Google Introduces Ads to AI Mode Search Results After Six-Month Testing Period

Ads Are Coming to Google's AI Mode: Here's What They Look Like

(Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Six months after Google first teased ads for AI Mode, they're now appearing in the company's chatbot-style search tool. On X, Greg Sterling noticed a local HVAC repair recommendation in a box marked "Sponsored" below typical results from Google's AI. SEO expert Brodie Clark successfully replicated the same "Sponsored" tag in a different search related to plumbing in their area. Sterling's example was in Google's experimental Labs tools, but Clark saw it in the public-facing AI Mode. Clark's example shows two different recommendations for local plumbers under a title that says, "Find emergency plumbing services that offer 24-hour service." It's unclear if the title was written by Google, Gemini AI, or the companies that paid for placement. Unlike traditional Google Search, organic results for the prompt appeared above the ads. Those ads appear above the AI search box, which many users use to expand on queries or ask follow-up questions. Organic recommendations in both examples appeared at the top of the results as well as in a box on the right-hand side. In May, Google said it was "expanding ads in AI Overviews to desktop, and bringing ads to AI Mode to create new opportunities for our customers." Google didn't publicly acknowledge a delay, but ads haven't appeared for users until now. In August, Search Engine Land reported that Google had begun briefing brands and agencies about ads coming to AI Mode in Q4. That's likely what this is, but it appears Google remains in a testing phase. We were unable to trigger ads within AI Mode on similar topics that would typically generate ads in Search.

Google begins showing ads in AI Mode (AI answers)

Google has started rolling out ads in AI mode, which is the company's "answer engine," not a search engine. AI mode has been available for a year and is accessible to everyone for free. If you pay for Google One, AI mode lets you toggle between advanced models, including Gemini 3 Pro, which generates an interactive UI to answer queries. Up until now, Google has avoided showing ads in AI mode because it made the experience more compelling to users. At the same time, Google has been slowly pushing users toward AI mode in the hope that people get used to the idea and eventually use ChatGPT or Google Search. These ads have a "sponsored" label because Google needs to comply with the law of the land, and they're similar to the usual links (citations) in AI answers. We noticed that these ads appear at the bottom of the answer compared to citations, which mostly appear in the right sidebar. It's possible that Google's tests found ads at the bottom of the answer have a higher CTR (click-through rate), or it could be one of the experiments. What do you think? Do you think people would click on ads in AI mode as much as they do in regular search?

Google starts testing ads in AI Mode

Google has started inserting ads into query results from its AI Mode, which was originally spotted by an SEO consultant named Brodie Clark. These ads show up in the bottom of search results in the Gemini-powered AI Mode. They are labeled as "sponsored" content, but otherwise look similar to other links whipped up by the chatbot. Google says this is just a test and that ads shouldn't be showing up for all users. The company also told 9to5Google that there are no current plans to fully update AI Mode to incorporate ads. Those are nice words, but AI has to make money somehow and ads seem to be a good way to do that. For now, the software seems to be prioritizing organic links over sponsored links, but we all know how insidious ads can be once the floodgates open. AI presents an especially slippery slope here, as these chatbots are often advertised as personal assistants. I don't really want a personal assistant barking ads at me 24/7. Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be any way to hide the aforementioned sponsored links. Google Search lets users hide sponsored results once they scroll past them. It sure looks like our free ride is already coming to an end, as AI companies are really speedrunning through that whole enshittification thing. X recently announced that it would be incorporating ads into query results. There are also rumors that OpenAI has been hiring people to turn ChatGPT into an ad platform. That company's recently-launched AI social media slop factory Sora reportedly burns through $15 million a day generating videos of Sam Altman eating pizza in space or whatever.

