If you happened to listen to Alphabet’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, you may have heard that search is up but ad revenue is down. According to Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, search revenue growth slowed in the third quarter of 2026 as user queries migrate to AI Overviews and AI Mode, which suffer from “lower monetization.”
You actually know how this works. When you type a question into Google, a summarized AI answer often appears immediately, reducing the classic ad-click behavior further down the page, which generates Google’s core revenue.
Now the tech giant is expanding how and where we see ads when using AI mode during search. Google is scaling ads in AI mode to 10 new countries (including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya and Singapore), with plans to launch in Brazil, Mexico and the UK later this year.
In the US, Google is launching what it calls “multiturn ads”, which will allow ads to appear directly in follow-up queries in AI mode when a search or conversation has “commercial relevance”. Take, for example, if you do a search with “How does a smart fridge work”, and follow up with “What are the best selling smart fridges?” You can then see the fridge ads in the sections labeled “sponsored”.
Google has said that “multiturn ads” can better target what a user wants in a product because the AI mode gathers more information during a back-and-forth conversation. Ads can also appear on initial AI mode queries, not just after follow-up questions, and sometimes ads don’t appear at all if there doesn’t appear to be purchase intent, according to Google.
But as Google relies more on AI Mode and AI Overview, there’s less reason to click on content links “below the fold,” meaning content that sits out of sight until a reader scrolls down a web page.
Lily Ray, a well-known SEO expert and founder of Algorythmic, told CNET that it’s getting harder to use Google to find articles from preferred publishers and articles you want to read directly from a website. “You have to dig deeper and look outside of Google products,” Ray said via email.
According to Ray, Google’s AI tools aren’t designed to give you the exact link you’re looking for. Still, you don’t have to rely on AI mode or AI overview to get search results. You can also scroll through the search results the old-fashioned way or use a web filter to use Google as a list of links. She also recommends setting up your favorite publications as “preferred sources” (instructions here) so you’ll see more of those pages cited in your personalized results.
“Unless you’re happy with AI answers directly on Google, you have to start developing your own search behavior to find the websites you’re looking for,” Ray said.
AI, advertising and traffic
Google is still the largest search engine in the world, accounting for almost 90% of the global search engine market. In fact, the company said its year-over-year query volume growth in the third quarter was the fastest in the past five years.
But starting with the launch of AI overviews in May 2024, Google’s reliance on AI has slowed advertising.
The impact was even more devastating for online publishers – ranging from major newspapers and digital media sites to brands and trade associations – leading to an unprecedented decline in website traffic. AI overviews now appear on almost half of Google search queries, with a corresponding 61% drop in raw traffic volume to other pages. Google effectively scrapes publication information, summarizes it and satisfies the user before they leave the search results page. This is why it is often referred to as a “zero-click” crisis.
“AI Mode and AI Overview answer questions right in the Google interface, so there’s less reason for people to click on publishers,” Ray said.
AI Overviews are summary boxes at the top of a traditional search results page, while AI Mode is a conversational interface designed for ongoing dialogue and research. You can access AI mode directly by selecting the AI mode button at the far right of the search bar on the Google home page, or by selecting AI mode in the horizontal menu near the top of other Google pages.
When you use AI mode, you don’t get an AI overview or a long list of links to other websites that provide more information. Instead, AI Mode offers “more advanced reasoning and ways to interact” with a conversational approach. For example, if I use AI mode and ask: “Where can I see the northern lights?” I get a map and a list of different places with pros and cons for each. In normal search mode, I get an AI overview at the top and, below that, pages of links to websites related to my query.
Ray said that with more ads, there will be an even bigger drop in organic click rates – in publishing speak, that’s the percentage of people who actually click on a natural, unpaid search engine result, out of the total number of people who simply saw the headline on the page. Not only will the AI text answer your question, but Google will now aggressively direct you towards advertisers instead of publishing links.
“Like many things in Google search, it means that if you don’t participate in Google Ads, it’s going to be harder and harder to get that traffic organically,” Ray said.
See full bio