Google AI Mode ads now run in India, Meta reportedly pushed its ad terms to 20 November and ChatGPT ads reached 89 countries. Here are the 10 stories from this week and the one to act on.
01Google is expanding ads in AI Mode to India and nine other countries, with Brazil, Mexico and the UK to follow in Q4.
02Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said AI Mode ads currently monetise less than traditional search ads.
03Meta’s updated Commercial Terms were reportedly delayed from 30 October to 20 November 2026.
04ChatGPT ads are now available in 89 countries, with a wider desktop unit and multi-image ads in open beta.
Ten countries got ads inside Google AI Mode this week, and India is one of them. AI Mode ads in India are the story to act on before Monday, and they arrived alongside an earnings call where Google admitted those same ads earn less than classic search ads.
This weekly roundup covers 10 stories from 24 to 31 October 2026: Google’s AI Mode ads, Alphabet and Microsoft earnings, Meta’s delayed ad terms, ChatGPT ads in 89 countries and a new wave of AI training controls. Dollar figures use ₹95.17 to the dollar, the 26 October 2026 close.
Google started selling ads inside AI Mode in India and nine other markets, Meta reportedly pushed its new ad terms to 20 November 2026, ChatGPT ads reached 89 countries, and Microsoft and Google both set dates for new AI training controls. Most of these come with a deadline, so we put the dates in one place.
We compiled: every marketer-facing date raised by this week’s news.
| Date | What happens | Who it hits |
|---|---|---|
| 31 October 2026 | ChatGPT ads creative enhancements begin | ChatGPT advertisers |
| 20 November 2026 | Meta’s updated Commercial Terms take effect (reported delay from 30 October) | All Meta advertisers |
| 15 December 2026 | Temporary grounding controls in Bing Webmaster Tools | Sites using NoArchive or NoCache |
| 1 February 2027 | Bing starts honouring new AI training and grounding preferences | All publishers |
| 1 March 2027 | Deadline to move off old Bing directives | Publishers on legacy tags |
Yes. Google said it is expanding ads in AI Mode to Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Singapore, with Brazil, Mexico and the UK to follow in Q4. In the US it launched multiturn ads, which can appear on follow-up questions, all labelled “Sponsored”.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, told analysts on 28 October that the move takes Google’s AI monetisation footprint “global for the first time”. He also said click-through rates for sponsored product listings in AI Mode are already comparable to organic listings.
Alphabet reported Q3 revenue of $127.6 billion (about ₹12.1 lakh crore), up 25%, while Search revenue growth slowed to 12% from 19% in Q1, per TechCrunch. Schindler said strong AI Mode query growth hurt because of “the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode”. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, said AI Mode queries run about three times longer than classic searches.
Read that pair together. Google needs AI Mode inventory to fill, and fresh inventory in a new market is usually cheaper before competition piles in. We’ve already tracked how AI Overviews now appear on 88% of commercial keywords and how Google is testing AI Mode ads shaped by Gmail and Photos.
Meta’s two stories this week were about terms and plumbing. Its updated Commercial Terms, including an AI Features clause that puts risk on the advertiser, were reportedly moved from 30 October to 20 November 2026. Separately, Meta’s engineers published new performance claims for Andromeda, the system that picks which ads you are eligible to win.
The preview Commercial Terms say advertisers are “solely responsible” for risks from Meta’s AI features, and the Self-Serve Ad Terms preview treats continued use of Meta’s ad tools as acceptance. The delay to 20 November was reported by Reuters on 23 October and relayed by GoodMorning; we have not seen a Meta announcement, so treat the date as reported.
Meta’s engineering post of 28 October says Andromeda processes over one billion ads per second, a 100x lift on the 2024 system, and has delivered a 2.4% increase in conversions on Facebook since 2025. Both are Meta’s own numbers.
Our maths: take a D2C brand spending ₹1 lakh a month at a ₹500 cost per purchase. That’s 200 purchases. A 2.4% lift adds about five. Useful, not a reason to restructure accounts. If you missed the earlier Meta default, here’s how to opt out of product browsing.
ChatGPT ads are available in 89 countries, according to OpenAI’s latest advertiser email reported by Search Engine Roundtable on 30 October. The same update brought a wider desktop ad unit with no advertiser action needed, multi-image ads in open beta for all advertisers, and a Shopify integration available internationally.
The report doesn’t list which 89 countries, so check your own account rather than assuming. Creative enhancements also start today, 31 October; our guide on how to opt out of ChatGPT creative enhancements walks through the switch.
Increasingly, yes. Microsoft announced separate preferences for AI Training, AI Grounding and Limited Grounding, starting 1 February 2027. Google said it will voluntarily adopt a single robots.txt policy token based on the IETF AIPREF proposal, aiming for support in 2027, so one line can state training preferences across providers.
Krishna Madhavan, principal product manager at Microsoft Bing, described the new settings as “newer, simpler, and clearer preferences”. Limited Grounding covers Microsoft’s own AI products only, not third-party grounding services. Publishers on the old NoArchive or NoCache directives have until 1 March 2027.
John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, said that if the token opts out of training and Google-Extended isn’t specified, Google will treat it as a Google-Extended disallow. Existing Google-Extended rules keep working, per Search Engine Roundtable.
Watch out: blocking training is not the same as blocking AI search. If you block grounding too, you may vanish from the AI answers your buyers read.
Not many, on one site’s evidence. Cyrus Shepard removed a single site from AI Overviews and AI Mode using Google’s opt-out and estimated about 0.9% click-through on AI impressions. Regular organic clicks also dropped once AI features were switched off, so opting out cost the site traffic rather than saving it.
Shepard himself calls it a small case study, and AI impressions were only about 8% of the site’s total. The CTR is estimated, not measured. It still argues against panic opt-outs.
Microsoft said search and advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs rose 12% on 28 October. Two days later, Khushal Bherwani posted a screenshot of sponsored results inside Bing’s AI Overviews; Barry Schwartz said he could not reproduce it, so it remains unconfirmed.
Trackers showed heavy Google volatility on 24 October, which Google has not confirmed as an update. In an interview with David Iwanow, Mueller said AI-spam tactics such as mass listicles will eventually be caught. Log any swing against our Google algorithm updates tracker before you rewrite anything.
The cheapest AI search clicks in India are probably the ones you can buy this month.
Act on AI Mode ads in India now. Early inventory in a new market rarely stays cheap, and Google’s own CTR claim for sponsored products is encouraging. Skip any account restructure for Andromeda, and don’t touch AI training controls until the 2027 dates firm up.
The counterpoint is real. Schindler admitted AI Mode ads monetise less, which may mean fewer slots or weaker intent per impression. Google also hasn’t given India-specific CTR or CPC data. Small accounts that can’t separate AI Mode results from classic Search may pay for learning they can’t read.
Yes. Google said in late October 2026 that it is expanding ads in AI Mode to India along with nine other countries. Check eligibility with Google Ads help or your account rep before setting a test budget.
Multiturn ads can appear on follow-up questions inside an AI Mode conversation, not only on the first query. Google launched them in the US and labels them Sponsored.
Meta’s updated Commercial Terms were originally due on 30 October 2026 and were reportedly moved to 20 November 2026. Meta has not been quoted directly on the new date, so check Meta’s legal pages.
ChatGPT ads are available in 89 countries, according to OpenAI’s advertiser update reported on 30 October 2026. The report did not list the countries, so confirm availability in your own account.
Not on current evidence. In Cyrus Shepard’s small one-site test, regular organic clicks also fell after the site opted out of Google’s generative AI features.
Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."
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