Meta will stop running all political, electoral, and social issue ads across the European Union starting this week, citing the region’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations that take effect Oct. 10. The details. The law requires platforms to gain explicit, separate consent from each user to use their data for political […]

PPC is getting tougher – and it’s not just because of competition. Click-through rates are falling, costs are rising, and once-steady campaigns are harder to keep profitable. The real shift is structural. Zero-click searches are changing how paid search works. How search moved beyond the blue links For years, PPC operated in the “blue link […]

Google is overhauling its ad blocking controls in AdSense and Ad Manager, replacing the “Ad networks” option with a new “Authorized Buyers” control starting Nov. 6. This move seems designed to give publishers more transparency and control over who can bid on their inventory. The change modernizes Google’s brand safety tools to reflect the current […]

Just 11% of U.S. consumers trust the first tool they use when searching online. That means nearly 9 in 10 Americans double-check or expand their search elsewhere “because they don’t trust the first answer,” according to new survey results from digital presence platform Yext. By the numbers. Discovery is fragmented: Traditional search still leads – […]

Join search expert Will Scott online today – October 7 – from 11:00am – 4:45pm ET for his 5-star Generative Engine Optimization Master Class, part of a series of tactic-rich workshops we’re running this October! Together, you will cover: The fundamentals of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Content optimization strategies for AI platforms Keyword evolution and […]

Search behavior keeps tilting toward AI answers.  People still click classic results, but more are starting with AI summaries and only clicking when they want depth, proof, or tools.  Your job as an SEO is now twofold:  Rank in traditional search. Get your pages cited or summarized inside AI experiences.  How do you do both […]

The Justice Department and Google wrapped a two-week hearing over how to address Google’s illegal monopoly in online advertising technology, setting up a pivotal antitrust showdown that could reshape the digital ad industry. Driving the news. The hearing, held in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, concluded after testimony from more […]

YouTube launched the YouTube Activation Partners program, a new initiative connecting advertisers and agencies with vetted third-party experts who specialize in YouTube media buying and campaign management. Why we care. As the biggest streaming platform for over two years, according to Nielsen, YouTube continues to dominate attention spans. But as ad strategies become more complex, […]

In competitive industries where keywords are costly, every edge matters.  Beyond keyword targeting, consider layering audience targeting onto your Search campaigns to gather richer performance data.  This added layer can improve results within Search and provide valuable insights you can apply to other Google Ads campaigns – or even to PPC platforms like Microsoft Ads, […]

Google is testing using AI to generate full search result descriptions and/or AI-summaries of your search result snippet, within the Google Search results. There are two variations of this; (1) fully replacing your description with an AI-generated version and (2) an AI-generated summary of the search result snippet. AI-generated description. Recently, both Paul Shaprio on X and […]