Google Ads Adds “Association” Metric to Brand Lift Studies
Google Ads has introduced an "Association" metric to its Brand Lift studies, allowing advertisers to gauge whether audiences link their brand to a specific concept, category or attribute. The metric uses survey‑style questions that ask respondents which brands they associate with a defined idea, moving measurement beyond simple recall to brand positioning. Marketers can now assess if campaigns shape perception, though they remain limited to selecting only three metrics per study, requiring strategic trade‑offs. This addition gives a more nuanced lens on brand building.
![ChatGPT Vs. Perplexity Vs. Gemini: Which LLMs Are Driving Real Conversions? [Expert Panel] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/post-featured-3-56.png)
ChatGPT Vs. Perplexity Vs. Gemini: Which LLMs Are Driving Real Conversions? [Expert Panel] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
Search Engine Journal hosted an on‑demand webinar where experts compared ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini on conversion performance. The panel presented data showing ChatGPT delivering the highest conversion rates in e‑commerce and finance, while Perplexity attracts high‑intent traffic but lags on...
PR Firm News: Upspring Launches AI Authority Audit
UpSpring, a PR and growth partner for the built environment, launched its AI Authority Audit to help architecture, interior design, product manufacturing and construction firms improve visibility on generative AI search platforms. The service starts with a discovery call and...
Meta and Google Ad Revenues Soar Thanks to AI, but Big Picture Is Blurry
Google and Meta posted strong Q1 ad revenue, beating forecasts. Google’s ad revenue rose 15% to $77.25 billion, driven by 19% search growth and 11% YouTube growth. Meta’s ad revenue jumped 33% to $55 billion, sparking talk it could overtake Google. Both...
X Announces a Rebuilt Ad Platform Powered by AI
Elon Musk’s X has begun a phased rollout of a completely rebuilt advertising platform powered by artificial intelligence. The new stack introduces modern retrieval and ranking systems designed to give marketers tighter targeting and easier campaign creation. Industry forecasts from...
![How Brands Are Increasing AI Visibility By Up To 2,000% [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1-1-860.png)
How Brands Are Increasing AI Visibility By Up To 2,000% [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
The Search Engine Journal webinar reveals that a focused Reddit strategy can lift AI‑driven brand visibility by as much as 2,000% within a 90‑day window. It showcases OGS Media’s 5‑stage framework that turned a single brand’s Reddit presence into massive...
Cumulus Expands Local Market Research for Sales Teams
Cumulus Media announced partnerships with The Media Audit and TOMA.Solutions to add consumer lifestyle and brand‑awareness data to its sales toolkit. The new intelligence layer will let account executives frame advertiser conversations around category demand, targeting and competitive positioning instead...
The Influencer Tasked with Reviving Frasers Group’s Slazenger Brand
Frasers Group has enlisted digital creator Alexei Hamblin to spearhead a revival of its legacy tennis brand, Slazenger. Hamblin will craft a content‑driven strategy aimed at younger, socially‑savvy consumers while leveraging the retailer’s extensive distribution network. The partnership signals Mike...
Valvoline Drives Fans To World Cup
Valvoline has launched its first FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign, "The Original Motor Oil. For the Driven," leveraging a 160‑year brand heritage to connect with soccer fans traveling to host cities. A ParkMobile survey shows 18% of Americans plan road...
Long John Silver's Renews Alliance With Baldwin& As Creative AOR
Long John Silver’s, the 485‑location U.S. seafood chain, has renewed its creative agency of record agreement with Baldwin &, the firm that first handled its branding in 2017. The partnership returns to a full‑service model after a project‑based stint from 2020,...
X Revamps Its Ads Manager, Folding in New AI Performance Tools
X has overhauled its Ads Manager, embedding AI-driven contextual and semantic signals to improve ad targeting and delivery. The company touts the update as its most ambitious platform revamp in two decades. New tools automate campaign creation, audience segmentation, and...
