Field notes on AI ads.
Original research, opinions, and tactics on AI in paid advertising — from the team building AdControlCenter.
How to Scale Google Ads Spend Without Blowing Out Your CPCs
Most Google Ads accounts don't have a budget problem — they have a structure problem that makes every new dollar more expensive than the last.
Ads Active but Not Spending? The Zero-Delivery Fix for Meta and Google
Zero spend with no error message is one of the most expensive silences in paid ads — here's the exact diagnostic checklist for Meta and Google.
The evaluation framework that wins, not the model
Switching AI models gives you a marginal lift. Building a real evaluation loop gives you the compounding advantage.
Budget splits for $500 / $1k / $2k / $5k monthly
The platform you add second matters more than the total you spend — here's exactly how to split your ad budget at every stage from $500 to $5k/mo.
Generative Engine Optimization: the 2026 founder's checklist
Most founders still don't have llms.txt live—here's the exact 12-item checklist to make your site visible to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and every other AI system that's replacing Google search.
Mobile traffic on Reddit: a documented budget leak
Reddit mobile placements quietly drain budgets at higher CPCs and lower conversion rates than desktop — here's exactly what to do about it.
Cross-platform ad attribution without Looker
You don't need a $40k/year BI tool to know which ad dollars are working—here's the exact minimum stack that gets you 90% of the answer.
AI agents for PPC: what they can and can't do in 2026
AI agents can already run bid loops and flag broken creative — but the founders who handed them full autonomy last year are quietly taking back the wheel.
Reddit Ads cost benchmarks, Q2 2026
Real CPC, CPM, and CTR numbers for Reddit Ads by category, subreddit size, and format — so you know whether your campaign is expensive or just Reddit.
Product fidelity in AI ads: catching when the model swaps your product
AI image models will silently replace your actual product with a plausible-looking substitute — here's exactly how to detect and prevent it.
Why your Reddit ad isn't getting impressions — a debug guide
Zero impressions on Reddit ads almost never means Reddit isn't working — it means one of five specific, fixable things is broken in your setup.
Direct Response advertorial images: a working 6-step example
How to go from a blank canvas to a conversion-ready advertorial image for supplements—using ChatGPT, Gemini, and one spy tool—without touching Photoshop.
The G.E.M framework, but for static ads
The G.E.M framework was built for AI video—but its Generate / Extract / Multiply logic turns out to be exactly what broken static ad workflows need.