EBay Live Doubles Down on Gaming-Led Fandom and Collectables Culture in Campaign via Dentsu
eBay Australia, together with agency dentsu, has rolled out an integrated eBay Live campaign across YouTube, TikTok and Meta, timed for Star Wars Day. The initiative pairs the platform’s real‑time auction format with top gaming creators, including Fortnite star Lachlan Power, to showcase collectible items for a digitally native audience. Livewire powers the experience, emphasizing participation as much as purchase. The campaign will continue with pop‑culture, Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering themed events through June.
The End of the Internet's Golden Age
Google unveiled the biggest upgrade to its Search box in over 25 years, swapping traditional blue‑link results for AI‑driven zero‑click answers. The change instantly reduces click‑throughs for publishers, SEO firms, and affiliate marketers who rely on organic traffic. Simultaneously, public...
What Most Brands Get Wrong Measuring Influencer Marketing ROI
Influencer marketing ROI should be measured through engagement, user‑generated content, consumer intent signals, and retail impact rather than simple impressions. Brands that focus only on reach miss the bulk of value, including cost savings from repurposing influencer‑created assets. A strong...
Brands Are Crediting the Wrong Channel for Sales
Brands rely on last‑click attribution, crediting channels that capture intent rather than those that create it. The rise of AI‑driven discovery hides early‑stage touchpoints, inflating the perceived performance of downstream media. Marketers who continue to allocate budgets based on flawed...
What to Look for in an AI Advertising Platform in 2026
The article outlines the criteria brands should use when selecting an AI advertising platform in 2026. It emphasizes that true value comes from reducing operational complexity, leveraging real‑commerce signals, and delivering unified cross‑channel management. Platforms that automate creative production and...
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 22, 2026
Google began rolling out its May 2026 core update, a two‑week algorithm refresh aimed at surfacing more relevant content. Simultaneously, the Search Console links report malfunctioned, showing zero or dramatically reduced backlink counts for many sites. OpenAI expanded its ChatGPT Ads...
OpenAI Releases ChatGPT Ads Manager Updates & Ads Tests
OpenAI announced three upgrades to its ChatGPT Ads Manager: daily budget options, granular geo‑targeting by state, DMA or ZIP code, and aggregate list‑view totals for impressions, clicks and spend. The changes apply to new campaigns, with daily budgets limited to...
Google Tests Was & Usually Pricing Labels In Product Results
Google is piloting new pricing labels—“was” and “usually”—on its product and shopping search results. The tags appear next to the listed price, signaling whether the figure reflects the current price or a typical/previous price. The experiment was first spotted by...
Programmatic Advertising Expands to Car LED Screens
Adtelligent, Uklon Ads, and Advision have launched a programmatic advertising solution that places LED screens on the roofs of Uklon partner cars in Ukraine. The system integrates Adtelligent’s real‑time bidding technology with Advision’s CMS, allowing brands to buy moving DOOH...
Strategic Perspective on Digital Monetization in Europe
Europe’s digital advertising ecosystem remains highly fragmented across language, culture, regulation, and technology, making uniform strategies ineffective. GDPR and varying consent rates, coupled with the phase‑out of third‑party cookies, force publishers and marketers to prioritize localised compliance and first‑party data....
When Marketing Leaders Can’t Explain Search Performance via @Sejournal, @Coreydmorris
Marketing leaders often drown in search‑engine data—impressions, clicks, rankings—yet struggle to tie those numbers to real business outcomes. Corey Morris highlights that traditional SEO and paid‑search reports focus on visibility metrics, leaving CMOs unable to explain revenue impact or lead...
Mind Meld PR Reveals Its Winning Strategy for Brands in the AI-Era
Google announced its biggest search overhaul in 25 years, replacing traditional link lists with AI‑driven interactive experiences. The shift means 84% of AI search citations now come from earned media, making PR coverage critical for brand visibility. Mind Meld PR,...
Samba TV Launches Project Gravity, an Independent Data Activation Platform for the Agentic Era
Samba TV unveiled Project Gravity, an independent data‑onboarding and activation platform that matches advertisers' first‑party data to its proprietary Identity Graph. The service assigns a universal identifier that can be deployed across more than 40 major DSPs, SSPs and walled‑garden...
