Google Scales AI Mode Ads to Ten Countries With US Multiturn Launch

Google announced on October 28, 2026 that it is scaling ads in AI Mode, its conversational AI search experience, to ten new countries: Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Singapore. The company said it plans to expand to additional locales in the fourth quarter of 2026, including Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. To allow ads in follow-up queries within AI Mode, Google is also launching multiturn ads in the United States.

The announcement was made in a post on The Keyword by Shashi Thakur, VP and GM of Google Search Ads and Ads on Google Experiences. Thakur wrote that ads in AI Mode will be clearly labeled as “Sponsored,” and that Google will continue testing new formats so the ads remain helpful and relevant.

In the post, Google stated that queries in AI Mode are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches, citing its Google AI Mode Report for the U.S. dated May 2026. The company said its research shows people are comfortable with ads in AI Mode and find them highly relevant, and that click-through rates are already similar between sponsored and organic product list items within AI Mode, citing internal U.S. data from August 20 to September 3, 2026.

How the Ads Work for Advertisers

According to Google’s Ads Help documentation, advertisers do not need to create new campaigns or set up separate budgets to show up with ads in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Existing Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible to serve ads within both experiences through the Google Ads auction. Text ads and Shopping ads can appear within AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Google is experimenting with other types of ads, such as local inventory ads and vehicle ads.

Google matches ads either directly to a user’s query, when the search already expresses clear commercial intent, or contextually to both the query and the AI response, when someone asks a longer, exploratory, or conversational question and commercial intent emerges from the response. The documentation gives the example of someone searching “why is my pool green and how do I clean it?”: although the question itself does not name a product, the AI response outlines water testing, brushing, and vacuuming debris, allowing Google AI to surface sponsored text or Shopping ads for pool vacuum cleaners or algae treatment kits. AI-powered targeting, including AI Max for Search campaigns, broad match on Search, Shopping campaigns, and Performance Max, is eligible for both contextual and direct query matching. Exact and phrase match keywords on Search are eligible only when a user’s query expresses direct commercial intent.

In some placements, ads appear with AI explainers, which the documentation describes as concise, independent text generated by Google’s Gemini models to help people understand how an ad or group of ads relates to what they are looking for. An explainer may introduce a group of sponsored options with a brief description, or highlight useful context alongside an ad using information from the user’s query, the AI response, and publicly available sources including the advertiser’s website. Advertisers cannot manually write, edit, approve, or opt out of AI explainers; in other cases, ads appear with a static section header instead.

Ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same auction mechanism and cost-per-click or conversion-based bidding models as standard Google Search ads, and advertisers are not charged extra to participate. Advertisers also cannot target ads exclusively to AI Overviews or AI Mode, or opt out of them separately from Search, though existing guardrails such as negative keywords and brand exclusions continue to apply. Performance for these placements is included in aggregate in standard campaign reports and in the search terms report. Google states that paid advertising does not influence the organic responses generated by Google AI.

The documentation lists ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode as available in English in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Singapore. Indonesia is listed for AI Overviews only, and Pakistan for text ads only, with Google noting that the list may not be exhaustive. Separately, the documentation states that ads above or below AI Overviews are available in all 200-plus countries and territories, and all languages, where AI Overviews are available.

AI Mode Usage and Earlier Testing

Google’s AI Mode report states that the product has surpassed one billion monthly active users globally and that AI Mode queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch. Follow-up queries in AI Mode have increased by more than 40 percent on average per month in the U.S., more than one in six AI Mode searches are multimodal, and searches with image input are among the product’s fastest-growing query types, growing by more than 40 percent month-over-month since launch, the report states.

The report lists electronics, books, movies and music, and apparel as the top shopping topics in which people ask follow-up questions within AI Mode, and price, location, color, brand, and availability as the top retail attributes people look for when shopping for a product or apparel. Unless otherwise noted, the report’s data applies to AI Mode in the U.S. and is drawn from internal Google Search data, including Google Trends, covering the period from the product’s May 2025 U.S. launch through April 2026.

Google began testing ads in AI Mode on May 21, 2025, saying that where relevant, ads may appear below and integrated into AI Mode responses. Advertisers already using Performance Max, Shopping, and Search campaigns with broad match, including AI Max for Search campaigns, would be eligible to have their ads appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, the company said at the time. The May 2025 announcement said Google already sees more than 5 trillion searches annually, citing internal data from January 2025. It also said that in its biggest markets, such as the U.S. and India, AI Overviews was driving an increase of more than 10 percent in usage of Google for the types of queries that show them, citing internal data from September 2024 through the end of April 2025.

In a May 20, 2026 post tied to Google Marketing Live, the company said it was testing two new AI Mode ad formats built with Gemini: Conversational Discovery ads, in which the ad answers a person’s specific question with creative tailored to that search, and Highlighted Answers, in which highly relevant, high-quality ads are eligible to appear on a list of recommendations provided by AI Mode. Google said both formats would feature an independent AI explainer displayed alongside the advertiser’s creative and would continue to be clearly labeled as “Sponsored.” The post cited a Google-commissioned Ipsos online survey conducted in December 2025 among 13,189 adults across select countries, online shoppers who had made a consumer goods purchase requiring consideration in the prior week and who use Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, or both for shopping; 75 percent of respondents reported making faster, more confident decisions using AI Mode in Search. The post also said the Direct Offers pilot, running since January 2026 with brands including Chewy, Gap, and L’Oreal (LOR.DE ), was being upgraded so that offers would surface naturally within the AI Mode response as shoppers explore their options. Google said it would continue to test the new formats to ensure they deliver a positive experience for consumers.