As more searches get an AI-written answer, the question for advertisers is where the ads go. Google's answer so far has two parts: ads inside AI Overviews in a limited set of countries, and ads above and below them everywhere else. AI Mode, the conversational search tab, has its own tests and formats.
Ads inside AI Overviews
Google's help page lists 12 countries where ads can appear inside AI Overviews, in English only, on mobile and desktop: Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and the US.
- Eligible ads are text and shopping ads from Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
- There is no opt-out, and no way to target the placement.
- There is no separate reporting; the ads are counted as top ads.
- Some categories are excluded, including alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare and politics.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Arabic are not on the list. In the Gulf, ads appear above or below AI Overviews, as they do in every market where AI Overviews exist, but not inside them.
Ads in AI Mode
Google has been testing ads below and inside AI Mode answers in the US since 2025, and has not published a country list for them. At Google Marketing Live in May 2026 it announced new formats:
- Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, labelled Sponsored, in testing.
- AI-powered Shopping ads, through Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping, which Google says will be available soon.
- Business Agent for Leads, due in the following months.
- Direct Offers: exclusive discounts shown inside AI Mode, first piloted in January 2026. Google says the AI never invents a deal; it uses only the advertiser's Merchant Center feed and the promotion codes they upload.
The only statistic Google gave came from a survey it commissioned: 75 percent of people said they decide faster and with more confidence using AI Mode. None of the 25 countries surveyed is in the Gulf.
Which campaigns are eligible
Google's ads liaison, Ginny Marvin, has said AI Max is not required. Campaigns using broad match, AI Max, Performance Max, Shopping, Dynamic Search Ads and smart bidding are eligible, and an ad's relevance is judged against both the search and the AI answer, which sets a higher bar. In September Google began a small test letting exact and phrase match keywords serve in AI Mode for searches with explicit intent.
Myths to avoid
- That ads in AI Overviews are live in the UK. The UK is not on Google's list.
- That AI Mode ads expanded to every AI Mode country. We could not trace this to Google.
- That any of this works in Arabic or in the Gulf. No Google source says so.
How to prepare
AI Mode has worked in Arabic since October 2025, so the audience is already there. When Google extends ads, accounts that are already eligible will be first in line. In the meantime:
- Check that key campaigns use broad match, AI Max or Performance Max with smart bidding, where that suits the client.
- Keep Merchant Center feeds complete and accurate, in Arabic and English where the store sells in both.
- Upload promotions to Merchant Center, since Direct Offers draw only on them.
- Write landing pages that answer the follow-up questions an AI answer raises, since relevance is judged against the answer too.
- Watch top-of-page metrics, where AI Overview ads are counted.
The UTM builder on this site tags ad links so the client's analytics can separate paid search traffic by campaign, whatever surface it came from.