The inevitable has happened: Ads on Google Search's AI Mode are here

Sponsored results now appear along with AI-generated responses. Google has long been working on ways to monetize its various AI efforts, especially when it comes to Search. Not surprising when you know Search accounts for a big part of the company's revenue. We're starting to see this come to fruition with ads arriving on the previously ad-free AI Mode experience. It was inevitable, but users are starting to see ads in Google Search's AI Mode. Earlier this week, X (formerly Twitter) user Greg Sterling pointed out that he saw ads for the first time in AI Mode for local HVAC repair. At the time, Sterling was using AI Mode in Google's experimental interface, known as Labs, which is signified by the beaker icon. However, another X user, Brodie Clark, was able to replicate this outside of Labs with a service-based query. According to Clark, these ads are labeled with a sponsored tag and look similar to the organic link cards seen elsewhere. It also appears that these ads are always located at the bottom of the results. Google started showing sponsored content in Search's AI Overviews on mobile about a year ago. Up until this point, AI Mode has been ad-free, likely to make it a more attractive experience as people became acquainted with it. But it looks like Google is taking the expected next step by adding sponsored content to AI Mode as well.

Google AI Mode brings an unwelcome surprise as ads start populating searches

Google has been making a huge push with AI over the past year or so, doing its best to inject its apps and services with as many AI features as it can. The brand recently introduced Gemini 3 into Google Search, enhancing the search experience for many users by offering more thoughtful and complete responses. And while some of the AI features can be useful, and others even amazing, it's all about Google increasing its business at the end of the day. So, as you can imagine, it was only a matter of time before we saw ads being injected into AI spaces, with Brodie Clark sharing on X that Google's AI Mode will incorporate ads in its search results going forward (via 9to5Google). Are we even really that surprised this is happening? As much as I'd love to be alarmed or even shocked, it's pretty much par for the course at this point. Google's business revolves around ads, so anywhere where the brand can make a dollar, you can bet that it's going to utilize that space. Personally, I don't use AI Mode for my daily searches, but did try it out in order to see whether this was live on any of my accounts. For the time being, I wasn't able to replicate ads popping up in AI Mode, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it rolls out to all accounts. As far as how it looks, Brodie Clark offers a pretty good example, sharing that the ad, for the moment, will appear towards the bottom of search results. Just like other ad results you see on Google products and services, you'll see a small "Sponsored" disclaimer on the banner, making it easier to spot. Again, this isn't all that surprising, but I think what is probably important to most people after seeing this sort of thing happen is whether ads will start popping up on Gemini. A lot of people have come to rely on this tool for everyday use, and some even pay to get access to advanced features. For now, Gemini appears to be free from ads, but that could always change in the near future, and may even cause quite an uproar.

Google is starting showing ads in a popular search mode

Google has officially started showing sponsored ads within its Gemini-powered AI Mode search results. This is something we all knew was coming eventually, but seeing the ads roll out into the official build shows that it's finally coming. These new sponsored cards are creeping into the AI Mode searches, just like they do in standard Google Search results. Right now, the placement is happening at the very bottom of the AI-generated response. If you are looking at a big, comprehensive answer from Gemini, the ads are currently tucked away right at the end of the page. The ads are clearly labeled with the required "sponsored" tag, appearing in a similar format to the organic link cards that Google places right above them. I tried getting them on my own searches, almost outright asking for ads, and didn't see any. However, I've seen a few posts talking about seeing it in a search, so it may just be a rollout that will hit everyone with time. Either way, we all knew this would eventually come. I've seen sponsored results appearing for high-value, service-based queries. Specifically, they were spotted during searches for things like HVAC requests and dog grooming. This makes me think that Google is targeting searches where the conversion potential is huge for advertisers, focusing on users who need to hire someone immediately. The big news here is that this isn't just a limited experiment anymore. While previous sightings of AI ads were sometimes within the experimental Google Labs interface, the ads are now displaying outside that experimental environment. This confirms the change is moving into a formal, wider rollout for the general user base. It is unclear exactly how long it will take for this change to reach everyone, but it seems to be appearing for a handful of users in a gradual process right now. The current design prioritizes organic link cards above the sponsored results, which is a temporary relief. However, I don't doubt that, like regular search, Google will eventually make this far more visible. We usually see ad placements start small and then creep higher up the page as companies try to maximize revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing sponsored content integrated right into the middle of the AI answer output, like how they appear in the main section of traditional search results. This is a significant difference between Google's AI Mode and competitors like ChatGPT. ChatGPT doesn't have the massive ad infrastructure that Google does, though we know other platforms are also exploring how to monetize their AI answers. So I don't think that AI will be completely free from ads for long. Google recently added extra options in traditional searches that let users hide sponsored results more easily. Right now, those extra options do not seem to extend to the new AI Mode. There is no visible "hide" button in the source images for the AI answers, so we won't get that level of control in the new setup for now. Still, never say never when it comes to features. For Google, the monetization machine is already built and ready to go, and it's clearly being integrated into every corner of the search ecosystem. We should expect this gradual rollout to continue, bringing ads to more and more users who rely on the AI Mode for quick, synthesized answers.

