AI Overviews Are Raising The Bar For Ad Grants

• Ad Grants
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• 03. 11. 2026

When Google introduced AI Overviews in October 2024, they appeared on a modest share of searches. Two years later, they have become the default. According to recent data from Semrush, SE Ranking and seoClarity, summarized by Search Engine Roundtable, AI Overviews now appear on over 80% of Google searches. In June 2025, the figure stood at around 50%, and a year before that at roughly 15%.

The individual studies tell the same story from different angles. SE Ranking found AI Overviews on 82.5% of U.S. brand searches, a category that used to be dominated by an organization’s own website. seoClarity reports that the share ranges from 55% to 84% depending on the industry.

For most website owners, this is a question of organic traffic. For nonprofits using Google Ad Grants, it touches something more specific, the program’s 5% click-through rate requirement.

Why The 5% CTR Is Getting Harder To Hold

The 5% CTR requirement remains part of the Ad Grants program’s compliance requirements. It applies to search campaigns, and it was set at a time when the top of the results page belonged to ads and organic links. AI Overviews have changed that layout, and they affect both sides of the CTR equation.

Fewer impressions where Ad Grants used to thrive. AI Overviews appear most often on informational, question-based searches. These low-competition queries have long been the backbone of many Ad Grants accounts, because grant ads never win the expensive commercial auctions. Shortly after AI Overviews launched, we saw a noticeable decline in impressions, clicks and grant utilization across many of our clients’ accounts.

Fewer clicks from the impressions that remain. Ads can appear above, within or below an AI Overview. Ad Grants ads can reach the placement inside the overview too, but only through broad match keywords or AI Max, and for now only in English in the U.S. and outside sensitive categories such as healthcare, finance and politics. Everywhere else, a grant ad sits above or below the summary. When it lands below, especially on mobile, many users get their answer from the overview and never scroll down to the ad. The impression is still counted, but the click never comes. With overviews now present on four out of five searches, more of an account’s impressions are likely to end up in exactly this position.

The result is a squeeze from both directions. Accounts have fewer chances to appear, and the appearances they do get are worth less in clicks. Holding CTR above 5% now takes far more deliberate work than it did when the threshold was introduced.

Unofficial sources say the 5% CTR requirement isn’t currently enforced in Ad Grants accounts. We also haven’t seen an account suspended for this reason in a while. It, however, still formally stands, and it thus might be enforced again in the future.

How We Protect CTR In Ad Grants Accounts

There is no single setting that restores the results page to what it was. What works is steady, careful account management. In the accounts we manage, we focus on:

• Broad Match Keywords: only broad match keywords are eligible to show ads within the AI Overview itself, the placement that sits closest to the user’s attention.
• Keyword Hygiene: keywords that collect impressions without clicks pull the whole account’s CTR down, so we review and remove them regularly.
• Relevant Ad Copy: ads that answer the exact question behind a search give users a reason to click past the summary.
• Content Behind The Keywords: pages that address the questions people actually ask let us target new, relevant searches and strengthen the quality of every campaign.
• Ongoing Monitoring: we track search campaign CTR month by month, so a downward trend is addressed before it becomes a compliance problem.
• PMax Campaigns and AI Max: these new campaign / targeting types increase the reach of Ad Grants campaigns and the likelihood of serving ads within AI Overviews.

Conclusion

AI Overviews are no longer an experiment. With over 80% of searches now showing them, they shape how users see and interact with every Ad Grants ad. The 5% CTR requirement has not changed, but the conditions for meeting it have, and an account left to run on its own settings will feel that shift first.

Not sure how your account is holding up? Request a free account audit!