The bottom line: if your Google Ads audit is not built for AI Overviews and AI Mode, your account is almost certainly bleeding money. The numbers are brutal: 48% of tracked search queries now trigger AI Overviews, 93% of AI Mode queries end without an external click, simple informational CTR has collapsed from 1.76% to 0.61%, paid CTR on AI Overview SERPs fell from 19.70% to 6.34%, and Google AI Mode already has 75 million daily active users while processing 1 billion monthly queries.
This is not a minor SERP update. It is a search reset. And that means the old way of running a PPC audit is obsolete. What you need now is a rigorous checklist, a sharper benchmark for performance, and a clear answer to who can do PPC audit work well enough to keep pace with AI-driven search.
Start here: traditional Google Ads strategy no longer maps cleanly to how users search, click, or convert. Google AI Mode has already surpassed 100 million monthly active users, grew 4x from its May 2025 launch to late 2025, and now processes over 1 billion monthly queries across the United States and India. Usage jumped from 0.25% of searches in May 2025 to over 1% by July 2025. The average session lasts 49 seconds, compared with 21 seconds for AI Overviews, and AI Mode queries run three times longer than traditional searches. Even more disruptive, 1 in 6 AI Mode queries uses non-text input like voice or images.
AI Mode also changes the search page itself. It displays no traditional organic results, and 93% of its queries end without a click to an external website. That zero-click reality is why a surface-level audit misses the point. If your account is still optimized only for legacy click behavior, it is being judged by a metric that no longer reflects user action.
AI Overviews are just as disruptive. They now trigger on approximately 48% of all search queries, according to BrightEdge in February 2026, up 58% year-over-year from February 2025. Semrush’s tracking of 10 million keywords showed prevalence peaking at 24.61% in July 2025 before settling at 15.69% by November 2025. The feature expanded to more than 200 countries and territories and supports over 40 languages. Google also maintained over 90% search market share one year into the rollout, which means this is not a niche disruption. It is the default battlefield.
The layout shift matters, too. AI Overviews appear above traditional organic results, while blue links remain below. The average AI Overview box grew about 15% to roughly 1,200 pixels, peaking at 1,340 pixels in December 2025. That dwarfs the standard 900-pixel desktop viewport. Google even deployed Gemini 2.5 to power AI Overviews in May 2025. In other words, the AI answer box is not a side feature; it is the dominant interface.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Simple informational query CTR | 1.76% to 0.61% |
| Paid CTR on AI Overview SERPs | 19.70% to 6.34% |
| AI Mode zero-click rate | 93% |
| AI Overview trigger rate | 48% |
The CTR damage is severe. Simple informational query CTR crashed from 1.76% to 0.61%, a 61% drop. Complex informational queries saw a 46.7% relative CTR decline, confirmed by Seer Interactive across 68,000 real queries. Commercial and comparison queries still lose 15% of CTR, while branded queries can see an 18% increase when AI Overviews are present. Position-one organic pages suffer a 34.5% CTR decline when AI Overviews appear above them, and overall organic CTR dropped 61% on queries with AI Overviews in Seer’s September 2025 analysis.
Zero-click behavior is not improving. For keywords with AI Overviews, the zero-click rate moved only from 33.75% to 31.53% in Semrush’s data. Analysts project that 25% of organic search traffic will shift to AI chatbots and voice assistants by the end of 2026. That means your paid and organic strategies must now be audited for exposure, visibility, and conversion in a shrinking-click environment.
Google is also monetising the new reality aggressively. Google Search revenue reached $63.07 billion in Q4 2025, up 17% year over year from $54.03 billion in Q4 2024. Alphabet exceeded $400 billion in annual revenues for the first time, while GenAI product revenue grew nearly 400% year over year in Q4 2025. Total Alphabet advertising revenue hit $82.28 billion in the same quarter. Ads now appear in 25.5% of AI-generated results, up 394% year over year, and the share of SERPs with ads alongside AI Overviews rose from 3% in January 2025 to about 40% by November 2025. Roughly 80% of those ads appear below the AI box, and 18% to 20% appear above it. Google is also running 816 experiment IDs actively testing AI Mode ad monetisation, while AsyncDataService fetches ad data within 60ms alongside 6+ second AI responses.
Search behavior is fragmenting across devices and surfaces. Standard Google Search reaches 2 billion+ monthly users. The standalone Gemini app has 450 million monthly users and later reached over 750 million monthly active users; Gemini Enterprise sold over 8 million paid seats. Circle to Search is available on over 580 million Android devices. Google’s January 2026 update lets users jump from AI Overviews directly into AI Mode conversations. At the same time, Penske Media Corporation filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in September 2025, underscoring how high the stakes have become.
