This week's Search Influence briefing is about control and proof. Google is expanding AI-search reporting while also enforcing a spam cleanup, and ad platforms keep tightening automation around targets, campaign types, and relevance signals.

The larger takeaway: AI only helps when the account is already legible. For SEO, that means consistent brand entities and third-party proof. For paid media, it means clean conversion definitions, targets, budgets, feeds, and campaign structures.

• Google finished the June 2026 spam update - ranking movement from June 24 to June 26 needs to be separated from site-specific issues.
• Search Console AI performance reports are rolling out wider - more teams can measure AI Search visibility directly.
• Google's LLM patent points toward brand-entity understanding - consistency across websites, reviews, maps data, and public sources matters.
• Google is tightening target-based bidding when budgets are limited - CPA and ROAS targets need review before the August 17 rollout.
• Google Ads API will stop supporting new Smart Campaign creation - old workflows and tools need a replacement path before August 3.
• ChatGPT ad dismissals are down 50% - relevance may be improving, but the channel is still early.
• Publishers are getting more AI crawler controls - discovery, content protection, licensing, and referral tracking now need an explicit policy.

• 00:00 - Opening note and weekly theme
• 00:35 - Six things to know this week
• 02:00 - Google June spam update
• 03:15 - Search Console AI performance reports
• 04:40 - Brand entities and Google's LLM patent
• 06:05 - Target-based bidding changes
• 07:35 - Smart Campaign creation cutoff
• 08:35 - ChatGPT ad relevance signal
• 09:35 - AI crawler controls for publishers
• 10:35 - Company-wide takeaway and client-call cheat sheet

• Google Search Status Dashboard: June 2026 spam update
• Google Search Central: Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console
• Search Engine Land: Google Search Console AI performance reports rolling out to more users
• Search Engine Land: Google's LLM patent suggests a new goal for SEO
• Search Engine Land: Google Ads updates target-based bidding for budget-limited campaigns
• Search Engine Land: Google Ads API to stop supporting new Smart Campaign creation
• Search Engine Land: OpenAI says ChatGPT ad dismissals have dropped 50%
• Search Engine Land: Cloudflare and beehiiv give publishers new AI crawler controls

Search Influence helps organizations earn visibility across search, AI answers, paid media, and the places customers make decisions. searchinfluence.com