AI Keyword Research: How It Works and 9 Prompts to Start
AI keyword research combines large language models with live search data to automate idea generation, clustering, and gap analysis. Ahrefs’ Agent A, powered by the Model Context Protocol, connects a general AI directly to Ahrefs’ keyword database, delivering real‑time volume, difficulty...
How Nestlé Turns Creator Content Into Brand-Suitable Ads at Scale
Nestlé has launched an integration between CreatorIQ and CreativeX that uses AI to grade influencer content for paid‑media suitability. The system streams creator submissions from CreatorIQ to CreativeX, scores them against Nestlé’s branding, storytelling and effectiveness criteria, and feeds the...
New CEO Leads on Juice Burst Rebrand
Purity Soft Drinks is rebranding as The Juice Burst Drinks Co. to spotlight its flagship Juice Burst line, now a staple in UK grocery aisles. The transition will roll out over the coming months, supported by a major consumer campaign...
Verse.ai Announces RCS Messaging Functionality for Branded Text Conversations
Verse.ai, a conversational‑AI texting platform, has launched Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging for its business customers. The new channel supports high‑resolution images, interactive reply suggestions, and branded contact cards, while offering partial or end‑to‑end encryption. If a recipient’s device or...
Grubhub Centers Value in Monthlong Loyalty Push with Anomaly
Grubhub launched a month‑long "Gold Digging Season" promotion, offering its premium Grubhub+ subscription for $0.99 instead of the usual $9.99. The deal provides exclusive discounts at major restaurants, $50 off $100 grocery orders via Instacart, and special Blue Apron meal‑kit...
From Paid Clicks to Answer Equity: Your New 2026 Search Strategy
The article warns that AI‑driven search results are eroding paid‑click value, with click‑through rates falling 58‑68% when AI Overviews appear. It introduces the concept of "answer equity"—owning the factual content that AI cites rather than renting impressions through PPC. To...
L’Oréal Romania Taps SAMY to Manage Creator Marketing Across All 21 Group Brands
L’Oréal Romania announced a partnership with global social‑first agency SAMY to run influencer marketing for its entire portfolio of 21 brands, starting in June 2026. SAMY already handles L’Oréal’s creator relationships in Italy, Spain, the UK, the Nordics, Latin America...
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Taps LTK for Social Commerce Push
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has partnered with LTK to launch its first creator‑driven social commerce channel. An official LTK profile will let fans discover and purchase items featured in editorial content, talent spotlights, and live runway coverage. LTK will also enable...
POSSIBLE 2026: Can AI Help Agencies Finally Break Down Those Silos?
At POSSIBLE 2026, Horizon Media’s chief product and data officer Domenic Venuto explained how the agency is using artificial intelligence to fuse audience planning, targeting, measurement and strategy into a single platform. The AI‑driven hub eliminates the lag between client questions and...
POSSIBLE 2026: Can AI Help Agencies Finally Break Down Those Silos?
At POSSIBLE 2026, Horizon Media’s chief product and data officer Domenic Venuto explained how the agency is using artificial intelligence to centralize media‑buying functions—from audience planning to measurement—so teams can collaborate on a single platform. By eliminating the lag between...
7 Best PPC Agencies for 2026: My Top Picks
The article lists seven top PPC agencies for 2026, each matched to specific business needs such as full‑service management, multi‑channel integration, data‑driven revenue tracking, conversion optimization, creative‑focused accounts, white‑label fulfillment, and HubSpot‑aligned inbound strategies. It draws on G2’s Winter Grid®...
Patreon Rolls Out Network Features to Drive Fan Discovery, Creator Membership Growth
Patreon announced its biggest product update yet, adding network features that surface creators to new fans and turn free followers into paying members. The rollout includes Quips, a short‑form post format in a refreshed Home feed, and Collaboration posts that...
What Blog Posts Should You Write to Be Mentioned in ChatGPT?
ChatGPT often expands user prompts into multiple live web searches, a behavior known as query fan‑out. In a test of 90 prompts across beauty, legaltech, and IT, commercial‑intent prompts triggered fan‑out 78.3% of the time, whereas informational prompts did so...
