What industry data reveals about the impact of Google’s AI Overviews on paid search

Google’s AI Overviews have moved past the experimental section and at the moment are a everlasting a part of search. To evaluate their affect, Adthena analyzed information throughout six main industries from late December 2025 to January 2026, monitoring efficiency metrics from a whole lot of hundreds of advertisers, together with greater than 5 million advertisements.

Whereas combination information suggests stability, a deeper look reveals a special image. For advertisers, these automated summaries are not only a visibility concern; they immediately threaten PPC income.

What AI Overviews imply for paid search income

Generative summaries basically change the maths of a profitable marketing campaign. When an AI Overview pushes paid advertisements beneath the fold, it triggers a sequence response that impacts your profitability:

• Decrease CTR = fewer clicks: Decreased visibility results in fewer visits to your touchdown pages, shrinking your site visitors pipeline.
• Fewer clicks = fewer conversions: A smaller site visitors pool inevitably results in a drop in complete lead or sale quantity.
• Greater CPC = diminished profitability: In sectors the place AI summaries set off on high-competition phrases, the fee to remain related rises, squeezing margins and decreasing your return on advert spend (ROAS).

AI Overviews affect throughout six industries

Adthena tracked AI Overview frequency, content material themes, and CPC/CTR efficiency throughout desktop and cell. The findings present a fragmented panorama: affect varies by business, machine, question kind, and content material intent.

Content material themes: The battle for mid-funnel intent

Adthena’s evaluation reveals that Google is more and more shifting into comparability and tutorial areas, immediately difficult high-converting paid search territory.

• The comparability battle: In Telecom, Know-how, and Retail, AI Overviews are dominated by comparability content material. When Google gives a side-by-side evaluation, it satisfies the analysis section and should cease customers from clicking your advert to be taught extra.
• The informational buffer: Conversely, Healthcare (74% Information) and Monetary Companies (54% FAQ) see informational themes. These act as intent filters, doubtlessly defending advert spend by satisfying low-intent customers earlier than they attain a paid hyperlink.
• The chance hole: Drawback fixing content material stays nearly untouched at 0-2%. This can be a protected harbour for advertisers: troubleshooting queries are nonetheless largely free from AI interference.

CPC developments: The premium for visibility

Monitoring CPC fluctuations identifies the place advertisers are paying a visibility tax to remain aggressive.

• Know-how: Queries that includes an AI Overviews persistently present greater CPCs than these with out, a transparent sign that AI Overview presence is pushing up the price of visibility.
• Automotive & Retail: Automotive and retail present practically an identical price ranges no matter AI Overviews presence.
• Monetary Companies: CPC will increase might look modest right here, however in a sector the place CPCs are already excessive, the hit to marketing campaign profitability is more durable than the numbers recommend.

Machine splits expose desktop saturation

Segmenting by machine reveals a hanging divergence, however the image is extra nuanced than it first seems.

• Desktop dominance: Know-how and Training queries on desktop are closely saturated by AI Overviews, which means advertisements in these sectors nearly at all times compete with an Overview.
• Cellular alternative: Cellular AI Overviews have a decrease frequency throughout nearly all industries. However the restricted display screen actual property on cell signifies that when an Overview does seem, it displaces advertisements extra aggressively than on desktop, the place a number of advertisements typically stay seen beneath the abstract.

CTR developments present proof of site visitors erosion

Analyzing CTRs over time exposes the persistent efficiency gaps between influenced and customary search outcomes.

• Persistent gaps: Telecom and Know-how present persistently decrease CTRs when an AI Overview is current, representing a direct drain in your site visitors pipeline.
• Shopper resilience: Monetary providers and retail present narrower gaps, suggesting customers in these sectors nonetheless prioritize advertisements over AI Overviews.
• Late month volatility: Sudden spikes in healthcare illustrate how rapidly efficiency shifts as Google iterates on its AI rollout. 

Distribution information reveals the zero click on actuality

This closing layer of knowledge exposes the winner-takes-all state of affairs that common metrics typically cover.

• The baseline hole: With out AI Overviews, CTR holds up effectively throughout industries – Retail specifically. The place AI Overviews are absent, CTR holds up effectively throughout industries. The place they’re frequent, it doesn’t at all times and the hole between the 2 tells the true story.
• Excessive AI Overviews frequency, low CTR: When AI Overviews seem on practically each question, CTR hits its flooring throughout industries—together with Know-how. The upper the frequency, the much less site visitors advertisements reliably seize.
• Resilience in Automotive: Automotive reveals a more healthy unfold throughout mid-range frequency buckets, suggesting customers usually tend to bypass the abstract to seek out verified model data.

To safeguard your margins, begin right here:

1. Monitor Click on By means of Charges (CTR) and Price Per Click on (CPC) adjustments: Whereas not the total image, shifts in CTR or CPC can act as early indicators of AI Overviews affect.
2. Section efficiency by machine: Get away desktop and cell reporting to uncover device-specific developments that mixed information can cover.
3. Use Adthena’s free Market Share reports: Perceive how typically AI Overviews seem in your class and the place visibility is most in danger.

Gaining visibility with Adthena’s AI Overview answer

Understanding AI Overview affect requires steady, query-level intelligence. Adthena’s AI Overview answer indexes search outcomes a number of instances per hour, giving advertisers correct visibility into:

• AI Overviews frequency patterns by question, business, and machine.
• Content material themes and quotation sources.
• Efficiency metrics together with affect on CPC and CTR.
• Advert place vs AI Overviews.

With these insights, you’ll know precisely the place AI Overviews are disrupting your income and what to do about it earlier than your efficiency is impacted.

Coming quickly: Adthena’s AI Overviews answer can even embrace visibility into advertisements showing inside AI Overviews themselves, so that you’ll have a whole image of how your spend is performing throughout your entire SERP.

The SERP has modified: Adapt or fall behind

Google’s AI Overviews aren’t going away, however their affect isn’t common or inevitable. The advertisers who win gained’t spend extra; they’ll know precisely the place AI Overviews seem, what content material they floor, and the way their viewers responds. 

Precision wins. Assumptions don’t.

Book a demo to see precisely how AI Overviews are impacting your campaigns.