Coverage nearly doubles
AI Overviews now sit above 88% of the commercial keywords in a Semrush sample, up from 46%. Coverage of the queries where a user is already sizing up a purchase has almost doubled.
The modifiers in the sample are reviews, pricing, comparisons and adjacent phrasings. Those are the queries that used to carry affiliate round-ups and rankings. Google's summary now sits above them. For affiliate marketers the read is blunt: part of the traffic leaves before the click.
What it means for the market
AI Overviews appear where a model has material to assemble. Commercial queries fit. Reviews, spec tables, prices, pros and cons are already on the page, and the model packs them into a paragraph. The more templated the query, the likelier the answer gets taken at the top. Narrower, less standard phrasings still hold.
Review queries are the easiest case: a summary of pros, cons and a score covers the need. Pricing queries get answered before an affiliate page loads, and the user goes straight to the seller. 'X or Y' comparisons come back as a table plus a recommendation.
Watch three things in your own reports: falling CTR on stable positions, the share of modifiers in your keyword core, and whether your page is cited inside the block. Citation buys brand effect, not a click. The Semrush sample is a market snapshot, not a verdict on your site, so build your own tracking on the same keywords and keep impressions in the block separate from clicks through.
