Google Ads Are Now Appearing in AI Overviews: What Advertisers Need to Know
Can Google Ads Appear in AI Overviews?
Yes. Google Ads can appear in AI Overviews.
Google has integrated advertising into its AI-powered Search experiences. Existing ads from Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can be eligible to appear within AI Overviews, as well as above or below them.
For ads appearing within an AI Overview, Google considers both the user's original search and the content generated within the AI Overview when determining whether an ad is relevant.
Advertisers don't need to create a separate "AI Overview campaign". Eligible ads from existing campaigns can automatically participate.
How Do Google Ads Work Within AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are often triggered by longer, more complex and conversational searches than traditional Google searches.
When determining whether an ad is appropriate within an AI Overview, Google's advertising systems can consider both the user's query and the context of the AI-generated response.
This can create advertising opportunities even when a search doesn't resemble a conventional commercial keyword. Google may identify commercial intent within the broader context of the user's search journey and serve an appropriate ad.
Ads continue to participate through Google's existing advertising auction and are clearly distinguished from organic Search results.
Which Google Ads Campaigns Can Appear in AI Overviews?
Search Campaigns
Existing Search campaigns can provide text ads that are eligible to appear in AI Overviews.
However, Google specifically notes that AI Overviews frequently appear for complex, answer-seeking searches that advertisers may not cover with traditional keyword lists.
AI-powered targeting such as broad match and AI Max for Search can therefore help advertisers become eligible for relevant searches beyond their existing exact and phrase-match keywords.
Performance Max
Performance Max campaigns can also provide eligible Search and Shopping ads for AI Overviews.
Performance Max uses Google's AI across targeting, bidding and creative, drawing on information including an advertiser's assets, website and, for retailers, Merchant Center product data.
This gives Performance Max the ability to identify relevant opportunities beyond a traditional keyword-based Search campaign.
Shopping
Shopping ads can appear within AI Overviews when relevant.
For ecommerce advertisers, this makes the quality of the Merchant Center product feed particularly important. Accurate product titles, descriptions, imagery, pricing, availability and other product attributes help Google understand what an advertiser sells and match products with relevant searches.
Google has also introduced AI Max for Shopping, currently in beta, which is specifically designed to help Shopping advertisers reach customers making more complex and conversational searches, including on AI-driven Search surfaces.
AI Max for Search
AI Max is a suite of AI-powered targeting and creative features available within Search campaigns.
It expands beyond conventional keyword matching by using broad match and keywordless technology alongside an advertiser's keywords, ads and landing-page information to identify additional relevant searches.
AI Max also includes features designed to improve creative and landing-page relevance, including text customisation and final URL expansion, while providing controls around areas such as brands and locations.
AIR DIGITAL's Recommendations for AI-Powered Search
1. Consider Broader Targeting
AI-powered Search is encouraging people to search in increasingly detailed and conversational ways. These searches may not always align neatly with traditional short-tail keywords.
For this reason, we recommend considering whether an account has at least one appropriate campaign capable of capturing relevant intent beyond a tightly controlled keyword list.
Depending on the business, this could include Performance Max, broad-match Search or AI Max for Search.
This doesn't mean abandoning exact or phrase match. These remain useful tools for targeting, control and performance management. Instead, broader targeting can be tested alongside them to identify incremental opportunities.
Google itself recommends AI-powered targeting such as broad match or keywordless targeting for capturing the varied searches associated with AI Overviews.
2. Test AI Max Strategically
AIR DIGITAL does not currently recommend automatically enabling AI Max across every Search campaign in an account.
Instead, where appropriate, we recommend initially testing AI Max within a selected campaign and assessing the results before expanding its use.
We look at factors including:
additional search coverage and search-term quality;
conversion volume and quality;
CPA or ROAS;
landing pages selected by Google; and
whether the incremental traffic is genuinely valuable to the business.
This gives advertisers an opportunity to understand how AI Max behaves within their individual account rather than assuming that increased automation will automatically produce better results.
Google provides increasingly detailed AI Max reporting, including search-term, asset and landing-page reporting, as well as controls around brands and locations.
3. Use Brand Controls
As targeting becomes broader, maintaining appropriate brand controls becomes increasingly important.
AI Max provides brand controls that can help advertisers influence which branded searches their campaigns target or avoid.
These can be particularly useful when testing broader targeting because they allow advertisers to benefit from expanded reach without unnecessarily giving up control over where their advertising budget is being spent.
4. Invest in Website and Landing Page Content
Your website is becoming an increasingly important input into both paid and organic AI-powered Search.
Google Ads products such as AI Max and Performance Max can use landing-page and website information to understand what a business offers and identify relevant advertising opportunities.
At the same time, Google has reinforced the importance of useful website content for appearing organically within its generative AI Search experiences.
Google's 2026 guidance specifically recommends creating valuable, unique and non-commodity content rather than simply reproducing information already widely available online. Google also says its established SEO best practices remain relevant to visibility within generative AI Search.
