Ads + Google AI Overviews Are Surging in SERPs: What Now?

Search isn’t just “blue links plus ads” anymore—and the pace of change is accelerating.

If you’re a B2B marketer or media buyer, this matters now because your visibility strategy can’t be split into separate lanes (paid vs. organic) when the results page itself is blending experiences. The SERP is becoming a single, mixed battlefield: ads and AI-generated answers living together.

The news: Ads and AI Overviews are showing up together—fast

A new analysis covered by NewsAPI (AI Overviews Ads) points to a sharp shift in how Google is presenting results.

Semrush reports: **"SERPs with Ads + AI Overviews Grew by Over 394% in 2025"** (Semrush).

Semrush also summarizes the directional change clearly: **"SERPs keep changing to incorporate both ads and AI Overviews."** (Semrush).

Those two statements, taken together, confirm the core development B2B teams need to react to: Google is not only testing AI Overviews alongside ads—it’s increasingly common for a SERP to contain both.

What this means for B2B marketers (and why AEO just became a paid problem, too)

When AI Overviews appear on a SERP that also contains ads, your competition isn’t just “other advertisers” or “other ranking pages.” You’re competing against:

• The AI Overview itself (which can satisfy intent without a click)
• The ads around it (which can siphon attention even if you’re the best organic result)
• The remaining organic listings (which may be pushed further down the page)

From an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) perspective, the big implication is practical: **you have to plan for blended visibility.** In a world where Google is “incorporat[ing] both ads and AI Overviews” (Semrush), the old workflow—SEO team does organic, paid team does ads, and they meet once a quarter—breaks down.

Here’s what changes in your day-to-day decision-making:

1. **Your paid and organic messaging must stop contradicting each other.** If the SERP is presenting an AI-generated summary plus ads, users will compare them instantly. Misalignment isn’t just inefficient—it’s credibility loss.
2. **Your “top of page” assumptions are no longer stable.** The key fact is the growth: SERPs with both ads and AI Overviews grew “over 394% in 2025” (Semrush). That kind of jump signals you should expect to encounter this layout far more often when planning campaigns.
3. **AEO becomes a budget conversation.** If visibility is increasingly shaped by AI Overviews plus ads on the same page (Semrush), then “earning the answer” and “buying the click” are no longer separable strategies. They’re interdependent.

And while this update is about Google AI Overviews specifically, the broader takeaway applies to how answer engines shape demand capture across the board. Buyers are already using **ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, Brave, and Meta AI** to get answers faster. Google AI Overviews are Google’s version of that same behavior—embedded directly into the SERP.

Action items: What to do right now

You don’t need a six-month transformation program. You need a tighter operating model for blended SERPs.

1) Run a “blended SERP” audit of your priority queries

Build a simple internal review of your highest-value non-brand and competitor queries and document what you see on the page—specifically looking for the pattern Semrush called out: SERPs incorporating “both ads and AI Overviews” (Semrush).

Deliverable: a shared spreadsheet that notes, per query, whether you’re present via paid, present via organic, and how your messaging compares to what’s being summarized on the page.

2) Align paid and organic to one promise per query theme

If AI Overviews are increasingly appearing alongside ads (Semrush), your ad copy and landing page should reinforce the same core answer your content is trying to earn.

Practical approach:

• Choose one primary “buyer question” per theme.
• Make sure your ad headline and your on-page H1 answer the same question in plain language.
• Make sure the page leads with the answer, not the company story.

3) Shift reporting from channel KPIs to SERP-level outcomes

A SERP that includes both ads and AI Overviews is a different environment than a classic layout. Given the “over 394%” growth in 2025 (Semrush), treat this as a reporting category.

Create a SERP-level view that your paid and organic teams both own:

• Where are we visible on the page?
• Is our message consistent?
• Are we paying to show up when we already have strong visibility—or are we absent entirely?

4) Build “answer-first” creative and content pairs

For each priority topic, create:

• One ad variant that leads with a direct answer (not a slogan)
• One landing page section that mirrors that answer immediately

The goal is to be the most consistent, most skimmable option on a page where Google is increasingly blending AI Overviews and ads (Semrush).

5) Treat Google AI Overviews as a competitive presence, not a feature

The Semrush language—“SERPs keep changing” to include “both ads and AI Overviews” (Semrush)—is your cue to stop thinking of AI Overviews as a novelty. Operationally, it’s another entity on the page competing for attention.

That means your team needs a standing process to:

• Monitor priority SERPs
• Update messaging fast
• Coordinate paid + organic changes weekly, not quarterly

Bottom line

Semrush’s finding that **SERPs with both ads and Google AI Overviews grew by over 394% in 2025** is a clear signal: the SERP is becoming a blended environment. If you want to win visibility now, you need paid and AEO working as one system—not two separate plans.