Do Google Ads Show in AI Overviews? What to Know

When someone asks Google a question and an AI-written summary appears at the top, your ad can now sit inside it. For a service business, that is the moment a customer is choosing who to call, so it matters whether you are in that space or not.

The rules are set by Google and some are still changing, so this article sticks to what Google's own pages say, and flags where you should check your own account.

Can my Google Ads appear in AI Overviews?

Yes, if you already run the right campaign types. Google's help page says text and Shopping ads from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible to show within an AI Overview, provided they can win the auction and address both the query and the information in the overview.

Google has also said advertisers using Performance Max, Shopping, and Search campaigns with broad match, including AI Max for Search campaigns, are eligible to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. In plain terms: if your Search campaigns only use exact and phrase match keywords, Google may have fewer chances to place your ad in these experiences.

What can you not control?

Quite a lot. Google's help page says plainly that you cannot opt out of serving ads in AI Overviews and cannot directly target ad placements in them.

• No opt-out: if your campaign is eligible and wins, the ad can appear.
• No direct targeting: you cannot pick the placement or bid on it separately.
• No separate reporting: Google says ads shown in AI Overviews are reported as Top Ads, with no segmented view.
• Availability limits: ads in AI Overviews are shown in English on mobile and desktop in a set of countries, including the US, Australia, Canada and India. Google says ads can also appear above or below an AI Overview in every market where AI Overviews are available.
• Sensitive categories: Google says it does not show ads in AI Overviews for sensitive verticals such as adult, alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare and politics.

That last point matters if you run a clinic or financial practice. Check Google's current list for your category rather than assuming.

Should you change your campaigns because of this?

Probably not dramatically. Because you cannot target the placement, the sensible response is to make your existing campaigns stronger, not to rebuild them around AI Overviews.

A five-point check for this week

1. List your active campaign types. Note which are Search, Shopping or Performance Max, as these are the ones Google names as eligible.
2. Look at your keyword match types. If you use broad match, make sure your negative keyword list is current so you are not paying for irrelevant searches.
3. Read your search terms report. Longer, conversational queries are the kind AI Overviews tend to answer, so see what people are really typing.
4. Make sure each ad leads to a landing page that matches the promise and has a simple way to enquire: a form, a call button, a booking link.
5. Set a budget cap you are comfortable with before you loosen match types, and review spend daily for the first week.

How do you know whether these ads make you money?

Not from Google's reporting alone. Since AI Overview placements are folded into Top Ads, you cannot tell which clicks came from them. What you can measure is what happened to each enquiry afterwards.

That means recording the campaign, UTM tags and click ID against every lead, then following the lead to a booked job and a payment. If you only look at cost per lead, a broader campaign can look cheap while sending you people who never buy. We covered that trap in our guide to cost per lead versus cost per booked job.

This is the gap SholaX is built for. Lead Capture records the campaign, UTM tags and click IDs with each enquiry, and Results joins that to ad spend, so you can see which ads made money. The CRM, Lead Capture and Results are free to start and work without the managed ads.

What about ads in AI Mode?

Google has said ads can appear in AI Mode too, and that the same campaign types are eligible. Google's own descriptions of AI Mode ads have changed over time, and trade press has reported tests of different formats, so treat details as moving. We could not confirm from Google's official pages how widely they are available today, so check your account and Google's Ads Help Centre for the latest.

Whatever the format, the underlying advice does not change: be eligible, send people to a page that converts, answer enquiries fast, and measure revenue rather than clicks.

You cannot choose where Google places your ad, but you can choose how well you track what it earns.