Last updated: May 2026
What exactly do Google’s Q1 2026 numbers say?
On April 29, 2026, Alphabet published its Q1 results. Total revenue grew 22% to $109.9 billion, and Google Cloud passed $20 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time. Great news for Google’s shareholders.
But there is one line item getting far less attention, and I find it much more interesting. Google Network revenues — the revenue Google shares with external publishers through AdSense, AdMob, and Google Ad Manager — fell 4% to $6.97 billion. That is the fourth quarterly decline in a row. In Q1 2024, Google Network still accounted for 12% of total ad revenue; in Q1 2026, it is down to 9%.
PPC.land and Search Engine Journal point to a structural pattern: Google is prioritizing its own ad inventory more and more. For the first time in more than ten years, 90% of Google’s advertising revenue now goes to Google’s own properties — not to publishers.
For the first time in more than ten years, 90% of Google’s advertising revenue now goes to Google’s own properties — not to publishers.
How does this specifically affect B2B marketing managers?
BrightEdge tracked AI Overview presence across nine industries over twelve months. The biggest jump was in B2B Tech — their category for technology-related business queries: from 36% in February 2025 to 82% in February 2026. B2B buyers ask informational questions about software, comparisons, and use cases. That is exactly the kind of query AI Overviews handle best.
This does not just affect your organic traffic. Seer Interactive found that paid CTR on queries with an AI Overview dropped from 19.7% to 6.34% — a 68% decline. If your B2B campaigns run on branded or category keywords that now trigger AI Overviews, you are paying the same for significantly fewer clicks.
There is something else going on too. Ads now appear in 25.5% of all AI Overview results, compared to 5.17% at the start of 2025 (Genesys Growth / ALM Corp). Google is building its own paid inventory inside the AI layer while traffic to external publishers keeps falling. Less organic visibility, more paid competition, higher cost per click.
How is this changing your buyers’ search behavior?
73% of B2B buyers use AI tools in their buying process (multi-source analysis, March 2026, via PR Newswire). G2 found that 37% consult AI before going to Google. For technology buyers, that figure is even higher.
Some of your prospective customers already have a picture of the market, the vendors, and the available solutions before they ever land on your website. That picture is shaped by what AI systems can find about your brand — not by what you put on your homepage. The question is not whether you should adapt your SEO, but what exists about you that AI systems can cite. More on how Generative Engine Optimization offers an answer to that.
How do AI Overviews fit into this picture?
Ahrefs analyzed 300,000 keywords and concluded that AI Overviews reduce CTR for the #1 position by 58% compared to December 2023. A year earlier that drop was 34.5% — the effect grows as the feature becomes more mature.
Based on 68,879 real searches, Pew Research found that only 8% of users click an organic result when an AI Overview is present, versus 15% without one. Of the source citations inside the AI Overview, only 1% of users click through.
So is there any good news?
Brands that do get cited in AI Overviews see 35% more organic clicks according to Seer Interactive. In paid search, cited brands even see 91% more CTR. The question is shifting from ‘how do I rank in position 1?’ to ‘how do I make sure AI systems use my brand as a source?’ That is exactly what GEO — Generative Engine Optimization is trying to answer.
One nuance for B2B: transactional queries trigger fewer AI Overviews than informational ones. If you mainly win on commercial intent, you may feel less of this for now. But in B2B Tech that line is moving fast — 82% leaves very little room to treat this as someone else’s problem.
What does this mean for your content strategy?
Generic content that answers the same question as the AI Overview itself is losing its reason to exist. If Google already provides an adequate summary of what you wrote, there is no reason for a B2B buyer to click through.
What does work is content that offers something AI does not have — original research, verifiable data from your own practice, or a perspective that does not exist anywhere else on the internet. Those are exactly the kinds of sources AI systems cite. For B2B teams, that means concrete things like internal data you normally do not publish, client cases that go beyond a testimonial, or your own analysis of market data.
I am experimenting with which formats get cited most by Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. As soon as a pattern becomes visible, I will share it.
FAQ
Is the claim that AI Overviews appear in nearly half of all search queries correct?
Semrush measured a peak of 24.6% (July 2025), followed by a decline to 15.7% (November 2025). The 48% figure that keeps circulating is not confirmed by any independent source I could verify. For B2B Tech specifically, BrightEdge measures 82% — but that is industry-specific, not an average.
My B2B buyers are different from general consumers — does this still apply to them?
The data suggests it does. 73% use AI during purchase research, and 37% consult AI before Google. I have not seen data supporting the assumption that B2B buyers trust AI answers less simply because they are supposedly more rational.
If I get cited but nobody clicks, does that still have value?
That is exactly the question I am wrestling with. The Seer Interactive data (35% more organic clicks for cited brands) suggests a positive correlation, but I do not know whether that is causal. If you have your own B2B campaign data on this, I would genuinely like to hear from you.
My paid search budget is already tight — should I allocate it differently?
Check which of your top keywords now trigger AI Overviews. The -68% paid CTR is not a reason to immediately change everything, but it is relevant input when evaluating your CPL.
Should I stop doing SEO now?
No. Ahrefs found that 76.1% of the URLs cited in AI Overviews also rank in Google’s top 10. Traditional SEO authority is still a prerequisite for getting cited — but it is no longer enough on its own.
When does GEO start to have an effect?
Targeted adjustments — structured answers, statistics with source citations, schema markup — can become visible in citation volume within 30 to 45 days. Building structural brand authority takes longer.
Sources
- Alphabet Q1 2026 Earnings Release (April 29, 2026) — official Alphabet Inc. press release
- PPC.land: Alphabet Q1 2026: Google Network ad revenue falls 4% as AI reshapes the web (April 2026)
- Search Engine Journal: What Google & Microsoft Earnings Say About Search (May 2026)
- Ahrefs: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58% (February 2026)
- Pew Research Center: CTR study based on 68,879 search queries (July 2025)
- Seer Interactive: analysis of 3,119 informational queries across 42 organizations (September 2025)
- Semrush: AI Overview prevalence study (November 2025)
- BrightEdge: AI Overviews Surge Across 9 Industries — B2B Tech from 36% to 82% (February 2026), via Search Engine Journal
- Metricus / G2: 37% of B2B Buyers Use AI Before Google (2025–2026)
- Multi-source analysis: 73% of B2B Buyers Use AI Tools in Purchase Research (March 2026), via PR Newswire
- Genesys Growth / ALM Corp: ads appeared in 25.5% of AI Overviews (early 2026)