TRANSKRIPT 🔗
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Hey, it's Will Scott's VoiceClone.
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The content is curated and reviewed by Will.
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The voice is AI.
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This is the Search Influence weekly briefing for November 10th, 2026.
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This week, AI platforms moved a little farther from giving an answer toward taking an action.
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Google added home services booking links inside AI mode.
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Microsoft Clarity is showing what supported agents do on websites.
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On the advertising side, ChatGPT ads is moving advertisers to average cost targets, and Meta is changing how some conversions are matched.
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The lesson for us is simple.
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Give these systems accurate services, useful content, and clean conversion signals.
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Then compare the platform's report with appointments, orders, qualified leads, and revenue.
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A new service can create an opportunity.
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A new measurement method can also make the dashboard move before the business does.
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The written briefing includes an expert panel review.
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We use the expert panel to put the week's news in context.
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Announcements, reporting, and original data establish the facts.
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The expert views add interpretation and point out what those sources do not prove.
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Seven items made the cut.
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Google added direct home services booking links in USAI mode results.
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Microsoft Clarity announced agent activity, task simulations, brand agents, and a conversational analytics feature, each with its own availability rules.
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Search Engine Roundtable reported an unfinished OpenAI analytics screen that may show site owners their ChatGPT mentions and clicks.
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A small YouTube experiment linked richer descriptions with more AI retrievals.
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ChatGPT ads move new campaigns to Target CPA and Target CPC.
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Meta introduced on-device conversion matching for eligible pixels, and Meta paused the terms changes that had been scheduled for November 20th.
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Start with Google's home services booking links.
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Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable reported Google's November 4th announcement.
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US users can now move from research and AI mode to direct booking links through Angie, Thumbtack, HouseCall Pro, and Jobber.
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Service Titan is described as coming soon.
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Google Product Lead Robbie Stein's example is a plumbing emergency.
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AI Mode compares local pricing, checks reviews, makes a recommendation, and helps him book a plumber.
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It is Google's own example, not lead performance data.
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For a local service business, the service page is only part of the setup.
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The system also needs a clear service offering, reliable location information, current availability, and a booking path that works.
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If a customer can find the business but cannot schedule the right service, the new service has not done its job.
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So check the provider listings and booking tools clients already use.
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Search their priority services in the markets they serve.
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Confirm that the result describes the right service and that the booking link lands on a useful next step.
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Then add a lead source field so the team can tell an AI mode booking apart from another local lead.
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Do not call this a lead channel yet.
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We have no booking volume, lead quality, or revenue data.
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Next up, Microsoft Clarity's Agent Update.
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Microsoft is trying to connect three journeys people browsing, people asking an AI for a recommendation, and agents acting for them.
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Agent Activity shows which supported agents visit a site and what they do there.
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Microsoft says supported operators currently include Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
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The dashboard can show searches, form submissions, logins, downloads, appointment bookings, and checkout.
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Clarity also adds simulation assessments.
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A team can test whether an agent completes an important task, how long it takes, and where it gets stuck.
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Brand agents, a brand's own AI assistant, are expanding into Microsoft Discovery Serfaces such as Copilot and Bing and into local service booking.
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Eligibility depends on the platform and the type of business.
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Ask Clarity is the conversational analytics piece.
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You ask a question about site behavior, and Clarity links its answer back to session recordings.
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That feature is a closed beta for retailers, so do not treat the whole announcement as generally available.
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Microsoft reports that 14 of 16 early access participants said they discovered something new, that is useful product feedback from a tiny company-run survey, not an independent study.
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For clients, pick three tasks that drive revenue.
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Load full transcript
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Booking, a lead form, and checkout are good examples.
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Test whether an agent can finish each one, review the recordings, and confirm which features the account actually has before promising anything.
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Staying with measurement, the third story is a possible ChatGPT analytics view.
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Treat this one as a report about unfinished work, not a launch.
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Search engine roundtable reports on an unfinished OpenAI analytics screen spotted by Josez Kazu Kenas.
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It appears to let site owners verify that they own a site, then see how often ChatGPT mentions them and how often it sends clicks.
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The report calls it ChatGPT Webmaster Tools and compares it to Google Search Console.
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OpenAI has not announced a product.
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There is no official name and no release date.
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The report also shows no prompt data, user data, competitor comparison, or ranking view.
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It still matters for planning.
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Today it is hard to see how ChatGPT sends traffic to a site.
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If something like this ships, agencies would get that data straight from OpenAI instead of piecing it together.
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So start the baseline now.
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Track ChatGPT referrals and mentions with the analytics and log data we already collect.
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If a tool does launch, we will have something to compare it against.
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And do not promise clients a dashboard OpenAI has not confirmed.
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The fourth story is the YouTube description experiment.
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Peace AI looked at about 60 YouTube videos.
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On October 19th, researchers updated descriptions and added timestamps to 15 of them.
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They compared AI retrievals, meaning how often AI tools pulled those videos before and after the change.
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Search Engine Land reports a 359% increase in daily AI retrievals for the updated videos.
