PPC Management Melbourne: What Changes as AI Overviews Push Ads Further Down

PPC management in Melbourne now competes for space AI Overviews are increasingly taking up at the top of the page. A paid position that used to sit right below the search bar can now land underneath a full AI-generated summary, several scrolls further down than it did two years ago. The ad hasn’t gotten worse. The page around it has changed, and that changes what good PPC management actually needs to do in 2026.

AndMine is a Melbourne-based digital agency managing paid search for Australian businesses, and this piece looks at what’s shifted in the local PPC landscape as AI Overviews have expanded, and what a Melbourne campaign needs to account for that it didn’t two years ago.

Why the Top of the Page Looks Different Now

Google’s AI Overviews now appear on a meaningful share of commercial and informational searches, sitting above the traditional ad block on many queries. This matters because click-through rates on paid ads have shifted as a result   not uniformly across every industry, but noticeably on searches where the AI Overview can answer the query directly without sending the user further down the page at all.

In my opinion, The practical consequence for PPC management Melbourne campaigns is that cost-per-click alone is no longer a reliable signal of whether a campaign is performing well. A keyword could hold its position and its CPC while still delivering fewer clicks than it used to, simply because fewer users are scrolling past the AI Overview to reach the ad.

PPC Management Sydney: Bidding Strategy in an AI-First SERP

Sydney and Melbourne campaigns are seeing this shift at slightly different rates, largely tied to which industries are more concentrated in each market and how often their core search terms trigger an AI Overview. A PPC management Sydney account running heavily on finance or insurance terms, for example, tends to see AI Overviews appear more often than a Melbourne account built around local trades or hospitality searches, where the query is usually more transactional and less suited to a summarized answer.

The bidding adjustment that follows isn’t about spending more to “beat” the AI Overview   that’s not really how the auction works. It’s about recognizing which of your keywords are increasingly informational in how Google treats them, and shifting budget toward the more clearly transactional variants where a paid ad still captures a strong share of the remaining clicks. A keyword like “digital marketing agency Melbourne” is more likely to trigger a broad AI Overview than “digital marketing agency Melbourne pricing,” and the second is where a shrinking ad budget should concentrate.

What Good PPC Management Actually Looks Like Now

A PPC management company adapting well to this shift tends to do a few things differently from one still running the same playbook as 2023:

●       Reviews impression share and click-through rate monthly, not just CPC and conversion volume, to catch AI Overview impact early

●       Segments keyword performance by whether the query reliably triggers an AI Overview, and adjusts bids and budget allocation accordingly

●       Tests ad copy that answers the query directly in the headline, since users who click past an AI Overview are often looking for something more specific than a general answer

●       Reports on this shift transparently to the client, rather than quietly reallocating budget without explaining why click volume has moved

Melbourne businesses working with a provider who can walk through impression share trends by keyword segment, rather than just monthly spend and conversions, are generally getting a clearer picture of what’s actually happening to their account. Learn more about PPC Management Services and best practices.

The Trade-Off Between Paid and Organic in This Environment

One consequence of AI Overviews eating into paid click-through rates is that organic visibility and structured content are becoming more relevant to paid performance than they used to be   not because they replace PPC, but because a business that also ranks organically, or whose content gets cited inside an AI Overview, retains some visibility even on queries where the ad itself gets less traffic. This isn’t a reason to abandon paid search. It’s a reason to stop treating PPC and organic/GEO strategy as fully separate budgets and teams, since they’re increasingly competing for the same shrinking piece of visible real estate.

Businesses planning PPC budgets for 2026 should expect a wider range of outcomes across keyword categories than in previous years. I have seen that, Highly transactional, local-intent keywords are holding up reasonably well and Broad, informational keywords that used to drive decent paid volume are seeing real declines in click-through rate, even when position and CPC stay flat. 

I have seen that, Highly transactional, local-intent keywords are holding up reasonably well but on the other hand Broader keywords that once drived decent paid volume are seeing declines in click-through rate, even when position and CPC stay flat

The practical response is to review keyword-level performance quarterly rather than annually, and be willing to shift budget away from keywords where AI Overviews have clearly cut into click volume, toward the more specific, transactional variants where paid ads are still doing real work.

This also changes how a monthly report should read. A report showing steady spend, steady CPC, and a modest dip in conversions used to be a reasonable prompt to check ad copy or landing pages. In 2026, the same numbers might just as easily reflect an AI Overview eating into impressions on a handful of broad keywords, which calls for a budget reallocation rather than a creative refresh. Asking a provider to separate these two explanations before recommending a fix is a reasonable expectation for any Melbourne business paying for active management rather than a set-and-forget campaign.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are AI Overviews making PPC advertising less effective in Melbourne?

For some keyword categories, yes   particularly broad, informational searches where an AI Overview can answer the query without a click. Transactional, local-intent keywords are generally less affected.

Should I stop bidding on keywords that trigger an AI Overview?

Not necessarily. It depends on whether the keyword still converts once a user does click through. The better first step is reviewing click-through rate trends on those keywords specifically, rather than pulling budget across the board.

How is PPC management in Sydney different from Melbourne given this shift?

The underlying mechanics are the same in both cities. The practical difference tends to come from which industries are concentrated locally and how often their typical search terms trigger an AI Overview, rather than any city-specific difference in how Google treats the auction.

What should I ask a PPC management company about their approach to AI Overviews?

Ask whether they track impression share and click-through rate by keyword segment, and whether they can show you which of your keywords have been most affected. A provider who can answer this specifically is generally paying closer attention than one who only reports on spend and conversions.

The Bottom Line

AI Overviews have genuinely changed where paid ads sit on the page and how much of the remaining click volume they capture, and that shift is uneven across keyword categories and industries. Melbourne businesses getting the best results in 2026 are the ones asking their PPC management provider to track this shift specifically, rather than assuming a flat CPC and steady position mean the campaign is performing the same as it always has.

If you’d like a clearer picture of how AI Overviews are affecting your account’s click-through performance, get in touch with AndMine for a straightforward account review.