X Upgrades Its Ad Platform in Long Overdue Overhaul
X announced the largest overhaul of its advertising tools, positioning the upgrade as AI‑powered and rolling it out globally. The revamp introduces contextual and semantic ad delivery, with full deployment expected later in 2026. X claims its top 100 advertisers...
What Winning Brands Do Differently on Social in 2026
Social ad spend is set to reach $277 billion in 2025 and $280 billion in 2026, while video dominates every major platform and audiences fragment across channels. At the same time, programmatic ad waste has surged 34%, exposing brands to higher risk....
AI Search Clicks Often Go To Local Domains: Report via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Aleyda Solis analyzed 87 million AI‑search visits across ten markets and found that clicks overwhelmingly favor local domains rather than global giants. Using SimilarWeb data, she identified a "click‑producing layer" where users select citations or links in AI‑generated answers, revealing that...
Zefr Builds A New Front Door For YouTube Buys
Zefr introduced Zain, an AI‑driven hub that lets advertisers launch YouTube campaigns using plain‑language commands. The platform leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and an Advertising Context Protocol (AdCP) to translate natural‑language requests into API calls, pulling in first‑party, Zefr...
Competitive Pricing Starts with Data
Competitive pricing is becoming a strategic imperative as shoppers grow more price‑sensitive. A Retail Systems Research survey of 97 global brick‑and‑mortar executives found 53% list rising consumer price sensitivity among their top fears. Online shoppers can instantly compare offers on...
Marathon’s Lack of Marketing by Sony Indicates Lack of Faith, Says Former Square Enix Exec
Bungie's PvPvE shooter Marathon has sold roughly 1.2 million copies and generated about $55 million in gross revenue, but its PS5 performance lags behind Steam and Xbox. Former Square Enix exec Jacob Navok highlighted a 2,000‑player drop in peak concurrent users, blaming...
HireClix Launches JobFlow AEO
HireClix introduced JobFlow AEO, an AI‑optimized recruitment marketing solution that structures career site content for discovery by AI‑powered search engines and large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. The platform adds schema‑enhanced pages, natural‑language answers, and analytics...
How Should Legacy Banks Compete with Chime?
Chime has captured younger, cash‑strapped consumers by offering a minimalist app, fee‑free overdraft handling, and tiered perks tied to direct‑deposit amounts. A Javelin Strategy report finds the neobank’s product set mirrors legacy banks, but its execution—especially simplicity and transparent rewards—outshines...
How AI Models ‘Understand’ Your Brand
The article argues that AI does not truly "understand" a brand; it merely matches patterns derived from its training data and real‑time retrieval. Visibility now hinges on how a brand is encoded, retrieved, and generated by large language models, shifting...
Google Rolls Out New Tools to Automate Even More of the Marketing Process
Google announced a suite of new AI Max capabilities ahead of its Marketing Live event, including AI Brief, a natural‑language tool that lets advertisers set creative and targeting guardrails, and AI Max for Shopping, which automates ad copy, URL expansion...
AI Max Turns 1 with New Ways to Steer Performance and Expansion to More Advertisers
Google celebrates the one‑year anniversary of AI Max by extending the platform to Shopping and travel ad formats and adding new control tools. The AI Brief feature lets advertisers input brand‑specific messaging, audience, and matching guidelines to steer the Gemini‑powered engine. Final...
Meet Travelers in the Moments that Matter with Search Campaigns for Travel.
Google announced Search Campaigns for Travel, merging travel feeds and formats into its standard Search campaign interface. The update gives advertisers a single buying door, AI Max automation, real‑time feed‑driven text ads, and unified reporting across all travel ad types. By...
Google Unveils Brand 'Brief' Feature In AI Max
Google unveiled a suite of AI Max tools, highlighted by the new “AI Brief” feature powered by Gemini. AI Brief lets advertisers embed brand‑specific messaging guardrails, banned phrases, and tone guidelines directly into search, shopping and travel campaigns. Additional capabilities...
