Google can not show ads in AI Overviews with the exact match type. This is a change from back in May, where Google said otherwise. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, wrote on X, "We have since updated this."
Ginny Marvin explained, "The presence of the same keyword in exact match will not prevent the broad match keyword from triggering an ad in an AI Overview, since the exact match keyword is not eligible to show Ads in AI Overviews and hence not competing with the broad match keyword."
Here are those posts where she responded to this:
Great question, Toan. We have since updated this. The presence of the same keyword in exact match will not prevent the broad match keyword from triggering an ad in an AI Overview, since the exact match keyword is not eligible to show Ads in AI Overviews and hence not competing…
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) December 12, 2025
We covered the exact match comment back in May - here is that old post that said this but again, this has now changed. I am not sure when it changed:
Hi Yoav, Your ad could trigger to show either above/below AIO or within AIO, but not both at this time.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) May 28, 2025
As you note, in this scenario, the exact match or broad match keyword could be eligible to trigger an ad above or below AIO, while only the broad match would be eligible to…
She wrote then, "only the broad match would be eligible to trigger an ad to show within AIO." But again, this is no longer the case now that exact match is now eligible for AI Overviews.
Forum discussion at X.
