Search advertising is entering a more conversational era. Google is placing ads within AI Overviews in Australia — which makes senior oversight more important, not less.
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Andrew Dixon, Co-Founder—15+ years in senior digital media strategy. About DBC Solutions · Last reviewed 27 August 2026
People can ask longer questions, receive an AI-generated summary and explore the topic without following the familiar path through ten blue links. Google is also placing ads within AI Overviews in Australia, using both the original query and the content of the overview to determine relevance.
This creates new opportunities for advertisers to appear while customers are still defining the problem. It also increases the importance of strong inputs: accurate conversion tracking, clear product or service information, relevant creative and landing pages that can turn an informed click into action.
For businesses comparing a Google Ads agency in Australia, this makes senior oversight more important, not less. Automation can expand reach and assemble assets, but an experienced strategist still needs to define value, control the inputs, inspect lead or sale quality and connect paid search with the wider customer journey.
A zero-click search is one in which the user completes the immediate task on the results page. This is a major consideration for SEO because an organic result can influence a decision without receiving a visit. In paid search, however, advertisers generally still pay when someone clicks the ad. Zero-click behaviour does not make conversion tracking optional or turn impression share into revenue.
Instead, it changes the environment around the ad: searches can be longer and more contextual, ads can appear inside or around AI-generated experiences, and the path from discovery to conversion can cross paid, organic, local and AI surfaces. The practical goal is to earn the right click and make it commercially valuable.
Google Ads Help states that ads in AI Overviews are available in English on mobile and desktop in Australia. Eligible text and Shopping ads can be drawn from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. Advertisers do not create a separate “AI Overview campaign” — they improve eligibility and performance through the campaigns, feeds, assets and landing pages they already manage.
Google also excludes some sensitive categories from ads in AI Overviews, including finance and healthcare. Availability and formats can change, so campaign strategy should follow current account-level guidance rather than assume every advertiser or query is eligible.
Define the events that represent real business value: qualified leads rather than raw form submissions, completed bookings, purchases with transaction revenue. Google’s enhanced conversions can use hashed first-party data to improve measurement, but this requires correct implementation and consent.
Google Ads supports conversion values and value rules that can reflect differences such as location or audience. The important step happens before the bidding strategy is selected: agreeing what a conversion is actually worth.
Google’s AI Max for Search can expand search-term matching and use final URL expansion. A disciplined test needs a clear baseline, exclusions, reviewed landing-page eligibility, and a defined success threshold.
As campaign systems use website content to understand relevance, the landing page becomes an input to advertising as well as a destination. A thin or confusing website forces automation to choose among poor options.
AI can assemble and adapt assets, but it still needs good raw material: approved headlines, strong imagery, and up-to-date Merchant Center data. The senior strategist remains hands-on, approving assets and monitoring performance.
Organic and AI visibility can build trust before a paid click, while eCommerce SEO and product data can strengthen the feeds and landing pages advertising relies on. Where paid social is part of the mix, DBC’s guide to choosing a paid social agency explains what connected accountability should look like.
Impression share and generative placement insights belong in the diagnostic layer. The executive layer should remain commercial: qualified leads and sales, cost per acquisition, revenue and ROAS, and profitability where data allows.
Audit conversion actions, attribution, GA4, enhanced conversions, CRM imports, consent settings and product feeds.
Document current high-performing campaigns, keywords and landing pages. Do not dismantle a profitable structure merely because a new feature is available.
Use campaign experiments or a clearly controlled rollout, with a defined budget, duration and conditions that would trigger a rollback.
Review search terms, landing pages and new-customer contribution. A small increase in conversions is not a win if the sales team rejects the leads.
Keep the features that add incremental commercial value. Tighten exclusions and messaging before expanding again.
In a DBC Solutions national retail case study, a connected Google and Meta strategy produced 15x ROAS, more than 26,000 leads, more than 25,000 store visits and 60% year-on-year revenue growth during the campaign period. Those outcomes came from aligning campaign structure, location strategy, retargeting and commercial measurement — not from adopting automation without a plan.
AI-led features should be judged by the same standard. If they improve coverage but weaken lead quality, margin or conversion, they are not an upgrade.
An effective Google Ads agency in the AI-search era needs more than platform familiarity. Ask which conversion signals will drive the bidding strategy, how offline lead quality will return to Google Ads, what controls apply to AI Max or Performance Max, and who is accountable when the platform recommendation conflicts with commercial reality.
The quality of those answers matters more than how enthusiastically the proposal repeats the word “AI”.
Yes. Google says ads in AI Overviews are available in English on mobile and desktop in Australia. Eligible text and Shopping ads can come from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, subject to category and query eligibility.
No. Google currently selects eligible ads from existing campaigns. Advertisers should focus on strong campaign inputs, feeds, creative, landing pages and conversion measurement.
No. Google describes AI Max as an optimisation layer within Search campaigns. It can expand matching, customise text and use final URL expansion, with reporting and controls available to advertisers.
No. Impression share can explain reach and competitive coverage, but leads, sales, revenue and profitability remain the primary commercial outcomes.
DBC Solutions manages Google Ads, SEO and conversion as one senior-led growth strategy. If you want to understand whether your campaigns are ready for AI-led search — and where your current budget is leaking value — apply for a free strategy session.
Apply for a free strategy sessionRelated reading: SEO visibility beyond rankings · Ecommerce SEO and AI search · Choosing a paid social agency · All articles
Sources and further reading: Original topic source: Savit Interactive, “How PPC Advertising Agencies Are Adapting to AI Search and Zero-Click Results” · Google Ads Help, “About ads and AI Overviews” · Google Ads Help, “About AI Max for Search campaigns” · Google Ads Help, “About reporting in AI Max for Search campaigns” · Google Ads Help, “About enhanced conversions” · Google Ads Help, “About enhanced conversions for leads” · Google Ads Help, “About conversion value rules”