Grew AI Search Visibility by 198% in 2026
About Client
PAX is a category defining cannabis technology brand known for its premium dry herb vaporizers, ERA oil pod devices, and high purity THC and live rosin gummies, sold direct to consumer and through licensed retailers across the US.
Background
PAX partnered with VELOX to defend and grow organic search demand in a category restricted from Google Ads, making Organic Search (SEO) the only path to capture intent at scale.
Entering 2026, the brand faced headwinds reshaping ecommerce: AI Overviews compressing clicks, privacy updates stripping referrers, and consent loss underreporting traffic. The challenge was protecting visibility as discovery shifted into AI answers and turning that shift into a measurable advantage.
Goals
Defend organic visibility as search shifts to AI surfaces.
Capture demand inside AI Overviews and AI assistants.
Grow revenue efficiency as measured traffic compresses.
Own page one rankings for restricted, unpaid head terms.
Establish AI search as a measurable new channel.
Challenges
Cannabis is structurally banned from Google Ads.
AI Overviews compressing organic click through 30 to 60%.
Referrer stripping reclassifying organic traffic as direct.
Consent loss underreporting 15 to 35% of sessions.
Google hides keyword volume for restricted categories.
No paid lever to backfill lost organic visibility.
Approach
VELOX built an integrated Organic Search and AI Citation Overview strategy designed for the restricted category. The team moved priority head terms onto page one, engineered top landing pages for citation inside AI Overviews and AI assistants, and audited AI citation coverage across the priority keyword set.
Performance was modeled with revenue per session and a combined Organic plus Direct view to see through referrer reclassification, alongside VELOX proprietary Revenue Contribution and auction-based frameworks built for categories where third party volume estimates do not hold. The result was a program that grew AI visibility while protecting the rankings that drive revenue.
Results
VELOX turned AI search from zero into a measurable channel for PAX. AI opportunity traffic grew 198% and AI Overview citations grew 132% across 2026, with PAX now appearing in roughly 7,071 brand mentions across AI engines. Nine of ten priority terms hold page one, five sit in the top three, and rosin gummies ranks number one, the prestige anchor for edibles.
Despite a 46% compression in measured sessions, total revenue held essentially flat as revenue per session rose 75%, and the engagement modeled a 717% return. PAX is now the default answer for its categories in both Organic Search results and AI answers.
198%
AI Search Visibility
132%
AI Search Citations
75%
Revenue Per Session
23%
Organic Average Order Value
Client Feedback
"I really like what the VELOX team brought to the table. Their strategic approach to content syndication and growth gave me confidence that we had the right partner to help scale the business."
Ed R., Marketing Manager
PAX
