Google just admitted AI is eating its own search ad money. If you sell a product
By Brandon Fishman · October 30, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Google just admitted AI is eating its own search ad money. If you sell a product online, read that twice.
Alphabet reported Q3 earnings on Oct 28. Search queries grew at the fastest rate in five years. Search revenue grew 12% to $63.3B and missed Wall Street's estimate for the second straight quarter.
Google's Chief Business Officer named one reason: AI Mode queries are growing fast, and they bring in less ad money than regular search.
More searches. Less ad money per search.
That gap is where it gets interesting for your brand. Shoppers are asking Google's AI what to buy, and its answer is replacing the page of ads and links brands used to pay to sit on.
And Google is still spending. It's holding 2026 capex at $195B to $205B and expects spending to rise significantly in 2027.
So here's the question for your brand. When a shopper asks AI which product to buy in your category, are you named in the answer?
A bigger Google Ads budget won't get you there. The pages, product details and third-party sources the AI reads will.
That's why we built Auden. Our engineers find why AI recommends your competitor, ship the fix, and check the answers every week.
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We're only accepting 10 brands for our Auden AI launch. DM me and we'll show you what AI recommends in your category.