When Google AI Overviews appear on a results page, click-through rates on listings below drop by 42%. But there’s a counterintuitive opportunity: ads are now appearing alongside AI Overviews in 25.5% of cases. Here’s the strategy that actually works.
TL;DR
When Google AI Overviews appear on a search results page, click-through rates on everything below drop by roughly 42%. [1] But ads are now appearing alongside AI Overviews in 25.5% of cases, up 394% from early 2025. [2] This guide explains what that means for your bidding strategy, ad creative, and budget allocation, with a practical 90-day reallocation framework you can implement this week.
By mid-2026, Google AI Overviews are appearing on roughly 13% of all searches. That sounds modest until you look at which searches: primarily informational and research-stage queries, which tend to be exactly where your marketing funnel starts.
When an AI Overview appears, it sits at the very top of the results page. It answers the user’s question immediately, in plain language, with supporting links below it. For a significant percentage of users, that’s enough. The answer is there. They don’t need to click anywhere else. [3]
The result: click-through rates on everything below the AI Overview drop by approximately 42%, according to Semrush research that’s been widely corroborated by agency-level data across industries. [1] Both organic rankings and paid ads are affected.
Before I get into strategy, I want to dispel a common mistake I’m seeing in the industry right now. Many PPC marketers are treating AI Overviews as purely a threat, cutting budgets on affected queries and reallocating away from them entirely. That’s the wrong move, and I’ll explain exactly why.
The headline CTR drop of 42% is real, but it doesn’t tell the full story of what’s happening to paid search specifically.
Google’s VP of Ads, Dan Taylor, confirmed publicly that ads appearing within AI Overview contexts are now monetizing at the same rate as traditional search ads. The clicks that happen from AI Overview-adjacent placements are just as commercially valuable as traditional clicks. Google wouldn’t be expanding this placement category so aggressively if it weren’t converting. [4]
The ad inclusion rate within AI Overview contexts has grown from 5.17% in early 2025 to 25.5% by early 2026. That’s a 394% increase. Google is clearly accelerating this. [2] Which means paid search visibility in AI Overview contexts is becoming an increasingly important part of the overall search landscape, not a shrinking one.
Here’s the structural reality: AI Overviews intercept informational intent. Your paid ads, positioned below or alongside them, capture decision intent from the users who wanted more than the AI summary could give them. In many cases, this is actually a higher-quality audience than the users who clicked the first organic result. They’ve read the overview, they know what category of solution they’re looking at, and they’re still clicking. That’s a more qualified user than someone who clicked before reading anything.
The advertisers who are struggling are those running traditional keyword-driven campaigns without any adaptation to AI Overview contexts. The ones winning have identified which queries trigger AI Overviews, adjusted their creative to speak to post-overview intent, and positioned their bids accordingly.
Before you can adapt your strategy, you need to know which of your priority keywords are triggering AI Overviews, and how consistently they’re triggering them.
The manual audit (accurate, takes time): Open an incognito Chrome window (to avoid personalization effects) and search each of your top 20 to 30 priority keywords. Note which ones trigger an AI Overview and where your ads currently appear relative to it. Do this at different times of day because AI Overview appearance is not always consistent across hours and user segments.
The tool-assisted approach (scalable, requires paid tools): SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SpyFu now flag queries as “AI Overview present” in their SERP feature tracking. Filter your keyword list by this flag and sort by AI Overview frequency. Focus your adaptation effort on the 20 to 30 queries where AI Overviews appear most consistently, since those are where your strategy adjustment will have the biggest impact.
What you’re specifically looking for: keywords where AI Overviews appear but your ads are positioned above or alongside them (existing strong positions to protect and optimize), keywords where AI Overviews appear and your organic content is being cited as a source (a powerful indicator of topical authority), and keywords where AI Overviews appear, your ad positions are being pushed below the fold, and your organic content is not being cited (your highest-priority problem areas).
Based on what’s actually working for accounts adapting to AI Overview-heavy SERPs, there are two effective strategies. Use them simultaneously rather than choosing between them.
The counterintuitive finding from current data is that appearing in paid positions on queries where AI Overviews show up can be more valuable than on traditional SERPs, not less. The AI Overview captures users with pure informational intent. Your paid ad captures users who have informational intent but also want to take an action. That’s a pre-qualified audience by the time they reach your ad.
Increase your bids by 10 to 20% for queries where you confirm AI Overviews are appearing consistently and your current ad position is competitive. Don’t do this for queries where your ad is already being pushed to page two by both the AI Overview and organic results. That’s a different problem to solve.
AI Overviews currently appear primarily on informational queries: “what is,” “how does,” “explain,” “difference between.” They appear significantly less on transactional, local, and brand-specific queries. Queries like “HR software pricing,” “content agency London,” or “[competitor] alternative” rarely trigger AI Overviews.
These are your most stable high-intent positions. Increase budgets here by 15 to 25% if you’ve been underinvesting, because these queries are holding their traditional CTR patterns while informational queries degrade. Protecting your transactional keyword positions is the most immediate, lowest-risk budget move in this environment.
Action this week: Pull your top 25 keywords by spend. Run each through an incognito Google search. Mark each as AI Overview present or not. Then sort your spend allocation: more budget to the non-AI-Overview transactional queries, test a 15% bid increase on the AI Overview queries where you’re currently in a strong position. Run this for 3 weeks before drawing conclusions.
