Google just posted a monster quarter — search ad revenue up 19% year on year, cloud breaking $20 billion for the first time, and products built on Gemini growing over 800%. But behind the headline numbers lies a more nuanced story for brands and marketing leaders trying to figure out where to place their bets.

The "doomish narrative" that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews are gutting Google Search simply isn't supported by the data. Google Search is still growing. Queries are at an all-time high. And AI Overviews are actively driving that growth, not cannibalising it.

But that doesn't mean everything is rosy for the brands appearing in those results.

In this episode, Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) and Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) break down:

• Why Google's 19% ad revenue surge may actually be fuelled by brands panicking about organic traffic losses — and whether that panic is justified

• How AI Overviews are reshaping click behaviour, with impressions staying stable but clickthrough rates shifting in ways that don't always hurt conversions

• The rise of "personal intelligence" in search — where two users searching the same query could see entirely different results — and what that means for keyword rank trackers

• Why Google's long-term vision looks far more like AI Mode than traditional blue links, and how quickly that transition could happen

• The emerging "agentic commerce" trend where Google becomes a marketplace that completes transactions without users ever visiting your website

• How AI chatbots like Claude are creating entirely new brand ranking systems — with only three recommendation slots instead of ten organic positions

• What the earnings call doesn't tell you: the DOJ antitrust case, competitive pressure from ChatGPT and Claude, and whether Gemini is an underdog in its own right

Charlie shares her framework for how marketing leaders should allocate budget in this shifting landscape — the 80/20 rule that prioritises what's already working while leaving room for strategic experimentation.

As Charlie explains in the episode:

"If people are still scared in 2026, it's because they haven't yet shifted their SEO strategy to understand how AI Overviews and other AI platforms are part of that search journey."

Whether you're weighing up organic versus paid, trying to figure out how agentic search affects your eCommerce strategy, or simply trying to make sense of what Google's numbers actually mean for your business — this episode gives you a clear-eyed breakdown of where search is heading and what to do about it.

Get the podcast show notes:

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-74/

Listen on your favourite podcast player instead:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/googles-revenue-is-exploding-but-are-brands-winning-too/id1161818237?i=1000765508727

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1KIX7OCYzx9DCe7qUg4pBm?si=uxQkVJ20QR-7mnghSFAY6w

Listen to these episodes next:

ChatGPT Sends 21% of Its Traffic to Google. Here’s Why That Matters.

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-73/

What Does AI Really Think of Your Brand?

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-71/

Do Rankings Still Matter with AI Search?

https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-66/