Google AI Overviews and Search | Resolution Digital Australia

Since AI Overviews have been rolled out into search results, paid ads have been impacted.

Google Australia has been testing its AI Overviews product in the Australian and New Zealand markets since late September 2024.

Google has deemed the results in other markets from testing AI overviews to show positive findings such as people are asking longer questions, exploring complex subjects, and uncovering new perspectives.

Following this positive feedback from other regions, Google is phasing in the rollout, starting with a smaller percentage of users herein Australia. This approach will expand gradually, impacting both organic and paid search strategies in the coming months.

Quick Recap: What are Google AI Overviews?

AI Overviews are machine-generated responses to user search queries, built on Google’s Gemini LLM (large language model)—previously BARD. When a user types a search within their Google Search page, AI overviews will form a consolidated response to the query, using formats like short text paragraphs, bullet point lists, and carousels, cited from web sources deemed genuine.

This continues Google's focus on relevancy and user experience, specifically giving the user a faster, more precise response to their search query—particularly for longer tail queries that would typically have taken a number of searches with the traditional UX.

"There is no escaping Machine learning driven technology. It is everywhere. In Search, it’s forever evolving. From automated bidding, and then later Performance Max, to now the use of ChatGPT/CoPilot and Google AI overviews in the Search landscape – AI is the center of it all.

Google AI Overviews, while still at its nascent stage in Australia, is predicted to grow at a rapid rate based on the positive results seen in other markets. Users are not just ‘searching’ for answers anymore, they are actually ‘interacting’ and ‘conversing’ (with BARD) to find the right solution to their questions. Understanding how your content shows up in these conversations is an important consideration for Brands/clients."

- Hayley Monteiro, Head of Activation, Resolution Digital

Impact of AI Overviews

eMarketer forecasts that Google will attract 70.5% of traditional search ad spending in 2026, and with AI Overviews scaling more broadly we expect their impact over the next few years to be significant.

AI Overviews drastically change the user experience within Google Search, forming more of what can be deemed an “answers engine” where users are given what they need in a more direct format, without necessarily having to navigate any further, as well as bolstering a more visual aesthetic.

This, combined with the size of the AI Overviews unit itself (taking up a large proportion of the page) poses a threat to SEO real estate and website traffic volumes as a result.

Microsoft Ads activity has also been running within CoPilot responses in local markets for some time and estimate that CoPilot users spending 2X amount of time engaging with the results in a conversational way, compared with traditional Search in Bing.

Considerations for Marketers

Brand Safety: Generative AI has progressed at a rapid rate, however, there continue to be instances where the machine capabilities fail their due diligence. This subsequently has the ability to pose a threat to brand safety in a situation where incorrect or mismatched information is given as an “answer”. When ad units are placed within the AIO response, the risk to the brand as an association is heightened, though sensitive categories we expect to be limited. To adapt to the new AI Overviews, marketers should focus on optimising long-tail keywords and making sure their content is structured in a way that aligns with Google’s AI ranking factors.
Reporting & Control: In both AI Overviews and MS Copilot, reporting is minimal, with no current ability to segment paid search performance by placement within the AI response. Advertisers will have no control over their ad placement within AI overviews, and with limited reporting, will not have much by way of insight to draw on from an optimisation perspective.
SEO: Theimpact on the SERP places increased focus on SEO hygiene to ensure brand authority and content alignment to the LLMs, reducing the impact on website traffic (and ranking).
Citations/Source Validity: Questions have been raised in the context of generative AI with regard to legitimacy and validity of citations being surfaced within AI Overviews, and subsequently presenting these responses as a conclusive “answer”.

Insights from OMG Global Markets

We have been working closely with our OMG counterparts in Global markets to understand the impact they are seeing.

To date, as scale is still building, with prior iterations only serving logged-in users and further AIO enhancements continuing to roll out at a pace, markets are still working to understand the real impact, present and future—coupled, of course, with the reporting limitations.

Reports from the OMG global markets, especially the U.S., show that the presence of AI Overviews varies significantly depending on industry verticals. For example, the ecommerce sector in the U.S. has seen a 20% default response rate for AI Overviews, while beauty products have a higher response rate at 27%.

These insights suggest that marketers in Australia should prepare for sector-specific impacts as AI Overviews gain traction locally.

Next Steps

Google has had a focus on AI use within its products for some time, with AI Powered Search functionality becoming increasingly prevalent within the Google Ads platform and more widely as Generative and Predictive AI capabilities continue to form a focus of their product roadmap - with more focus on the UX with more and more visual search formats coming through.

As such, this local launch of AI overviews has been expected for some time, with a lot of focus on associated products within Google Marketing Live earlier in the year, as well as the testing in overseas markets.

"As we work with Google and our OMG counterparts to learn more about and understand the impact of Google AI Overviews in the paid search world, we aim to develop strategies that leverage these insights to improve the overall search experience and performance and drive more effective results for our clients."

- Hayley Monteiro, Head of Activation, Resolution Digital

Considerations over brand safety and the legitimacy/influence from the sources cited within AI Overviews continue to be front of mind from a paid perspective. SEO/website traffic should be closely monitored over the coming weeks to stay ahead of any negative impact.