AI search ads are racing ahead: Spending is set to exceed $101 billion by 2030, even as marketers grapple with sparse performance data.

Programmatic dominates display advertising across the UK, France, and Germany. But growth looks different in each country. Market maturity, video momentum, and transaction preferences are reshaping where budgets flow—and how buyers need to adapt.

AI is already disrupting programmatic. Generative search is reshaping web traffic, while agentic buying and curated deals redraw how ads are bought and sold. Expect more automation and more premium pipes, but tougher transparency tradeoffs.

This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their search ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.

A Yext analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity found that 86% of AI-generated answers rely on brand-managed content—from official websites and listings to reviews. First-party sites led with 44% of citations, followed by listings (42%) and reviews (8%). The findings suggest AI models increasingly trust structured, authoritative data over publisher or community sources. But fewer users click through—only 8% from AI summaries versus 15% from standard search—indicating that generative platforms are capturing more engagement directly. To stay discoverable, marketers must pair clean, structured first-party data with strong social visibility as AI search reshapes traffic flows.

The vast majority (89%) of US adults use generative AI (genAI), per a Centerfield GenAI Consumer Survey commissioned by Search Engine Land. But not everyone uses it the same way. Eighty-seven percent read AI summaries in search results, and the same percentage have used AI for shopping, but only 41% click on a source link after reading a summary. Training and education are top next steps. Keyword research will become less important as competitor analysis ramps up. SEO/GEO specialists need to understand specific user needs and the companies surfacing in AI results to adopt their methods.

Google is monetizing AI search interfaces aggressively: But users, advertisers, and publishers remain skeptical of trust, data, and fairness.

GenAI search is gaining traction, but not all consumers are seeking out the conversational experiences that will eventually disrupt the search ad market.

Retailers and brands are racing to deploy AI across the shopping journey, but trust, quality, and execution will define who wins.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.​

GenAI is taking the search market by storm, but market dynamics will stay largely the same this year.

EMARKETER analysts highlight four trends that will affect digital advertising in 2025.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

This is the first installment of our quarterly “Ad Spending Benchmarks” series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The introduction of Google’s AI Overviews has thrust generative search into the mainstream. But Google’s not the only player incorporating generative AI into search functions.