Google expands AI search advertising to international markets — TechCrunch
Google has announced the expansion of advertising in artificial intelligence-powered search features to international markets. The company is scaling ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode to more users and search queries, TechCrunch reports.
Monetizing AI search
Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler announced the decision during Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings call with investors. According to him, the company is expanding the monetization of AI Mode to international markets for the first time. In the United States, Google also announced multi-step advertising and AI Mode.
Schindler said early results indicate the effectiveness of the new format: the click-through rate for sponsored product offers in AI Mode is already comparable to that of organic results. Google’s internal research, he said, also indicates that users consider such ads relevant.
In May, Google had already announced advertising formats based on Gemini. They included conversational product-search formats that answer users’ questions, as well as sponsored recommendations integrated into AI-generated responses.
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Search advertising growth is slowing
In the third quarter, Google’s search revenue increased by 12% year over year. In the second quarter, the figure was 17%, and in the first quarter it was 19%. Alphabet reported total revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% from a year earlier. After the results were released, Alphabet shares fell by 8%.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the number of search queries grew at the fastest pace in five years, though he did not provide an exact figure. According to him, queries in AI Mode are on average three times longer than regular ones, and one in five such queries worldwide involves the use of voice, images, or documents. Google also said that the number of visual searches exceeded 50 billion per month.
The Google Services division, which includes search, generated $96.3 billion in revenue, up 11% year over year. Google Cloud revenue rose by 103% to $30.7 billion.
