PPCChat | AI Max, AI Overview Ads, AI Anything Else? | 5 Aug, 2025

This week’s discussion centered around the emergence of ads in AI Overviews and the rollout of AI Max campaigns. While a few have seen AI Overview ads—mostly in Copilot—most haven’t, and there’s widespread confusion about how they work, how to track them, and their real value. Advertisers are cautiously testing AI Max, but early feedback suggests it behaves similarly to broad match, leading to mixed reactions and ongoing uncertainty.

TL;DR:
Some advertisers have started spotting ads in AI Overviews (especially in Copilot), but many haven’t seen them yet. There’s limited clarity on how ads are served or how to report on them, causing skepticism. Clients aren’t actively asking about AI Overview ads, and economic concerns often overshadow interest. AI Max for Search is being tested by a few, but early impressions show little distinction from broad match, leaving many PPC pros cautious but curious.

Q1: Have you seen any ads in AI Overviews yet? Both Google (AI Overviews in search) and Bing (Copilot) have them… If you have seen an ad, what was the general search that produced the ad in the overview?

I’m not going to say that they haven’t been there, but I haven’t noticed – @revaminkoff

Not yet, but then again, the maple-beaver-sorry rollout is often after the US. – @JuliaVyse

I’ve spotted a number of ads in Copilot! Some conversations that triggered ads include help with plumbing, dresses for a wedding, and car accident lawyers – @navahhopkins

Not yet, but saw AI Max being recommended for a campaign. Will be testing it this week. – @alimehdimukadam

The ads were usually the second or third communication in but there was one instance where ads served right away (baby gift for gamer friends) – @navahhopkins

I also feel like it is still unclear about how you will be served ads, particularly in Google. Copilot is something you choose to use, but Google in the above article still sounds like AI Mode is needed to see ads when at GML they talked about that part going away and ads just being in AI Overviews as they say fit? – @NeptuneMoon

I wish people would remember that there is nothing special you need to do to serve on AI spots (search, shopping, and PMax are all eligible). Ax just has an easier time serving (at least on Microsoft it does) – @navahhopkins

I think AI Max will given more prominence like pMAX and slowly it would be default either pMAX or AIMax as the only campaign types. – @alimehdimukadam

Nope, haven’t seen any (even using US VPN) – @ernohorvath

Q2: Are clients/stakeholders asking about getting ads into AI Overviews? Is it something they are interested in or even aware of?

Most of the clients I’m working with have a pretty high level understanding of AI in general so most questions are simple – “What are we doing about AI”? – @Brendannemeth

I don’t have many clients worried about it interestingly enough. Kind of scary. I do more educating and preparation than there is interest. – @coryhenke

My clients kind of don’t know where to start. Similar to Brendan. They want to know a bit about AI+SEO and showing up, but bigger picture, they just want to understand the user experience. – @JuliaVyse

I think as tech oriented people we sometimes forget that general business people only know the very basics or have heard of tech things we are deep into or aware of – @NeptuneMoon

Everyone’s more interested in GEO right now than ads 😉 – @alimehdimukadam

it ranges. i’m getting a lot of “do we need to be doing anything?” all the way to “google is dead. how do we show up on chatgpt” – @janinemonico

I also think a lot of businesses are trying to make sure they survive right now too – @NeptuneMoon

When it first came out/was hinted at in 2024, most of our clients were asking about it, but without clear reporting or a clear way to get into them, the hype has died down/ we’re not hearing anything any more – @revaminkoff

Cause the economic outlook right now is not good – @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon too right! Tariff convos are more urgent than AI just now – @JuliaVyse

It’s true that being able to ask/think/strategize about new placements is a luxury not all clients have – @revaminkoff

Well, and no placement reporting on it? that’s a lot of why bother when you’re billing hourly – @JuliaVyse

The jobs revision was true. Add to that the Federal layoffs + uncertainty + Tarrifs = creating a situation to force Powell for a rate cut. Elon might be right – second half recession. – @alimehdimukadam

I am expecting a bad Q4 y’all. So many economic indicators are pointing to this and I don’t think it is getting enough oxygen. The money I spent on food last week was eye popping and I’m not in a situation where I am necessarily worried about that, but it was bananas what some food things cost in the US right now. – @NeptuneMoon

Yup that’s the counter argument against AI – the middle class from late 90’s till now was in services sector – white collar jobs – all getting 60-80% automated. And businesses will use AI as an excuse for layoffs = adding more fuel to fire. @Neptune Moon – I don’t even want to talk about Canadian prices – @alimehdimukadam

And people will be getting their health insurance premium notices for 2026 right during holiday season in the US too. Those are going to go up significantly too. – @NeptuneMoon

It’s not a good economic situation at all. – @revaminkoff

Mine is already almost as much as my mortgage payment – @NeptuneMoon

I wonder how we get from AI overviews to mortgage payments, but anyway I think most businesses see the decline in SEO traffic from Google due to AI overviews, that’s a bit more pressing than ‘how my Ads will appear in AI overviews’. Because they already lost traffic. I have some clients who are happy when someone picks AI/ChatGPT in their post purchase survey, but volume is still very low. About 30% of our clients like to know to how get better rankings on AI/LLMs. On another note my gas/electricity bill went up by 50%   this month – @ernohorvath

Q3: How do you feel about ads in AI Overviews/results? What do we think, if anything, this will do to the advertising ecosystem?

