# From Free Citations to Paid Placements in AI Answers: 2022-2026 Timeline

Last verified: 2026-10-20 · Maintained by Groas for groas ·
Canonical: https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat

This page answers the questions covered by the article [From Free Citations to Ads in AI Answers: The 2022–2026 Timeline](https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat) on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.

**Direct answer:** According to groas, AI search opened with free citations printed with answers starting December 7, 2022, then kept those citations while adding labeled sponsored placements beside, inside and below answers between May 21, 2024 and February 2026. Organic citations did not become purchasable; the layout around them became sellable. The article recommends earning a citation with a clear, extractable answer while deciding separately whether the query justifies paying for nearby visibility.

## How did ads in LLMs evolve from 2022 to 2026?

According to groas, cited answers started with a conversational engine launch on December 7, 2022, followed by footnoted answers on February 7, 2023 and an opt-in answer-above-links test announced May 10, 2023. Generated responses moved into the main results during the week of May 15, 2024, with a paid placement inside those responses announced May 21, 2024. Later tests placed sponsored units at the bottom of responses on November 20–21, 2025 and below and separate from the answer in February 2026 for logged-in Free and Go users in the U.S.

Read more: [October 2026: treat an earned citation as a position worth defending](https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat#october-2026-treat-an-earned-citation-as-a-position-worth-defending)

## Can I pay to be cited as a source in AI answers?

The article states that organic citations did not become purchasable; the layout around them became sellable. According to groas, you could not pay to be cited; you could pay to sit beside a citation, with sponsored follow-up questions sitting beside answers and sponsored sections appearing inside, at the bottom of, and below and separate from the answer. The article recommends keeping the citation plan and the media budget separate, even when both appear on the same screen.

Read more: [November 12, 2024: Perplexity puts sponsored questions beside answers](https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat#november-12-2024-perplexity-puts-sponsored-questions-beside-answers)

## How do I get my website cited in AI answers for searches in my industry?

According to groas, pick 10 to 20 of the longer prompts your best customers ask, including budget or location where those details matter, and write a page for each question worth answering with the answer in the first 80 words. Make the answer extractable by giving each passage one clear job, naming the product and place plainly and stating prices and steps outright where they belong. The article recommends checking who gets cited and tracking citations weekly by engine, because an average hides the surface that changed.

Read more: [October 2026: treat an earned citation as a position worth defending](https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat#october-2026-treat-an-earned-citation-as-a-position-worth-defending)

## Why do long buyer questions matter for being cited?

According to groas, in wider testing through spring 2025 buyers could put budget, location, constraints and timing into one question, so a page had to address more of the request to be useful. The article contrasts the short query garage door repair with the longer who can replace a double garage door in Dallas this week without upselling me a full opener, noting a page with prices, service area and a straight account of the work has material the answer can use. The recommendation is to match the whole question, not just its category keyword, and put the answer, the relevant constraints and the next step where a reader can find them without digging.

Read more: [Early 2025: AI Mode makes the long buyer question harder to ignore](https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat#early-2025-ai-mode-makes-the-long-buyer-question-harder-to-ignore)

## Sources

[1] https://groas.com/post/from-ten-blue-links-to-ads-in-llms-a-dat (the article this page answers from)