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TL;DR
Google said Oct. 28 that ads in AI Mode are expanding to 10 more countries and that ads will appear in US follow-up questions. The move comes as Google Search advertising revenue growth slowed to 12% in the third quarter; the effects on publisher traffic and ad performance remain uncertain.
Google is expanding ads in AI Mode to 10 more countries and adding them to US follow-up questions, bringing advertising further into its chat-style search experience. The Oct. 28 announcement comes as Alphabet reported that Google’s Search & other revenue grew 12% in the third quarter, down from 17% in the previous quarter.
The new markets are Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. Google said it plans to add Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2026. In the United States, the change means ads can appear not just in response to an initial AI Mode query, but also in answers to follow-up questions.
Google describes AI Mode as a conversational search experience and AI Overviews as summaries shown within standard search results. The company says ads in AI answers will carry a “Sponsored” label and that advertising does not affect the AI-generated answer. That separation is Google’s stated policy; the source report says it found no independent audit confirming how the system applies it.
According to Google Ads Help, advertisers’ existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can take part automatically. The source report says advertisers have no separate opt-out or targeting control for these placements, receive aggregate reporting, and cannot edit the short AI-written explanations shown beside ads. Google has said click-through rates for sponsored and organic product listings in AI Mode were similar, based on its internal US data from Aug. 20 to Sept. 3, 2026. That comparison concerns listings within AI Mode, not clicks through to publisher websites.
Infographic 01 · From test to global
The answer now carries the ad, in more places.
How Google moved ads into its AI answers in two years, where they show today, and the revenue pressure behind the move.
Where ads appear inside AI answers
Per Google’s help page and the 28 Oct post. The list “may not be exhaustive”.
Follow-up questions (“multiturn ads”): US only. Germany and the rest of the EU: not listed. Ads above or below AI Overviews can show wherever AI Overviews exist (200+ countries and territories).
Why now: Google Search & other revenue growth
Year over year, as reported by Alphabet. Bars scaled to 19%.
Q2 to Q3 2026: about +0.1%. Same months a year earlier: about +4.4% (my arithmetic). Google names exchange rates as the largest driver of the slowdown, and the “lower monetization” of AI Mode as one factor.
- 3 Oct 2024Ads inside AI Overviews go liveUS, mobile, after months of testing
- 21 May 2025Desktop in the US; first tests in AI ModeEnglish-speaking countries announced for later in 2025
- 20 May 2026New formats in testingConversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, both with a Gemini-written “AI explainer”
- 28 Oct 2026AI Mode ads in 10 more countriesPlus “multiturn ads” in follow-up questions in the US; labeled “Sponsored”
- Q4 2026Planned: Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom“Additional locales, including” these three
Sources: Google, 28 Oct 2026; Google Ads Help, accessed 29 Oct 2026; Google, 3 Oct 2024; Google, 21 May 2025; Google, 20 May 2026; Alphabet Q3 2026 release and the Q4 2025, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 releases. “3× longer” is Google’s AI Mode report (US, May 2026). Quarter-on-quarter changes and bar scaling: Thorsten Meyer.
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AI Ads Meet Search Revenue Pressure
The expansion matters because Google is placing ads inside a format that can answer questions before a user visits another website. For advertisers, the change offers access to people asking longer, conversational questions, but the reported lack of placement-level controls and aggregate reporting may make it harder to understand or manage where ads appear. Google says AI Mode queries are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches; that is the company’s characterization of its own usage data.
For publishers, the central concern is whether AI answers reduce visits while advertising remains visible within Google. A 2026 working paper by Agarwal and Sen, cited in the source report, describes a randomized experiment involving 1,065 US users. It found that AI Overviews reduced clicks to websites by 39.8% when shown, while clicks on ads showed no measurable change. The result is evidence from that experiment, not a measure of every search or a forecast of the effects of the new AI Mode placements.