Referral economics are deteriorating for publishers, which is another warning sign for advertisers. Google search referral traffic declined about 33% globally year over year to November, with a 38% drop in the US, per Press Gazette. Google Discover fell 21% globally and 29% in the US. Publishers expect traffic to decline by 43% on average over the next three years, and about 1 in 5 anticipate losses exceeding 75%. By contrast, ChatGPT accounts for just 0.02% of total publisher referral traffic and Perplexity for 0.002%, showing where attention is moving and how little of it still flows through old paths.
AI citations now shape visibility. Surfer SEO analysed 36 million AI Overviews and 46 million citations. The top sources were YouTube at 23.3%, Wikipedia at 18.4%, and Google.com at 16.4%. In health, the top sources were NIH at 39%, Healthline at 15%, and Mayo Clinic at 14.8%. In gaming, YouTube reached 93% and Reddit 78%. In finance, the leading sources were YouTube at 23%, Wikipedia at 7.3%, LinkedIn at 6.8%, and Investopedia at 5.7%. Cited sources in AI Overviews rank in the organic top 10 at a rate of about 17%, while AI Overview citation overlap with organic rankings grew from 32.3% to 54.5%, a 22.3 percentage point increase. Brands cited in AI Overviews earn approximately 120% more organic clicks per impression than uncited brands, and cited brands see 91% higher paid CTR than uncited competitors.
Intent matters more than ever. In Seer Interactive’s study of 49,353 queries, informational queries triggered AI Overviews 36% of the time, commercial queries 8%, and transactional queries 5%, a 7x gap. Comparison queries like “X vs Y” triggered AI Overviews 95.4% of the time. Question-format queries hit 85.9%, review queries 86.3%, “near me” informational queries 76.9%, and single-word queries only 27.3%. Semrush also found that AI Overview intent share shifted sharply from January 2025 to October 2025: informational queries moved from 91.3% to 57.1%, commercial from 8.15% to 18.57%, transactional from 1.98% to 13.94%, and navigational from 0.84% to 10.33%. Meanwhile, 60% of AIO-triggering keywords have 100 or fewer monthly searches.
Faced with this seismic shift, a surface-level check-up is useless. Here is an exhaustive, AI-ready audit checklist.
Use this checklist as a full-account diagnostic. The goal is not just to spot wasted spend. It is to align campaign structure, keywords, creative, bids, audiences, and measurement with a search environment where AI answers, zero-click behavior, and new monetization layers are rewriting performance benchmarks.
Check whether campaigns are organized by business objective, product line, and funnel stage. A strong Google Ads audit starts with clean conversion tracking, consistent naming, and tight settings. If structure is messy, every later decision becomes less reliable.
Verify that every primary conversion is tracked correctly and that duplicate or missing events are not distorting results. In a world where 93% of AI Mode queries never click out, the conversions you do capture must be trustworthy.
Audit location targeting, device adjustments, and ad schedules for wasted spend. Because AI search is spreading across surfaces and devices, settings should reflect where your customers actually search and convert.
Review actual search terms against intent. AI has changed how queries resolve, so the gap between keyword intent and user intent can waste budget quickly. Remove irrelevant queries before they scale.
Check whether broad, phrase, and exact match are aligned with how AI interprets intent. Match types should not be used on autopilot. They need support from search-term data and strong negatives.
Build and refine negatives around non-converting themes, research-only searches, and low-fit questions. This matters especially because 36% of informational queries trigger AI Overviews and can attract attention without reliable click value.
Separate informational, commercial, transactional, comparison, review, and “near me” terms into different campaign logic. Comparison queries trigger AI Overviews at 95.4%, question-format queries at 85.9%, and review queries at 86.3%. Those signals deserve distinct treatment.
Do not ignore smaller queries. 60% of AIO-triggering keywords have 100 or fewer monthly searches, so low-volume terms can still shape discovery and efficiency. They may look minor in aggregate, but they often carry disproportionate intent.
Review whether headlines and descriptions mirror the user’s intent and promise a clear next step. With commercial query CTR down 15% and branded queries up 18% when AI Overviews are present, relevance is now a visibility lever.
Confirm that responsive search ads have enough high-quality assets to test combinations well. Ad strength influences placement, and that matters when the AI box averages 1,200 pixels and competes for attention above and around your ad.
Check sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images, and other assets for completeness. The search page is more crowded and more visual, so every asset is a chance to claim more real estate.
Make sure paid messaging aligns with organic presence and broader brand positioning. Branded queries can see an 18% CTR increase in AI Overview contexts, so consistency can strengthen both trust and performance.
Audit clarity, speed, messaging match, and conversion path on every major landing page. When position-one organic CTR can fall 34.5% and AI Mode zero-click rates reach 93%, the click you do win must be treated like gold.
Remove unnecessary steps between click and lead, sale, or booking. If users are already harder to win from SERPs, they should not encounter avoidable friction once they arrive.
Track assisted actions, not just final submissions. In a zero-click-heavy ecosystem, supporting signals can reveal whether your campaigns are still moving demand when the last-click path is weak.
