AI Overviews Research: Google Ads in the AIO-inclusive SERPs

Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) have undergone some major changes as of August 2024. The company has introduced a new right-hand link display, saving and language simplifying capabilities in Search Labs, and expanded its AIO feature to six new countries. 

The SE Ranking has also been busy. We’ve opened access to our new AI Overviews Tracker, which empowers users to monitor AI Overviews for their keywords, analyze competitors, research sources, and so much more. We’ve also enabled users to detect the AI Overview SERP feature in Keyword and Competitive Research tools. Sign up for our 14-day free trial to learn more about new AI-generated answers through our innovative tools and constant research initiatives. A winning combo for your SEO! 

This round of research features plenty more insights—this time about ads. Ads are a crucial part of Google search. They allow new brands to gain visibility if they lack organic traction. We believe it is important to understand the impact AIOs will have on advertising displays and how the two can coexist. This topic becomes even more relevant as Google goes through stormy times navigating an antitrust case and accusations of monopoly power over the online ad market. These events could force Google to sell its advertising business, changing the way ads used to function.

Let’s move on to breaking down the results of our research!

How have AI Overviews changed during our latest studies?

Let’s start with the basic questions covered in each research iteration. We’ll compare results from our latest data (August 23) with results from July 11 and June 3 based on the 100,013 keywords.

How are AI Overviews appearing in SERPs over time?

Our latest data shows that 12,472 keywords (12.47%) trigger AI-generated responses. Since our previous research, this is a 5% increase in the number of queries that end up with AIOs in SERPs.

87,212 keywords (87.20%) didn’t trigger AIOs, and 328 search queries (0.33%) resulted in a technical error (Google failed to generate an AI response).

Which industries have AI Overviews more frequently?

Our analysis of 20 niches, each represented by around 5,000 keywords, showed that almost all niches triggered more AI Overviews. This is quite natural because this research showed a higher number of AIOs in general.

Here are our main highlights and comparison with previous analysis:

• The Relationships niche continues to dominate, rising from 40.64% to 46.14%.
• The Food and Beverage niche still maintains a strong second place, increasing from 23.58% to 33.46%.
• The Business niche also increased from 18.48% to 23.40%.

Some niches saw significant changes:

• The Legal niche had a substantial increase from 0.64% to a whopping 22.30%. 
• The Cars niche also saw a remarkable rise from 0.24% to 9.65%. 
• The Real Estate niche, which previously had less than 1% of AIOs, increased 5.40%. This niche still has the least AIOs, but it’s a big jump in just one month.

As for other niches with the least AIOs, the situation is the same (although the numbers are higher this time):

• Fashion and Beauty rose from 0.24% to 0.60%.
• Ecommerce and Retail increased from 0.28% to 1.00%.
• News and Politics grew from 0.68% to 1.28%.
• Career and Jobs increased from 0.32% to 1.68%.

How do Google Ads and AI Overviews coexist in desktop search?

Google Ads offers a variety of ad formats, each tailored to specific advertising campaigns and goals. Advertisements are labeled as Ads or Sponsored to make it clear that these results are paid. Google distinguishes between several formats but in this research, we focused on two types of ads that appear in Google search and direct users to business websites:

• Text Ads: These are traditional ads with a headline, description, and URL. They can appear at the top or bottom of the SERP, or other relevant places. 
• Shopping Ads: These ads show up in search as a carousel of products. They include product images, prices, and merchant information, to help users compare products quickly before buying.

We investigated how often and where Google Ads appear in search next to Google’s AI Overviews. 

Let’s look at what we’ve discovered! 

How often do ads accompany AI Overviews?

Our latest dataset included 12,472 cases of AI Overviews appearing in search, with ads accompanying AI-generated responses in 1,685 instances (13.51%). In the 10,787 cases in which SERPs contained AIOs (86.49%), we observed no ads at all.

