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Scale & Strategy, now let's get into it!
This is Scale & Strategy, the newsletter that features so many heart rate-increasing stories that it should come with a health warning.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Google Ads Just Made Broad Match A/B Testing Way Easier
- Microsoft Ads: Asset-Level Reviews + AI Crackdowns
- Meta’s OpenAI Poaching Spree Just Doubled
Google Ads Just Made Broad Match A/B Testing Way Easier
Forget duplicating campaigns or manually syncing updates.
Google quietly rolled out a built-in A/B testing feature for Smart Bidding search campaigns—finally making it painless to test broad match performance against your current setup.
Here’s how it works:
Once enabled, the experiment automatically clones your existing exact and phrase match keywords into broad match variants and splits traffic 50/50. Campaign-level changes apply to both versions, so you don’t have to constantly babysit the experiment or worry about inconsistencies.
One caveat: it doesn’t work with portfolio bid strategies. So if you’re using those, you’ll need to sit this one out.
You can launch the test from the Experiments tab or directly from a recommendation inside your account. Google recommends a 6–8 week run to gather enough signal, which seems reasonable given the volatility of short-term data.
If broad match holds its own, you’ve now got a clean path to scale without the usual testing mess.
Microsoft Ads: Asset-Level Reviews + AI Crackdowns
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s shaking up how it reviews your creative.
Instead of pausing an entire ad over one policy flag, Microsoft Ads will now review each asset—headline, image, or description—individually. That means if one gets flagged, the rest can still run, assuming you have enough compliant components.
Appeals and notifications for specific asset rejections aren’t live yet, but they’re coming.
Also, if you’re experimenting with AI-generated ads, be careful. Microsoft’s stepping up enforcement:
- 1B+ ads removed or restricted in 2024
- 75,000 advertiser accounts banned
- 250,000 publisher pages demonetized
Most of those violations involved deepfakes, shady endorsements, or misleading claims.
The message is clear: use AI to scale smarter—not sketchier.
Meta’s OpenAI Poaching Spree Just Doubled
Meta has now poached eight researchers from OpenAI for its new superintelligence unit, with The Wall Street Journal revealing new details on Zuckerberg’s personal recruiting campaign — including a “secret list” of AI talent he’s chasing with massive pay packages.
Here’s what we know:
- Four more researchers just joined Meta from OpenAI — including core contributors to o1, o3-mini, and GPT-4.1 — on top of the four already confirmed last week.
- Zuckerberg is reportedly reading academic AI papers himself to scout recruits, and running a group chat called “Recruiting Party” where Meta execs coordinate strategy.
- Meta’s CTO fired back at Sam Altman for his $100M bonus accusation, calling it “dishonest” and framing Altman as frustrated because Meta’s hiring is actually working.
- Meanwhile, WIRED obtained an internal OpenAI memo from CRO Mark Chen downplaying the exits and trying to stabilize morale.
- And yes, a now-deleted tweet from an OpenAI staffer did raise some eyebrows over how “casual” these departures really were.
Why it matters:
Altman may have laughed it off last week, but losing eight researchers — some of them deeply embedded in OpenAI’s core models — is a serious signal. Whether it’s about culture, pay, or vision, Meta clearly has momentum in the AI talent war.
The bigger question now: Does “OpenAI is nothing without its people” still hit the same in 2025?
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