Do not judge performance on impression share alone. Total search impressions have increased about 49% since AI Overviews launched, while click-throughs declined nearly 30%. More visibility does not automatically mean more value.
Compare your paid CTR against the new baseline. On AI Overview queries, paid CTR has ranged around 13% to 16% throughout 2025–2026, after crashing from 19.70% to 6.34%. That range is now the context for meaningful evaluation.
Shift spend toward higher-intent categories and away from low-return volume. Commercial and transactional groups need special attention because AI is changing how and where those searches convert.
Confirm that bidding logic matches the value of each query type. The more competitive and intent-rich the search, the more carefully bids should reflect conversion potential rather than raw traffic volume.
Use audience signals to reinforce intent. A 49-second AI Mode session suggests deeper engagement than a quick scan, and that depth can be mirrored through audience lists, remarketing, and custom segments.
Check whether remarketing pools are large, current, and segmented enough to support repeat exposure. AI-driven journeys may be less linear, which makes re-engagement more valuable.
Audit how first-party data supports targeting and exclusions. As search becomes more fragmented, owned audience data can stabilize performance when external signals become noisier.
Verify whether your brand appears or is cited in AI Overviews. That matters because cited brands earn about 120% more organic clicks per impression and 91% higher paid CTR than uncited competitors.
Map your content to the sources AI Overviews tend to trust. YouTube at 23.3%, Wikipedia at 18.4%, and Google.com at 16.4% lead overall, so citation strategy should reflect what the model already elevates.
Check where your pages sit inside the 54.5% overlap between AI citations and organic rankings. If you are not in that overlap, you may be invisible where visibility now compounds.
Compare your category against current AI Overview presence. Healthcare sits at 88%, Education at 83%, B2B Technology at 82%, Restaurants at 78%, Insurance at 63%, and eCommerce at about 45%. Your audit depth should match your vertical’s exposure.
Look at how overlap shifts by industry. BrightEdge reports Insurance at 63%, Education at +53.2 percentage points, Entertainment from 3.2% to 18.5%, Travel from 5.7% to 17.7%, and eCommerce from 2.9% to 13.4%. Industry context changes the audit.
Assess whether your content assets can support citation and AI visibility. With YouTube dominating many citation sets and 1 in 6 AI Mode queries using voice or images, multimedia readiness is no longer optional.
Factor in the 21% monthly growth in ChatGPT and the emergence of its ad platform. Even if its current publisher referral share is small, it signals where user behavior and monetization are heading.
Replace legacy benchmarks with AI-aware KPIs. Track CTR, impression quality, visibility in AI surfaces, and downstream conversion value together. That is the only way to understand whether your account is adapting or fading.
Performing all 30 checks requires time, deep knowledge, and access to proprietary data. That’s where an elite PPC audit agency comes in.
Direct answer: the best Google Ads agencies for conducting an account audit are the ones that combine classic PPC mastery with data science, search-AI fluency, and rigorous measurement. In-house teams can audit well if they have depth and time. Freelancers can help with focused reviews. Generic digital agencies may cover basics. But when the environment includes 816 experiment IDs, 60ms async ad fetching, and CTR studies built on 68,000 real queries, a specialised PPC audit firm is usually the safer choice.
The reason is simple. The bar for real analysis is high. Seer Interactive’s work required 5.47 million tracked queries, 2.43 billion organic impressions, and 25.1 million impressions studied for zero-click behavior. That is not spreadsheet-only work. It requires teams that can interpret scale, isolate intent, and translate platform shifts into action.
Any agency worth hiring should understand that 93% of AI Mode queries never produce an external click and that AI Overviews now shape nearly half of all searches. That means reporting must go beyond raw traffic and last-click attribution. It should evaluate visibility, citation presence, intent capture, landing-page efficiency, and profit impact.
So, who can do PPC audit work best? The answer is the team that can connect search behavior, paid media, and AI-driven SERP dynamics without guessing. The best Google Ads audit agency is the one that sees both the immediate leak and the future platform shift.
If you want an agency that lives and breathes these metrics, Delante is the answer.
Now is the moment to act. CTRs are collapsing, zero-click search is growing, AI Mode is changing how users interact with results, and citation-driven visibility is creating a new kind of advantage. At the same time, brands cited in AI Overviews can earn 120% more organic clicks per impression and 91% higher paid CTR than uncited competitors. That is both the threat and the opportunity.
Delante’s Google Ads Audit is built for this reality. It can uncover hidden waste, identify weak structure, align campaigns with AI-powered search behavior, and help you recapture revenue that traditional checks will miss. If you are deciding who can do PPC audit work with enough precision for today’s SERPs, this is the standard to look for.
Don’t let AI-driven search erode your performance. Request a comprehensive Google Ads Audit from Delante and future-proof your account.