Here’s how the ad dynamics changed across all of our studies:

Note: The data in the table above shows how often ads appeared in search results containing AI Overviews, including instances in which several ad types appeared in a single SERP. We used a different calculation method in previously published studies that’s why that data can differ from the numbers in our current research.

Which niches have the most ads when AI Overviews are present? 

When AIOs and ads appeared in search results together (1,685 cases), the following niches had the highest ratio of keywords triggering both AIOs and ads in a single SERP:

• Pets: 68% of the niche’s keywords (102 out of 150 queries).
• Healthcare:  65.51% of the niche’s keywords (283 out of 432 queries).
• Fashion and Beauty: 60% of the niche’s keywords (18 out of 30 queries).

The ratio is based on the total number of keywords that triggered AIOs throughout the niches we analyzed in this research. 

Niches with the highest number of keywords leading to both AIOs and Ads in SERPs include: 

• Healthcare: 283 search queries.
• Business: 260 search queries.
• Technology: 223 search queries.

Niches with the smallest ratio of keywords with both AIOs and ads appearing in search include:

• Relationships: 3.12% (72 out of 2,307 keywords).
• Career and Jobs: 2.38% (2 out of 84 keywords).
• Entertainment and Hobbies: 4.88% (14 out of 287 keywords).

This ratio is calculated based on the total number of keywords with AI Overviews in the analyzed niches. 

Niches with the least number of keywords triggering both AIOs and ads include: 

• Career and Jobs: 2 search queries.
• News and Politics: 6 search queries.
• Entertainment and Hobbies: 14 search queries.

Niches like Ecommerce and Retail, Food and Beverage, and Technology tend to include ads without AI Overviews. The combination of AI-generated responses and ads is less common. These niches have the biggest difference in their ratio of keywords triggering SERPs with AIOs and ads vs SERPs without AIOs but with ads: 46.46%, 36.64%, and 22.79%, respectively. The Travel niche is the only one with more keywords triggering ads together with AIOs (2.51%) than keywords triggering ads without AIOs.

As for instances where we didn’t detect AI Overviews (87,541 cases), the Fashion and Beauty, Pets, and Ecommerce and Retail niches have the highest ratio of keywords triggering ads in search: 83.66%, 80.01%, and 78.46% of keywords, respectively.

Which ad types accompany AI Overviews in desktop searches?

Out of 1,685 instances where ads accompanied AI Overviews, we detected 1,473 (87.42%) in which only one ad type appeared with AIOs:

• Text ads appeared at the top of the SERP 104 times (6.17%)
• Shopping ads appeared 199 times (11.81%)
• Text ads appeared at the bottom of the SERP 1,170 times (69.44%)

Text ads at the top of the SERPs containing AI Overviews

Text ads at the top of the SERPs can appear above and/or below AI Overviews. Our research shows that out of 279 cases where text ads appeared at the top of AIO-inclusive SERPs (this includes 104 cases where only top text ads were present and 175 cases of top text ad combinations with other ad types) 55.56% of the time (155 keywords), text ads appeared below AIOs, and 44.44% of the time (124 keywords), text ads appeared above AIOs.

The most common number of text ads above and below AIOs is one ad. 103 keywords from our dataset ended up with one ad below AIOs and 90 keywords resulted in 1 ad above AIOs.

• 20 keywords had SERPs with two ads below AIOs and 15 keywords had SERPs with two ads above AIOs.
• 13 keywords triggered SERPs with three ads below AIOs and 11 keywords triggered SERPs with three ads above AIOs.
• 19 keywords ended up with four ads below AIOs and 8 keywords ended up with four ads above AIOs. 

Shopping ads in SERPs containing AI Overviews

Out of 238 cases where shopping ads accompanied AI Overviews (199 cases with shopping ads only and 39 cases of shopping ads combined with other ad types), 207 keywords (86.97%) triggered shopping ads below AIOs and 31 keywords (13.03%) ended up with shopping ads above AIOs.

