Google’s AI Overviews have reshaped search almost overnight. For paid search marketers, the fight for above-the-fold visibility is no longer just about ad rank – it’s now a push to appear above the AI result itself.
This shift follows the rapid surge in AI Overviews that Adthena highlighted in our previous study. That analysis showed AI Overviews quickly moving beyond informational queries and into shorter, high-volume commercial searches.
The mechanism behind this decline is clear: AI Overviews intercept attention, cut click-through rates (CTRs), and push both organic and paid listings lower on the page. The result: fewer clicks and less revenue.
Adthena’s new research pinpoints how often advertisers win ad placement above AI Overviews across seven major industries, device types, and query categories. The findings reveal clear winners and uncover opportunities that paid search teams can act on now.
The topline reality: Ad position visibility is lost 25% of the time
The summary table below offers a crucial industry benchmark for the battle over the top spot, showing the percentage split of ads appearing above or below AI Overviews across seven industries.
Strategic implications from the topline data
- The leaders: Industries like Travel, Energy, Financial Services, and Retail consistently land above the AI Overviews in more than 75% of appearances. That still means 1 in 4 paid ads are affected by AI Overviews across major sectors. For keywords that drive millions in revenue, this 20% to 30% exposure creates immediate, high-cost instability that directly threatens ROI.
- The runners-up (the risk of being hidden): Healthcare stands out as the clear outlier, with ads appearing below the AI Overviews 64.6% of the time. Because healthcare searches are high-stakes and research-heavy, Google’s AI tends to dominate the SERP to deliver “expert” information first. That choice severely limits ad visibility and wipes out nearly two-thirds of the new above-the-fold space.
- The volatility: Gaming shows a clean 50/50 split. In this vertical, visibility becomes a coin flip, reinforcing the need for highly dynamic bidding strategies.
The device divide: Why mobile is your biggest threat
Device Split data over a snapshot one-week period reveals that the risk of ads being pushed below the AI Overviews is heavily exacerbated by the mobile environment, where SERP real estate is severely compressed.
Strategic implications on device differences
- Automotive’s Mobile Problem: While Automotive shows a solid overall “Above %” rate, the daily trends tell a different story. On mobile, ads are pushed below the AI Overviews nearly half the time. And on a small screen, an ad buried under a long AI Overview is often invisible without a full scroll. That drop in placement leads to lower visibility and CTR.
- The “double whammy”: For industries like healthcare, desktop ads sit below the AI…
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