Ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode: What Changes

If you run Google Ads for a service business, the AI answer at the top of the page is not a future problem. It already decides where your ad lands — and Google switched it on without asking you.

Here is the short version, taken straight from Google's own help documentation: your existing campaigns are automatically eligible, you cannot opt out, you cannot target the placement, and you get no separate reporting for it. Everything below is what to actually do about that.

Where do ads appear when an AI Overview takes the top of the page?

Ads can serve in three positions — above the AI Overview, below it, or woven inside it — and all three run off the same auction you are already bidding into. Google's About ads and AI Overviews page states that ads above and below the AI Overview are eligible in all 200+ markets where AI Overviews are available, and that they serve 'following the existing auction ranking system and signals.'

Ads inside the AI Overview are narrower. Google lists them as available in English, on mobile and desktop, in Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and the US. For those, Google says both the user query and the content of the AI Overview itself are considered when picking the ad.

AI Mode is the least settled of the four. In its December 2025 Google Ads Highlights of 2025, Google says it is 'testing ads in AI Mode in the US' and that ads 'may appear below and integrated into AI Mode responses.' A test in one country is not a channel. Do not let anyone build you a strategy around it yet.

Are your existing Search campaigns automatically eligible to serve there?

Yes — with no opt-in, no new campaign, and no setting to flip. Google's wording is explicit: text and Shopping ads from existing Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns that win the auction and address both the query and the AI Overview's content are automatically eligible to show inside the AI Overview.

Eligible is not the same as serving. Ads only trigger on a subset of AI Overview queries — Google says the conditions include detected commercial intent plus an ad that is relevant to the AI answer, not just the search term.

Now the part almost no trade article mentions, and it matters enormously for service businesses: Google states it currently does not show ads in AI Overviews for sensitive verticals like adult, alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare, and politics. If you are a dental practice, a med spa, a chiropractor, a home-health agency, or a financial advisor, ads inside AI Overviews are not a channel you have. You are still eligible above and below the AI answer — but the placement everyone is writing about is closed to you. Check your vertical before you buy anyone's AI-ads playbook, including this one.

Can you opt out of serving ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode?

No — Google's own FAQ answers it in one word. Asked 'Can I opt out of serving ads in AI Overviews?', the help page says: 'No, you can't opt out of serving ads in AI Overviews.' Asked whether you can target only that placement, it says: 'No, you can't directly target ad placements in the AI Overviews.'

So the placement is neither a target nor an exclusion. Your controls are the ones you already had: keywords, match types, negatives, geo, budget, bid strategy, and the off switch. The closest thing to a lever is upstream — you can decline the broad and keywordless targeting that AI-surface serving depends on, which we get to below.

One consequence worth saying plainly: any agency selling you an 'AI Overview ad placement' package is selling you a product Google does not offer. There is nothing to buy, nothing to bid on separately, and nothing to guarantee. If you want the same skepticism applied to your whole account, that is what a paid ads program should look like.

Which campaign types can and cannot serve in AI surfaces?

Above and below the AI Overview, Google lists text, Shopping, local, and App ads from Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and App campaigns. Inside the AI Overview, the list shrinks to text and Shopping ads from Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns only — App campaigns drop off, and Local Services Ads are not mentioned on the page at all.

The buried requirement is the one that will actually change your account. Google says AI Overviews trigger on complex, answer-seeking queries that advertisers are 'less likely to be targeting,' and that this is why Google requires AI-powered targeting solutions — broad match on Search, or the keywordless targeting available through AI Max for Search campaigns, Performance Max campaigns, Shopping campaigns, or Dynamic Search Ads.

Read that again as an operator. A tightly-run exact-and-phrase-match Search account — the kind most disciplined service businesses run — is largely walled off from serving inside AI Overviews by design. The entry ticket is broad or keywordless matching. That is a real trade: wider query surface for AI-surface reach. Before you buy that ticket, read our take on whether Performance Max is right for a service business, because the same automation argument applies.

Does a click from an AI surface cost more or less than a normal search click?

Nobody can tell you — and that includes Google. There is no AI Overview bid, no AI Overview CPC column, and no segmented reporting, so no advertiser on earth can isolate the cost of an AI-surface click from the rest of their Top Ads spend. Google's page confirms ads in AI Overviews are reported as Top Ads and serve on the existing auction.

