Shopping ad click-through rates are rising while impressions fall, possibly due to AI Overviews shifting which queries get ads

Search Engine Land reports on analysis by Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce showing Shopping ad CTRs climbing—up roughly 20% in benchmark data and 17% year-over-year at Optmyzr—while impressions have fallen more sharply across thousands of campaigns. Ryan's hypothesis is that Google may be selectively serving AI Overviews on queries with lower predicted ad-click propensity while preserving Shopping placements for higher-intent searches, effectively shrinking ad inventory without proportionally reducing clicks. He cautions the data is not proof and notes his expectation that Google will eventually blend both experiences together as it develops AI-native ad formats.