Google is intensifying its advertising presence within its artificial intelligence tools after reporting that search ad revenue growth slowed in the third quarter of 2026. Philipp Schindler, Google's Chief Business Officer, attributed this deceleration to user queries migrating toward AI Overviews and AI Mode, which currently suffer from lower monetization rates compared to traditional search results. As users increasingly receive summarized answers directly on the search page, the classic behavior of clicking through to external websites has diminished.
To address this, Google is scaling ads in AI Mode to ten new countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, and Singapore, with plans to launch in Brazil, Mexico, and the UK later in the year. In the United States, the company is introducing "multiturn ads," which allow sponsored content to appear directly within follow-up queries when a conversation demonstrates commercial relevance. For instance, if a user asks how a smart fridge works and then follows up by asking for best-selling models, refrigerator ads labeled as "sponsored" may appear in the response. Google notes that these ads can also surface on initial queries or be withheld entirely if no purchase intent is detected.
This expansion of advertising within AI interfaces is expected to further impact online publishers, ranging from major newspapers to digital media sites and trade associations. Since the launch of AI Overviews in May 2024, raw traffic volume to external pages has dropped by 61% as these summary boxes now appear on nearly half of all Google search queries. Lily Ray, an SEO expert and founder of Algorythmic, warns that finding articles from preferred publishers directly through Google will become increasingly difficult. She explains that AI tools are designed to answer questions within the interface rather than directing users to specific links, effectively creating a "zero-click" crisis where information is scraped and summarized before users leave the search results page.
Ray advises users who wish to access original content to evolve their search behaviors, such as scrolling past AI summaries to view traditional search results or using web filters. She also recommends setting favorite publications as "preferred sources" to ensure they are cited more frequently in personalized results. With Google accounting for nearly 90% of the global search engine market and reporting its fastest query volume growth in five years, the shift toward monetizing AI conversations means that organic click-through rates will likely decline further. According to Ray, unless publishers participate in Google Ads, securing organic traffic will become progressively harder as the platform aggressively routes users toward advertisers.
Sources: CNET.