Businesses should therefore ensure their websites:
clearly explain their products and services;
answer genuine questions potential customers have;
use descriptive, useful headings;
provide original information and first-hand expertise;
contain strong imagery and video where appropriate;
avoid large quantities of generic or low-value AI-generated content; and
remain accurate and up to date.
Google doesn't prohibit AI-assisted content. The important distinction is whether the resulting content provides genuine value. Mass-producing pages with little originality or value may breach Google's spam policies.
5. Keep Creative Assets Strong
Greater automation doesn't reduce the importance of creative. It makes the quality of the inputs advertisers provide even more important.
High-quality images, video, ad copy, product information and landing-page content give Google's systems stronger material to work with when matching advertising to different customer needs and search contexts.
Google itself recommends investing in high-quality creative as part of its guidance for advertising in AI Overviews.
Can You See How Many Google Ads Appear in AI Overviews?
Not currently through a dedicated AI Overview advertising report.
Google Ads provides increasingly detailed reporting for AI-powered campaigns such as AI Max, but advertisers cannot currently open Google Ads and view a standalone AI Overview advertising report showing metrics such as:
AI Overview impressions;
AI Overview clicks;
AI Overview advertising spend;
AI Overview conversions; or
AI Overview ROAS.
This means advertisers should be cautious about attributing changes in overall Google Ads performance specifically to AI Overviews when the platform doesn't provide that segmentation.
Reporting is developing quickly, and AIR DIGITAL will update this information as Google introduces additional reporting capabilities.
Importantly, this is different from organic reporting. In 2026, Google introduced dedicated generative-AI visibility reporting in Search Console for organic visibility in features including AI Overviews and AI Mode. That does not provide the equivalent paid-ad breakdown inside Google Ads.
Do AI Overviews Mean Businesses Should Stop Google Ads?
No.
AI Overviews aren't replacing Google's advertising business. Google is actively incorporating advertising into its AI-powered Search experiences.
Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can already provide ads within AI Overviews when eligible and relevant. Google is also continuing to develop products such as AI Max specifically around increasingly complex and conversational search behaviour.
At AIR DIGITAL, we've already had clients ask whether the growth of AI Overviews means they should reduce or stop Google Ads.
Our view is the opposite: businesses should understand how Google Ads is evolving alongside Search and carefully test the opportunities these changes create.
That doesn't mean blindly adopting every new automated feature Google releases. It means maintaining strong campaign fundamentals, monitoring performance and testing newer AI-powered capabilities where they make commercial sense.
Google Ads and AI Overviews: The Takeaway
Google Ads aren't disappearing because of AI. They're evolving alongside it.
Ads can already appear within AI Overviews, and Google is increasingly using AI to understand complex search intent and connect users with relevant advertisers.
For businesses, the fundamentals remain important: strong campaign structures, accurate conversion tracking, useful website and landing-page content, quality creative and reliable product data.
The opportunity is to combine those fundamentals with controlled testing of broader and AI-powered targeting, rather than treating AI as either something to ignore or something that requires abandoning proven Google Ads strategies.
FAQ Section
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Yes. Eligible Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can appear within Google's AI-powered Search experiences when relevant.
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Yes. Google has confirmed Performance Max campaigns are eligible for advertising opportunities within AI-powered Search experiences.
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Yes. Shopping ads can appear when products are relevant to the user's search and AI-powered experience.
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AI Max expands the searches Search campaigns can match against and is designed for Google's increasingly AI-powered Search environment. It should be considered part of a broader AI Search strategy rather than a guaranteed way to trigger an AI Overview placement.
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Currently, Google Ads does not provide advertisers with a dedicated AI Overview reporting breakdown showing impressions, clicks, spend and conversions specifically from that placement.
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AIR DIGITAL recommends testing AI Max selectively first rather than automatically enabling it across an entire account, allowing performance and search quality to be assessed before expanding the strategy.
AI Overview / Organic Search Considerations
Please do not attempt any gimmicky “AI Overview optimisation.”
Google's current guidance says the fundamentals that make a site successful in Search continue to apply to its generative AI features. (Google for Developers)
Instead, optimise this page around:
Clear answers + original expertise + factual accuracy + strong technical SEO + useful structure.
In particular:
Answer major questions immediately beneath their headings.
Include AIR DIGITAL's own recommendations and experience rather than rewriting Google's documentation.
Use concrete examples where useful.
Make statements specific enough that sections can make sense independently.
Avoid unnecessary introductory filler.
Keep claims current and verifiable.
Update the article as Google Ads reporting and AI Search capabilities evolve.
Do not mass-generate additional thin AI articles around variations of the same keyword.
Do not add schema that doesn't accurately represent visible page content.
The goal is to create the genuinely useful Australian Google Ads resource on this topic, rather than trying to reverse-engineer AI Overviews.