Prog AI Live: AI’s Slippery Slop
At the Prog AI Live event in Las Vegas, AdExchanger editors debated how AI‑generated content is reshaping the notion of “premium” media. They noted that viral, low‑production “slop” often garners higher engagement than traditional high‑budget entertainment, forcing brands to reconsider where they allocate...
Critics Warn Kalshi and Polymarket Risk a Juul-Style Reckoning
Prediction‑market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket are under fire for using viral social‑media ads that appeal to users as young as 18, prompting bipartisan legislative action. Lawmakers introduced the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement Act after hearing that a third of...
Google's New AI Search Ads Are Designed to Look Like Helpful Answers
Google is rolling out AI‑driven search ads that appear as conversational answers within its new AI Mode. The ads will be labeled as sponsored but blend with AI‑generated responses, including short product descriptions for shopping queries. Users will still see...
AI Is Finally Doing Real Work In Ad Ops (But Only When It Works With Your Existing Tech)
Jordan Cauley, a former Mediavine product lead, showed that large language models can dramatically streamline publisher ad‑ops when they are wired directly into existing tools like Google Ad Manager, GitHub and revenue‑reconciliation feeds. By integrating Claude and ChatGPT with these...
AI Is Finally Doing Real Work In Ad Ops (But Only When It Works With Your Existing Tech)
Jordan Cauley, a former Mediavine product lead, demonstrated that large language models only deliver real value in publisher ad operations when they are directly integrated with existing tools like Google Ad Manager, GitHub, and revenue feeds. By wiring Claude and...
Digital Turbine Expands AI Capabilities Across Its Mobile Platform Through Deepened Google Cloud Partnership
Digital Turbine announced a deeper partnership with Google Cloud to embed the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform across its mobile ecosystem. By leveraging its Ignite Graph and DT iQ intelligence layer, the company will process real‑time signals from more than one...
Veritonic Launches Instant Insights: AI-Powered Creative Intelligence
Veritonic unveiled Instant Insights, an AI‑powered self‑service platform that delivers immediate creative performance feedback across audio, video, podcast, CTV, social and digital media. Built on more than a decade of proprietary benchmark data, the tool evaluates emotional resonance, engagement potential...
DoubleVerify Delivers Global Media Quality Measurement for LinkedIn Audience Network, Elevating Transparency for B2B Advertisers
DoubleVerify has launched global post‑bid media quality measurement for the LinkedIn Audience Network, giving advertisers independent visibility into invalid traffic, viewability, brand suitability and geographic delivery. The new offering complements pre‑bid avoidance controls, allowing brands to block unsuitable inventory before...
LLM Guidance Doesn’t Transfer The Way SEO Guidance Did via @Sejournal, @DuaneForrester
For two decades SEO practitioners could follow guidance from one search engine and expect it to work across Google, Bing and others because the engines shared protocols like sitemaps and Schema.org. In the generative‑AI era that portability has vanished; major...
AEO Is a Creator Marketing Opportunity Most Brands Are Missing
Brands now compete for visibility in AI‑generated answers rather than traditional search results, and only 5‑10 % of those citations come from owned sites. The bulk of AI brand references—up to 95 %—are sourced from creator‑driven content on YouTube, Reddit, Substack and...
Samsung Ads Southeast Asia Overlays Eyeota Data for Greater Connected TV Ad Effectiveness
Samsung Ads Southeast Asia has teamed up with data‑technology firm Eyeota to overlay viewership data from millions of Samsung Smart TVs with Eyeota’s consumer insights. The alliance, the first data partnership for Samsung Ads in the region, covers Singapore, Thailand...
How To Stress-Test A Staging Environment To Surface Risks Pre-Launch – Ask An SEO via @Sejournal, @HelenPollitt1
The article outlines a systematic approach to stress‑test a staging environment before a major website launch, emphasizing that a staging site should mirror production as closely as possible. It recommends crawling at scale with diverse user‑agents, checking JavaScript rendering, and...