Google AI Max Gets New Controls, Shopping Rollout and Travel Consolidation
Google is extending its AI Max automation suite beyond Search to include Shopping campaigns and a unified Travel format. The rollout adds AI Brief, a Gemini‑powered natural‑language interface, plus text disclaimer and URL‑expansion tools for compliance. These updates let advertisers...
Adapt Your Shopping Campaigns to Modern Search with AI Max.
Google unveiled AI Max for Shopping, an AI‑driven upgrade to existing Shopping campaigns that adds conversational ad copy, Final URL Expansion, and automatic format selection. The new tools pull data from Merchant Center feeds—such as fabric softness and fit—to match...
CG Roxane Launches Marketing Campaign, Expands Tennessee Plant
CG Roxane, the maker of Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water, has rolled out a new integrated marketing campaign called “The Adventures of Al Pine” to humanize its brand and emphasize source integrity. At the same time, the company is expanding...
Can AI Mode Ads Actually Drive Conversions, Or Is It Just Awareness? – Ask A PPC via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
AI Mode ads, Google’s AI‑driven placement layer, can generate real conversions but at higher cost per action than mature keyword campaigns. Early data shows a 7‑13% lift in conversion volume, yet CPA and ROAS are less predictable. The format captures...
McDonald’s UK Swaps Dexter Fletcher Voiceover for Stephen Graham
McDonald’s UK has replaced Dexter Fletcher’s voiceover with actor Stephen Graham for its national advertising campaign. The change is part of a strategic push to resonate more strongly with younger consumers, particularly Gen Z and early‑millennial audiences. Graham’s distinctive, gritty...
Beyond the Prompt: Why the “Sidecar” Is the Secret to Real-Time Agentic Advertising
The IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Real‑Time Framework (ARTF) introduces an “Agentic Sidecar” architecture that embeds AI agents directly inside DSP or SSP environments. By containerizing agents and using gRPC with Protobuf, the sidecar cuts bid‑request latency up to 80 % and...
Every Meeting You Have Is Already Generating Content (Here’s How to Capture It)
The author discovered that meeting transcripts are only the starting point; the real value lies in extracting stories, insights, and moments that can be repurposed as content. By using AI notetakers like Otter or Fireflies and adding a secondary prompt,...
Review of the Week: Airwallex Takes a Shot at Football Storytelling
Airwallex has unveiled a new advertising campaign that tells a football‑centric story, produced by Uncommon Creative Studio. The spot positions the fintech’s cross‑border payment platform as a team effort, using iconic match‑day imagery to simplify complex financial concepts. Launched alongside...
Google Ads PMax Tests Select Partners To Run Ads With
Google Ads Performance Max (PMax) is piloting a new "Partners in Alfa" setting that lets advertisers decide whether their ads appear on the Search partner network, the Google Display Network, or both. The option surfaced on LinkedIn, where Adriaan Dekker...
“Keen” On Trail Running: Why Now’s the Time to Get Lost
Keen is entering the trail‑running segment with its first dedicated shoe, a move driven by product manager Scott Robertson’s hands‑on outdoor background. Robertson, a former park ranger and rock‑climber, led the design and testing phases, using real‑world terrain to refine...
Should We Rebrand in Today’s Tumultuous Climate?
Nonprofits facing economic uncertainty and donor fatigue are questioning whether a rebrand would appear tone‑deaf, yet experts argue that a clear, mission‑aligned brand is essential for trust and impact. They suggest first conducting a brand audit to identify quick‑win fixes...
B2B Buying Decisions Demand Consensus, Not Champions: Lessons From B2BMX 2026
At B2BMX 2026, industry leaders warned that relying on a single champion is no longer sufficient for B2B deals, as buying committees now average six or more stakeholders. They advocated moving from champion‑centric tactics to consensus‑building by mapping roles, stacking...
How the San Francisco 49ers Uses Gen AI, Gamification and Personalization to Make Global Fans Feel Local
The San Francisco 49ers have launched an AI‑powered mobile app in partnership with PwC to deliver a hyper‑personalized fan experience for its three‑million‑strong global audience. The app leverages generative‑AI, including the Sourdough Sam chatbot, to tailor news, stats, ticketing and...