I am honestly still not quite sure if platforms have fully thought out how AI in search is going to impact their bottom lines. They want in on the hype of AI to keep stock prices solid, but it runs completely counter to their money making system up until this point – @NeptuneMoon

I haven’t fully thought it through yet. There’s still too much that can’t be seen or predicted. I think the biggest disruption short term is traffic drops. The behaviours we look for to click through to a site are going to change to a personal agent bot-chatting with a business agent for purchase outcomes. – @JuliaVyse

You can’t raise CPCs on advertisers forever. There is an upper limit to what they will pay before saying this isn’t worth it any longer – @NeptuneMoon

I struggle to see the ads as being relevant in that context unless you’re trying to drive people to sponsored content… but usually those aren’t situations where we’d recommend buying search ads in the first place. – @revaminkoff

I think a lot of offset might happen by increased prices and adoption of AI by enterprise and business – G for workplace. They already increased prices over there – @alimehdimukadam

I have a hard time believing AI Overviews will really drive ROI for eComm, for example – @revaminkoff

But I believe if done right – ads in AI overviews have the power to drive extremely relevant clicks based on user journey. And an argument for a higher cpc can be made there. Unfortunately, lot of small biz owners will get priced out. – @alimehdimukadam

And in that pricing race: influencers and referral is about to have a renaissance! – @JuliaVyse

Affiliate Marketing will make a huge comeback. Circle of life. – @alimehdimukadam

Here is where I am left scratching my head… AI Overviews tend to display for more informational searches – how do I do x or where can I find x or how do I divide fractions, etc. None of those are particularly ripe for ads. So the jaded part of me says this is a lot of hype that isn’t really going to impact much in what we do cause most queries that do/should trigger ads are not going to trigger AI Overviews. – @NeptuneMoon

weirdly I think standard paid search is about to be great for B2B, with AI overviews for SEO and use-case stuff. They seem good for product marketing with lots of fiddly questions and nuances – @JuliaVyse

Yes but when people start trusting GPT, Gemini, Perplexity – and the query is find me the top 10 roofing service companies in New York etc. That placement is ripe for a high CPC. But trust factor erodes coz the sponsored placement might not be of the best one. – @alimehdimukadam

@Neptune Moon That’s pretty much where I’ve come out on this. Though I get some people are talking to chat bots like they’re friends asking for recommendations, and that could lead to different results, that’s different than a google search. – @revaminkoff

Love seeing LinkedIn in there – @navahhopkins

The most funny counter narrative would be for conspiracy theorists to paint all AI as a PsyOp and lead to a distrust. What will emerge then as a countertrend? – @alimehdimukadam

I don’t think ads belong in AI Overviews – AI Mode makes a lot more sense – @navahhopkins

Honestly this feels like going back to the future when in SEO you could manipulate results with certain content schemes. Especially when you see that chart. You can cram Quora or Reddit with mentions of your brand if you were so inclined – @NeptuneMoon

@Navah Hopkins If I have to shake the cushions, I’ll have to show ads in AI Overviews. – @alimehdimukadam

Also, for what it is worth, my middle schooler is being taught at school that AI Overviews are trash and not to use them in anything academic – @NeptuneMoon

I was wondering how you could get your products listed there. Obviously, they won’t build an interface for it, and also it’s AI, so probably you’ll get a LSA style, this is my budget and this is my tCPA type dashboard and AI will sort out the rest. But the rest is a bit blurry. Since I’ve seen someone managed to rank a non existing Dutch shutter firm to get recommended by AI, I think it will be a really long way for the companies to firgure out how to combat spam & bad actors. Because so far no one worked on to ‘influence’ AI, but the more money and business will come into play, the larger the stake will be and there is always bad actors or people who’d like to cut corners. Btw Google/MS is dealing with these for long, but this will be a new territory for the LLM companies – @ernohorvath

Q4: Do you have any clue how to get your brands’ ads into AI Overviews? (Yes I know this is a bit of a trick question, but it is worth discussing)

Contextual Targeting might make a come back coz ads in AI overviews/mode is nothing but Contextual Targeting of a different kind. Context & Intent would be the key pillars for organic and ads. – @alimehdimukadam

Here is Google Ads’ documentation on the subject: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16297775?hl=en . It is also important to note that there are no capabilities for differentiating AI Overview placements in your data in Google Ads. So basically we all have no idea if our ads might be showing up there, how often they appear, how they perform vs. traditional placements, etc. I honestly feel like a giant shrug emoji when it comes to these ads cause even if I’m doing what is advised to be eligible I can’t report on it – @NeptuneMoon

Thats the thing – if there’s no reporting on it, it’s really hard to judge or be held accountable to it in any sense – @revaminkoff

From The Gemini Report – two things that caught my eye.