Channel 4’s Digital Ad Transformation Is Ahead of Schedule
Channel 4’s 2025 annual report shows the broadcaster ahead of its Future4 digital‑ad targets, with digital advertising generating roughly $440 million – 34% of total revenue – up from 30% in 2024. Non‑advertising revenue hit the 10% goal, while streaming views rose...
Fermenta Scales Its YouTube Presence Across Three Brands With Popcorn.co: DGR Case Study
Fermenta, a health‑nutrition company, adopted Popcorn.co’s autonomous video platform to scale short‑form YouTube publishing across its three brands. The system produced over 40 videos in six weeks, maintaining a cadence of two to three posts per brand without hiring additional...
'Injured' And 'Strike' Among the Words on Advertiser Blocklists as World Cup Approaches
Research from the UK advertising trade body reveals that agencies are increasingly using blocklists to prevent ads from appearing alongside content containing words such as “injured”, “strike”, “shoot” and “attack”. The move intensifies as the FIFA World Cup approaches, with...
What Is PPC? A Starter Guide to Pay-per-Click Advertising
Pay‑per‑click (PPC) remains a fast‑acting digital advertising model, but rising cost‑per‑click rates and AI‑generated search overviews are shrinking paid real‑estate on SERPs. While platforms like Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and LinkedIn still dominate, advertisers must focus on relevance, quality...
ACM Links with Passendo to Overhaul Newsletter Advertising
Australian Community Media (ACM) has partnered with Passendo to overhaul its newsletter advertising across more than 80 regional, rural and suburban titles. The integration makes ACM the first Australian publisher to use Passendo’s end‑to‑end ad‑serving technology inside email. By leveraging...
Google Search Expands Agentic Capabilities with Information Agents and Universal Cart
Google unveiled new agentic features for Search at I/O 2026, rolling out Information Agents to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and launching Universal Cart on Search and Gemini in the U.S. this summer. Information Agents continuously scan the web after a...
Booking Holdings to Sell Ads Across All Three OTA Brands for the First Time: Exclusive
Booking Holdings is launching BKNG Ads, a unified advertising platform that lets partners place campaigns across its three OTA brands—Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda—through a single interface. The new service consolidates what were previously separate ad relationships into one streamlined process....
OpenAI Gives ChatGPT Ads a Visual Upgrade
OpenAI is piloting a visual upgrade to its ChatGPT ad units, adding larger images and optional dynamic call‑to‑action buttons. The company also introduced a dedicated e‑commerce format that can appear in portrait or landscape orientation and supports carousel‑style placements. A...
Publicis’ $3.9B LiveRamp Deal Sparks Industry Questions Over Data Neutrality & AI Power Play
Publicis Groupe announced a $2.55 billion acquisition of data‑activation firm LiveRamp, with the deal slated to close by the end of 2026. LiveRamp will keep its existing leadership and operate as a neutral, interoperable platform, while Publicis frames the purchase as...
What Google’s AI Optimization Guide Means for Your GEO Strategy
Google released an AI search optimization guide that stresses the same SEO fundamentals—high‑quality, first‑hand content and solid technical health—while debunking popular GEO myths. It clarifies that structured data and content chunking are not required for AI Overviews, but warns against...
Vistar Media Shows 3D Motion Lifts DOOH Brand Awareness by 67%
Vistar Media’s "Science in Motion" report shows that adding motion to digital out‑of‑home (DOOH) ads lifts ad recall by 33% and brand awareness by 50% versus static creatives. Among motion formats, 3D delivers the strongest results, boosting top‑of‑mind awareness 67%...
Google’s AI Search Overhaul Could Crush Startup SEO
Google unveiled an AI‑driven overhaul of Search at I/O, adding an AI Mode interface, background information agents, and integrated booking tools. The new experience will read, summarise and organise web content, shifting results from a list of links to AI‑generated...
Unity Vector Expands to D28 ROAS Ad Revenue and Hybrid Monetization Models
Unity announced that its Vector platform now supports two new D28 ROAS campaign types—Ad Revenue ROAS and Hybrid ROAS—completing a full suite that covers in‑app purchases, ad revenue, and mixed monetization. The D28 models predict a user’s 28‑day revenue potential...
