Thursday, July 16

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⚡️ Today’s Headlines ⚡️

💖 Threads added flair tag icons for community posts. The themed icons show up under usernames and reflect specific subtopic interests within larger discussion groups to streamline platform engagement and connection.

🤫 Reid Hoffman sends 89% of messages with zero edits. His tool? Wispr Flow. Try it free →

🗺️ Apple is banning home services from its upcoming Maps ads. The iPhone maker hasn’t disclosed a launch date for Maps ads but its new rulebook prohibits the broad category of home services businesses like plumbing, electrical, and more.

🤮 99% of Marketing Agencies Suck. That's why this month, let me introduce you to a few that I have personally vetted that would be a great fit for your budget & goals... It's 100% free, no strings attached →

⚙️ Google is testing new PMax controls with Search Partners setting. The new Partners (Alpha) setting in Performance Max gives advertisers the ability to opt in or out of Search Partners and the Google Display Network.

💡 Today’s Insight 💡

New Study: Google AI Mode ads reach nearly 30% of queries

🗞 TL;DR - A new SE Ranking study found that Google AI Mode is rapidly expanding its ad coverage, with sponsored results now appearing across a much broader range of commercial queries than during its initial rollout. By mid-2026, nearly 1 in 3 commercial queries in the data set showed a text ad.

💡 Insight - The research suggests AI Mode is becoming a significant new ad surface, with ad frequency varying widely by industry. Pets had the highest rate with ads appearing on 72.38% of analyzed keywords, while healthcare had the lowest at 2.64%.

Higher-ad categories were typically lead-generation markets with clear paths to paid conversions. Lower-ad categories were more likely to involve informational or YMYL intent, where commercial demand might be lower or Google may be more cautious.

The study also found that ad placement is influenced more by commercial intent and keyword value (CPC) than by query length or format. Higher-cost keywords were much likely to trigger AI Mode ads. Ad presence was 24.33% for keywords with CPCs below $2.

Additionally, the study found that paid visibility and AI citations operate independently. Buying ads does not increase the likelihood that your website will be cited in AI-generated answers. In fact, only 11.53% of advertiser domains appeared among the cited sources for the keywords they advertised on.

Advertisers also rarely ranked organically for the same keywords. Only 2.32% of advertised URLs ranked organically for the queries where their ads appeared. At the domain level, overlap increased to 15.35%. About 85% of advertisers didn’t appear in organic results for the same keywords where they showed AI Mode ads.

Overall, the findings show that advertisers and SEO pros should be treating AI Mode Ads, cited sources, and organic rankings as separate visibility channels. Buying your way into visibility doesn’t increase your chances of being cited or ranking organically.

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