Google's AI search ads: what Gulf advertisers can use today

As more Google searches return an AI-written answer, anyone paying for search ads wants to know where the ads end up. Google has taken two routes so far: ads placed inside AI Overviews in a limited list of countries, and ads above and below AI Overviews everywhere else. AI Mode, the conversational search tab, is running tests and formats of its own.

Inside AI Overviews: 12 countries, none in the Gulf

According to Google's help page, ads can appear inside AI Overviews in 12 countries, in English only, on both mobile and desktop: Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and the US.

• Only text and shopping ads from Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible.
• Advertisers cannot opt out of the placement, and cannot target it either.
• There is no dedicated reporting; these ads are counted as top ads.
• Several categories are excluded, alcohol, gambling, finance, healthcare and politics among them.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Arabic do not appear on that list. In the Gulf, ads show above or below AI Overviews, as in every market that has them, but not within them.

What Google is testing in AI Mode

Google has tested ads below and within AI Mode answers in the US since 2025, without publishing a list of countries. At Google Marketing Live in May 2026, it announced new formats:

• Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers, both labelled Sponsored and both in testing.
• AI-powered Shopping ads, through Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping, which Google says will be available soon.
• Business Agent for Leads, expected in the following months.
• Direct Offers, which show exclusive discounts inside AI Mode and were first piloted in January 2026. Google says the AI never invents a deal: it uses only the advertiser's Merchant Center feed and the promotion codes the advertiser uploads.

The one statistic Google offered came from a survey it commissioned, in which 75 percent of people said they decide faster and with more confidence using AI Mode. None of the 25 countries surveyed is in the Gulf.

Which campaigns qualify

Ginny Marvin, Google's ads liaison, has said AI Max is not a requirement. Campaigns using broad match, AI Max, Performance Max, Shopping, Dynamic Search Ads and smart bidding are all eligible. An ad's relevance is judged against both the search and the AI answer, which raises the bar. In September, Google began a small test that lets exact and phrase match keywords serve in AI Mode for searches with explicit intent.

Claims to treat with caution

• Ads inside AI Overviews are live in the UK. The UK is not on Google's list.
• AI Mode ads have expanded to every country with AI Mode. This has not been traced back to Google.
• Any of this works in Arabic or in the Gulf. No Google source says so.

Getting ready while you wait

AI Mode has worked in Arabic since October 2025, so the audience is already there. When Google extends ads, accounts that already qualify will be first in line. Until then:

• Make sure your main campaigns use broad match, AI Max or Performance Max with smart bidding, where that suits your business.
• Keep Merchant Center feeds complete and accurate, in Arabic and English if you sell in both.
• Load your promotions into Merchant Center, because Direct Offers draw only on them.
• Build landing pages that answer the follow-up questions an AI answer raises.
• Watch your top-of-page metrics, which is where AI Overview ads are counted.

Tag ad links with consistent UTM parameters too, so your analytics can separate paid search traffic by campaign, whatever surface it came from.

Want a second look at whether your Google Ads account is ready for AI search? Talk to ALXO and we will go through it with you.