Google AI Mode Ads: What’s Available, Where, and How to Prepare

 

Can You Advertise in Google AI Mode?

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, you can only advertise in Google AI Mode in the US, and only as a test. Google is running ads below and within AI Mode responses there, and as of August 2026, it hasn’t published a launch date for any other country.

There’s also no AI Mode campaign to set up. Eligible Performance Max, Shopping, and broad match or AI Max Search campaigns can serve in AI Mode automatically. Outside the US, ads already run inside AI Overviews (the AI summaries at the top of normal Google results) in 11 other markets, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

AI Mode passed one billion monthly users this year, according to Google, and advertising is following that audience. When SE Ranking checked 50,032 commercial keywords in US AI Mode on 30 June 2026, 29.45% returned a text ad. 

For businesses outside the US, the picture is a little patchier. Some placements are live in a dozen countries, some are limited to US tests, and several formats announced in May are still experiments. Knowing which is which tells you whether there’s anything to act on in your account now, and what might just be worth preparing for.

What’s the Difference Between AI Mode, AI Overviews and AI Max?

These three names get mixed up constantly, but each one means something different for your account.

• AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries at the top of a normal Google results page. According to Google, they reach more than 2.5 billion people each month. Being cited as a source inside an AI Overview comes down to organic strategy. Ads are a separate layer: they can appear above or below an AI Overview, and in some countries inside it (more on that below).
• AI Mode, on the other hand, is a separate conversational search tab. People ask long questions, follow up, and refine what they need without starting a new search.
• Finally, AI Max is a set of features you switch on inside a Search campaign. It widens the searches your ads can match, writes ad copy from your website and existing ads, and can even send people to a different landing page. According to Google, it’s an optimisation layer rather than a new campaign type. Google also names it, alongside Performance Max, as the foundation for its newer AI Mode ad formats.

Where Google AI Ads Are Available Right Now

First, one term worth explaining. A placement is simply where your ad shows up on the page: above an AI Overview, inside it, below it, or within an AI Mode conversation. 

Google is rolling out each placement on its own timeline, so your ads might be able to appear above an AI Overview in your country but not inside one.

What you can run depends on the placement and on your country. The breakdown below reflects Google’s documentation and announcements as of October 2026.

Live now

• Ads above and below AI Overviews: all 200+ markets where AI Overviews run
• Ads inside AI Overviews: Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore and the US (English only)

Testing in the US only

• Text and Shopping ads in AI Mode
• Exact and phrase match text ads in AI Mode (a small experiment)
• Conversational Discovery ads
• Highlighted Answers
• Direct Offers (a pilot for US advertisers)

Announced, coming to the US first

• AI-powered Shopping ads (rolling out later in 2026)
• Business Agent for Leads (in beta)

Some industries sit outside these placements. Google currently doesn’t show ads inside AI Overviews for sensitive categories, including alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare and politics. 

Ads for those businesses can still appear above or below an AI Overview, but not within the overview itself. SE Ranking’s US data shows similar caution in AI Mode, where healthcare keywords returned an ad 2.64% of the time, compared with 72.38% for pets.

Availability changes often, so check Google’s help page on ads in AI Overviews for your market before planning around a placement.

Which Campaigns Are Eligible for AI Mode Ads

Google pulls AI Mode ads from campaigns you already run, so there’s no separate campaign type or placement setting. When it first announced AI Mode ads in May 2025, it named Performance Max, Shopping, and Search campaigns using broad match, including AI Max. In May 2026, it pointed advertisers to AI Max for Search, AI Max for Shopping, and Performance Max as the foundation for its newer formats.

In September, Google’s Ads Liaison confirmed a small experiment letting exact and phrase match keywords serve text ads in AI Mode when a search shows explicit, direct intent. That gives tightly controlled Search campaigns a limited way in. The newer formats, such as Highlighted Answers, still come through AI Max and Performance Max.

What You Control

• Which campaign types you run, and whether AI Max is switched on
• The ads, assets, landing pages and product feed Google draws from
• Brand inclusions and exclusions, URL inclusions and exclusions, and locations of interest
• Budgets, bidding and the conversion goals each campaign works toward

What Google Decides

• Whether a search shows an ad at all, and where on the page it sits
• Which landing page and which generated headlines appear, when text customisation and Final URL expansion are on
• The AI-written explainer shown beside your ad in the newer formats

Google’s documentation says you can’t target or opt out of ads inside AI Overviews. AI Mode has no exclusion setting either, so any eligible campaign may serve there.

