12 Aug 2026
Chain Reactions Live #0003: Google's AI Mode Ads Nobody Covered + Agent Orchestration for Growth
Google quietly shipped four new ad formats inside AI Mode, and almost nobody covered it. We did. Plus: a $13 CPC on ChatGPT ads, and Memrise's growth agent that lives entirely in Slack.CHAPTERS00:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ) Cold open03:06 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=186s) Welcome — Victoria joins, Polina returns04:24 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=264s) What's on the show today05:30 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=330s) WATERCOOLER: Sonnet 5's price hike and Fable 5's return07:38 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=458s) Token-maxing culture and the hidden cost of the price hike10:16 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=616s) Ford rehires the people it fired — to train the AI12:47 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=767s) Why the most elementary AI framing gets the most buzz14:27 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=867s) Benchmarking models on price, speed and quality before you buy15:12 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=912s) Product Hunt's June: the top tools were integrations, not standalone AI17:30 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1050s) The core stack nobody has replaced (and why Slack survived)22:14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1334s) The vibe-coded app problem: broken back ends, ToS exposure, $20 lessons26:01 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1561s) Cannes Lions: the agency billing model everyone admits is dead28:02 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1682s) Creator activations go niche — eyeballs over follower counts28:45 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1725s) Why Victoria skipped Cannes, and the CEO as the next creator31:04 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=1864s) Celebrity clout vs. an actual event strategy33:40 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2020s) AI's image rehab in marketing, and the founders paying for their own message36:06 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2166s) SheaMoisture flipped the creator brief39:21 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2361s) Why YouTube mid-roll ad reads stopped working40:42 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2442s) Google's AI Mode ads — the story nobody covered43:03 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2583s) Four new ad types, and what a business owner is actually signing up for44:43 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2683s) A $13 CPC on ChatGPT ads46:10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2770s) Could ChatGPT just run an affiliate network instead?49:44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=2984s) MARKDOWN: Lizzie Lawley, Head of Applied AI at Memrise50:20 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3020s) From pilot, to AI companion platform, to Wombat, to Memrise53:39 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3219s) The system map: every input feeding the growth machine56:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3360s) Core principles: context first, cheapest capable model, disagreement as a feature56:36 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3396s) "Months of work in hours" — what it actually saved58:36 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3516s) The loops: synthesis, experiment shaping, prototyping, build ticket, human gate1:00:41 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3641s) Live demo: "It's just Slack, baby"1:03:10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3790s) How the agent gets fresh context every single night1:06:04 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=3964s) OpenClaw V1, then real engineers rebuilt it1:07:06 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4026s) The failures: how expensive it got, real quick1:08:32 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4112s) The model pricing tier system, tier by tier1:11:19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4279s) Where the user interviews actually live (it's Google Docs)1:13:59 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4439s) The bot that spammed banana emojis, and what it taught her1:15:54 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4554s) Claude Design as a starting point for growth people who can't design1:17:35 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4655s) Why we skipped Hot Button this week1:18:27 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4707s) ADAHOLIC: the rules1:20:22 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=4822s) Round 1: Ed Sheeran, a posh restaurant, and way too many forks1:23:33 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5013s) Round 2: red key, blue key, and a luxury pitch1:26:23 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5183s) Round 3: "Yo... where's Dukey?"1:29:03 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5343s) Round 4: the Mother's Day one1:32:26 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5546s) Round 5: the car ad Arnav paused a second too late1:35:14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5714s) Round 6: puffballs, chrome nails and woodworking1:39:07 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=5947s) Round 7: "a better everyday life for the many people"1:40:41 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=6041s) Victoria takes the crown on her first appearance1:41:54 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUrPrTtPRsQ&t=6114s) CloseTHIS WEEK'S GUESTLizzie Lawley — Head of Applied AI at Memrise, co-founder of Wombat. She built a platform handling millions of simultaneous AI interactions with cost-efficient model routing, and now runs agent orchestration for Memrise's growth team. Her system pulls from transcripts, app reviews, Zendesk tickets, past experiment synthesis, Athena and BigQuery, and runs a nightly cron job so the agents never work off stale context. Methodology follows Bob Moesta's jobs to be done. The team calls it BYOB — bring your own Bobby.Ads featured in Adaholic this week: Heinz, Kia, Budweiser, Honda, Pinterest, IKEA.