No one knows how the agentic AI race will end, but its impact is already clear.  Online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia, Booking.com, and Trip.com are entering a new era of disruption – one that rivals the rise of Google search. AI assistants are now planning, comparing, and completing bookings for users – reducing […]

Google Ads and Meta Ads make campaign management look easy. Their interfaces simplify daily work – adjusting budgets, reviewing performance, launching new creatives – but that simplicity also hides much of the data and automation potential that drives real impact. That’s where APIs come in. Just as BigQuery revolutionized how data is stored and analyzed, […]

YouTube has removed the “close” button on sidebar panels in some horizontal video ads on mobile, making the ad’s sidebar — often used for shoppable products or sitelinks — permanently visible during playback. Why we care. The change means users can no longer dismiss the sidebar to view the ad full-screen, leaving part of the […]

Organic click-through rates (CTR) for informational queries featuring Google AI Overviews fell 61% since mid-2024, while paid CTRs on those same queries plunged 68%, according to the latest study by marketing agency Seer Interactive. Even on queries without AI Overviews, organic CTRs fell 41%. This suggests users are simply clicking less, everywhere. Why we care. […]

Generative engine optimization (GEO) platform Lorelight, is shutting it down – not because it failed, but because the problem it solved didn’t need solving, according to its founder Benjamin Houy. “Customers were churning because the product didn’t change what they needed to do. They would pursue the same brand-building fundamentals whether they had the data […]

Some advertisers are noticing oddly cropped product images in Google Shopping ads — and it turns out Google Merchant Center’s “Smart Cropping” feature is behind it. Why we care. Smart Cropping, enabled by default, uses automation to zoom in on what Google determines is the most relevant part of a product image. While the goal […]

Google’s AI Overviews and AI-driven search are reshaping content creation, SEO, and user behavior. As we watch this fascinating evolution of search – and continue to debate what we call this new marketing discipline (HubSpot is opting for AEO, or answer engine optimization) – I interviewed Aja Frost, senior director of global growth and paid media […]

Grappling with innovation and changing consumer attitudes is second nature to marketers, who have already lived through many technological shifts over the past two decades. But forecasting where things are going is especially hard when it comes to modern AI, which has such unusual, non-deterministic properties. You can’t just extrapolate from the state of AI […]

AI search isn’t killing SEO. It’s forcing it to evolve into a new, multi-platform discipline called search everywhere optimization, where social and user-generated content (UGC) are the new trust engines driving discoverability. When I presented this concept at brightonSEO San Diego, what stood out wasn’t just the excitement around AI.  What stood out was the […]

Over the past year, Google Ads has increasingly embraced automation, shifting the account manager’s role in both practice and strategy.  The granular control and transparency we once took for granted are rapidly disappearing.  As 2026 approaches, it’s time to face reality – five PPC tactics are falling out of favor in the new era of […]