Google Search's AI Mode starts showing advertisements

Users are reportedly seeing advertisements in the much-promoted "AI Mode" of Google Search. If you've been enjoying the lack of advertising in Google's new "AI Mode", which replaces conventional web searches with a ChatGPT-style conversational interface, then I have bad news. Users are starting to see the former search engine's omnipresent ads creep into its shiny new mode as of November 20th. Oddly, it only seems to be a small fraction of users or queries that are showing these ads at the moment, and by default it's appearing below more direct answers. That's for the results that are marked as "Sponsored" to comply with laws in the US and other countries. This is well below the advertising load in the "All" and far more direct "Web" tabs of Google Search, which show sponsored results immediately (and typically require lots of scrolling to get past for especially lucrative searches). BleepingComputer reports that ads are appearing below both the LLM-generated answers for user queries, centering the most immediate answer to the query, and effectively highlighting the sources for the generated answer on the right. These sources are still pretty lightly featured, especially on mobile, where I have to scroll to the very bottom of the page in order to see the sites that actually provide the information Google is scraping and regurgitating. I was unable to replicate advertising in AI Mode, despite using the same queries that users on Twitter did to find the ads, so they seem to be very limited at the moment (or tied to some other flag that doesn't apply). Google is under pressure at the moment, desperate to compete with skyrocketing use of tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, while preserving the web advertising empire that makes it one of the most valuable technology companies on the planet. Meanwhile, it's pushing its own AI tools onto users, in almost the same way Microsoft is trying to shove Copilot into every aspect of Windows and Office. Google still needs web advertising as a backbone in order to remain functional, so expect to see more of the familiar ads popping up into AI Mode and Gemini going forward.

Google AI Mode is starting to show ads in search results

Just like sponsored cards that appear in any normal Google Search results, ads are reportedly starting to creep into AI Mode searches. According to a post on Twitter/X by Brodie Clark, Google is reportedly placing ads at the bottom of search results in the Gemini-powered AI Mode. Similar to those that appear in traditional searches, Google Search's AI Mode is hiding ads at the very end of the page. The sponsored cards are reportedly moving to the official build, outside of Google's Labs experiments. They don't replace the organic results that line the outside and top of the AI Mode search in the new update. Previously, organic link cards appeared on the side, though Google seems to be placing them within Gemini's answer, above the new ads. Google looks to be prioritizing organic link cards in this update, rather than sticking sponsored ads at the top of the Search page. That isn't to say it won't happen, as there's limited information on how Google plans to unpack its ad strategy in AI Mode. This comes as Google recently announced it would make it easier for users to hide sponsored results that appear in traditional searches. Those extra options don't seem to extend to AI Mode. There doesn't appear to be a "hide" button in the source images. It's unclear how long it will take for this change to roll out among users, though it seems to be appearing for a handful of users in a gradual rollout.