AI engine advertising roundup Q2 2026

Probably one of the most frequent questions I’m asked atm is on AI paid advert opportunities. A lot has changed since our article in Q4 2025 with we're pleased to announce that Strange has been invited to the ChatGPT ads beta, we've launched our first campaign and we can now run ChatGPT campaigns for our clients.

For other AI engines though the direction has changed with Perplexity and Anthropic scaling back advertising capabilities (for the moment). And of course Google quietly, but powerfully, continuing to roll out capabilities.

But before we get into paid advertising opportunities, the obvious question is what is the ‘organic’ AI space looking like? For most UK companies the current opportunity is to focus on your ‘earned visibility’ through AEO, GEO optimisation as well as testing Google’s emerging paid formats.

How is organic AI traffic performing?

As we specialise in SEO, AEO and GEO, we’ve been monitoring traffic from the AI engines for the last year or so and the trends we’re starting to see are interesting.

By comparing Q2 vs Q1 data from 2 million sessions and 109,000 conversions across a number of our client GA accounts, some interesting trends are appearing. When reviewing the profile of traffic coming from AI sources versus non AI sources we can see;

• Engagement Rate 15% higher
• Conversion Rate 17% higher
• Average Session Duration 14% higher

The key takeaway is that traffic from AI sources, whilst relatively small by comparison to other sources, is more engaged and converts better. It makes sense to ensure your website is well positioned for this as the volume of sessions will likely increase as more people adopt AI tools.

ChatGPT

This is the biggest development since our last roundup.

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in the US in February 2026 and for UK advertisers, May began the pilot into the UK.

Whilst OpenAI say advertising is primarily contextual to a chat topic, is handled separately from its response systems and doesn’t influence answers, we think this will undoubtedly change as the capability is developed. We’re already seeing what look to be ‘inline’ ads and being realistic OpenAI doesn’t have a strong track record of doing what they say.

Outside of Google, if you're going to test one AI advertising channel in 2026, ChatGPT is the obvious place to start. The audience is large, engagement is high, and OpenAI appears determined to build a serious advertising business. Just expect reporting, attribution and conversions to change over the next 12 months as the platform evolves.

We can now run ChatGPT ads for you

Whilst for the majority of UK companies it’s currently difficult and requires sizeable budgets to get exposure to the ads platform (available via large agency and now some technology partnerships with limited UK inventory), we’re pleased to announce that we now have access to the self service ads beta for ChatGPT ads. Please get in contact if you'd like to discuss opportunities.

Google - still has to be the most important player

If ChatGPT is tempting, remember Google is still the biggest commercial opportunity.

AI Overview, AI Mode, AI Max are part of Google's search experience and advertisers can already access many of these placements through familiar products such as Search and Performance Max.

At Google Marketing Live 2026, the company unveiled new Gemini-powered advertising formats designed specifically for conversational search, including AI-generated product recommendations, shopping experiences and conversational ad units.

The important point is that Google isn't building a separate advertising ecosystem. It's extending the one most advertisers already use.

For the majority of UK advertisers, Google remains the most effective route into AI advertising because the infrastructure, budgets and measurement frameworks are already in place.

Perplexity - a surprise reversal

Following a review of its commercial strategy, Perplexity has reportedly defocused its advertising efforts and says it has no current plans to relaunch (interesting).

It’s worthwhile treating Perplexity as a visibility and citation platform rather than an advertising platform for now. AEO / GEO matters far more than media spend by the looks of it.

Claude. (Currently) betting against advertising

If Perplexity has stepped back from advertising, Anthropic has actively campaigned against it.

Through its "Keep Thinking" campaign and public statements around the Super Bowl, Anthropic has made Claude's ad-free status part of its positioning.

The company has explicitly said it does not intend to introduce sponsored links or advertiser influence within Claude. Yeah right…let’s see how long this lasts.

Could that change in the future? Of course. But right now Claude is the clearest example of a major AI platform choosing subscriptions and enterprise revenue over advertising.

Grok

Grok remains interesting (in the context of advertising on X) but little else atm.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft is becoming a bit of a dark horse. They continue to develop advertising opportunities around Copilot and conversational search, and early performance claims have been encouraging (albeit on the typical low volumes Microsoft usually comes with).

But interestingly as companies consider enterprise level issues with AI (security, privacy, data concerns etc), Copilot is making inroads with companies / users that value enterprise level controls. This means it will also likely become an interesting platform for advertisers wanting to target B2B users.