Short answer
An Adthena report says most ad placements inside Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode sit in apparel and consumer electronics, with a similar concentration in ChatGPT. The report does not measure clicks, spend or conversions, and Google does not sell these surfaces separately: they come through existing campaigns.
Highlights
- The report only counts where ads appeared in the US from June to September; it has no click or conversion data.
- Google has no separate buy for AI answers; Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible automatically.
- Adthena, which published the report, also promotes its own ChatGPT ad tracking product in it.
2 min readAuthor: UNIT Journal EditorEditor-in-chief: Uğur Deniz İlhan
As Search Engine Journal reports, Adthena's holiday shopping report shows which categories hold ads in Google's AI answers. Adthena sells ad tracking products and the report closes with a free trial offer for its ChatGPT Ads product, so the figures come from a single, independently unverified source.
Which categories hold the ads?
The report counted roughly 175,100 paid placements in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode in the US from June to September. About 111,000 were in apparel and about 55,000 in consumer electronics. On the ChatGPT side, it counted 204,489 placements in the same five categories.
The scope is narrow: it does not show which ads were clicked, how much was spent or how many conversions followed. As the article notes, OpenAI also widened its ads footprint during the period, which makes direct comparison harder.
Can you buy ads in AI answers separately?
No. According to the Google help page cited in the article, existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible to appear in AI answers. Advertisers cannot target only AI Overviews or AI Mode, and cannot opt out of these placements apart from Search, but they can use negative keywords and brand exclusions.
Google also launched multi-turn ads in the US on 28 October and said ads in AI Mode are scaling to ten additional countries, including Canada and Australia. Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom are planned for Q4. Turkey is not mentioned in the article.
What should advertisers do?
Today's data is from the US, but the same campaign structure may reach other markets. Preparation means tightening measurement on existing campaigns rather than opening new budgets. In a Google Ads account, these steps help:
- Review the search terms report regularly; because AI answer searches are reported together with standard ones, do not expect a separate breakdown.
- Review brand exclusions and negative keyword lists; off-topic or wrong-intent searches can drain budget.
- In apparel and electronics e-commerce especially, check product feed quality and conversion tracking on Shopping campaigns.
- Judge campaigns on sales and lead data, not only on clicks.
Frequently asked
- Do the report's numbers show the ads work?
- No. The report only counts where ads appeared; it has no click, spend or conversion data.
Sources
- Search Engine Journal ·
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