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Unchanged videos rose 17%.
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The test measured retrievals in tools including Google AI overviews and AI mode.
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The researchers could not prove the description changes caused the rise.
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The test was small, short, vendor-run, and not randomized.
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A retrieval also does not tell us whether a person watched the video, became a lead, or bought something.
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Still, it supports a reasonable test.
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Descriptions and timestamps tell an AI tool what a video covers and where each part starts.
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Refresh a set of useful older videos with accurate summaries and timestamps, leave a similar group unchanged, and measure retrievals, views, site visits, and conversions separately.
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OpenAI shows up again on the paid side.
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The fifth story is ChatGPT adds target bidding.
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Starting November 9th, Target CPA replaces max bid for new conversion campaigns that use a cost target.
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Target CPC is available for new click campaigns.
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Existing campaigns can keep max bid or max CPC for now, but OpenAI says those controls retire January 1st, 2027.
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A target CPA or target CPC is an average cost goal, not a maximum bid, and not a guaranteed price.
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The system can bid above or below the target in any one auction while it aims for the average.
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OpenAI also warns that a target set too low can reduce delivery.
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The same can happen when there are few chances to show or conversion signals are weak.
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A campaign can leave budget unspent even when the advertiser wants more volume.
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For conversion campaigns, confirm that the chosen event is actually arriving from the OpenAI pixel, the conversions API, or both.
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Setup alone does not prove usable signals are reaching the campaign, then set the target from recent actual cost over a consistent period.
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If the recent cost per qualified lead is$80, typing in$30 does not make the economics true.
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Move one campaign at a time and compare spend, delivery, lead quality, and actual average cost.
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There is a separate API change starting November 18th.
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Partners need to move to the new target CPA and target CPC fields before the old fields retire on January 1st.
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The sixth story is Meta's on-device conversion matching.
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Meta says its pixel can now connect an ad view with a later purchase on the customer's own device, then report the conversion back to the campaign.
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The setting is on by default for eligible pixels.
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It works alongside the Pixel and Conversions API and does not replace either one.
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Meta also says the attribution window and attribution model do not change.
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The setting changes which conversions can be measured, not how they are credited.
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Meta says the feature does not apply to people in the European Union and United Kingdom.
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Meta's public help page does not show a start date.
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MeasureBase reports that Events Manager shows November 12th for eligible pixels.
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That date matters because the report can improve without the business improving.
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More purchases may be matched to campaigns after November 12th, even if the store records the same number of orders.
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Reported cost per purchase can fall, and return on ad spend can rise just because the measurement changed.
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Before November 12th, save a baseline, campaign purchases, value, cost per purchase, and return on ad spend.
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Put orders and revenue from the store or CRM beside those figures.
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Note the date in reporting and tell the people who read the dashboard what changed.
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Meta's documentation leaves open questions about duplicate counting, purchase value, consent, and whether the extra matches feed bidding.
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Until those answers arrive, treat a jump as a measurement change first.
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The last story is Meta's pause terms update.
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Meta says proposed updates to its commercial terms, product catalog terms, self-serve ad terms, and ad creative generative AI terms will not take effect on November 20th.
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Existing terms remain in force.
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Neiman Lab reports that Meta confirmed the delay has no end date.
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The proposed terms had drawn objections over how Meta could use content from websites connected to MetaBusiness accounts.
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The deadline is gone.
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The issue is not settled.
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Meta has not published new wording or a new date, and it says its crawling practices are unchanged.
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A pause does not mean Meta dropped the idea.
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For publishers and meta business users, keep the current assessment and any robots.
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XT decisions, meaning the file that tells crawlers what they may access As they are.
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Do not act on a pause draft.
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When new text appears, compare it with the current terms and document what actually changed.
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Keep these six lines handy for client calls.
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For local service clients, Google can now send some U.S.
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Home Services customers from AI mode to a booking partner.
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We'll check that your services, availability, and lead tracking are ready before we call it a lead channel.
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For analytics conversations, Microsoft Clarity is starting to show what some AI agents do on your site.
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We'll test the tasks that bring in leads or sales and confirm which features your account has.
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For ChatGPT advertisers, ChatGPT ads is moving from maximum bids to average cost targets.
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We'll set the target from recent results and clean conversion data, then watch delivery and lead quality.
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For meta advertisers, Meta may report more conversions after November 12th because it added a new way to match them to ads.
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We'll compare Meta's numbers with orders and CRM revenue before calling it better performance.
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For publishers, Meta paused the November 20th terms update, so the current terms still apply.
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We'll wait for new wording instead of acting on a pause draft.
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For video teams, a small YouTube test suggests better descriptions may help AI tools find videos, but it did not prove the edits caused the lift.
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We'll run a controlled test and measure business results.
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That's the briefing for November 10th.
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The written edition includes the full expert panel review, source links, scope, and caveats.
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This podcast was generated with an AI clone of Will Scott's voice using the Eleven Labs text to speech platform to keep influencing.