That means every 'the average AI Overview CPC is $X' figure you have seen was derived from data Google does not publish. Treat those numbers as guesses with a chart attached.

What can genuinely move is not your CPC but your query mix. Broad and keywordless targeting pulls you onto longer, more exploratory searches — 'why is my AC blowing warm air,' not 'AC repair near me.' Those clicks are usually cheaper and convert far worse. A flat CPC with a collapsing conversion rate still gives you a worse cost per booked call. Watch CPA, not CPC.

How do you see AI-surface ad performance in Google Ads reporting?

You do not, and Google says so directly: 'Google Ads currently doesn't offer segmented reporting when ads show within Search AI Overviews.' It adds that ads in AI Overviews are reported as Top Ads and that it is 'still learning and actively thinking about what the future of reporting looks like.' Until that changes, you are working with proxies.

• Search terms report. Filter for long, question-shaped queries — seven-plus words, starting with why/how/what. That query shape is the fingerprint of AI-surface matching.
• Top vs Other segment. Impressions from inside an AI Overview land in Top. It will not isolate them, but a jump in Top impressions with no bid change is a signal worth chasing.
• AI Max match type and source column. If you run AI Max, the search terms report tags incremental terms with an 'AI Max' match type and a source column showing whether the match came from broad expansion or keywordless matching.
• Conversion rate by query length. Bucket your search terms by word count and compare conversion rates. This is the honest test of whether the new query surface is producing booked calls or noise.

None of these is a placement report. They are triangulation. If an agency shows you an 'AI Overviews ad performance' dashboard, ask them which Google Ads column it comes from — there is no correct answer.

Does any of this change your cost per booked call?

For most local service businesses, barely — because the searches that book jobs mostly do not trigger AI Overviews in the first place. Ahrefs analyzed 146 million SERPs and found only 7.9% of local searches trigger an AI Overview, versus 22.8% of non-local queries. On intent, AI Overviews trigger on 4.3% of commercial-intent and 2.1% of transactional-intent keywords, against 21.4% of informational ones (Ahrefs, September 2025).

Translation: 'emergency plumber Dallas,' 'root canal near me,' and 'roof replacement quote' are largely untouched. Your money queries still land on a normal auction. The AI answer is eating the top of the funnel, not the bottom — which is the same conclusion we reached about how AI Overviews changed organic SEO.

Two things can still raise your cost per booked call, and neither is the placement itself. First, budget bleed: broad and keywordless targeting is the price of AI-surface reach, and without ruthless negative keyword hygiene it spends real money on people asking questions, not hiring. Second, attribution fog: with no segmented reporting you cannot kill the placement when it underperforms — you can only kill the targeting mode that feeds it.

What should a service business change in its account today, if anything?

Four checks, not a rebuild. Nothing here justifies restructuring a working account, and any agency proposing a full rebuild 'because of AI Overviews' is billing you for a headline.

• Check your vertical first. If you are in healthcare or finance, Google says your ads do not serve inside AI Overviews at all. Half the advice on the internet does not apply to you.
• Decide your match types on purpose. Exact and phrase only means you are largely opted out of inside-AIO serving. That is a legitimate choice. Make it deliberately, not by accident.
• Build the negative list before you touch broad match. Not after. If you turn on broad or keywordless targeting with a thin negative list, the AI query surface will find every free-information seeker in your metro.
• Baseline CPA over 90 days, not 9. Query mix shifts show up in conversion rate weeks before they show up in spend. If a change in targeting has not produced qualified leads in 90 days, cut it — that is the same kill switch we apply to any channel.

The honest verdict: ads in AI Overviews are a real placement with real reach and, right now, almost no operator-usable controls or reporting. For a US service business selling local jobs, it is a top-of-funnel expansion opportunity dressed up as an emergency. Treat it as the former.

If your Google Ads account is already spending into query surfaces you cannot see, the fix is a search terms audit and a negative-list rebuild before you touch anything else. That is where our paid ads work starts — month-to-month, no lock-in, and no promises about placements Google does not sell. Get my free audit.