By Sachin Mohan · AIM Media House
Similarweb announced AI Ads on August 17, the first competitive intelligence dataset tracking advertising placements across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews.
This is to address a transparency gap that has made AI advertising the only major ad channel without a public visibility mechanism for competitors or advertisers themselves, according to the company.
Similarweb's real user panel data shows that 26% of ChatGPT responses served to Free and Go tier users already carry a sponsored ad. Nearly 30% of ad-eligible Google AI Mode queries show ads.
And over 40% of Google searches now trigger an AI Overview, a surface that frequently includes advertisements alongside the AI-generated answer. The channel is not emerging. It is already running at a meaningful scale with no public transparency infrastructure around it.
"This is the rare moment when a major ad channel is still wide open," said Harel Amir, General Manager and Head of Product for Similarweb Ad Intelligence. "The advertisers who can see what's happening with AI ads now will have a real head start.
Until today, nobody could see it at all." Every other major digital advertising channel has a public transparency layer. Meta built the Ad Library. Google built the Ads Transparency Center. TikTok built the Creative Center.
These tools let advertisers and their competitors see what is running, where it is running, and how it is positioned. ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and AI Overviews have none of that infrastructure, not for competitors and often not even for the advertiser's own team.
The practical consequence is that advertisers running campaigns on ChatGPT have no visibility into the competitive auction they are participating in.
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