1. A now-classic example provided by Google illustrates this perfectly: a user searches, “why is my pool green and how do I clean it?”. This is a research query, not a shopping query. A traditional keyword-based system would struggle to find a commercial match. However, the AI Ads Engine analyzes the AI Overview, which will likely discuss causes like algae and solutions like chemical treatments and vacuuming. Understanding this context, the engine can infer a latent commercial need and serve a highly relevant ad for a “pool vacuum cleaner” directly within the helpful, non-commercial answer.

This capability unlocks what Google calls “previously inaccessible moments of high relevance,” allowing advertisers to connect with users earlier in their journey, at the precise moment a need is identified but before a commercial search is initiated. The ad auction is no longer a simple two-way interaction between a user’s query and an advertiser’s bid; it is a more complex, three-way interaction between the user, the AI’s generated content, and the advertiser. This means an advertiser’s ad performance is now partially dependent on the output of a generative AI model, which is itself dependent on the quality of third-party organic content. This introduces a new layer of unpredictability and a new vector for optimization – @alimehdimukadam

Right, so if performance dips and we check all the usual suspects to figure out why and can’t, is it now just “well, must be AI Overview ads screwing it all up?” – @NeptuneMoon

I read this for the first time – The Future: The “Token Auction” Model
Looking further ahead, research from Google and the University of Chicago has outlined a theoretical framework for a radically different type of ad auction, purpose-built for a generative AI world: the “Token Auction”.

• The New Metric: In this model, traditional metrics like clicks and impressions become obsolete. The new measure of performance would be Total Variation Distance (TVD), a statistical metric that quantifies how much an advertiser’s input changed the final generated text from what it would have been otherwise. Advertisers would pay for influence, not just placement. – @alimehdimukadam

@Ali See I disagree that that type of query can’t match to an ad easily. If I sell a product that addresses pool issues that result in them being green, I would absolutely be bidding on terms around green pool water – @NeptuneMoon

Now Google is pushing the direction of search refinement instead of a user doing it themselves. Same end result generally though. If you don’t get what you’re looking for in the first search, you try again by changing your query. Or with AI Google guesses at changing your query and you tell it if it’s hot or cold on its guess and it moves from there.

Right but if you don’t get what you’re looking for in either scenario, you’re just going to refine your query and search again – @revaminkoff

I think Ads in AI should be done in environments like Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT – the unlock there is personalization and context AI already has about you. Search should be just search. – @alimehdimukadam

I feel like I am all counterpoints today, but Google regular flavor is still using what it knows about you from your previous searches in regular old search – @NeptuneMoon

Pretty sure Google/Microsoft will realize this – for bottom line and for user behavior. Humans are inquisitive by nature – they would want to read, research and if there is mistrust of AI – it’s gone, that user isn’t coming back soon. Like the scam call Lily had highlighted. – @alimehdimukadam

And right now AI doesn’t do anything that you can’t do yourself in refining your queries. It tries to feel like it has some greater power but it is just asking you leading questions to help your in your thought process if you’re not a great searcher. – @NeptuneMoon

That’s where Perplexity shines the best for me – something about their UI and transparency they seem to have cracked much better than others as far as trust is concerned. As an advertiser – those leading questions are the targeting features I would like to use to show a relevant ad. – @alimehdimukadam

Q5: Are you testing AI Max for Search yet in Google Ads? If not, why not? And if so, how is it going?

I am not testing AI Max at this time. Low conversion volume lead gen sites are not exactly prime for testing this campaign type – @NeptuneMoon

standard answer for me: no ASC approval possibilities = not in use. – @JuliaVyse

I’m not testing yet – need asset and landing page approval, which would leave expanded broad match, and some of the buzz I’ve seen on that has been not great so far – @revaminkoff

I am also still hung up on the whole keywordless aspect too. How will we be responsible for managing things that we have no insight into? – @NeptuneMoon

Soon, doing a test this week. Hopefully it goes well – @alimehdimukadam

Testing to see what is it – if anything we as professionals would be able to see – insights, reports, etc. – @alimehdimukadam

One question I’ll shamelessly ask: do you feel motivated to use AI Max and PMax or do you see PMax as the main AI resource and AI Max is less exciting – @navahhopkins

I am motivated purely out of curiosity. I am sure if there is a separate AI Max – it has to be something different. – @alimehdimukadam

We are testing it in one account and I’m still trying to figure out the difference between ‘broad’ and AI MAX, probably it’s a too small campaign, but for example

• XXXX software – > broad match
• XXXX for games – > AI Max

• YYYY hp laptop – > AI Max
• YYYY for hp laptop – > broad match

I’m not seeing a huge difference or logic why it’s AI Max and not broad at this point. – @ernohorvath

PPCChat Participants

• Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
• Navah Hopkins @navahhopkins
• Ali Mehdi Mukadam @alimehdimukadam
• Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
• Reva Minkoff @revaminkoff
• Erno Horvath @ernohorvath

Related Links:

• AI Max for Search: What It Is, How It Works, and When to Use It?
• PPCChat | Questions About AI Max for Search Campaigns | 13th May 2025
• PPCChat | Google Ads AI Max for Search Campaigns announcement | 6th May 2025