Text ads at the bottom of SERPs containing AI Overviews

As for text ads at the bottom of SERPs containing AI Overviews (1,382 cases including 1,170 cases with text ads at the bottom only and 212 cases of bottom text ads combined with other ad types):

• 931 keywords ended up with just one text ad at the bottom of the AIO-inclusive SERP.
• 229 keywords had three ads at the bottom of the AIO-inclusive SERP.
• 222 keywords triggered two ads at the bottom of the AIO-inclusive SERP.

Different combinations of ad types with AI Overviews

There were 212 instances of keywords triggering different combinations of ad types  (12.58% of total ads appearing with AIOs) :

• In 173 instances (81.60%), SERPs included both text ads at the top and bottom of the results page containing AIOs.
• In 37 instances (17.45%), SERPs included shopping ads and text ads at the bottom of the results page containing AIOs.
• In 2 instances (0.94%), SERPs included text ads at the top, shopping ads, and text ads at the bottom of the results page containing AIOs.

How do different ad types appear alongside AI Overviews in various niches?

Note: The number of keywords that trigger ads of a certain type depends on several factors, including the number of queries that triggered AI Overviews in general in a given niche, the number of queries that resulted in AIOs and ads in SERPs, the type of keywords, and niche specifics.

For text ads at the top of the SERPs containing AI Overviews, our research shows that on desktop devices:

• Niches like Healthcare, Insurance, and Business have the highest number of keywords triggering text ads at the top of the SERP when accompanying AIOs: 110, 38, and 35 keywords, respectively.
• The Career and Jobs, Ecommerce and Retail, Entertainment and Hobbies, and Fashion and Beauty niches triggered zero text ads when accompanying AIOs in SERPs.

As for text ads at the bottom of SERPs with AI Overviews, we noticed that:

• The Healthcare, Business, and Technology niches have the highest occurrence rate of keywords resulting in ads appearing at the bottom of the AIO-inclusive SERPs: 265, 242, and 185 keywords, respectively.
• The Career and Jobs, Fashion and Beauty, and Ecommerce and Retail niches have the lowest number of such keywords: 2, 3, and 3, respectively.

As for shopping ads accompanying AI Overviews:

• The Pets, Food and Beverage, and Technology niches lead with 87, 62, and 19 keywords that trigger shopping ads alongside AIOs in SERPs.
• The Career and Jobs, Cars, Finance, Legal, News and Politics, and Insurance niches had no keywords triggering co-occurences of AIOs and shopping ads in SERPs.

By comparing different ads and how often they appear in various niches, we were able to distinguish leaders among specific ad types:

• The Business, Technology, and Healthcare niches have the most text ads appearing at the bottom of AIO-inclusive SERPs but have a very small or zero occurrence rate of shopping ads accompanying AIOs.
• The Healthcare, Business, and Insurance niches have the highest number of keywords triggering ads at the top of SERPs with AIOs but have close to zero cases of shopping ads appearing together with AIOs.
• The Pets as well as Food and Beverage niches, which have the highest number of shopping ads accompanying AIOs, only have 2 keywords triggering ads at the top of SERPs with AIOs.

Do keywords with low CPC trigger ads and AI Overviews in SERPs most often?

We know that keywords with a CPC of $0.5 or less tend to trigger AI Overviews most often. This trend persists if we look at the issue through an advertising lens: keywords with a CPC of $0.5 or less trigger AI Overviews and ads in SERPs more frequently.

As for the distribution by niche, we observed the same picture. In each niche, keywords with the lowest CPC tend to trigger AI Overviews and ads in SERPs. 

Some exceptions occurred depending on the niche:

• The Business niche had 44 keywords with a CPC of $2.5 to $3.0 and 43 keywords with a CPC of $3.0 to $4.0 leading to ads and AIOs appearing together, compared to 35 queries with a CPC of $0 to $0.5 leading to the same result.
• The Finance niche had 10 keywords with a CPC of $2.0 to $2.5 that resulted in both AIOs and ads in SERPs, and only one case in which a keyword with a CPC of $0 to $0.5 had a similar outcome.
• The Healthcare niche had 58 keywords with a CPC from $2.0 to $2.5 triggering AIOs with ads in SERPs and 18 keywords with a CPC of $0 to $0.5.

