Google launches AI ads in 10 countries and multiturn ads in the US – Unite.AI

Google is expanding AI mode ads to 10 more countries and is launching multiturn ads in the United States, which allows ads to appear in follow-up queries in AI mode, the company announced on October 28, 2026.

The expansion covers Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. In the fourth quarter of 2026, Google plans to expand AI ads to additional locations, including Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

The announcement was written by Shashi Thakur, VP and GM of Google Search Ads and Ads on Google Experiences. Google said that AI ads will be clearly labeled “Sponsored” and that it will continue to test new formats to keep ads useful and relevant.

Where ads appear in AI mode

According to Google’s Ads Help documentation, when a search or conversation has commercial relevance, ads can appear directly within or alongside AI-generated responses, including through AI-mode follow-up questions, in sections labeled “Sponsored.” Standard ads on the Google search results page may also continue to appear above or below an AI overview, just as they appear alongside other search results.

All ads in AI overviews and AI mode are visually distinct from organic content, and documentation states that paid advertising does not influence organic responses generated by Google’s AI. Because Google continually tests and refines ad layouts in both experiences, the exact visual presentation of ads may change over time.

Ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode are available in English in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, and Singapore, with Indonesia running ads only in AI Overviews and Pakistan running only text ads. Google emphasizes that it continually tests and expands ad serving across countries, territories, and languages, so the list may not be exhaustive.

How AI ads work for advertisers

Advertisers don’t have to create new campaigns or set separate budgets: existing Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible to serve ads in AI overviews and AI mode via the Google Ads auction. Text ads and Shopping ads can appear within the two experiences, and Google says it’s experimenting with other ad types such as local inventory ads and vehicle ads.

Google matches ads directly to a user’s query, when the search already expresses a clear commercial intent, or in context with both the query and the AI ​​response, when a longer, exploratory or conversational question allows the commercial intent to emerge from the response. In the documentation example, a person asking why their pool is green and how to clean it receives an AI response that outlines water testing, brushing, and debris vacuuming, and Google may show sponsored text or Shopping ads for pool vacuums or algae treatment kits even if the query doesn’t name any specific products.

AI-based targeting, including AI Max Search, Broad Match, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns, is eligible for both contextual and direct query matching. Exact and phrase match keywords in Search are only eligible when a query expresses direct commercial intent and cannot participate in contextual matching on broader exploratory questions.

In some placements, ads may appear with AI-driven explanations, concise, independent text generated by Google’s Gemini models that helps people understand how an ad or ad group relates to what they’re searching for. Explanations are not part of ad titles or descriptions, and advertisers cannot manually write, edit, approve, or disable them.

Ads in AI Panoramas 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. An ad may appear both above an AI Overview and within it in the same search, depending on the query and auction, although ads will not appear both within an AI Overview and immediately below it. Queries that trigger ads in AI Overview and AI Mode are included in aggregate in the standard campaign reports and search terms report, while existing guardrails such as negative keywords and resource blocking continue to apply. Advertisers cannot target ads exclusively to AI Overview or AI Mode, nor disable them separately from Search.

Data on the use of Google’s AI mode

Google said that AI mode queries are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches, citing its May 2026 Google AI Mode Report for the United States. The company also said that its research shows that people are comfortable with AI mode ads and find them highly relevant, and that click-through rates are already similar between sponsored and organic product list entries within AI mode, citing Google’s internal U.S. data from Aug. 20 to September 3, 2026.

The AI ​​Mode report states that AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly active users globally and that queries on AI Mode have more than doubled every quarter since launch. According to the report, AI follow-up queries have increased by an average of more than 40% per month in the United States, and more than one in six AI searches are multimodal, meaning non-textual. Searches with image inputs are among AI Mode’s fastest-growing query types, growing more than 40% month-over-month since launch, the report says.

The report notes that the specific keyword and query data comes from Google Trends covering the period from the launch of AI Mode in the US in May 2025 through April 2026, drawn from a random, unbiased sample of Google searches, and that all data applies to AI Mode in the US unless otherwise noted.