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Google Pushes Search Results Even Further Down the Page
Google isn’t slowing down on the AI front. The company is testing expanded AI features on its search results page that would give AI Overviews even more real estate, with follow-up options and extended summaries pushing the traditional blue links further down.
Before you sound the alarm, let’s look at the numbers. Google reports approximately 1 billion monthly active users of its AI Mode, alongside about 13.7 billion searches per day. That works out to roughly 0.85% of daily searches actively engaging with AI-first search. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not the apocalypse for search advertising.
The longer trend, though, points in one direction. As Google and other platforms continue to build out AI-first experiences, traditional search advertising will face more pressure. The question isn’t whether that shift happens but how fast and how far it goes. If paid search becomes less valuable, it’s all the more important to build brand recognition in ways other than AI search.
AI optimization and getting into GenAI results is a good idea, but it can’t be the be-all-end-all for advertisers. The end goal is massive brand recognition to drive branded searches. That’s where the most efficient conversions are made. Fighting for space in the absurdly crowded AI market is a battle that most advertisers don’t have the resources to win.
The savvy advertiser will make adjustments to prepare for AI search’s continued growth, but will also find ways to more efficiently get their name in front of their ideal audience. Where businesses of all sizes can win is by working with a programmatic platform that can reach your audience wherever they happen to be, not just where they’ve been.
UK Regulators Tell Google Publishers Need an Opt-Out from AI Search
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stepped in this month with a mandate aimed at giving publishers, including news organizations, more leverage in negotiations with Google. The core issue is one we’ve been watching closely: AI Overviews are generating synthesized answers that keep users on Google’s results page, which means fewer clicks to the original source.
Publishers have been feeling this pinch for a while. The traffic doesn’t disappear entirely, since AI Overviews do include links. But a synthesized answer means many users don’t bother going further. The CMA’s position is that publishers should have a clear path to monetize their content through these AI systems rather than just having it quietly absorbed.
One day after the mandate dropped, Google announced it was testing a tool that would let website owners opt their sites out of AI search summaries entirely. Google insists that opting out won’t result in any ranking penalties in the traditional search results. These tools are expected to apply globally, not just in the UK.
For advertisers and brands that depend on organic search traffic, this is a development worth tracking. If more publishers opt out, AI Overviews could become noticeably thinner and less reliable over time, which may push more searchers back toward the blue links. Search advertising remains an important pillar for digital advertising, but it can no longer be the only source of leads and engagements for advertisers. If companies want to get noticed, they need to branch out into other mediums.
At Genius Monkey, we’ve been helping users think through exactly this kind of traffic uncertainty by building strategies that don’t rely on any single discovery channel. Our platform can reach consumers through multiple networks and all the major programmatic mediums, from basic display to CTV and DOOH.
Fox Announces Plans to Acquire Roku for $22B
The CTV arms race keeps accelerating. Fox has announced its intention to acquire Roku, which would give the media company ownership of two of the most-watched ad-supported streaming services in the US: Roku and Tubi. Together, those two platforms account for roughly 5.2% of all US streaming viewership.
The acquisition has a bit of irony baked in. Fox originally sold its Roku shares to fund the purchase of Tubi back in March 2020. Now it’s coming back for the full package.
CEO Lachlan Murdoch noted that there’s only about a one-third overlap between Tubi and Roku audiences, which suggests the two services attract meaningfully different viewers. That overlap figure actually argues against merging them into a single platform and for keeping them separate and complementary.
For advertisers, that separation could be a significant advantage. Running campaigns across both platforms would offer access to distinct audience segments while all the underlying data feeds into one unified system. Insights from one platform can inform targeting decisions on the other, without the waste of hitting the same viewers twice.
This is a good example of the kind of first-party data consolidation that’s reshaping the CTV buying landscape. Programmatic advertisers who can move quickly on unified inventory like this will have a real edge.
Electronic Arts Rolls Out Gaming-Specific Advertising Platform
This one has been a long time coming. Electronic Arts (EA) just released EA Advertising, a platform built specifically for in-game ad placements across its hugely popular EA Sports catalog. Marketers can now negotiate branded content, in-game placements, and campaign measurement all through one integrated system.
The timing makes sense. Around 90% of Millennials and Gen Z play video games, yet in-game advertising has historically been scattered, limited in scope, and almost completely disconnected from modern measurement tools. Product placement in games has existed for decades, but “run a branded jersey on a FIFA player and hope for the best” isn’t exactly the kind of campaign attribution that moves the needle.
EA Advertising won’t serve ads programmatically out of the gate. But other major online platforms, including Roblox, have already started building programmatic-style audience targeting into their ecosystems. The direction of travel is clear.
This doesn’t have immediate implications for Genius Monkey users today. But we’re watching this space closely. In-game advertising could be the next major programmatic channel to break through the way CTV did a few years ago. When the programmatic pipes get built, we’ll be ready to help advertisers tap into what could be the largest untapped ad audience still available.
Research Suggests that AI Disclosure Labels Don’t Hurt Ad Performance
This one is good news for anyone who’s been worried about transparency requirements hurting their ad results.
Research firm MediaScience recently released its AI Labeling Impact Study, which showed AI-generated advertisements to participants alongside various types of disclosure labels. The researchers were primarily curious about how well labels informed consumers. But the ad performance data was the real story.
Across all tested label formats, including continuous text and icons, there was only a 7-percentage-point difference in unaided brand recall and a 5-point difference in brand recognition. Brand attitude scores varied by just 7 points as well. In other words, knowing an ad was AI-generated had very little effect on how people responded to it.
One study isn’t a verdict. A lot more research needs to happen before anyone can draw firm conclusions about AI disclosure across all categories and formats. But these early results are encouraging. Genius Monkey has always believed that transparency with your audience builds trust over time. If this data holds up, you don’t have to choose between honesty and performance.