The business backdrop is also relevant. Alphabet reported $63.4 billion in Google Search & other revenue for July through September, about half of Alphabet’s total revenue. Growth eased from 17% in the prior quarter. Google remains a very large advertising business, but the slowdown and the company’s comments about AI Mode monetization make the new placements part of a broader effort to earn revenue from changing search behavior.
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From AI Overviews to Follow-Ups
Google has added advertising to AI search features in stages. Ads in AI Overviews began appearing for US mobile users in October 2024, according to the company’s posts cited in the source report. In May 2025, Google brought them to desktop and began testing ads in AI Mode. At Google Marketing Live in May 2026, it also began testing formats called Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, including ad text tailored to a question and ads within AI recommendations.
The Oct. 28 announcement extends that development geographically and deeper into a conversation: ads can now appear in US responses to follow-up queries. Alphabet’s quarterly figures show Search & other revenue growth of 17% in the fourth quarter of 2025, 19% in the first quarter of 2026, 17% in the second and 12% in the third. Those are year-over-year growth rates reported in the source material. Google executives cited currency movements and other factors, as well as lower monetization of fast-growing AI Mode searches.
On the earnings call, chief business officer Philipp Schindler said exchange rates were the “single largest driver” of the quarter’s performance. He also cited retail advertisers in Asia affected by the EU’s end of a duty exemption for small parcels and a normalization in media and entertainment spending after a strong World Cup quarter. The source report says Schindler separately identified lower monetization in AI Mode as a factor.
““The strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI mode.””
— Philipp Schindler, Google chief business officer, on Alphabet’s earnings call
Controls, Clicks and Label Audits
Several practical questions remain open. The announcement and help-page details cited in the source report do not explain whether Google will add more advertiser controls, provide reporting beyond aggregate results or let advertisers edit AI-written explanations. The company has not supplied a comparable public breakdown of how the new placements perform across countries or between first and follow-up questions.
It is also unclear whether the experimental result on AI Overviews will carry over to AI Mode. The working paper’s finding concerns a particular randomized test, while Google’s click-through comparison covers sponsored and organic product listings within AI Mode over a limited period. Neither figure, on its own, establishes the overall effect on publishers’ traffic or advertisers’ returns.
Google says ads do not influence its AI answers, but the source report found no independent audit of that claim. The report also says Google’s help page listed 12 countries for ads in AI answers, with English-language availability, as of Oct. 29; Germany and other EU countries were not listed. That reflects the information available on that date, not a confirmed long-term exclusion.
Markets and Ad Controls Ahead
Google’s stated next geographic expansion is Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom, planned for the fourth quarter of 2026. The company has not provided, in the source material, a specific launch date for each market. Its rollout of ads in US follow-up questions is underway, though the timing and scale of availability to individual users are not detailed.
Advertisers and publishers will be watching for clearer information on where placements appear, how they are labeled and what reporting Google makes available. Future quarterly results may also show whether AI Mode’s growing query volume begins to contribute more substantially to Search revenue. Until Google releases additional data or independent testing examines the placements, the effects on web referrals, ad returns and user understanding remain unsettled.
Key Questions
Where is Google expanding ads in AI Mode?
Google named 10 new markets: Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. Brazil, Mexico and the UK are planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.
What changes for US users?
Google is adding ads to answers to follow-up questions in AI Mode, not only to responses to an initial query. The company says ads will be marked “Sponsored.”
Can advertisers opt out of these placements?
The source report, citing Google Ads Help, says existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can participate automatically and that advertisers do not have a separate opt-out for these placements. Reporting is described as aggregate.
Does the expansion show that AI answers reduce publisher traffic?
No. A cited 2026 working paper found fewer website clicks when AI Overviews appeared in a randomized test, but that result does not establish the effect of the new AI Mode ads or predict traffic changes for every publisher.
Are ads available in Germany and the rest of the EU?
The source report says Google’s help page did not list Germany or other EU countries among markets with ads in AI answers as of Oct. 29, 2026. Google had not confirmed a broader EU rollout in the material provided.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
