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Here’s what we got for you today:
Google just dropped a new Ad Strength guide — and it’s quietly shifting how it picks content for AI Overviews
OpenAI launches GPT-4.1 — plus, how AI models are clicking on your ads
4 Reasons Your Meta Ads Are Reaching the Wrong People (and How to Fix It)
Google just dropped a new Ad Strength guide — and it’s quietly shifting how it picks content for AI Overviews
Remember when your mom told you to solve your own math problems? Yeah—Google’s not doing that.
Instead, it’s handing over answers. Google just rolled out a new Ad Strength guide and best practices doc for Google Ads, designed to help you boost performance and optimize creative assets across text, video, and images.
Quick refresher: Ad Strength gives you real-time feedback to help align with Google’s best practices. The higher your score, the more likely your ads are to perform.
Now, whether you follow Google’s advice to the letter is up to you—but if you're stuck or trying to boost CTRs, it's worth a look.
Meanwhile, in Search land: Google’s latest core update appears to be reshuffling how it selects pages for AI Overviews (AIOs). Early signs show that even pages outside the top 10 search results are getting cited.
That’s good news, kind of. But also confusing—because if rank #1 doesn’t guarantee a spot in AIO, what are we optimizing for?
Truth is, no one fully knows yet. Google’s selection criteria for AIOs is evolving, and we’re all trying to read the tea leaves.
We’ll keep you posted as the dust settles.
Delve AI to get SOC 2 compliant in 15 hours
Need SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR and more sorted out without the 60 hours of busywork?
YC-backed Delve is using AI agents to make the compliance process 75% faster than anyone else. Startups like 11x, Bland, and other big companies have switched over because of:
→ A simplified process that takes only 10-15 hours
→ A 1:1 Slack channel with the founding team and 24/7 customer support
→ AI code scanning that reviews PRs for vulnerabilities
→ AI to help you autofill your security questionnaires
Delve does for compliance what Turbotax does for taxes. Simple, secure, and built by founders - for founders.
OpenAI launches GPT-4.1 — plus, how AI models are clicking on your ads
What happens when GPT-4 levels up with more power, more context, and better instructions?
You get GPT-4.1. According to OpenAI, it’s better across the board—especially for coding, task-following, and working with larger context windows (up to 1 million tokens).
There are three flavors:
GPT-4.1 & 4.1 Mini: Budget-friendly but powerful.
GPT-4.1 Nano: Lightweight, fast, and cheaper.
All are rolling out to developers now—so if your team builds with AI, time to explore.
As for GPT-5? It’s delayed. Expect a few more months of 4.1 before the next big leap.
Oh—and AI’s now engaging with your website.
A new research paper shows that AI models are actively browsing, filtering, and even clicking ads on behalf of users.
Some takeaways:
Banner ads get the most engagement.
AI does interact with ads—just differently than humans.
Filtering/sorting tools are used inconsistently across models.
Bottom line: If you’re still designing ad strategies only for humans, you’re behind. It’s time to start thinking about how bots engage with your site.
Because if AI’s doing the shopping, it might as well shop with you—not your competitor.
Pro tip: AI doesn’t care about flashy visuals or emotional copy. It cares about structure, clarity, and data. Lean into that.
4 Reasons Your Meta Ads Are Reaching the Wrong People (and How to Fix It)
Ever wondered why your Meta ads are getting clicks from places you never targeted?
It’s not a glitch. It’s how Meta’s location targeting actually works—and if you’re not careful, your ad dollars could be going further than you'd like… just not in the right direction.
Jon Loomer breaks it down. Here’s what you need to know:
1. “Living in or Recently in” is the default setting Back in the day, you could choose between people who live in, were recently in, or were traveling through a location.
Not anymore.
Today, Meta automatically targets people who live in or were recently in your selected area. If someone just passed through—or hasn’t updated their location in months—they could still get served your ad.
2. Your radius is way bigger than you think When you pick a city, Meta automatically adds a +25 mile radius around it. So if you’re targeting Chicago, you might also be hitting parts of Indiana.
You can shrink the radius to +10 miles, but even then, expect spillover into neighboring areas.
3. Location expansion is probably on This little-known setting lets Meta target people interested in your location, even if they’re nowhere near it.
Useful for tourism or general awareness. Terrible for hyper-local campaigns. You can turn it off manually under ad settings.
4. Organic reach is sneaky Some out-of-area engagement isn’t from your targeting—it’s from organic reach. Shared posts, comments, or other unpaid activity can push your ad further than intended.
It didn’t cost you anything—but it can confuse your results.
So, what can you do? You can’t fully lock down targeting to only current residents, but you can tighten things up:
Mention your city or neighborhood directly in your ad copy and visuals.
Use forms or CTAs that call out location-specific info.
Make your offer hyper-relevant to locals, so the algorithm learns who should actually see it.
It won’t be bulletproof—but it’ll be a lot more accurate.
And more importantly: your budget will go where it’s supposed to.