For more details on how keywords with different CPCs triggered AI Overviews and ads in SERPs across different niches, check out this file.

Do keywords with low search volume trigger ads and AI Overviews in SERPs most often?

Our findings show that keywords with a search volume of 50 or less trigger a combination of AI Overviews and ads in SERPs more often; in 29.26% of cases.

The distribution of keywords by niche is more nuanced. Some niches have more keywords with higher search volume values that trigger AIOs and ads in SERPs. For example:

• The Cars niche had only one keyword with a search volume from 0 to 50 triggering ads and AIOs in search and 25 keywords with search volumes from 100 to 200 with the same result.
• The Healthcare niche had 18 keywords with a search volume from 0 to 50 that triggered AIO and ad combinations in search and 66 keywords with search volumes from 200 to 300 triggering this combination.
• The Technology niche had 40 keywords with search volumes from 0 to 50 that led to both AIOs and ads in search and 44 keywords with a search volume from 100 to 200 that led to the same outcome. Niche keywords with higher search volumes also trigger many AI Overviews with ads: 29 queries with a search volume from 500 to 1,000, and 25 queries with a search volume from 1,000 to 10,000.  
• The Business niche had 35 keywords with a search volume of 200-300, 37 keywords with a search volume of 500-1,000, and 32 keywords with a search volume of 1,000-10,000. 

For more details about how keywords with different search volumes trigger ads and AIOs in SERPs, check out this file.

Do long-tail keywords trigger ads and AI Overviews in SERPs most often?

According to our data, middle-tail keywords are more likely to trigger both AI Overviews and ads in search. Three-word and four-word queries show a higher percentage of cases where both AIOs and ads are triggered (15.75% and 15.54%, respectively).

Do AI Overviews contain Google Ads? 

In May 2024, Google announced its testing of the inclusion of search and shopping ads directly inside AI Overviews for US users. This means that when an ad is considered relevant, it might appear within the AIO snippet in a dedicated section labeled “Sponsored”.

During our research, we observed several cases where inside some AI Overviews, we’ve identified what we can call “shopping results”—product cards with prices, store information, and other merchant data. These are not marked as ads by Google but could hint at future implementations.

Our data revealed 14 keywords on desktop devices that triggered AI Overviews with “shopping results” inside. These were keywords from the Ecommerce and Retail, Fashion and Beauty, and Self-Care and Wellness niches. Overall, these shopping results included 374 product cards.

Apart from product cards, you can also see store information, ratings, payment options, delivery information, and a direct purchase link to the product.

Different ad types accompany AI Overviews with product cards inside. The screenshot below displays shopping and text ads above AIOs with shopping results inside the AI-generated snippet.

How do Google Ads appear with AI Overviews in mobile search results?

In our ongoing exploration of AI Overviews, we’ve expanded our research to examine how AIOs interact with ads on mobile devices. Our research involved a manual analysis of 1,022 keywords, previously identified as triggering AIOs in desktop searches. We checked them within the Google Search Labs environment for a comprehensive view of how ads and AIOs coexist on mobile SERPs.

Our manual research shows that out of the 1,022 keywords analyzed, 70.35% (719 keywords) successfully triggered AI Overviews on mobile devices. 29.65% (303 keywords) did not trigger AIOs.

As for the co-occurrence of ads and AI Overviews in mobile search, only 3.76% of keywords (27 out of 719) showed ads in mobile AIO-inclusive SERPs. 96.24% of keywords (692 out of 719) triggered AI Overviews without ads in SERPs.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the appearance of ads and AI Overviews in mobile searches:

• 12 keywords (44.44%) triggered AIOs accompanied by text ads.
• 5 keywords (18.52%) triggered shopping ads and AIOs in mobile SERPs simultaneously.
• 10 keywords (37.04%) resulted in a combination of both text and shopping ads and AIOs.

