Google Introduces Expanded Ads in AIOs

This change to AI Overviews (AIOs) - information summaries and answers to users' queries that are generated by artificial intelligence - was announced at Google Marketing Live 2025.

Google claims that search traffic has increased by 10% for the types of queries to which AIOs are presented, and attribute that result to users searching more often because they are "happier with their results" - and that this can "create more opportunities for advertisers" to introduce their brands and products to new prospective customers.

Google admits that although at this time it's predominantly informational queries that produce AIOs, but say that the volume of commercial queries is increasing also.

As of right now, expanded Search and Shopping Ads have begun to appear in AIOs for US users on desktop computers. Rollout to mobile users and English-language ads in selected other countries is planned for later this year.

Although Google's announcement didn't address the issue of how user response to these expanded ads will be tracked, here are some speculations on mechanisms and metrics:

• Google Ads conversion tracking
• GTM
• GCLID in URLs
• Impressions
• Clicks
• CTR
• CPC
• Conversions
• Conversion Rate
• Cost per Conversion
• Conversion Value
• ROAS
• Google Analytics integration with Google Ads
• Attribution modeling

That's a long list. Let's hope that Google will soon provide some more specific information on tracking.