The presence of AI Overviews changes the context in which your ads are seen, which changes what makes an effective ad. This is the piece most PPC guides are not addressing yet.
When users have just read an AI-generated summary at the top of the page, they’ve already received the “what is this category” answer. Your ad doesn’t need to explain the category. It needs to answer the next question: “Why this specific option, and what do I do next?”
Lead with specificity, not category claims. Instead of “The Best Project Management Software for Teams,” try “Cut project handoff time by 35% with [product].” The AI Overview already told them what project management software does. Your ad needs to tell them what’s different and specific about yours.
Make pricing and proof immediately visible. “Starting at $49/month” or “4.8 stars from 1,900 verified reviews” are conversion signals that work well when users are moving from research mode to decision mode. These signals don’t need to be buried in ad extensions. Put them in the headline where they’re visible before the click.
Use ultra-specific CTAs. “Start free trial” outperforms “Learn more” significantly in post-AI-Overview contexts. “Get a quote this week” outperforms “Contact us.” The more specific the next step, the better it converts for users who have already done their research and are ready for something actionable.
Align with the AI Overview’s language. If you’ve checked which queries trigger AI Overviews and noticed how the overview frames your category, align your ad’s language with that framing. You’re continuing the user’s journey, not starting a new one. This creates coherence between what they just read and what your ad is saying.
Here’s what 10 years of running campaigns has taught me: paid search and content strategy were always connected, but AI Overviews have made that connection impossible to ignore.
AI Overviews pull from authoritative, comprehensive content. When Google generates an overview for a query in your category and your competitors’ content is what it draws from, that’s a brand authority problem that affects your paid performance. Users who see a competitor mentioned in the AI Overview AND in a paid ad are significantly more likely to click the competitor. There’s an implicit endorsement happening in the overview that bleeds into how they interpret the ads below it.
Being the brand that Google draws from when generating those summaries gives you organic visibility, implicit credibility, and better paid performance simultaneously. This is worth pursuing directly, not treating as someone else’s job in the org chart.
The content that earns AI Overview citation tends to be comprehensive, well-structured, and directly answers the specific questions people are searching. It’s not long for length’s sake. It’s authoritative because it covers the topic fully and accurately. Our guide on Answer Engine Optimization covers how to build this kind of content systematically.
The cleanest strategy for 2026 combines aggressive paid bidding on AI Overview queries with a content program that earns citation within those overviews. Together, they create a presence no competitor running only paid ads can replicate.
Rather than recommending specific percentages without knowing your account, here’s a framework you can apply to your own situation. Review this monthly as Google’s AI Overview coverage continues to expand.
Increase budget by 15 to 25%: Transactional keywords where AI Overviews don’t appear. These are your most stable, highest-intent positions and currently represent the most protected ground in paid search.
Increase budget by 10 to 15% with creative refresh: Informational keywords where AI Overviews appear AND your brand is cited in the overview. You have authority here. Now capture the commercial intent from users who’ve already received your brand’s endorsement from Google.
Reduce budget by 15 to 30%: Informational keywords where AI Overviews appear, your brand is NOT cited, and your organic content isn’t ranking either. You have no authority advantage here, and you’re competing in a crowded space where the AI Overview is doing most of the informational heavy lifting.
Hold and test: Mid-funnel comparison keywords (“X vs Y,” “best X for Y companies”) where AI Overview presence is still inconsistent. Run two-week experiments on these before committing to a budget direction.
The goal of this framework isn’t to cut total spend. It’s to reallocate from positions where AI Overviews are eroding your CTR to positions where they’re creating an opportunity. That reallocation, done systematically, typically improves overall paid search performance without reducing total investment.
How much do Google AI Overviews impact paid search click-through rates?
When AI Overviews appear on a search results page, click-through rates on the listings below drop by approximately 42%, according to Semrush research. However, ads appearing within or adjacent to AI Overviews are now monetizing at the same rate as traditional search ads, so the impact on paid search specifically is more nuanced than the headline number suggests.
Should I reduce my Google Ads budget because of AI Overviews?
Not as a blanket move. The more effective strategy is to identify which of your priority keywords trigger AI Overviews and adjust your bidding, creative, and budget allocation for those specific queries. Across-the-board budget cuts are more likely to harm overall performance than targeted reallocation.
Can my business appear inside the AI Overview box?
Paid ads currently appear adjacent to AI Overview boxes rather than inside the text of the overview itself. Organic content can be cited and quoted within AI Overviews if it’s considered authoritative. This makes content strategy an increasingly important complement to paid search, especially for building brand presence at the research stage.
What query types are least affected by AI Overviews?
Transactional queries (buy, hire, pricing, plans), local queries (service near me, agency in city), and brand-specific queries trigger AI Overviews much less frequently than informational queries. These represent the most stable ground for traditional paid search tactics in the current environment.
How often are ads actually appearing with Google AI Overviews?
As of early 2026, ads appear alongside AI Overviews in 25.5% of cases where an AI Overview is present, up from just 5.17% in early 2025. That’s a 394% increase in under a year, and Google is continuing to expand this placement category rapidly.
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