The New AI Mode Ad Formats

Google announced four new ad formats at Google Marketing Live (its yearly event for advertisers) on 20 May 2026: Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers, AI-powered Shopping ads and Business Agent for Leads. It also expanded Direct Offers (a pilot that places promotions inside AI Mode conversations). Each one is explained below, grouped by the type of business it suits, because what matters to you depends on how you sell.

For Ecommerce Businesses

AI-powered Shopping ads are coming to standard Search, and they’re one of the more useful changes for retailers. When someone searches for something like an espresso machine, Gemini (Google’s AI model) pulls up your most relevant products and writes a short explainer on why each might suit them. That explainer comes from your product data, so thin titles and missing attributes will lead to a thin ad.

Direct Offers let retailers load promotions such as discounts, giveaways, and local coupons, with limits on which products qualify. Google then decides when to surface a deal inside an AI Mode conversation, and can assemble a bundle itself. For now, it’s a pilot for US advertisers.

Before it reaches you, settle which products can carry a discount without hurting your margin. 

For Lead Generation and Service Businesses

Conversational Discovery ads respond to the specific question someone asks. Gemini builds the creative (the headline, description, and other text people actually see in the ad) around that question. Google’s own example is someone asking for low-maintenance ways to make their home smell like a day spa. The ad would lead with the features of your product that answer that request, in place of your standard headline.

Highlighted Answers place your ad inside the list of recommendations AI Mode gives, such as the best options for a particular need. Both of these formats show an independent AI explainer next to your creative and carry a “Sponsored” label.

Business Agent for Leads is the one to watch for service businesses. It swaps a static enquiry form for a chat agent inside the ad. A prospect clicks “Chat”, gets answers drawn from your website, and that conversation becomes the lead.

All three rely on how clearly your website explains who you help and what you specialise in.

Google is testing a lot at once, and not every format will last. The ones that do will favour businesses whose product data and website content were already in good shape when they launched.

How Your Website Shapes Your AI Ads

With AI Max on, your website now supplies a lot of what your ad says. Picture someone asking AI Mode for an electrician who can rewire an older home within a fortnight. If your service page only mentions “residential electrical work”, Google has very little to connect to that request. If it covers older homes, typical project lengths and a starting price, Google has the detail it needs to match you to the question and build a relevant ad.

This is where paid search and SEO meet, and why you should plan the two together. The detail that helps someone compare providers is the same detail AI systems use when deciding what to say about you, whether that’s in an ad or an organic answer.

Measuring AI Mode Ad Performance

The short version: Google won’t tell you how your ads performed in AI Mode or AI Overviews specifically. Those results are mixed in with the rest of your campaign data. (Ads shown inside AI Overviews are counted as “Top Ads”, the same label used for ads at the top of a normal results page.)

That makes it harder to see what’s working. Switching on AI Max changes several parts of a campaign at the same time, so a jump in enquiries the following month could come from any of them. Google’s reports will show you the new searches, pages and headlines it used. They won’t tell you which change made the difference, or whether any of it happened inside AI Mode.

Google Search Console now shows how often your website appears in AI answers. But, that covers your organic (unpaid) visibility only, so it won’t tell you anything about your ads.

The most reliable way to judge results is to look at what happens in your business: how many enquiries are genuine, how many turn into sales, and how many come from new customers. Tracking that in your CRM over time gives a clearer answer. 

We explain why click-based reporting struggles in AI search in AI Search Breaks Last-Touch Attribution.

Why We Care

The accounts that do well as AI Mode ads reach more markets will be the ones with clean conversion data, specific landing pages, and controls set on purpose. 

In fact, that same work already pays off in ordinary Search and in AI Overviews, so there’s no reason to wait for a launch date.

Ads in AI answers are now a regular part of US results, and they’re arriving elsewhere in stages. Advertisers can’t yet isolate their performance or opt out once eligible, and they share more of the creative with Google than before. That makes it worth tightening what Google learns from, starting with your conversion data and your website.

Paid placement and organic citation also remain separate results. A business that wants to appear in AI answers needs a well-prepared ad account and content that earns a place in the answer itself, which is why we often plan PPC and SEO together for our clients.