--- title: "Apparel and Electronics Lead Ads in Google's AI Answers" description: "Adthena counted about 175,000 ads in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode from June to September, most of them apparel and electronics. Here's what to check." url: https://publishmyblog.com/marketing/ai-answer-ads-apparel-electronics/ section: "Marketing" author: "Saeed Shahriar" published: 2026-11-06T22:00:13.173Z --- # Apparel and Electronics Lead Ads in Google's AI Answers A vendor count of holiday ads in Google's AI answers and ChatGPT shows where the ads are landing, and which ChatGPT categories lean on research prompts. Adthena counted **about 175,000 ads inside Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode** in the US from June to September, and apparel and electronics took almost all of them. Selling clothes or gadgets on Google Ads? You may already be in that count. The figures come from [Adthena's Holiday AI Paid Search Report](https://www.adthena.com/ai-holiday-paid-search-report/), which also tracked ChatGPT ads in the same five holiday categories over the same four months. Adthena sells ad tracking for Google and ChatGPT. As [Search Engine Journal points out](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-answer-ads-apparel-electronics-report/595984/), the report shows where ads appeared, with no clicks, spend or sales. ## Where the ads showed up in Google **Apparel had roughly 111,000 of the ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode.** Electronics had about 55,000, and the other three categories barely show up at all: - Travel, at about 6,500 placements - Beauty, with around 2,100 - Toys and games, at only 685 or so Did you sign up for this? You didn't have to. Google's help page, as Search Engine Journal reports, makes every Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaign eligible for AI answers automatically, with no opt-out apart from Search. You can't target AI Overviews and AI Mode alone either. **Your negative keywords and brand exclusions still apply**, and they're the lever you've got. Meanwhile, the AI answers your ads can land in keep spreading. Adthena compared AI Overview appearances in August 2025 and August 2026: - US: from 304 million to 575 million, up 89% - The UK and EU, up 160% - Australia, where they grew 536% ## ChatGPT ads followed the same order On ChatGPT, Adthena counted about 204,000 ad placements across all markets in the same five categories and months, and apparel led again with about 90,000 of them. Electronics followed near 57,000 and travel at 48,000, while toys and beauty each stayed under 5,000. But **toy advertisers grew 13 times** in two months. Across all five categories, the number of brands running ChatGPT ads went from 1,082 in June to 3,741 in July and then 6,333 in August, almost six times the June figure. Then there's the split by prompt. Adthena sorted ChatGPT ads into research prompts (people comparing or asking what's best) and prompts naming a product: - Beauty, where 83% of ads ran on research prompts - Travel at 69%, and toys and games at 67% - Apparel and consumer electronics, both under half (48% and 42%) The report doesn't explain how it sorted the prompts, so I'd treat those shares as a rough guide to where shoppers still comparing options meet ChatGPT ads. ## What we checked We read [Google's help page on ads in AI answers](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/18826097) on 6 November. **Exact and phrase match keywords only reach searches that are already commercial.** - Broad match, AI Max, Shopping and Performance Max can also be matched to the AI answer itself, so they reach questions that never named a product. - Some ads carry "AI explainers": lines Gemini writes from the query, the answer and public pages, your site included. - You can't edit those explainers, approve them or opt out of them. So an account on exact match alone will mostly sit out the long comparison questions. Those are often the questions where shoppers haven't picked a brand yet. ## Why it matters Running Shopping or Performance Max for clothing or tech? **Open your search terms report this week.** Search Engine Journal notes that AI Overviews and AI Mode ads are counted inside your normal Search reports, so that traffic is mixed in with the rest of your account. That's where your negatives earn their keep. Long comparison questions can convert well for you, or they can eat through your budget for weeks. Which is it in your account? My read: the ChatGPT numbers matter most for small brands, because a research prompt is the moment a shopper hasn't picked a brand yet and your shop still has a real shot. So if you sell beauty or travel, **I'd test ChatGPT ads on comparison-style questions first**, with a small budget and a clear conversion goal before you scale up. Still, keep it in proportion. The data stops in September. So it misses three things you'll care about: - Google's multi-turn AI Mode ads, launched in the US on October 28 - OpenAI's expansion of ChatGPT Ads to 89 countries on October 21 - The weeks around Black Friday **Placements say nothing about sales.** A working paper found [ChatGPT ad visits earn 64% less than Google search ads](https://publishmyblog.com/marketing/chatgpt-ads-revenue-per-visit/). Google keeps [expanding AI Mode ads](https://publishmyblog.com/seo/google-expands-ai-mode-ads/) anyway. So trust your own numbers. Move budget on those. ## Common Questions **Do I need a separate Google Ads campaign to show ads in AI Overviews or AI Mode?** No. Google's help page on ads in AI experiences says existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns are eligible automatically. Advertisers can't target AI Overviews or AI Mode alone, though negative keywords and brand exclusions still apply. **Which product categories get the most ads in Google's AI answers in the US?** Apparel, by a wide margin. Adthena counted about 111,000 apparel placements in AI Overviews and AI Mode from June to September 2026, against about 55,000 for consumer electronics and about 6,500 for travel. **Does Adthena's Holiday AI Paid Search Report show whether these ads convert?** It doesn't. The report counts ad placements only, with no clicks, spend or conversions. Adthena also sells ChatGPT ad tracking, so it's one vendor's count of where ads appeared. ## Sources - [Ads In Google AI Answers Concentrate In Apparel & Electronics](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-answer-ads-apparel-electronics-report/595984/), Search Engine Journal - [The Holiday AI Paid Search Report 2026](https://www.adthena.com/ai-holiday-paid-search-report/), Adthena - [About ads in AI-powered experiences in Google Search](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/18826097), Google Ads Help