AI Overview Content Search Terms Selection

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Choosing the right terms is essential for generating meaningful insights into AI Overviews (AIOs). We know it can be challenging to determine which terms to track, so here’s a simple guide to help you get the most value from your data.

What We Often See

Selected terms don’t align with how AIOs currently behave. For example:

• Low-volume, conversational prompts designed for LLMs, or
• Broad, high-volume commercial terms that rarely trigger AIOs.

Finding the Right Mix

To get the most meaningful insights from AI Overviews, it’s important to select a balanced mix of commercial terms and high-trigger informational queries. This blend gives you both sides of the AIO landscape:

• Commercial visibility — where ads appear inside AIOs, and
• Content visibility — the citations, links, and brand mentions that populate the Content tab.

Relying too heavily on one type of term can limit the insight you'll receive.

• Only commercial terms: AIOs appear far less frequently, which can make your reports look sparse while ads inside AIOs are still emerging.
• Only informational queries: You'll get rich content insights but miss the revenue-driving commercial terms where Google is increasingly placing ads.

The goal is to strike the right balance between Commercial Visibility (ads) and Content Visibility (citations & mentions). A thoughtful mix of both ensures clear, actionable insights into how AI Overviews impact your visibility and opportunities for revenue defense.

The Solution: "Hybrid Portfolio"

We recommend dividing your terms allocation into three categories. This approach helps you see immediate value by quickly populating the Content tab with meaningful AIO insights, while also preparing your account to track future advertising opportunities as Google expands ads within AI Overviews. The suggested weightings are simply a starting point and can be adjusted based on your specific objectives and priorities.

Bucket A: Brand Defense & Safety (20%)

• The "Must-Haves"
• Definition: Core brand terms combined with comparison or reputation modifiers.
• Why: Reputation Management. Even if ads don’t trigger, you must know if an AIO is hallucinating about your product, citing negative press, or recommending a competitor directly in the answer text.
• Examples:
  • [Brand] reviews
  • [Brand] vs [Competitor]
  • Is [Brand] legitimate?
  • [Brand] pricing tiers

Bucket B: The "Revenue Drivers" / Ad Hunters (40%)

• The Commercial Layer
• Definition: Your top converting generic terms, filtered for specific "pre-purchase" intent.
• Data Insight: Our latest analysis shows Ads inside AIOs are currently triggering on 3-5 word transactional queries, specifically those starting with “Best...”, “Top...”, or “Cheap...”.
• Why: Future-proofing. As Google rolls out Ads in AIOs, they will appear here first. We need a baseline now to measure the impact of lost click-share later.
• Examples:
  • Retail: Best running shoes for flat feet
  • Retail: Cheap flights to New York
  • B2B: Top enterprise cybersecurity software
  • Finance: Best credit card for travel points

Bucket C: The "Seekers" (40%)

• The Volume Layer: Experiment with different terms using the frequency table in the Impact section of our AIO report. Focus on high-volume terms in the 50–100% bucket. If needed, your Customer Success Manager can provide additional support.
• Definition: Question-based, middle-to-long tail terms (Who, What, Where, How) weighted by search volume.
• Why: Immediate Utility. These terms have the higher AIO trigger rate right now. Prioritizing these ensures "Content" tab actually populates with data, avoiding an empty or low volume of data in the dashboard
• Examples:
  • Retail: How to train for a marathon
  • Retail: What size carry on is allowed?
  • B2B: How to prevent malware attacks
  • Finance: What is a good credit score?

Term Acceptance & Rejection Rules

When adding terms to your account, please note the following requirements:

• Word Limit: Terms must not exceed 10 words
• Valid Starts: Must begin with a letter, digit, currency symbol or +
• Prohibited Starts: Terms starting with -, /, _, or ' are rejected
• Allowed Symbols: Hyphens, apostrophes (mid-term), ampersands, periods, and accented characters are permitted
• Blocked Symbols: Colons, parentheses, pipes, at signs (@), percent signs, and emojis cause rejection