Google expands AI Search ads worldwide as core search ad growth slows

Google takes AI Mode ads global

Google is extending the ads it places inside its AI-powered search experiences to international markets for the first time. According to TechCrunch, the announcement came during Alphabet's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, alongside the introduction of multi-turn ads and further rollout of AI Mode in the US.

The move arrived with a mixed set of financial results. Alphabet reported quarterly revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% year over year, yet its shares dropped 8% following the release, TechCrunch reports.

Search ad growth is decelerating

The pressure point is Search advertising. Google Search revenue grew 12% year over year in the third quarter, down from 17% growth in the second quarter and 19% in the first. That steady deceleration increases the urgency for Google to prove that its expanding AI features can generate meaningful advertising revenue rather than acting solely as a costly upgrade to the product.

Alphabet's chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told investors that the company is now scaling what he characterized as high-quality ads within AI Overviews and AI Mode to more users and queries. He described the expansion as taking Google's AI monetization footprint global for the first time, moving into international markets at the same time as the new multi-turn formats and the broader US availability of AI Mode.

Early signals on performance

Google says the early numbers are encouraging. According to Schindler, click-through rates for sponsored product listings in AI Mode are already comparable to those of organic listings, and the company's user research indicates that people find the ads relevant to their queries.

The formats build on ad products Google announced in May, which rely on its Gemini models. Those include conversational discovery ads that respond directly to users' questions, and sponsored recommendations embedded within AI-generated answers.

How people search is changing

CEO Sundar Pichai provided context for the bet, saying that Search queries grew at their fastest year-over-year rate in five years, though he did not give a specific figure. He attributed the shift to AI features changing how people use the product, including longer and more complex queries.

The usage patterns back that up. Queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than traditional searches, Pichai said, and one in five AI Mode searches worldwide involves voice, images, or documents. Google also said it now handles more than 50 billion visual searches per month.

Elsewhere in the results, TechCrunch reports that Google Services, the division that includes Search, generated $96.3 billion in revenue, up 11% year over year, while Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.7 billion. The quarter also saw the release of Gemini 4 Argon, the Gemini app reaching one billion monthly users, and the launch of the Pixel 11 lineup.

Why it matters

Google's core search advertising business is maturing at the same time as generative AI threatens to reshape how people find information. Making AI-generated answers carry ads is Google's answer to both problems, and this is the first time it is applying that model worldwide. If click-through rates hold at scale, it would validate AI chat-style search as a genuine advertising surface rather than a revenue drag, and offer a template for how AI answers get monetized across the industry. If they don't, Google faces growing investor pressure with fewer obvious places to make up the difference. The 8% share decline shows the market is watching closely either way.