‘Momfluencers’ for Hire: Meta’s Campaign to Reshape Its Child Safety Image Faces Scrutiny
Meta has launched a paid Instagram influencer campaign, dubbed "momfluencers," to promote its Teen Accounts safety features amid a wave of child‑safety lawsuits. Influencers like Sadie Robertson Huff and Leroy Garrett posted glowing endorsements, often with only minimal paid‑partnership disclosures....
The New Rules of Search: Key AEO & Content Marketing Trends for 2026 via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
Conductor’s Shannon Vize and Pat Reinhart outlined a roadmap for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) in 2026, emphasizing tactics that boost AI‑generated citations and brand authority across fragmented AI search platforms. The on‑demand session highlighted high‑impact content types, new KPI frameworks,...
Attribution Models Explained: How To Choose and Implement the Right Approach for Your App
Attribution models dictate how app marketers assign credit for installs, in‑app actions, and revenue to specific marketing touchpoints. The guide outlines single‑touch (first‑click, last‑click) and multi‑touch (linear, time‑decay, position‑based) approaches, highlighting how lookback windows and reattribution rules reshape reported performance....
Shirofune Integrates with ChatGPT Ads
Shirofune, a digital advertising automation platform, has integrated ChatGPT Ads into its suite of supported channels. The new capability lets advertisers manage budgets, bids, creative, and reporting for ChatGPT Ads alongside search, social, and retail media from a single dashboard....
Google Introduces New Ad Formats In AI Mode via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Google unveiled two AI‑driven ad formats—Conversational Discovery ads and Highlighted Answers—at its Marketing Live event. Both formats run on the Gemini model and embed sponsored content directly within AI‑generated search responses and recommendation lists. The ads feature an independent AI...
Meet Ask Advisor, Your New AI-Powered Collaborator
Google announced Ask Advisor, an AI‑powered collaborator that unifies data from Google Ads, Analytics and Merchant Center. The tool delivers proactive, personalized recommendations and can launch campaigns from natural‑language prompts, aiming to simplify marketing for both experts and novices. Ask...
Fuel Your Next Wave of Growth on YouTube with Demand Gen
YouTube’s new Demand Gen suite blends AI‑driven video creation with creator partnerships, letting advertisers produce high‑impact ads faster. The platform now supports dynamic product videos via Google Merchant Center and expands inventory to Google Maps, checkout links in nine markets,...
OpenAI Is Allowing Financial Services Brands Into the ChatGPT Ads Pilot
OpenAI is expanding its ChatGPT ads pilot to include financial‑services brands such as Robinhood and BestMoney, marking the first foray into a heavily regulated vertical. The pilot, which launched in February for free and Go‑tier users, originally featured travel advertisers...
Google Reveals First AI Mode Usage Numbers After One Year via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google’s AI Mode has crossed the 1 billion monthly active user threshold worldwide, with query volume doubling each quarter since its debut. Users now type searches that are three times longer than traditional queries, and follow‑up interactions are rising by more...
The Architecture Behind Trustworthy AI Agents in Advertising
The IAB Tech Lab unveiled AAMP 2.0, delivering production‑ready Buyer and Seller Agent SDKs that embed AI‑driven media buying into existing ad standards. The SDKs provide a shared Events Bus and State Engine, enabling transparent, auditable, and resilient agentic transactions across...
Snapchat Updates Attribution Model, With Focus On App Advertisers
Snapchat is rolling out a beta "Unified Attribution" model that consolidates multiple touchpoints across the consumer journey, giving app advertisers a single view of real‑time performance data. The system syncs Snap’s own metrics with those of mobile measurement partners, enabling...
How Toters’ Unified App Strategy Increased App Opens by 503%
Toters, a Southeast Asian on‑demand delivery platform, consolidated its web, iOS and Android experiences into a single unified app. By leveraging Branch’s deep‑linking and attribution SDK, the company streamlined user journeys and eliminated fragmented onboarding flows. The overhaul triggered a...