Google is expanding Google AI Search ads into international markets, pairing new AI-driven ad formats with a third-quarter earnings update from parent company Alphabet that showed overall revenue still rising even as growth in traditional Search advertising slowed.
On Wednesday’s earnings call, Alphabet reported revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25% from a year earlier. Alphabet shares fell 8% after the results. Google Search revenue rose 12% year over year in the third quarter, after 17% growth in the second quarter and 19% in the first quarter—pressure that company executives linked to a broader push to monetise AI experiences.
Ads move into AI Mode worldwide
Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, told investors the company is “scaling high-quality ads within AI overviews in AI mode to more users and queries,” including a global monetisation footprint for the first time. He said ads in AI Mode are expanding into international markets, alongside multi-turn ads and AI Mode in the United States.
Schindler said early signals are encouraging: click-through rates for sponsored product listings in AI Mode are already comparable to those for organic listings, and company research suggests users find the ads relevant. The push builds on a May announcement of Gemini-powered formats such as conversational discovery ads that answer user questions and sponsored recommendations inside AI-generated answers.
How Search behaviour is shifting
Chief executive Sundar Pichai said Search queries grew at their fastest year-over-year rate in five years, without giving the exact figure. He credited AI features with longer, more complex searches. Queries in AI Mode are three times longer on average than traditional searches, he said, and one in five AI Mode searches globally involves voice, images, or documents. Google has also surpassed 50 billion visual searches a month.
“People are using our AI features more, searching in entirely new ways,” Pichai told investors, describing queries as longer, personalised, and multimodal.
Revenue mix: Services steady, Cloud surges
Alphabet’s Google Services division, which includes Search, generated $96.3 billion, up 11% year over year. Google Cloud revenue jumped 103% to $30.7 billion. The quarter also covered product momentum such as the Gemini app reaching one billion monthly users and the Pixel 11 lineup launch, alongside the release of Gemini 4 Argon.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- First quarter: Google Search revenue grew 19% year over year.
- Second quarter: Search revenue growth slowed to 17% year over year.
- May: Google announced new Gemini-powered ad formats, including conversational discovery ads and sponsored recommendations in AI answers.
- Third quarter: Search revenue growth eased to 12%; Alphabet revenue reached $127.6 billion, up 25%.
- Wednesday: Google said ads in AI Mode are expanding into international markets, with multi-turn ads and AI Mode continuing in the U.S.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Google ne AI Mode ke andar ads ko pehli dafa international markets mein failane ka elaan kiya hai. Alphabet ki total aamdani $127.6 billion hoi, jo pichle saal se 25% zyada hai. Purane Search ads ki growth 12% par aa gai hai, is liye company AI wale ads par zyada focus kar rahi hai. AI jawabon ke saath sponsored product listings bhi dikhne lage hain, jahan company ke mutabiq clicks organic results ke qareeb hain.
