If you run Google Search, Shopping, or Performance Max campaigns, the answer is probably yes, and you didn’t have to do anything for it to happen. On October 28, 2026, Google announced multiturn ads in AI Mode for the U.S. AI Mode ads can now appear in the answers to follow-up questions, after the first question someone types.
For most advertisers this isn’t a new campaign type to set up. It’s a new place your existing ads can show, and Google’s help documentation is clear that you can’t turn it off on its own. So the question for a business owner isn’t whether to opt in. It’s whether your current keyword setup and landing pages hold up when the person clicking has already spent several questions narrowing down what they want.
What Google Launched for Ads in AI Mode on October 28
Shashi Thakur, who runs Search Ads at Google, wrote the post on the Google Ads blog. It covered two changes.
Multiturn ads in the U.S. Google wrote that “to allow ads in follow-up queries in AI Mode, we are launching multiturn ads in the U.S.” A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Roundtable that these ads “show up on responses to follow-up user queries as users engage in back and forth conversations with AI Mode.” Ads are labeled “Sponsored.”
More countries. Ads in AI Mode, which first launched in May 2025 according to Search Engine Roundtable, are expanding to Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Singapore. Google said Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom are planned for later in Q4 2026. Google’s help page notes that Pakistan gets text ads only.
Google also made two claims in the post that are worth reading carefully. It said AI Mode queries are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches, citing its own May 2026 AI Mode report. And it said click-through rates are “already similar” between sponsored and organic product listings inside AI Mode, based on internal U.S. data from August 20 to September 3, 2026. That second claim is about product listings rather than text ads. Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz questioned whether it holds for text links. We’d treat it as Google’s number until advertisers see their own.
How Google Decides Which Ads Show
The more useful document is Google’s help page, About ads in AI-powered experiences in Google Search. It explains the mechanics that the blog post skips.
- Eligibility is automatic. All three of those campaign types are eligible to show in AI Overviews and AI Mode. No new campaign or separate budget is needed.
- There are two ways to match. “Direct” matching works like normal Search: the query shows clear commercial intent and your ad matches it. “Contextual” matching is new. For longer, exploratory questions, Google can match an ad to both the question and the AI’s answer when buying intent shows up in the answer’s suggested next steps.
- Match type decides which kind you get. Broad match, AI Max for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max are eligible for both direct and contextual matching. Exact and phrase match keywords only qualify when the query itself shows direct commercial intent.
- Same auction, same price. These ads use the same auction and bidding as standard Search ads, with no extra charge to take part.
You Can’t Opt Out of AI Mode Ads or See Them Separately
Two lines in Google’s help page matter more than the rest of the announcement combined.
First: you can’t target ads only to AI Overviews or AI Mode, and you can’t opt out of them separately from Search. If your campaign runs on Search, it’s in the pool.
Second: performance numbers from these placements, from impressions through cost, are included “in aggregate” in your standard campaign reports. The queries that trigger them also show up in aggregate in the search terms report. In plain terms, AI Mode traffic is mixed in with everything else. There’s no column that tells you which of last month’s clicks came from a follow-up question in an AI conversation.
That has three practical consequences for a business spending a few thousand dollars a month on Google Ads.
Broad match just got broader. Contextual matching means a broad match or Performance Max campaign can show on a conversation where the buying intent comes from Google’s own answer, not from words the person typed. That can be a good lead. It can also be someone researching a topic who never planned to hire anyone. Exact and phrase match campaigns are less exposed, because Google says they only enter when the query shows direct commercial intent.
The person clicking knows more than a normal searcher. By the third follow-up question, someone may have already compared options, narrowed by price or location, and ruled out alternatives. If your ad sends that person to a generic homepage or a broad service page, the page is a step behind the conversation that sent them.
Your reports will shift without telling you why. If cost per lead moves in the coming weeks, AI Mode placements may be part of the reason, and you won’t be able to isolate them in the standard reports. That makes the controls you do have more important.
Three Controls That Still Work in AI Mode
Google says your existing guardrails still apply. Negative keywords and brand exclusions are the main ones, along with settings like asset pinning. Those are the levers. Here’s how we’d use them.
- Read the search terms report every week for the next month. AI Mode queries are longer, so look for long, question-shaped search terms you’ve never seen before. Ask one question of each: would the person behind this query hire us? Add the ones that clearly wouldn’t as negative keywords. Since these terms appear in aggregate, this report is the closest look you’ll get at what AI Mode is matching you to. Note that search terms still have to meet Google’s privacy thresholds to appear, so some low-volume queries won’t show up at all.
- Set brand exclusions where they fit. Google’s query matching documentation says brand exclusions now work across all match types and Dynamic Search Ads as well as Performance Max, though it says the rollout is happening over the coming months. If you don’t want to pay for clicks from people asking AI Mode about a competitor’s brand, or about brands you don’t carry, this is the setting that stops it. Watch reach after you apply it so you don’t cut off queries that convert.
- Match your landing pages to the longer conversation. This is the one most advertisers skip. If someone asked AI Mode about the right service for a specific situation, then narrowed by price or location, the page they land on should answer that narrower question directly: the specific service, who it’s for, what it costs or how pricing works, and how to take the next step. A dedicated page per core service usually beats sending every click to one page. If your Google Ads account sends most traffic to the homepage today, fix that first.
One more decision is worth making on purpose rather than by default: whether your campaigns should rely on broad match and Performance Max at all. Contextual matching makes those settings reach further into exploratory conversations. For some businesses that reach finds new customers. For a local service business with a tight budget, a tighter set of phrase and exact match keywords may keep spend closer to people who are ready to call. There’s no single right answer, but it should be a choice, not something you inherited from a default setting.
What We Still Don’t Know
Google hasn’t published how often multiturn ads appear, how many follow-up questions in a conversation can carry an ad, or whether it plans to add separate reporting for AI Mode placements. The only click data in the announcement covers product listings, measured by Google, over a two-week window. Advertisers will learn far more from their own search terms and conversion data over the coming months than from the launch post.
It’s also worth remembering what the help page says about the other side: paid ads don’t influence the organic AI responses. Showing up in the unpaid part of an AI Mode answer still depends on your site being a source Google wants to cite, which is a question for your SEO strategy, not your ads.
Ad Spend Now Follows the Conversation
The change here isn’t a new ad format so much as a new place your budget can go without asking you first. The businesses that come out ahead will keep a close eye on their search terms and send each click to a page that answers the question the person actually asked.
If you’d like a second set of eyes on how your campaigns are matching in AI Mode, our Google Ads management team can review your search terms and landing pages and tell you what we’d change. Book a free strategy call and we’ll give you a straight answer.
