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Google is expanding how and where users encounter advertisements while using its AI features for searches, responding to a shift in user behavior that has slowed ad revenue growth. Alphabet executives revealed during the quarterly earnings call on Wednesday that search ad revenue growth slowed in the third quarter of 2026 because user queries are migrating to AI Overviews and AI Mode, which suffer from lower monetization.
Expanding Ads to New Markets and Conversations
Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler explained that when users type questions into the search engine, summarized AI responses appear immediately. This reduces classic ad-clicking behavior further down the page, which generates Google’s core revenue. To counteract this, the tech giant is scaling ads in AI Mode to 10 new countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, and Singapore, with launches planned for Brazil, Mexico, and the UK later this year.
In the US, Google is launching “multiturn ads,” which allow advertisements to appear directly within follow-up queries in AI Mode when a search or conversation has commercial relevance. For example, if a user searches for how a smart fridge works and follows up by asking for best-selling models, refrigerator ads may appear in sections labeled “sponsored.” Google stated that multiturn ads can better target product preferences because AI Mode gathers more information during back-and-forth conversations. Ads can also appear on initial AI Mode queries, though they may not show up at all if there is no purchase intent.
Impact on Web Publishers and Search Habits
As Google relies more heavily on AI Mode and AI Overviews, users have less reason to click on content links located below the fold. Lily Ray, a well-known SEO expert and founder of Algorythmic, told CNET that finding articles from preferred publishers and reading them directly from a website will become increasingly difficult through Google. Ray noted that users will have to dig deeper and look outside of Google’s products, as the company’s AI tools are not designed to provide exact source links.
Ray recommends evolving search habits by scrolling down to traditional search results, using web filters, or setting favorite publications as preferred sources to see more cited pages in personalized results. She cautioned that unless users are satisfied with direct AI answers, they will need to adapt their behavior to find specific websites.
The Zero-Click Crisis and AI Traffic Decline
Google remains the largest search engine globally, accounting for nearly 90 percent of the market, with year-over-year query volume growth in the third quarter marking the fastest pace over the past five years. However, the introduction of AI Overviews in May 2024 and the increased reliance on AI have slowed advertising growth.
The impact on online publishers, ranging from major newspapers to trade associations, has involved an unprecedented decline in website traffic. AI Overviews currently appear on nearly half of Google search queries, resulting in a 61 percent drop in raw traffic volume to other pages. Because Google scrapes publisher information and summarizes it to satisfy users before they leave the search results page, the phenomenon has been dubbed the zero-click crisis.
Ray explained that AI Mode and AI Overviews answer questions directly in the Google interface, leaving less reason for users to click through to publishers. AI Overviews function as summary boxes at the top of traditional search results pages, whereas AI Mode offers a conversational interface for ongoing dialogue and research accessed via the search bar. Ray added that the increase in ads will drive an even greater decline in organic click-through rates, aggressively routing users toward advertisers rather than publisher links.
“Like many things in Google Search, it means that if you’re not participating in Google Ads, it’s going to be harder and harder to get that traffic organically,” Ray said.
