Google expands ads in AI Mode to 10 more countries: what advertisers control

Google is taking ads in AI Mode beyond the US. In an October 28, 2026 post on its Ads & Commerce blog (opens in a new tab), the company said it is scaling these ads in ten more countries. Seven are in Asia-Pacific (Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore), two are in Africa (Kenya and Nigeria), and the tenth is Canada. It also launched multiturn ads in the US, which allow ads to appear on follow-up questions within an AI Mode conversation.

You don’t need a new campaign to take part, and you can’t opt out separately. Whether your ads show comes down mostly to the targeting you already use.

What Google announced

• Ten more countries: the list above, added to the US.
• More to come: Google plans to add further locales in the fourth quarter of 2026, including Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
• Multiturn ads: in the US, ads can now appear on follow-up questions, not only on the first query in a conversation.
• Labeling: ads carry a Sponsored label, and Google says it will keep testing new formats.

Google supports the move with two figures of its own. It says the average AI Mode query runs to about three times the length of a traditional search, citing its AI Mode report for the US from May 2026. It also says click-through rates are similar for sponsored and organic items in AI Mode product lists, citing internal US data from August 20 to September 3, 2026. Both are Google’s own numbers, and the post gives no further detail on how they were measured.

As of November 10, 2026, Google’s help page on ads in AI-powered Search experiences (opens in a new tab) lists ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode as available in English in the US and the ten new countries. It notes two limits: Pakistan is text ads only, and Indonesia has ads within AI Overviews but not AI Mode. Google adds that the list may not be complete.

Which campaigns are eligible

Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns take part automatically through the normal auction. Text ads and Shopping ads can appear, and Google says it is experimenting with other types, including local inventory ads and vehicle ads.

Your match types decide how far that eligibility goes. Google describes two kinds of matching:

• Direct matching works as it does on a standard results page. The query itself shows commercial intent.
• Contextual matching uses both the query and the AI response. It applies when someone asks a longer, exploratory question and the commercial angle only emerges in the answer.

Targeting	Direct commercial queries	Exploratory questions
AI Max for Search, broad match, Shopping, Performance Max	Eligible	Eligible
Exact match and phrase match keywords	Eligible	Not eligible

What you can and cannot control

• No separate targeting or opt-out. You can’t target only AI Overviews or AI Mode, and you can’t exclude them apart from Search.
• Existing guardrails still apply. Negative keywords, brand exclusions and asset pinning carry over.
• AI explainers are out of your hands. In some placements, Google’s Gemini models write a short explanation of how an ad relates to the search. It can draw on the query, the AI response and public sources, including your website. You can’t write, edit, approve or switch off this text.
• Billing is unchanged. The same auction and bidding models apply, and Google says there is no extra charge.
• Reporting is aggregated. Impressions, clicks, conversions and cost from these placements are included in your normal campaign reports, and the queries are included in the search terms report. The help page does not describe a separate view for AI Mode.
• Organic answers are separate. Google states that buying ads does not influence its AI responses, and that being cited organically does not affect ad eligibility.

Next steps

1. Check which of your English-language campaigns target the ten new countries. Those campaigns may already be serving in AI Mode.
2. Annotate October 28 in your reports and save a baseline of click-through rate, cost per click and conversion rate by country, since the help page describes no way to break out AI Mode on its own.
3. Review your match-type mix. An account that runs only exact and phrase match is limited to direct commercial queries. If you want to test broad match or AI Max, run it as a controlled experiment with a fixed budget, not an account-wide switch.
4. Read your search terms report more often for the next few weeks. Longer, conversational queries may bring in terms you want to add as negatives.
5. Check that your landing pages and site copy are accurate and current. AI explainers can pull from your website, and you can’t edit them.
6. For Shopping, make sure your Merchant Center product data is complete and matches your landing pages. This is part of Google’s own advice for these placements.
7. If you advertise in Brazil, Mexico or the United Kingdom, plan for the same change before the end of the year.