# AI Overviews and SGE: What They've Actually Done to Google Ads Search CTR > Real account data on how Google's AI Overviews have changed Search ad CTR, CPA, and ROAS. Where it hurts, where it doesn't, and the paid search strategy that's working post-AI Overviews. **By Murtaza Rangwala** · **Published:** Jun 03, 2026 · **Read time:** 7 min read · **Category:** Audits When AI Overviews started appearing for real queries in 2024, every Google Ads marketer panicked. Twitter was a flood of "Search is dead" posts. LinkedIn was full of "this changes everything" hot takes. Now, with about 18 months of real data behind us, the picture is clearer — and more nuanced than either the doomsayers or the optimists made it sound. AI Overviews didn't kill Search ads. They didn't leave them untouched either. The impact varies dramatically by industry, query type, and what your ad creative actually offers. Here's what I've seen across multiple accounts running through the AI Overviews rollout. With numbers, not vibes. !!! **The TL;DR:** AI Overviews push paid Search ads further down the page on informational queries. CTR drops 15-30% in those query categories. But for *transactional* and *branded* queries, AI Overviews barely appear and CTR is largely unchanged. Industries hit hardest: travel research, healthcare information, B2B comparison. Industries barely affected: e-commerce purchase intent, ticketing, local services. !!! ## What AI Overviews actually are AI Overviews (sometimes still called SGE — Search Generative Experience) are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google Search results for certain queries. They pull from multiple sources, generate a paragraph or two of summary, and sometimes include links to the underlying pages. They push organic results and ads further down the page. Key things to know: - They don't appear on every query. Google decides query by query. - They appear most often on **informational queries** ("how does X work", "what is X", "best X for Y"). - They appear less often on **transactional queries** ("buy X", "X near me", "X tickets"). - They almost never appear on **branded queries** ("Nike", "Atlantis Dubai"). - They are slowly being rolled out to more languages and regions. ## What I measured Across four accounts during the period when AI Overviews became prevalent in their queries, I tracked: - Impressions - CTR (impression-weighted) - Position on SERP (top vs other) - Conversion rate (to see if surviving clicks were higher or lower quality) Same campaigns, same budgets, same bids. The only changing variable was Google's progressive rollout of AI Overviews. ## What I found by query type ### Informational queries: 18-32% CTR drop Queries like *"best sunscreen for sensitive skin"* or *"how to choose running shoes"* saw the biggest drops. The mechanic is simple: AI Overview answers the question above the fold. Users get the answer they came for. They don't scroll. They don't click. If your account leans informational (content sites, B2B research, "best of" comparison queries), this is the hardest hit. CTR drops of 20-30% were common. ### Transactional queries: 0-8% CTR drop Queries like *"buy iPhone 16"* or *"Dubai aquarium tickets"* showed minimal CTR impact. AI Overviews barely appear here. When they do, they don't satisfy the intent — users still need to click through to actually buy or book. CTR drops were small and statistically borderline. For e-commerce, ticketing, lead-gen with clear transactional intent — AI Overviews barely moved the needle. ### Branded queries: ~0% CTR drop No measurable impact. Branded queries don't trigger AI Overviews. Brand campaigns kept running as before. ### Local intent queries: 4-12% CTR drop Queries like *"physio near me"* or *"plumber London"* saw small drops, mostly from AI Overviews offering summary maps and listings. Direct local services and small local CTAs survived best. ## The conversion-quality angle nobody talks about Here's the counterintuitive finding: **the clicks that survived AI Overviews converted at higher rates**. In one account, informational query CTR dropped 26%. But conversion rate of those surviving clicks rose 19%. Net conversions only dropped 11%, not 26%. Why? AI Overviews seem to filter out "casual browsers" — users who would have clicked once and bounced. The users still motivated enough to scroll past the AI summary and click an ad are higher-intent. This doesn't fully offset the CTR loss. But it softens it. And it changes how you should respond. ## What works in the AI Overviews era ### 1. Lean harder into transactional and local intent If your account was mixed between informational and transactional, redistribute budget toward the transactional side. The informational side is permanently less efficient. ### 2. Sharpen the offer in ad copy When AI Overviews answer the question, the ad below has to offer something the AI didn't: a price, a unique product, a fast booking, a guarantee. Generic "we sell X" ads are dead. Specific "X in 24 hours, free returns, £40 cheaper than retail" ads still pull through. ### 3. Use Sitelinks and assets aggressively The more SERP real estate you own with your ad (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, prices, promotions), the harder it is for AI Overviews to push you below the fold. Ad strength alone won't save you. SERP coverage will. ### 4. Reconsider broad match on informational queries Smart Bidding with broad match used to capture informational queries cheaply because conversion rate was low but volume was high. Post-AI Overviews, even cheap clicks aren't reliably profitable on informational queries. In two accounts, switching informational broad-match campaigns to phrase or exact match improved ROAS by ~15%, even though impression volume dropped sharply. ### 5. Double down on lower-funnel keywords The brand and product-specific keywords (e.g., *"iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB price"*) are still high-CTR and largely AI Overview-free. Move budget there. ## What doesn't work ### Trying to "rank" in AI Overviews I see this pitch from SEO agencies constantly. There's no reliable way to control whether your page is cited in an AI Overview. Some best practices help (structured data, clear authority, fresh content) but you can't make it happen. Don't change your paid strategy hoping for AI Overview citations. Build for the user who skips past them. ### Bidding higher to "fight back" A lot of marketers reflexively raised bids when AI Overviews appeared. This usually made things worse — paying more for clicks that were now lower-volume and roughly the same conversion rate. CPCs went up. ROAS went down. ### Switching everything to display I've seen accounts panic-shift budget out of Search into Display or Demand Gen. In every case I've reviewed, Search still outperformed even with the AI Overview impact. Display is not a substitute. It's a complement. ## Use case: a luxury skincare e-commerce brand A composite based on patterns I've seen. A premium skincare e-commerce brand was running £45k/month on Google Ads, evenly split between: - **Informational keywords** (*"best night cream for dry skin"*, *"how to layer skincare"*) - **Transactional keywords** (*"buy [brand] night cream"*, *"[product name] price"*) As AI Overviews rolled out, the informational half collapsed. CTR dropped from 4.2% to 2.9%. CPA rose by 41%. Smart Bidding tried to compensate by raising bids, which made things worse. We did three things: - Cut spend on informational keywords by 60%. Kept only top performers. - Redirected that budget into transactional keywords with sharper, price-led ad copy and more sitelinks. - Added prominent "free shipping over £50" callouts since the AI Overview was promoting general advice but couldn't promote *this brand's* shipping offer. **Results over 90 days:** - Total spend down £8k. - Conversion volume up 7%. - CPA down 22% (back below the pre-AI-Overview baseline). - Profit ROAS up 31%. The account didn't shrink. It refocused. ## Common mistakes - **Assuming AI Overviews killed Search.** They didn't. They killed *informational* Search ads. Transactional and branded queries are largely fine. - **Bidding higher to compensate.** Usually backfires. Lower-volume clicks rarely justify the higher CPC. - **Ignoring the conversion-quality uplift.** Don't measure CTR in isolation. Measure CPA and ROAS post-AI Overviews. Some of the lost CTR was junk you didn't want anyway. - **Trying to optimise for SGE citations.** Not controllable. Don't waste budget on it. - **Not updating ad copy.** Generic copy that used to work now fights an AI summary above it. Sharper offers cut through. ## Bottom line AI Overviews didn't end Google Ads. They redistributed value within it. - **Informational queries are permanently harder.** Move budget away unless they convert at top rates. - **Transactional and branded queries are largely intact.** Hold or grow budget here. - **Sharpen ad copy** with specific, AI-incomplete offers (prices, guarantees, speed, availability). - **Use the SERP coverage tools** (sitelinks, callouts, assets) to push AI Overviews further down or at least keep your ad on screen. - **Measure CPA and ROAS**, not CTR, when judging the impact on your account. The marketers who panicked moved budget to worse channels. The ones who shifted within Google Ads — toward transactional intent — came out ahead. Search isn't dead. It's just no longer the easy answer to a content-heavy strategy. --- **Sources and further reading:** - [About AI Overviews and Search ads (Google Ads Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15078491) - [Google AI Overviews announcement (Google blog)](https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/) - [About broad match (Google Ads Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2497836) - [Sitelink assets (Google Ads Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375416) --- **Tags:** ai overviews, google ads search ctr dropping, google ads ctr ## About the author Murtaza Rangwala is a senior independent Google Ads consultant. 8 years, 1,900+ campaigns shipped, $250M+ in client revenue generated. Independent practice capped at four concurrent clients. - More posts: https://www.murtazarangwala.com/blog - Book a 30-min call: https://calendly.com/murtaza_rangwala/30min - Free Google Ads audit: https://www.murtazarangwala.com/#audit