What actually changed on the results page
AI Overviews place an AI-generated summary at the very top of many search results, answering the query directly and pushing the classic blue links further down. For informational queries, this means more searches end without a click to any website, a continuation of the zero-click trend rather than a new one.
For advertisers the important nuance is where ads sit relative to the Overview. Google has been clear that ads continue to run, and on commercial queries ads often appear above or alongside the Overview. The page got more crowded and more AI-mediated, but paid placement did not disappear. It moved.
What we know versus what is still moving
What is reasonably established: AI Overviews appear most on informational and how-to queries, less on the tightly commercial ones where buying intent is obvious. Ads still serve. Organic click-through on queries that trigger an Overview tends to fall, because the answer is on the page already.
What is still moving: exactly how often Overviews show on commercial queries, how ad placement and click-through evolve around them, and whether Google introduces ad formats inside the AI experience itself. This is why any confident, precise claim about the impact deserves suspicion. The rollout is ongoing and the data shifts month to month, which is exactly why we set a refresh date on this page.
Why high-intent paid search holds up better
The queries most valuable to advertisers are usually the ones least disrupted. Someone searching a specific product, a local service, or a bottom-funnel comparison has clear buying intent, and those queries either trigger no Overview or still surface ads prominently. Someone searching a broad informational question is more likely to get an answer and never click, but that traffic was rarely high-converting paid traffic to begin with.
The practical read: AI Overviews erode the top-of-funnel informational clicks more than the commercial ones. A paid search account concentrated on high-intent, conversion-ready queries feels less of the impact than one that was buying broad, informational traffic.
How iClick adapts paid search to this
The response is measured, not dramatic. First, concentrate spend on high-intent, commercial queries where ads still show strongly and intent is real, and prune the broad informational terms most exposed to zero-click. Second, watch the account's own data rather than industry headlines: track impression share, click-through, and conversions on the queries that matter to you, because the aggregate story may not match your niche. Third, strengthen the parts of the funnel AI Overviews cannot take, brand demand, retargeting, and the landing experience that converts the clicks you do win.
Overreacting to AI Overviews by slashing search budget is as much a mistake as ignoring them. The evidence-led move is to follow your own numbers.
What not to do about AI Overviews
Do not panic-cut your paid search budget on the assumption that ads have stopped working. On commercial queries they have not.
Do not trust a single dramatic industry statistic about click-through collapse and apply it to your account. Impact varies enormously by vertical and query mix.
And do not assume the situation is settled. This is an active rollout, so the right posture is to keep measuring, keep your spend concentrated on real intent, and revisit the strategy as the data, and Google's own ad formats, continue to change.
