Google is scaling ads in AI Mode to ten countries outside the US, taking the ad format beyond its home market. The Google announcement, published on 28 October, names Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore. Google plans to add Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2026, and has not given dates for them.
The move was announced on Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings call, where Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler described it as taking the company’s monetisation footprint global for the first time. Google launched multiturn ads in AI Mode in the US on the same day.
From a US Test to Ten Countries
Google began testing ads in AI Mode in the US in May 2025, with Search and Shopping ads on desktop and mobile. At its Marketing Live India event in 2025, it said ads were coming to AI Overviews in India. By November 2025, more US users were seeing ads inside AI Mode answers. India is now on the AI Mode list as well.
The expansion comes as Google’s core business slows. Alphabet reported third-quarter revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% year over year, but Google Search revenue grew 12%, down from 17% in the second quarter and 19% in the first, according to TechCrunch. Alphabet shares fell 8% after the results.
Existing Campaigns Join Automatically
Advertisers in the new markets do not opt in. the Google Ads help page on AI search ads says existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible, with no new campaign or separate budget required. Text ads and Shopping ads can appear, and Google says it is experimenting with local inventory ads and vehicle ads.
There is also no way out. The help page says advertisers cannot target AI Overviews or AI Mode on their own, or opt out of them separately from Search. Negative keywords, brand exclusions and asset pinning remain the controls that apply.
Billing does not change. Ads in AI Mode use the same auction and the same cost-per-click or conversion-based bidding as standard Search ads, and Google says advertisers are not charged extra to take part.
The Help Page Sets Narrower Limits
The help page’s eligibility list is more detailed than the announcement. It adds Indonesia, for AI Overviews only, limits Pakistan to text ads, and gives English as the only language. Google notes that the list may not be exhaustive.
Match type decides how much of the new inventory an account can reach. Exact and phrase match keywords are eligible only when a query shows direct commercial intent, such as “pool vacuum cleaners”. Contextual matching, where Google matches an ad to both the question and the AI answer, is open only to AI Max for Search, broad match, Shopping campaigns and Performance Max.
Google pitched keywordless ads in AI Mode to advertisers in August 2025, and the help page now sets that direction out as eligibility rules.
Results will be hard to isolate. Performance from AI Overviews and AI Mode is folded into standard campaign and search terms reports in aggregate, with no separate segment.
The Evidence Comes From the US
Google supports the expansion with two figures. It says AI Mode queries are on average three times longer than traditional searches, and that click-through rates are already similar between sponsored and organic product listings in AI Mode.
The announcement’s footnotes source the first figure to the Google AI Mode Report, US, May 2026, and the second to Google internal data from the US between 20 August and 3 September 2026. Neither was measured in the markets now being added, and Google has not published the underlying click-through rates.
This includes taking our monetization footprint global for the first time.
OpenAI Expanded a Week Earlier
OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Ads to 26 more countries on 21 October, bringing the total to 89, and said more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns since it launched ads just over eight months ago. ChatGPT Ads already run in Brazil and Mexico, two of the markets Google has scheduled for later this quarter, and the new list includes Nigeria and Pakistan.
The two companies are now selling ads inside AI answers in overlapping markets within weeks of each other. For advertisers in Google’s ten new countries, existing campaigns are already eligible, and negative keywords and brand exclusions are the levers left to them.
Recap
What is Google changing with ads in AI Mode?
Google is scaling ads in AI Mode in Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore, and plans to add Brazil, Mexico and the UK in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its help page lists English as the only supported language.
How do advertisers get into AI Mode ads?
Existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are automatically eligible through the standard Google Ads auction, at no extra charge. Exact and phrase match keywords only serve on queries with direct commercial intent, while AI-powered targeting can also be matched to the AI response.
What changes for advertisers in the new markets?
Their campaigns can now appear inside AI Mode answers, and they cannot opt out of AI Mode separately from Search. Results are reported in aggregate within standard campaign and search terms reports, so AI Mode performance cannot be viewed on its own.