Google has said it will explore bringing ads into AI Mode, AdWeek reported. The platform recently began testing AI Mode to Google One AI Premium subscribers. 

AI Mode builds on Google’s ongoing efforts to enhance search with AI-generated summaries. According to Google the feature is designed to handle complex search queries, allowing users to conduct multiple searches at once, ask follow-up questions, and receive AI-generated responses along with relevant links.

How ads will fit into Google AI Mode in Search 

It is likely ads will work similarly to how ads are displayed in  AI Overviews—automated and placed based on AI's understanding of user searches. Google says it plans to learn from how ads work in AI Overviews to shape its advertising strategy within AI Mode. 

AI Overviews is Google’s Search feature that provides summarised AI-generated responses at the top results’ pages. AI Overviews is a feature powered by Gemini 2.0 that can generate responses for complex queries, including coding, advanced math, and multimodal searches. 

Perhaps, Google will gather insights from how ads perform in AI Overviews and use these insights to develop ads for AI Mode. Using AI Overviews, it will figure out the best way to put ads in AI Mode.  

In May 2024, the platform began testing ads in AI Overviews, with Google saying the feature “quickly connect with relevant businesses, products, and services to take the next step at the exact moment they need them.” By October, these ads were expanded to mobile users in the U.S. 

These ads are placed below AI-generated responses under a “Sponsored” label. They are sourced from advertisers running Search, Shopping, Performance Max, or AI-powered search campaigns. However, advertisers don’t have direct control over whether their ads appear in AI Overviews. Instead, Google automatically selects relevant ads. 

If AI Overviews is any indication, advertisers can expect a similar automated ad placement system, where AI determines when and where ads appear. However, advertisers might have less control over ad placements since they can't directly target this AI Mode inventory.  But ads could have more exposure in AI-powered search results as users engage with multi-step queries.

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