🔍 Read the full analysis: Will Google’s AI Search Ads Change The Search Experience? on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Google announced on October 28 that ads in its chat-style AI Mode are expanding to 10 more countries, with ads also appearing in US follow-up answers. Alphabet said Search & other revenue grew 12% in the third quarter, while a working paper found AI Overviews reduced website clicks but measured no change in ad clicks. The study does not establish how the new AI Mode ads affect publishers or users.
Google is expanding ads in its chat-style AI Mode to 10 additional countries and allowing them in US follow-up answers, extending advertising deeper into conversational search. The announcement on October 28 comes as Alphabet reported that its Search & other revenue grew 12% to $63.4 billion in the third quarter, slower than in the previous quarter.
Google said ads in AI Mode are rolling out in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. It also said ads can appear when US users ask follow-up questions in AI Mode, rather than only in response to an initial query. Google plans to add Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its help page listed 12 countries for ads in AI answers as of October 29; it did not include Germany or other European Union countries.
Google describes two related products: AI Overviews, summaries shown within ordinary search results, and AI Mode, a separate conversational search experience. The company says ads in AI answers will be labeled “Sponsored” and will not influence the answer generated by its AI, even as ads enter AI Mode search results. Google’s October announcement says ads can appear in follow-up queries; it does not provide a separate opt-out for advertisers. According to Google Ads Help, existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns participate automatically, reporting is aggregated, and Google-generated ad explainers cannot be edited by advertisers.
Alphabet’s quarterly results put the expansion against a change in search revenue growth. Search & other revenue rose 12% year over year in July through September, compared with 17% in the previous quarter. On the earnings call, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said exchange rates were the largest factor in the slowdown, and also cited the lower monetization of fast-growing AI Mode searches. The figures do not show how much of the change came from AI Mode advertising specifically.
Infographic 01 · From test to global
The answer now carries the ad, in more places.
How Google moved ads into its AI answers in two years, where they show today, and the revenue pressure behind the move.
Where ads appear inside AI answers
Per Google’s help page and the 28 Oct post. The list “may not be exhaustive”.
Follow-up questions (“multiturn ads”): US only. Germany and the rest of the EU: not listed. Ads above or below AI Overviews can show wherever AI Overviews exist (200+ countries and territories).
Why now: Google Search & other revenue growth
Year over year, as reported by Alphabet. Bars scaled to 19%.
Q2 to Q3 2026: about +0.1%. Same months a year earlier: about +4.4% (my arithmetic). Google names exchange rates as the largest driver of the slowdown, and the “lower monetization” of AI Mode as one factor.
- 3 Oct 2024Ads inside AI Overviews go liveUS, mobile, after months of testing
- 21 May 2025Desktop in the US; first tests in AI ModeEnglish-speaking countries announced for later in 2025
- 20 May 2026New formats in testingConversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, both with a Gemini-written “AI explainer”
- 28 Oct 2026AI Mode ads in 10 more countriesPlus “multiturn ads” in follow-up questions in the US; labeled “Sponsored”
- Q4 2026Planned: Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom“Additional locales, including” these three
Sources: Google, 28 Oct 2026; Google Ads Help, accessed 29 Oct 2026; Google, 3 Oct 2024; Google, 21 May 2025; Google, 20 May 2026; Alphabet Q3 2026 release and the Q4 2025, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 releases. “3× longer” is Google’s AI Mode report (US, May 2026). Quarter-on-quarter changes and bar scaling: Thorsten Meyer.
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Ads Enter More Search Conversations
Moving ads into follow-up answers changes where commercial messages can appear: a user may encounter one while refining a question, not just while scanning a results page or asking an initial query. Google’s example for advertisers is a person asking how to treat a green pool and seeing a pool vacuum for sale alongside the answer. That illustrates the format Google is promoting, but it does not establish how often a particular user will see an ad or whether it will fit the question.
The expansion also matters to advertisers and publishers in different ways. Advertisers gain another placement inside a conversational experience, but Google’s stated campaign setup offers no separate targeting or opt-out for this format. Publishers, meanwhile, have reason to watch whether AI answers draw attention away from links to websites. A randomized experiment involving 1,065 US users, described in a 2026 working paper by Agarwal and Sen, found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to websites by 39.8% when they appeared, while ad clicks showed no measurable change. That result concerns AI Overviews, not the newly expanded AI Mode placements, and is not evidence of their eventual effect.
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From AI Overviews to Follow-Up Ads
Google has been adding advertising to AI search in stages. Ads in AI Overviews began appearing for mobile users in the United States in October 2024. In May 2025, Google brought them to desktop and began testing ads in AI Mode. At its May 2026 marketing event, the company also described tests of conversational ad text and ads highlighted within AI recommendations.
The October 28 announcement extends that rollout geographically and into more steps of a conversation. Google said AI Mode queries average three times the length of conventional searches and reported that click-through rates for sponsored and organic product listings in AI Mode were similar. That comparison came from Google’s internal US data for August 20 to September 3, 2026. It compares product listings within AI Mode; it does not measure clicks to publishers’ websites or independently verify how users respond to the new placements.
““The strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode.””
— Philipp Schindler, Alphabet chief business officer, on the company’s third-quarter earnings call
What Ad Effects Remain Unknown
Google says ads do not affect the AI’s answer, but the supplied material includes no independent audit of that claim. It also does not establish how often ads will appear in follow-up responses, how they will be selected in individual cases, or whether users will reliably distinguish paid placements from recommendations beyond the Sponsored label.
The available click study measured AI Overviews in an experiment, not the new ads in AI Mode. Its finding of fewer website clicks and no measurable change in ad clicks cannot be treated as a forecast for this rollout. Google has not supplied a comparable independent result for publishers, advertiser outcomes or user behavior in the countries newly added. The scale of the revenue effect from lower AI Mode monetization is also not specified.
Expansion and Evidence to Watch
Google’s next stated rollout milestone is the fourth quarter of 2026, when it plans to bring AI Mode ads to Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom. The company’s country list and help materials will show whether the rollout proceeds as planned and whether other markets are added. The available information as of October 29 did not list Germany or other EU countries for ads in AI answers.
For a clearer picture of the impact, readers will need results that separate AI Mode ad performance from other search advertising and measure traffic to websites as well as ad clicks. Alphabet’s coming quarterly reporting may provide further information about search revenue and AI Mode monetization, but the company has not announced a specific measure or date for reporting the effects of these placements. Until comparable evidence is available, Google’s product claims, its internal click-through comparison and the independent working paper should be treated as distinct kinds of evidence.
Key Questions
Where is Google expanding AI Mode ads?
Google announced ads in AI Mode for 10 additional countries: Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. It plans to add Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2026.
What is changing for US users?
Google says ads can now appear in answers to follow-up questions in AI Mode, rather than only in response to an initial query. It says ads will carry a “Sponsored” label.
Can advertisers opt out of these ads?
According to Google Ads Help, existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns participate automatically, with no separate opt-out for these placements. Google says results are reported in aggregate, and its AI-generated ad explainers cannot be edited by advertisers.
Does research show that AI search ads reduce website traffic?
Not for the new AI Mode placements. A 2026 working paper reported that AI Overviews reduced website clicks by 39.8% when they appeared in a randomized US-user experiment, while ad clicks showed no measurable change. That study examined AI Overviews, not the new AI Mode ads, so it does not establish their effect.
Are ads in AI answers available in Europe?
Google’s help page listed 12 countries for ads in AI answers as of October 29, 2026, and did not include Germany or other EU countries. The company said it planned to add the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter; it did not give a rollout date for EU markets.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