The most interesting cases where AI Overviews and Google Ads appear together in mobile SERPs

Mobile SERPs for the query, how to choose the best winter suit jacket, contain several blocks of shopping ads followed by an AI Overview. The AI-generated snippet appears at the bottom of the second screen. Combined with several shopping ad blocks, this pushes organic results down the SERP. This example was taken from an account with Search Labs enabled.

We noticed something different after checking this same query from an account without Search Labs enabled. The AIO comes first and is followed by shopping ads.

Here’s another example of ads and AIOs appearing together in the Search Labs environment. The how to choose a hat query triggered a SERP that started with shopping ads containing relevant products. These were followed by three text ads leading to relevant websites. The AI-generated snippet is located under all blocks whose ads exist in various formats.

Checking the same query on the desktop, we see no ads at all with an AIO placed at the top of the results page. The content is also slightly different.

The example below displays four text ads at the top of the SERP and an AIO for the query, best way to buy a new car.

The on athletic shoes query triggered an AIO with shopping results inside the AI-generated box. Located at the top of the SERP is a text ad directing users to the on.com website. Below the ad is an AI Overview with a brief description of the on shoes as well as carts with trending brands. It also displays prices and stores where those items can be purchased. Below the AIO, the on.com website holds the first place in organic search results.

Here’s another interesting example of mobile SERP for the glasses in the sun query. In the screenshots below, you can see that the SERP starts with an AI Overview with many product cards and relevant items. This AIO is followed by several blocks of shopping ads.

Research methodology

This study analyzes the interaction of Google AIOs with ads in SERPs. To get a more comprehensive view of this issue, we divided our research into two parts:

• Automated checks to capture results on desktop devices.
• Manual checks to capture results on mobile devices. 

Automated research on desktop devices

We analyzed 100,013 keywords with different search intents, volumes, and word counts (including short, medium, and long-tail keywords). We covered 20 niches, inputting approximately 5,000 search queries in each.

1. Business
2. Career and Jobs
3. Cars
4. Ecommerce and Retail
5. Education
6. Entertainment and Hobbies
7. Fashion and Beauty
8. Finance
9. Food and Beverage
10. Healthcare
11. Insurance
12. Legal
13. News and Politics
14. Pets
15. Real Estate
16. Relationships
17. Self-Care and Wellness
18. Sports and Exercise
19. Technology
20. Travel

We created projects for each niche from within the SE Ranking platform and used our AI Overview tracking functionality to capture AIOs and ads in desktop searches.

• Search Engine: Google
• Location: USA
• Region: New York, New York, United States
• Language: English (en)

The data was collected via Google Chrome on an Ubuntu PC through Google accounts based in New York without Google Labs. All personalization features were disabled.

Data collection occurred as a one-time check on August 23, 2024.

Manual research on mobile devices

For manual research, we selected 1,022 keywords that previously triggered AI Overviews during searches on desktop devices. Searches were conducted via Google accounts based in the US with Google Labs enabled.

Data collection happened within one week from August 19-23 of 2024.  

Wrapping Up

We’ve packed a lot of information into this research, and hope it’s provided insights into how AI Overviews are shaking things up in both organic and paid search. As marketers and SEO pros, we need to stay vigilant and adapt.

To assist you with this, we released our powerful AI Overviews Tracker. Use it to keep tabs on AIOs for your keywords, dig into sources, detect the AI Overview SERP feature for your and your competitors’ targeted queries, conduct keyword research with AI Overviews in mind, and much more. Sign up for our free trial to see what this tool is capable of while we prepare our next round of research. Stay tuned for more updates!

Written by

Yevheniia Khromova

Yevheniia is a content marketer and copywriter at SE Ranking. She is a fan of SEO, digital marketing, and content creation. Yevheniia believes simplicity is key as it helps reduce the clutter in our heads and focus on what matters. This is the principle she uses in her writing. She also enjoys cooking, learning new spices and flavors, traveling, and playing board games.