Google’s Search Growth Slows to 12% as Its AI Eats the Click

Alphabet’s third-quarter print, and The Information’s reporting since, put search advertising growth at 12% after 19% in Q1 and 17% in Q2, against Meta’s 26% — a 14-point gap, the widest since 2021 — even as Google’s search ad revenue still rose from $56.6 billion to $63.4 billion and Meta’s went from $50.1 billion to $63.1 billion. Shares fell 12.6% on 29 October, the worst day since 2004, and chief business officer Philipp Schindler attributed part of the slowdown to AI Mode monetising worse than classic search, with paid-click growth decelerating from 13% to 8%. Six advertisers and agencies told The Information they had shifted budget to Meta or ChatGPT, and Google is weighing acquisitions of AI ad tooling; advertisers still cannot buy AI Mode separately, nor opt out of it.