# Google Text Ad Click Share Surges in Select Verticals

**URL:** <https://intoguide.com/t/google-text-ad-click-share-surges-in-select-verticals/303>\
**Category:** SEO\
**Created:** [March 13, 2026, 11:21am UTC](https://intoguide.com/t/google-text-ad-click-share-surges-in-select-verticals/303 "2026-03-13T11:21:14Z")\
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**Author:** ![wasabi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/intoguide.com/wasabi/32/646_2.png) [@wasabi](https://intoguide.com/u/wasabi)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2026, 11:21am UTC](https://intoguide.com/t/google-text-ad-click-share-surges-in-select-verticals/303/1 "2026-03-13T11:21:14Z")

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### Text Ads Are Eating Click Share — Not Just AI Overviews

An analysis of **16,000 U.S. search queries** found that **text ads captured 7–13 percentage points of click share** between January 2025 and January 2026.

SEO consultant **Aleyda Solis** used Similarweb clickstream data to measure click share across classic organic results, SERP features, text ads, PLAs, and zero-click behavior. She also tracked how often **AI Overviews (AIOs)** appeared, though the data doesn’t directly measure clicks from AIOs.

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### Key Findings

**Text Ads Gain Share Across Verticals**

- **Headphones (top 5,000 queries):**

- **Jeans:** Organic fell **73% → 56%** , combined paid rose **18% → 34%**

- **Online games:** Text ads quadrupled **3% → 13%** , even in a historically low-ad category

- **Greeting cards:** Organic dropped **88% → 75%** , with text ads nearly doubling

**AI Overview Presence Is Rising**

- Headphones: **2.28% → 32.76%** of SERPs

- Online games: **0.38% → 29.80%**

> Note: AIO presence measures how often it appeared on the page, not actual clicks or prevented clicks.

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### Why This Matters

Solis noted:

> “Text ads and organic SERP features—not just AI Overviews—are significant culprits behind declining organic clicks. Text ads gained **7–13 points of click share** in every vertical, making them the single biggest measurable driver of the organic decline.”

Other data supports this trend:

- **Tinuiti Q4 2025 report:** Google text ad clicks hit a **19-quarter high** , +9% YoY.

- **Alphabet Q3 2025:** Search ad revenue hit **$56.6B** , with CEO Sundar Pichai citing AI features as expanding total query volume, including commercial queries.

More queries with commercial intent mean more ad inventory and **more clicks shifting to paid placements**.

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### Actionable Takeaways

1. Don’t assume **AI Overviews alone** are causing organic declines.

2. Track **SERP composition** in your vertical, not just rankings.

3. Monitor **paid vs. organic click share** , especially in high-advertiser categories.

Whether Google is increasing ad placements or advertisers are bidding more aggressively is unclear—but the shift in click behavior is measurable now.