Open your Search Console, go to the query report, and search it for the word yes. If you find yes sitting there as a query, nothing is broken. Those are real people replying to Google’s AI Mode, and Google has been logging their answers in your report all along. Here is what that means, plus a change to how often your ads are allowed to show at all.
Search and SEO
The word yes is now turning up in your Search Console query report
Anastasia Kourou posted screenshots on LinkedIn showing queries like yes, yes go on and yes pricing sitting in the standard Search performance report. John Mueller from Google replied and pointed at the help documentation, which states that a follow-up question inside AI Mode counts as a brand new query. Every impression, position and click from that follow-up gets recorded against it. Ross Tavendale shared the same finding on X on 4 August. The generative AI performance reports Google launched in June still carry no query data at all, so the main performance report is the only place any of this surfaces.
Why this matters for your business: your query report has quietly changed shape and nobody told you. Short conversational fragments and long rambling questions are now a signal that someone reached you through AI Mode rather than an ordinary search. Filter your queries for words like yes, more and cheaper, and for anything longer than about eight words. Then look at which pages those impressions land on. That is the closest thing to an AI Mode traffic report you will get, and it costs nothing.
Google will start showing your ads less often if it does not trust your account yet
On 7 August Google confirmed it is expanding the Limited Ad Serving policy to cover all of Google Ads. The rollout starts this month and runs in stages through to 2028. The mechanism matters. Google does not disapprove your ads. It caps how many impressions they get, in the placements where a poor experience is most likely. Qualification runs on account maturity, advertiser verification status, policy compliance history, user reports, ad format usage and industry. Limited accounts get a notification inside Google Ads and can appeal.
Why this matters for your business: a brand new advertising account is now a handicap rather than a neutral starting point. Complete advertiser verification on every account you own, including any your agency runs on your behalf. Google specifically recommends avoiding generic ad copy, naming your business clearly, and pinning your domain into the first headline slot on Search campaigns. Do that before you put more money in, because proving who you are is the cheapest fix available here.
Googlebot sends more than GET requests, and your firewall may be blocking them
Gary Illyes from Google wrote on LinkedIn on 7 August that Google’s crawlers send HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH and DELETE requests alongside the usual GET and POST. Together those account for under 1.5 percent of everything Google’s crawlers send. The cause is JavaScript. Scripts on the page fire those requests and Google’s rendering service follows them.
Why this matters for your business: plenty of WordPress security plugins and hosting firewalls block PUT, PATCH and DELETE by default, because those methods are a well known attack route. If your site uses JavaScript to load prices, stock levels or listings, and your firewall silently refuses the request Google’s renderer makes, Google may never see that content. Ask your host what your firewall does with those methods, then check whether anything on your site depends on them.
Social
YouTube is testing image ads that sit on top of the video while it plays
YouTube is testing a static sponsored image laid across part of the screen during landscape playback on a phone. It does not pause the video and it does not replace it. Hana Kobzova of PPC News Feed spotted the format and reports the images appearing roughly every three minutes, more often than a normal video ad break. Google has not said whether this stays a limited test.
Why this matters for your business: this is YouTube inventory you can buy without producing a video, which matters if your budget has never stretched to filming. Watch it. If the format launches properly, one well made still image gets you into placements that have been closed to you.
Content and AI
ChatGPT Ads switches on automatic tracking for existing pixels on 17 August
OpenAI emailed advertisers this week with a batch of ChatGPT Ads changes. The one carrying a date is automatic advanced matching. It is already the default on new web pixels, and on 17 August OpenAI switches it on for every existing web pixel unless you opt out first. It reads customer details out of your forms and sends them to OpenAI in hashed form to improve conversion matching. The rest of the update covers a conversion optimised cost-per-click campaign type in beta, dynamic URL macros, a live multi-product carousel format, and launches in Brazil and Mexico.
Why this matters for your business: this is a consent question, not simply an advertising setting. If you run ChatGPT Ads and your privacy policy does not tell visitors that their form data goes to OpenAI, POPIA makes that your problem rather than OpenAI’s. Decide before 17 August whether you want it on. Update your privacy policy if you keep it, and switch it off under Tools if you do not.
Automotive
What the ad serving change means for a dealer group
There is no fresh automotive news today, so this is a read across from the Google Ads story above rather than a story of its own. Google’s new trust criteria land harder on dealers than on almost anyone else, because the way dealer advertising is normally built looks exactly like a low trust account. A fresh account per rooftop means no account history. Ad copy built around model names reads as generic. Landing pages hosted on a third party inventory platform break the branding link between advert and destination.
Why this matters for your dealership: work through every rooftop account this month. Complete advertiser verification on each one. Get your legal trading name and your dealership branding consistent between the advert and the page it lands on, and pin your own domain rather than the listing platform’s into headline one. If a rooftop starts underdelivering for no obvious reason, check for a Limited Ad Serving notification before you go blaming the budget or the bid strategy.
What to do this week
- Filter your Search Console query report for yes, for more, and for anything longer than eight words, then note which pages those impressions land on
- Complete advertiser verification on every Google Ads account you own or that your agency runs for you
- Ask your host what your firewall does with PUT, PATCH and DELETE requests
- Decide before 17 August whether ChatGPT Ads automatic advanced matching stays on, and update your privacy policy if it does
- Dealers, audit branding consistency between your ad copy and your landing pages across every rooftop
If you would like a hand working through any of this on your own site or your own accounts, get in touch.
Sources
- Google Search Console Shows AI Mode Queries, Not In Generative AI Reports
- Google expands Limited Ad Serving policy across all Ads
- Update to Limited Ad Serving Policy, August 2026
- Google Crawlers Send HTTP Requests: HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH, DELETE
- YouTube tests image ads during horizontal mobile playback
- ChatGPT Ads Updates: oCPC, Dynamic URLs, Multi-Product Carousel