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Google Search Is Changing Again

AUGUST 23, 2026

Google Search is becoming a much less predictable place for marketers. Between a new spam update, generative UI in AI Overviews, and changes to how users choose their preferred sources, the rules around visibility keep shifting.

Search Engine Journal breaks down several of the changes happening at once, including Google’s August spam update, which began rolling out on August 18, and the growing role of AI-generated experiences in Search.

So what should marketers pay attention to?

Watch your rankings: Let the spam update finish rolling out before reacting to traffic changes.
Think beyond blue links: Generative UI means Google can now answer queries with interactive experiences, not just webpages.
Build source preference: Google’s Preferred Sources feature gives users more control over which publishers they see.
Diversify AI visibility: Reddit’s share of ChatGPT citations reportedly dropped 86.4% in August, showing how quickly AI visibility can shift.

Get the full scoop at Search Engine Journal.

ChatGPT Ads: Worth the Click?

AUGUST 19, 2026

ChatGPT is becoming another place where people discover products, compare options, and make buying decisions. Now, marketers can pay to show up in those conversations, too.

PPC Hero tested ChatGPT Ads to see what the new channel actually looks like in practice — from targeting and creative to performance and measurement.

So what should marketers know before jumping in?

Think beyond keywords: ChatGPT Ads use contextual targeting, so the opportunity is less about bidding on exact queries and more about identifying the conversations where your product makes sense.
Keep creative focused: With limited ad space, a clear message beats trying to explain everything at once. Build around one problem, benefit, or reason to click.
Watch more than clicks: CTR can tell you whether people are engaging, but conversions and revenue will tell you whether the channel is actually working.
Start with a test: ChatGPT Ads are still a new channel. Test specific audiences and use cases before shifting serious budget away from channels you already know.

The takeaway? ChatGPT Ads are worth experimenting with — but they still need to earn their place in our media mix.

Get the full scoop at PPC Hero.

Platform Engagement ≠ Brand Impact

AUGUST 18, 2026

If you’re judging creator campaigns by likes and comments, you might be measuring the wrong thing.

A new Kantar report analyzed more than 15,000 sponsored creator posts across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube and found that platform engagement aligned with brand-building potential only about one-third of the time.

Among highly engaged posts, fewer than 1 in 5 showed strong potential to build a brand, while only about 1 in 8 showed strong potential for short-term sales.

So what should we be looking for?

Brand mentions: Creators saying the brand name produced a 22-point lift in brand impact.
Product interaction: Showing or using the product lifted both brand and sales power.
Product benefits: Explaining why the product matters can be more valuable than simply generating engagement.
Creative fit: The best creator strategy depends on the campaign goal, not just the creator’s audience size.

Essentially, viral doesn’t necessarily mean valuable.

Get the full scoop at Net Influencer.

How to Run Ads on ChatGPT

AUGUST 17, 2026

ChatGPT ads work a lot more like search advertising than traditional social ads.

OpenAI’s self-serve ad platform is now available to advertisers, with campaigns targeting conversations where a product or service may be relevant.

If you’re thinking about experimenting, here’s a useful seven-step guide:

Confirm you’re eligible. Check OpenAI’s advertising policies and make sure your business and target markets qualify. Daily budgets can start as low as $25.
Set up your ad account. Have your legal business name, tax ID, payment method and favicon ready before creating an account.
Structure your campaigns. Campaigns contain ad groups and ads, with options for objectives, locations, budgets, bids and conversion events.
Choose your targeting. There are no traditional keywords, demographics or in-market audiences. Instead, advertisers use “context hints” to describe the conversations and topics where their ads should appear.
Create your ads. Static ads include a headline, description, destination URL and image. Product ads can use product feeds.
Set up measurement. Install OpenAI’s pixel and use UTM parameters so you can track traffic and conversions in tools such as GA4.
Optimize with limited data. Test different ads, campaign structures and targeting approaches, but expect less visibility into exactly which conversations triggered your ads.

MarTech reports average CPCs of roughly $2–$5, while one test found ChatGPT traffic converted at a much lower rate than Google Ads. Still, the platform can reach people researching solutions in ways traditional search may not.

Check out more at Martech.

How Sonos Won Reddit

AUGUST 16, 2026

Reddit is one of those places where users can spot a corporate account instantly.

But Sonos is a pretty interesting blueprint for getting Reddit right.

They put a real person at the center: Keith Nieves, better known on Reddit as “Keith from Sonos.” Their human-first strategy was built around being actually useful.

And when a Sonos app update triggered a wave of criticism, Keith continued his recurring office-hours sessions, created a public tracker showing what the company was fixing, and stayed engaged with the community throughout the crisis.

