Saturday 7th March 2026
The shift you’re seeing in search isn’t theoretical anymore—it’s already reshaping how Google Ads works in practice.
As platforms like Google move toward AI-generated answers and personalised discovery experiences, the role of paid search is being quietly but fundamentally redefined. Fewer users are clicking through multiple results, more decisions are being influenced before a click even happens, and the signals that drive ad performance are becoming increasingly opaque.
For advertisers, this creates a strange tension. On the surface, Google Ads still looks familiar: keywords, campaigns, budgets, bids. But underneath, the mechanics are shifting toward automation, audience modelling, and AI-led decisioning. What worked reliably even two or three years ago is becoming less effective—not because the platform is broken, but because user behaviour has changed.
The practical question, then, is not whether Google Ads still works.
It’s how to use it effectively in a landscape where search is no longer the starting point, but just one touchpoint in a much broader, AI-driven journey.
None of this means Google Ads is finished. It means the way you use it needs to change. Here is what the most forward-thinking advertisers are doing today:
Fewer people are clicking ads — and that trend is not going to reverse.
What matters now is whether your ad spend is actually bringing in customers and generating revenue. Focus on what a new customer costs you to acquire, and how much revenue you're getting back for every pound you put in. Clicks on their own tell you very little about whether your campaigns are working.
A lot of searches that used to land on Google — the "what is," "how does," "best options for" type of queries — are now being answered by AI tools before the user ever opens a search engine.
If you're still paying for those terms, you're largely paying for people who are browsing rather than buying. Focus your budget on searches that come from people who already know what they want and are ready to make a decision.
Your own sales data and website analytics will tell you which search terms have historically led to actual purchases — start there.
Citations drive trust.
When Google's AI summarises an answer at the top of the search results, the brands it mentions get dramatically more traffic — including more paid clicks — than those it ignores. Brands cited in AI Overviews see 91% more paid clicks on those searches than brands that aren't mentioned at all.
You can't pay to be included in those summaries, but you can earn it: by having genuinely useful content on your site, collecting strong reviews, making sure your website is structured in a way that AI can easily read, and building a consistent presence across the web.
Someone who clicks through from an AI-assisted search has usually already done their homework.
They've compared their options, read reviews and have a rough idea of pricing before they even land on your site. Don't greet them with a long introduction to your business — they don't need it. Get straight to the point: make it immediately clear what you offer, why you're the right choice, and how easy it is to take the next step.
The simpler the path from landing page to purchase, the better.
As it becomes harder to reach brand new customers cheaply through Google search, the people who already know you become much more valuable.
Google now lets you target existing customer lists with as few as 100 contacts — so even smaller businesses can use their CRM data to reach previous buyers, lapsed customers or people who enquired but didn't convert. Think about where someone is in their relationship with your brand and tailor your message accordingly, rather than showing everyone the same generic ad.
Google's newer campaign types are powerful, but they deliberately obscure a lot of detail about what's actually driving your conversions. It can be easy to look at overall numbers that seem healthy while missing the fact that the genuinely valuable search traffic underneath is quietly shrinking.
Wherever possible, dig into the specifics: which placements are performing, which devices, which types of queries. And keep an eye on how often AI Overviews are appearing for your most important search terms — there are third-party tools that can track this. Know what you're actually paying for.
If a large part of your audience is now starting their research on ChatGPT, Perplexity or TikTok rather than Google, then you need to be present in those places too.
That might mean exploring advertising on newer AI platforms as they open up paid placements, or it might simply mean investing more in YouTube, social ads or other channels that reach people earlier in their decision-making.
Google Ads can still be a core part of how you grow — but treating it as your only channel is increasingly a risk rather than a strategy.
Google has confirmed it is actively testing ads within AI Mode responses in the US, and Google SVP Nick Fox has stated that ads in Gemini are “not ruled out.”
The logical endpoint is a sponsored placement woven into a conversational response — something like: “Based on your recent search history, Xero is a top choice for freelancers. Sponsored.” These ads will be contextual, dynamically generated and priced on intent relevance rather than keyword bids.
Advertisers who understand how to present their brand inside advisory and comparison contexts will have a significant advantage when this format scales.
As Personal Intelligence connects more of a user’s digital life to Google’s AI layer, the intent signals available to Google’s ad models will deepen dramatically.
An advertiser targeting ‘home renovation’ today sees intent inferred from a keyword. The same advertiser in 2027 may be able to reach a user whose AI assistant already knows they recently received a kitchen quote, Googled planning permission and saved a mood board on Chrome.
The targeting depth changes the value of every placement. Premium will be redefined.
For commercial product queries, Google is steadily evolving toward an AI-curated marketplace model — similar to how Amazon already operates. They’ve been shopping foes for decades and now the battle is more balanced.
Rather than showing a list of results for “best wireless headphones for gym use,” the AI will generate a shortlist, explain the trade-offs, and surface a mix of organic recommendations and paid placements within a single unified answer. The competitive space becomes visibility inside the AI’s selection logic, not position on a keyword-triggered results page.
Shopping feed quality, review volume, structured data and brand authority will all feed into that logic.
CPCs are at a six-year high and rising.
But as discussed above, the clicks that remain are increasingly bottom-of-funnel and purchase-ready, because AI tools have pre-qualified users before they reach the SERP. For advertisers with strong landing pages and conversion flows, this dynamic — fewer but better clicks at higher cost — can still deliver acceptable returns. The risk is for advertisers who pay premium CPCs for remnant traffic across broad placements without the conversion infrastructure to justify it.
The gap between well-optimised and poorly-optimised Google Ads accounts will widen considerably.
Taken together, these changes point to a very different future for paid media.
Google Ads is not disappearing, but it is becoming less visible, less controllable, and more dependent on systems that operate beyond the advertiser’s direct line of sight. The shift toward AI-driven discovery means that success will rely less on tactical optimisation—tweaking bids, refining keywords—and more on the strength of your overall presence: your data, your creative, your reputation, and how clearly your offering aligns with real user needs.
What’s emerging is not just a new set of ad formats, but a new competitive environment.
Brands are no longer competing purely for position on a results page. They are competing to be understood, trusted, and selected by AI systems that are increasingly acting as intermediaries between businesses and customers. That changes the nature of visibility itself.
The advertisers who adapt will be those who accept this shift early—who invest in better data, sharper messaging, and a broader channel strategy rather than trying to hold onto a version of Google Ads that no longer exists.
Search isn’t what it was.
And Google Ads won’t be either.
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