Ads in AI Overviews… the new future?

Yes, Google Ads can now show up in AI overviews within the Gemini function of Google Search, which is pretty exciting.

Before we get into talking about ads in AI overviews and how they work, let’s have a quick recap.

What is an AI overview on Google?

AI overview is a feature that appears at the top of Google Search results that’s powered by Google’s Gemini generative AI engine to provide a quick snippet, summary or overview of the subject you’re searching for or the question you’re asking.

An AI overview effectively collates information from across the internet to give you the answer you’re looking for, without the need to click through to different websites. It then provides links to the websites that it sourced its information from, so you can go deeper if you need to know more.

AI overviews are a very handy time-saving feature when looking for a quick answer. We should add a disclaimer that you shouldn’t take everything you read through AI as gospel, and should do your own deeper research, as people have often called AI overviews “confidently wrong”.

What are Google Ads in AI overviews?

Ads can now show either above or below an AI overview on Google and will display as either search or shopping ads from search or Performance Max campaigns.

Ads on AI overviews will show for queries where there is not a single definitive answer and where there is commercial intent and would likely lead to a purchase.

For example, a user might run a search for “What is the best baseball glove?” and will see an AI overview that breaks down information a user might need to know, like the top brands of baseball glove, as well as a list of top gloves per position, and some general information.

It’ll then provide its sources, which could be links to online articles about baseball gloves, Reddit threads and YouTube reviews.

And then Ads may show at the bottom of AI overviews. The example we found shows a header that says “Here are some baseball gloves to consider:” with links to baseball gloves from several online retailers, with the clearly marked “sponsored” subheader.

Why are ads showing in AI overviews? What’s the benefit?

Google has introduced ads to AI overviews as search habits are changing and are becoming more conversational, rather than statement-based.

Historically, question or information-based searches were hard to get purchases from because users weren’t quite ready to buy, but that is changing in a big way as users want to shorten the journey between doing research and making a purchase.

Trends also suggest that users are more likely to immediately buy from an informational query when the ads for products are coupled with relevant information. It makes advertising look more seamless, and therefore, users are likely to trust the ads more.

Another key benefit of ads on Google AI overviews for advertisers is that it doesn’t take any extra work. Google isn’t creating any new campaign types as things stand, so if you’re already running Search, Shopping or PMax campaigns on Google, you’ll automatically be eligible when your product or service closely matches a user’s query.