So, a few lessons from Sonos:

Put a person behind the brand. Human voices are more credible than corporate announcements.
Treat moderators as partners. Brands are guests in communities, not owners of them.
Show up when things go wrong. Transparency matters most during a crisis.
Create a two-way feedback loop. Bring community insights back to product and marketing teams.
Earn the right to participate. Understand the culture and rules before trying to promote anything.

Head to Standing on Giants for the full story.

5 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2026

AUGUST 11, 2026

The first half of 2026 made one thing pretty clear: AI isn’t just changing how marketers create content. It’s changing how people search, discover brands, and make decisions.

WordStream’s mid-year trends point to a mix of AI-driven shifts and some very human ones, from GEO becoming more closely tied to traditional SEO to brands turning toward smaller creators and more contextual advertising.

Here are five trends worth keeping an eye on:

GEO starts with good SEO. Strong technical foundations, useful content, real-world experience, and local relevance are still the foundation for AI visibility.
AI is moving up the buyer journey. People are increasingly using AI to compare options before they ever visit a brand’s website.
Context is making a comeback. As audience data becomes harder to rely on, marketers can use the content and context surrounding an ad to reach people in more relevant moments.
Small creators are getting bigger opportunities. Brands are looking beyond traditional influencers and partnering with creators who may have smaller audiences but stronger relevance and authenticity.
LinkedIn is becoming more creator-led. New tools are pushing attention toward individual voices, giving B2B brands more reason to invest in employee and creator-led content.

The takeaway? Marketing is getting more automated, but relevance is still doing the heavy lifting.

Get the full scoop at WordStream.

Stop Chasing Your Quality Score

AUGUST 11, 2026

Seeing a 4/10 Quality Score in Google Ads can make you want to fix the number immediately.

But that’s not really the job.

Quality Score is a diagnostic, not a metric you should blindly optimize. The score reflects three areas: expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. The useful part is figuring out which one is dragging you down—and fixing that underlying problem.

Here are three places to look:

Expected CTR: Make your ads more compelling with clearer offers, stronger messaging, differentiation, and social proof.
Ad relevance: If your ad group contains keywords with different intents, split it into tighter themes so your ads can actually match the searches.
Landing page experience: Make sure the landing page delivers on the promise made in the ad, with strong message match, speed, mobile usability, and trust signals.
Give changes time. Different components update at different speeds, so don’t expect every optimization to show up immediately.
Watch performance, not just the score. Quality Score is a useful diagnostic, but conversions, CPC, and overall account performance should guide your decisions.

A higher score can be a nice side effect. It shouldn’t be the goal.

AI SEO Isn’t a New SEO

AUGUST 11, 2026

AI search may be changing how people discover brands, but the fundamentals of SEO still matter.

Strong technical foundations, useful content, clear site structure, and credible information remain important signals for both traditional search and AI-powered experiences. The bigger shift is making your content useful enough to be understood, trusted, and referenced by AI systems.

Instead of chasing every new AI SEO acronym or optimizing for one specific platform, focus on making your brand easy to understand wherever people—and AI—find it.

Here are five takeaways:

Answer real questions. Build content around the problems and questions your audience actually has, not just keywords.
Create something worth citing. Original research, expert insights, first-hand experience, and proprietary data give AI a reason to reference you.
Build topical depth. Cover related concepts thoroughly and connect them through strong internal linking.
Keep your content fresh. Update outdated statistics, examples, tools, and information instead of letting your best resources collect dust.
Build authority beyond your site. Reviews, social profiles, videos, directories, forums, and third-party coverage all contribute to how AI systems understand your brand.

AI search may look different from traditional search, but you don’t need to throw your SEO strategy out the window.

Get the full scoop at Carney.

Your Google Ads target may matter more than you think

AUGUST 7, 2026

If your Google Ads campaign has been beating its Target CPA or ROAS, don’t assume that performance will continue unchanged.

Google is changing how Smart Bidding handles budget-limited campaigns using Target CPA or Target ROAS. Starting August 17, campaigns marked “Limited by budget” will more consistently optimize toward the target you’ve actually set — even if the campaign has historically been outperforming it.

So, for example, if your Target CPA is $10 but your campaign has consistently been generating conversions at $5, Google may start steering performance closer to that $10 target.

Here’s the tactic:

Review campaigns marked “Limited by budget” using Target CPA or Target ROAS.
Compare your current targets against actual recent performance.
If your target is intentionally conservative, consider whether it still reflects your business goals.
Use Google’s Bid Target Adjustment Tool to review affected campaigns and decide whether to keep, lower, or customize the target.
Avoid making multiple target changes too quickly; give Smart Bidding time to recalibrate.
Don’t confuse your bid target with your budget: the target controls efficiency, while the budget controls how much you spend.

The takeaway? Don’t let an old Target CPA or ROAS quietly become your new performance ceiling. Check your campaigns before the August 17 rollout.

Head to Search Engine Land for more.

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