Data confirms that Google’s AI Overviews is sending increasing amounts of traffic back to YouTube
New data confirms that AIO is becoming an increasingly significant source of traffic to YouTube channels. A closer look reveals that complex search queries, which traditional organic search may not adequately answer, create opportunities for optimized YouTube videos but only for certain topics.
BrightEdge Data On YouTube And AIO
BrightEdge’s data shows that YouTube’s presence in Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) is increasing faster month over month. There was a 21% increase since January 1st and a 36.66% month-over-month growth from January to February.
The data revealed the kind of video content that’s benefiting from AIO.
Topics and Keywords with an AIO that cite YouTube:
- Instructional Content (31.2%): With “how-to” queries leading at 22.4%
- Visual Demonstrations (28.5%): Physical techniques, style guides
- Verification/Examples (19.7%): Product comparisons, visual proof
- Current Events (8.2%): Breaking news, live coverage
Which Industries Benefit The Most From Videos In AIO?
The BrightEdge data shows that healthcare topics benefited the most, closely followed by eCommerce related topics. Education only accounted for less than 4% of citations.
Here are the full rankings by industry:
- Healthcare: 41.97%
- eCommerce: 30.87%
- B2B Tech: 18.68%
- Finance: 9.52%
- Travel: 8.65%
- Insurance: 8.62%
- Education: 3.87%
Google Is Actively Targeting Video Content
Many people feel more comfortable consuming video content, especially for topics where they’re learning something related to a hobby but also Your Money Or Your Life (YMYL) topics which related to health and finances.
The data shows that there’s a change happening in Google’s AIO to integrate videos as answers. Google’s AI is clearly becoming more multimodal.
These are the kinds of videos cited by the analysis as benefiting from the shift in emphasis to video in AIO:
- “Visual demonstrations
- Step-by-step tutorials
- Product comparisons
- Real-world examples”
A startling data point is that almost 70% of the YouTube citations are related to instructions or demonstrations.
- Instructional 35.6%
- Visual Demo 32.5%
Takeaways
BrightEdge suggests that prioritizing product demonstrations, step by step tutorials and focusing comparison content may be a useful strategy if Google’s emphasis on YouTube citations in AIO continues.
