Our Study Finds More Ads in AI Overviews

Gene Munster, Brian BakerOctober 28, 2025

Google’s AI strategy appears to be working in Search. In our 200-query check, ad presence within AI Overviews became more common over the past two months. We still haven’t seen ads in AI Mode, even though the company has been clear that those are being tested. This aligns with management’s commentary that higher query volume has positively impacted Search revenue. Bottom line: Google is likely to post a strong quarter in Search and continue guiding investors that it’s successfully navigating the AI transition. Street expectations for September have risen, with the whisper number now calling for 13% Search growth, up from 12% in print and 11.7% in June.

Key Takeaways

AI Overviews are expanding and ads are keeping pace.

Expect resilient Search revenue with rising monetization inside AI surfaces.

Increase in AI Overviews

Back in August, we tested Google’s AI rollout in Search, AI Overviews and AI Mode, to see when and where ads would appear. After reflecting on Liz Reid’s comments about the ongoing success of AI Overviews – Head of Google Search Sends Reassuring Message Before Earnings – we redid the testing just on AI Overviews to see how Search has evolved.

In August, we found ads appeared on 61% of AI Overviews results. In October, we saw ads appeared on 84% of AI Overviews, on par with traditional Search. We see this as a sign that monetization is showing up inside the new surface rather than being displaced by it.

Takeaway: Concerns that AI would compress Google’s ad model look overstated. Ad frequency in Search is higher, AI Overviews are not broadly displacing ads, and ads within Overviews are becoming more common, which supports monetization inside the new UX.

Ad Revenue

Why this is supportive for revenue:

More people going to Google to ask questions means more inventory: As Liz Reid put it, “If you lower the barrier for getting that information… you’ll ask more questions.” She added that with AI Overviews “people started doing more searches.” Higher query volume can offset any unit changes in click behavior.
Research still ends in a transaction: Reid again: “If the ads are for shoes, you might get an answer on AI Overviews, but you still have to buy the shoes.” Generative context can help the user narrow choices, then the click to a merchant still matters.
Commercial intent remains the monetization engine: Most queries have no ads at all, while commercial queries do. AI Overviews provide helpful context for those commercial paths, which keeps ads relevant and useful in that moment.
The pie is expanding: Competition in AI is real, yet this looks more expansionary than zero-sum. If AI lowers friction, total information seeking goes up, and the leading marketplace that “connects buyers with sellers” is positioned to benefit.

Disclaimer