Google's answers went AI. The ads went with them.

Short version: existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible for ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode, in English in the US. Broad match, AI Max, Shopping and Performance Max can match the question and the AI's answer; exact and phrase match only show on directly commercial searches. The ads are labeled "Sponsored", cost the same per click, and are reported together with your other Search results.

How ads get into AI Overviews

Google: "Existing Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible to serve ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode." There's no new campaign and no separate budget (About ads in AI-powered experiences). How your keywords are set up decides how often you appear:

• Broad match, AI Max, Shopping and Performance Max are eligible for "contextual matching", meaning Google can match your ad to the question and to the AI's answer.
• Exact and phrase match only qualify when the search itself shows direct buying intent, the way a normal search would.
• Negative keywords still apply. Google says existing guardrails, "such as negative keywords, asset pinning", carry over. That makes the weekly search-term review more important, not less.

What you can't control

• No targeting and no opt-out. "Can I target only AI Overviews or AI Mode, or opt out of them? No."
• No separate report. Results are "included in aggregate in your standard Google Ads campaign reports." You won't see a line that says "AI Overview clicks".
• Google writes some of the words. Google may show "AI explainers" next to your ad, and "advertisers can't manually write, edit, approve, or opt out of them."
• Same price. Same auction, same cost per click, "you aren't charged extra to participate."

Ads are always labeled "Sponsored", and Google says buying ads doesn't change the AI's organic answer.

Since when

Ads in AI Overviews reached US mobile in October 2024 and US desktop in May 2025, when Google also started testing ads in AI Mode. On October 28, 2026 Google launched ads in AI Mode follow-up questions in the US and expanded AI Mode ads to ten more countries (Google). Ads above or below AI Overviews run everywhere AI Overviews do.

AI Max: Google's AI inside your Search campaign

AI Max for Search isn't a new campaign type; it's a layer inside Search campaigns that adds search term matching beyond your keywords, AI-written variations of your headlines and descriptions, and final URL expansion that can send people to other pages on your site (About AI Max). Two facts matter for a small local account:

• It's on by default. "New Search campaigns have the AI Max feature turned on by default" (Set up AI Max).
• It needs Smart Bidding. Search term matching "will not work with manual CPC bidding."

Google's controls include brand inclusions and exclusions, locations of interest, URL exclusions and text guidelines that block words you never want in an ad. Our rule: AI Max stays off in accounts spending under about $8,000 a month, where there usually aren't enough booked jobs for it to learn the difference between a customer and a tire-kicker. Above that, we turn it on with URL exclusions and text guidelines set first, and the weekly review reads every new search it brings in.

What a local business should do

1. Tell Google what a customer is. AI matching chases conversions. If a page view counts as a conversion, it will chase page views. Report booked jobs instead, as our lead tracking does.
2. Read your search terms every week. Broader matching means more searches you never chose, and negatives are still the main control.
3. Check what AI Max is doing to your ads, if it's on: which pages it sends people to and what it wrote.

Related

See how three AIs review an account every week, read about Google Maps ads and Local Services Ads pricing and credits, check what clicks cost in your trade, or get a free audit of your match types, conversions and AI Max settings.