Media Index analysed spent an estimated $113 million on paid search in July 2026 – 41 percent more than a year earlier and 274 percent more than three years ago.
The visits bought this way are also rising: Similarweb estimates 23,7 million paid search visits for July, 39 percent more than the previous year and 148 percent more than three years ago. An important caveat: the dollar amounts and traffic figures are Similarweb estimates, not budgets published by the publishers themselves.
Organic search traffic is falling in parallel
The expansion comes at a time when third-party data shows significantly fewer organic Google visits for several large publishers. Similarweb data in the ADWEEK analysis shows year-on-year declines of, among others, 26,7 percent at Forbes, 28,9 percent at CNN and 24,1 percent at USA Today.
This does not prove that paid search replaces these losses one-for-one. But the figures do show why traffic acquisition is being recalculated. In a separate, current zero-click analysis, Similarweb concludes that 68 percent of the Google searches it examined end without a click.
For brands and publishers, this raises the same question that comes up with ChatGPT recommendations and AI visibility: how much value is still generated by visibility if the user never visits the destination page?
It is not about buying arbitrary readers
Paid traffic is not a new business model for publishers. What is more interesting is the scale and the stronger focus on search queries where a visit can directly generate economic value – for example on commerce, product, affiliate or subscription pages.
According to the Similarweb analysis cited by ADWEEK, many purchased keywords cost roughly $1 to $3 per click, while particularly valuable search terms can reach up to $50. This can only work if downstream monetisation justifies the acquisition price.
For example, Similarweb estimates Forbes' paid search spending in July at $72,2 million and that of the New York Times at $11,3 million. Again, these are not confirmed company figures.
The relevant KPI is not the visit, but the contribution margin
For publishers, the decisive metric is therefore not whether paid search visually replaces lost organic visits. What matters is whether a bought visit generates more value than it costs – through affiliate commissions, subscriptions, sign-ups, advertising revenue or recurring use.
This is the same logic marketing teams should generally apply to reach metrics. Our guide to social media goals and the right KPIs shows why visits, views or reach quickly become misleading without a link to the business objective.
For analytics, there is another complication: a growing share of automated traffic can distort measurement. We cover how to tell useful AI agents apart from worthless bot traffic in our analysis of AI agents as a measurement problem.
What this means for German publishers and marketers
The US data set cannot be transferred one-to-one to the German market. However, it shows a structural reaction to zero-click search and weaker organic distribution: traffic is once again treated as a resource that can be bought.
For publishers, this makes most sense when individual pieces of content or products have a clearly measurable value per visit. If, on the other hand, you buy traffic across the board to mask declining reach figures, you are merely shifting the problem into media buying.
For advertisers, the trend can at the same time increase competition in commercially valuable search auctions. That makes clean incrementality tests, margin calculations and the separation between traffic that merely improves one metric and traffic that actually generates revenue or customer value all the more important.