AI Mode is officially live in the UK, and advertising is coming. LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT have already changed the way we search, interact with websites, and ultimately convert. AI Mode takes this to a whole new level, and we need to future-proof our PPC strategies for this shift.
AI Mode in a Nutshell
Launched in the UK on 28 July 2025, Google’s AI Mode is the search giant’s conversational answer engine. CEO Sundar Pichai calls it a “total reimagining of search.” It generates dynamic, AI-crafted answers right in the SERP and lets users ask follow-up questions for a tailored, chat-like experience. Unlike static AI Overviews, AI Mode is interactive and currently sits as an optional tab on the homepage.
In AI Mode, user queries are 2-3 times longer than traditional search, and average session is 4 minutes 37 seconds – marking a significant shift in search behaviour.
Queries are also becoming more conversational. For example, when researching AI Mode, I did so through the SERP and through Gemini, and found myself changing my query style for each without even realising:
- SERP: ‘AI mode advertising uk’
- Gemini: ‘what impact can we expect from AI mode on PPC advertising in the UK?’
So, a key question to ask ourselves: If Google is becoming the ultimate answer engine, are you still optimising for a search portal?
Ads in AI Mode: What It Means For Your PPC Strategy
AI Mode will be available for campaigns with Broad match keywords, PMax and AI Max enhanced Search campaigns, so this will impact most brand strategies and forces us to think of the impact:
- Google’s “query-fan-out” technique means longer tail queries are making a come back in a big way, and it’s not realistic or efficient to build these out through a traditional keyword structure. We need to focus and optimise these keywordless campaign types & features to understand how they work for us now, to prepare us AI Mode’s for tomorrow.
- Rigorous search term management has been cooling down over recent years, but this will take this to a new level. Search term management may become less of a hygiene task and more of an indicator that what we’re feeding the machine is poor, rather than AI driving us to irrelevant user queries. We’ll need to focus more than ever on this data – from landing pages to first party data to intent keywords.
Website optimisation & landing page development is more important than ever.
With queries turning more conversational, websites need to be reviewed and landing pages optimised with this in mind. Are you landing pages optimised purely for conversion or for conversation?
Focusing on this in parallel with reviewing, testing, and optimising your PPC strategy away from a world of search terms and towards search intent will help ensure you’re best prepared for this brave new AI world!
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