The Ad Spend

Blog

Notes on running an account that remembers

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

AllGuides & ResearchReferenceProduct

124 posts in Reference

Polished black shoes and dark trousers mid-step on an oxblood-red carpet
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
Overhead view of a desk phone off the hook among scattered papers and a pen on a dark desk
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
A phone handset dangling by its cord above an oxblood-red carpet
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
Overhead view of a cluttered desk with a coffee cup, phone handset, mouse and piles of paperwork
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
A young man adjusting a telephone headset mid-call, glancing to the side
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
Close portrait of a man listening intently on a beige phone handset
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
Close-up of hands typing on a black keyboard over paperwork at night
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
A man in a dark coat adjusting his glasses in low light
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
A hand flicking a lighter in deep shadow beside a wastepaper basket
ReferenceJune 12, 2026

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition explained. 2026 benchmarks: Google Search CPL $66.69, Meta e-commerce CPA $38.19, LinkedIn CPL ~$94.

2 min read
Cropped profile of a man in a dark coat and striped tie, face out of frame
ReferenceJune 9, 2026

2026 Google Ads Benchmarks: CPC, CTR & Conversion Rates

2026 Google Ads benchmarks from 13,474 US campaigns. Average CPC $5.42, CTR 6.64%, CVR 8.18%, CPL $66.69 — the first CPL decrease in five years.

2 min read
Two colleagues in shirts and ties standing before venetian blinds, one adjusting his tie
ReferenceJune 5, 2026

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Understand cost per click. 2026: Google Search $5.42, Meta e-commerce ~$0.66 effective, LinkedIn ~$5.74. See benchmarks by industry.

2 min read
A man carrying a stack of green ledger folders under one arm
ReferenceJune 2, 2026

Google Ads Benchmarks for Legal Services 2026

2026 Google Ads benchmarks for legal: CPC $9.87, CTR 5.87%, CVR 5.55%, CPL $131.63 — the most expensive vertical on Search.

2 min read

The record

Stop running an account that forgets.

Every decision written down, with its reason and its result. That is the whole product.

Start freeBook demo