The Ad Spend

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Notes on running an account that remembers

Field notes and research on paid media, memory, and the difference between a number and a decision.

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104 posts in Reference

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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

AI Max for Search

AI Max for Search is Google's opt-in upgrade to Search campaigns — query expansion, auto-created assets, and broad-match improvements. It exited beta April 15, 2026.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

AEO is structuring content to be the direct answer engines return. 68.01% of US searches ended without a click in early 2026 (SparkToro/Similarweb).

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

AI Mode Ads

AI Mode ads are Google's formats inside AI Mode — Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers — introduced at Google Marketing Live on May 20, 2026 (US testing).

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Engage-Through Attribution

Engage-through is a Meta attribution bucket added March 3, 2026 that credits a 1-day conversion after ad engagement (a 5-second video view) without a click.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Share of Model

Share of Model is the AI-era share of voice: how often a brand appears in, or is recommended by, the outputs of AI models.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Ads are OpenAI's in-chat ad placements. A pilot launched January 16, 2026; a self-serve Ads Manager beta with CPC bidding and a Conversions API followed May 5, 2026.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Smart Bidding Exploration

Smart Bidding Exploration lets Google pursue relevant queries beyond a campaign's historical conversion patterns to find incremental conversions. It reached all feed-less PMax campaigns globally around June 15, 2026.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

GEO is optimizing content to be surfaced and cited inside AI-generated answers. AI-referred traffic converts about 4.4x organic (Semrush).

3 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Causal Inference in Advertising

Causal inference in advertising is the discipline of identifying which specific change caused a metric to move — as opposed to correlation, which only shows that two things moved together. It operates at two levels: channel-level (incrementality, MMM) and operational (which account change moved which metric).

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Ad Anomaly Detection

Ad anomaly detection is the automated flagging of metric movements that break from an account's own baseline — as opposed to static-threshold alerts, which fire on fixed numbers and generate noise. Good systems attach the likely cause to each anomaly.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Ad Change Tracking

Ad change tracking is the practice of recording every configuration change across ad accounts — who changed what, when — in a permanent, queryable record, because the platforms' own change histories are thin, short-lived, or missing.

2 min read
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ReferenceJuly 4, 2026

Budget Pacing

Budget pacing is how evenly a campaign spends its budget across its flight dates. Pacing alerts warn when spend is tracking toward overspend or underdelivery — ideally forecast-based, so the warning arrives while there's still time to act.

2 min read

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