Seventy two percent. That is how much more invalid traffic Google search campaigns running AI Max carried than campaigns without it, according to figures Lunio published on Wednesday. Invalid traffic means clicks that were never going to become a customer, and you paid full price for every one. The timing is the part that should worry you. Google converts a large slice of accounts to AI Max automatically on 1 September and there is no opt in step.
SEO and search
Google’s AI Max carried 72 percent more invalid traffic
Lunio looked at more than 414 million clicks across Google Ads, Bing, LinkedIn, Meta and the main native and social platforms between October 2025 and June 2026. In retail search, campaigns with AI Max on saw invalid traffic climb from 2.46 percent in the last quarter of 2025 to 5.28 percent in the second quarter of 2026. More than double in nine months.
Standard search campaigns tell the opposite story. Running in the same accounts, for the same advertisers, over the same three quarters, they eased from 3.72 percent down to 3.07 percent. The difference is not the market. It is the setting. Google emailed advertisers on 5 August confirming that campaigns using automatically created assets or campaign level broad match convert to AI Max for Search on 1 September 2026.
Why this matters for your business: Open Google Ads today and check two things. First, whether any campaign has automatically created assets or campaign level broad match switched on, because those are the ones that convert next month. Second, pull your search terms report for the last sixty days and read it properly. If you already see queries that have nothing to do with what you sell, AI Max widens that rather than narrowing it. Record your cost per lead now so you can prove what changed in September.
Cloudflare’s AI bot blocker is switching Google off too
Site owners using Cloudflare’s AI crawler controls have reported Googlebot and Bingbot getting HTTP 403 responses when they try to fetch the sitemap. The cause sits in how Cloudflare sorts crawlers. Googlebot, Bingbot and Applebot each crawl for search and for AI training using one bot, so Cloudflare files them under Search and Training together. Block the training half and you block search with it.
On 15 September Cloudflare sets new defaults for new domains. Crawlers classed as Training or Agent get blocked on pages carrying ads, while Search stays allowed. Crawlers that do both jobs get blocked by every setting that blocks AI training, including the older Block AI Bots toggle plenty of people switched on last year and then forgot about.
Why this matters for your business: This is the fastest way to disappear from Google without anyone touching your website. Log into Cloudflare, open the AI Crawlers and Scrapers section, and look at what is enabled. If the legacy Block AI Bots toggle is on, turn it off and rebuild the rule to block training only where you want that. Then run a live URL inspection in Search Console on your homepage and sitemap. Do it before 15 September.
Social
Google drops the Search Profiles bar to 35,000 followers
Google launched Search profiles in June. They give a creator or publisher one place in the search results pulling together their website, social accounts, videos and posts. At launch you needed 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram or X, which put it out of reach for almost every South African business. On Wednesday Google lowered the bar to 35,000 on those three. TikTok sits at 100,000.
Why this matters for your business: Thirty five thousand is a real number for an established local brand, a niche publisher or a founder who has posted consistently for years. If you are near it on one platform, that is the platform worth pushing. A Search profile also feeds Discover, so the payoff is visibility you do not have to win on a keyword.
Content and AI
ChatGPT has moved its source links out of sight
Glenn Gabe spotted OpenAI testing a change that takes the Sources button out of the footer of a ChatGPT answer and tucks it inside the three dot More actions menu. Fewer people find it there, so fewer clicks reach the sites the answer was built from. OpenAI has not explained why.
Set that next to a study reported this week putting AI referrals at just 1.1 percent of news publisher visits. Direct visits and ordinary search still carry almost all of it. A citation from an AI assistant is worth far less traffic than the noise around it suggests, and it just got worth a little less again.
Why this matters for your business: Do not rebuild your content strategy around getting cited by chatbots. The traffic is not there yet. Put the effort into channels that still send people to you, which for most South African businesses means Google search, your email list and the one social platform your customers actually use.
Automotive
What the AI Max switch means for a dealer group
Nothing new landed in automotive this week, so this is a read across rather than news. The AI Max change hits dealers harder than almost anyone, and it lands on 1 September.
Here is why. Dealer accounts are built on model and variant keywords, and those terms are expensive. A wasted click on a bakkie or SUV query costs several times what it costs a small retailer. Dealer groups also tend to run broad match across every rooftop, because that was the quickest way to cover every trim, colour and derivative. That is exactly the setup Google converts next month.
The measurement problem is worse than the money problem. An invalid click still lands on the vehicle detail page, still fires your page view, still counts in your traffic report. It just never books a test drive. Your cost per lead climbs while your traffic numbers look healthier than ever.
Why this matters for your dealership: Before 1 September, do three things. Export the search terms report for every rooftop and add negative keywords for queries that are clearly research rather than buying intent. Record your current cost per test drive enquiry and per service booking. Then check your lead forms and phone tracking are tagged well enough to tell a real enquiry from a page view, because you will need that distinction in September.
What to do this week
- Audit Google Ads for automatically created assets and campaign level broad match before the 1 September AI Max conversion.
- Record your current cost per lead so you can measure what September actually does.
- Check your Cloudflare AI crawler settings and confirm Googlebot can still fetch your sitemap.
- Check your follower counts against the new 35,000 Search Profiles threshold.
- Hold off on updating live sites until WordPress 7.1 ships on 19 August, then test on staging first.
Both of today’s big changes cost you money quietly rather than loudly, which is what makes them worth an hour now. If you would rather someone went through the Google Ads account and the Cloudflare settings with you, get in touch with Maple Leaf Agency.
Sources
- PPC Land on the Lunio AI Max invalid traffic study
- Search Engine Journal on Cloudflare bot blocking and Googlebot
- Search Engine Roundtable daily recap, 13 August 2026
- Android Authority on the lower Search Profiles thresholds
- Search Engine Roundtable on ChatGPT hiding its sources
- WordPress 7.1 release schedule