Paid Media News (Week 23)
Paid Media News (Week 23)
Explore every update from this edition, with the original reporting and contributor credits.
A digest of the original edition. Updates and availability reflect what was reported at the time.
Google adds Checkout Links to Demand Gen for one-tap purchases
Google has added Checkout Links to Demand Gen campaigns, allowing viewers to go straight to a merchant's checkout page rather than a product or landing page, as Arpan Banerjee flagged. The format compresses the path from ad view to completed order and targets shoppers already in purchase intent, sitting inside Demand Gen's YouTube, Discover, and Gmail placements.
Read this update in detail →Google rolls out real-time policy reviews for Responsive Search Ads
Google has launched real-time policy reviews for Responsive Search Ads, flagged by Nona Grigoryan. As advertisers write an ad, instant per-field checks catch editorial issues such as typos and capitalisation before the ad is saved.
Read this update in detail →A Voiceover video enhancement can switch itself on in PMax and Demand Gen
Thomas Eccel has flagged a new Voiceover video enhancement now live in Performance Max and Demand Gen. When a video has no voice track, Google's AI can select one of the advertiser's text assets, convert it into a voiceover, and automatically add it to a new version of the creative.
Read this update in detail →Google shows publisher review quotes beneath some Search ads
Google is running a test that places short publisher review quotes beneath some Search ads, spotted live by Sachin Patel, who shared an example reading "Best for Style-Conscious Frequent Fliers" attributed to PCMag. The endorsement sits below the advertiser's own copy, with the publication's name and favicon, visually separating it from the standard ad text.
Read this update in detail →Google begins a small test of healthcare ads in AI Mode
Google has confirmed it is running a limited test of ads in AI Mode for the healthcare vertical in the United States, targeting English-language queries. Ginny Marvin, Google Ads Product Liaison, confirmed the test in a LinkedIn exchange after Ben Goldman spotted it in response to her GML 2026 takeaways.
Read this update in detail →Google updates its Ads Terms of Service for the first time in eight years
Google has revised its Google Ads Terms of Service across the policy, payment, and liability sections, incorporating changes tied to the platform's shift toward AI-driven products. It is the first substantive update to the agreement since April 2018, and it lands alongside this year's wave of AI Max, Performance Max, and AI Mode launches.
Read this update in detail →OpenAI adds product feeds to its ads manager as it builds out a shopping platform
OpenAI is adding product feeds to its ads manager, migrating the feature from ChatGPT's now-defunct instant checkout experience, flagged by Juozas Kaziukėnas. ChatGPT first added product feeds in September to access accurate, up-to-date product and pricing data rather than scraping the web; with checkout discontinued in March and a few merchants having added a feed, the capability is moving to the ads manager.
Read this update in detail →Zalando among the first to pilot advertising in ChatGPT in the UK
Zalando will be one of the first brands to pilot advertising within ChatGPT in the UK, flagged by Nick Vinckier. The initiative aims to reach consumers earlier in their shopping journey and drive traffic directly from ChatGPT to Zalando, an early live example of a major retailer testing the channel rather than waiting for it to mature.
Read this update in detail →Microsoft Advertising sets a 2 September date to fix UTM reporting in GA4
Microsoft has emailed advertisers confirming that Microsoft Advertising will update UTM auto-tagging from 2 September 2026, first spotted by Anthony Higman and detailed by Arpan Banerjee. From that date, format-specific UTM tags are applied automatically so that Search, Audience, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns report distinctly by campaign type in GA4 and other analytics platforms, replacing the universal tagging that previously lumped them together as Paid Search.
Read this update in detail →Google Business Profile is gaining a native link to Google Analytics
Google has documented a native integration between Google Business Profile and Google Analytics, allowing local engagement metrics to appear alongside website data in GA4. Once linked, advertisers can track calls, bookings, direction requests, website clicks, and total interactions in one dashboard, with roughly six months of profile data available.
Read this update in detail →Google moves the GA4 Measurement Protocol into maintenance mode
Google has quietly placed the GA4 Measurement Protocol into maintenance mode, flagged by Vlad Simion and Nichelle Halstrom. No sunset date has been announced, so this is not a shutdown notice, but Google has signalled that no future enhancements are planned and is pointing server-side event collection toward the Data Manager API instead.
Read this update in detail →Google Search Console gains generative AI performance reports
Google has begun rolling out Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, including dedicated reports for Search and Discover, to help sites understand their visibility within Search's generative AI features. Google Search Central confirmed the rollout, which will roll out to a subset of websites first so Google can test and gather feedback before a wider release.
Read this update in detail →A Shopify outage triggers mass Merchant Centre disapprovals
A widespread Shopify outage caused a significant wave of "product page unavailable" disapprovals across Google Merchant Centre, flagged by Chelsea Harding, Barry Schwartz, Catalina Koop, and Shivam Pandey. Google's crawler interpreted store pages as down during the incident and disapproved products even where the landing pages were live and loading correctly when tested manually.
Read this update in detail →Meta takes its Business Agent global at Conversations in London
Meta has launched its Business Agent globally, announced at its Conversations conference in London and witnessed live by Lars Maat. The AI agent handles customer conversations across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, fielding inquiries, recommending products from a catalogue, scheduling appointments, qualifying leads, and completing transactions, with a handoff mechanism that escalates to a human once a conversation reaches an owner-defined point.
Read this update in detail →Meta launches a "Maximise leads through messages" conversion event
Meta has added a new conversion event to messaging campaigns, "Maximise the number of leads through messages," which was surfaced by Matias Axel Ramayo. Alongside the existing goal of maximising purchases through messages, advertisers can now optimise for lead generation, with a form on both Instagram and WhatsApp that people can complete and that counts as a conversion in the campaign.
Read this update in detail →Meta auto-adds "related media" and may swap your call-to-action
Bram Van der Hallen has flagged two auto-applied changes that can alter live Meta ads without explicit approval. In the Related media section, Meta may automatically pull in similar images from an account's ad library and attach them to a current creative; if left unreviewed, this can make an ad look outdated or off-message.
Read this update in detail →Meta adds a security re-authentication step that disables edited ads
Bram Van der Hallen has spotted a new Meta security check triggered when ad sets are updated. After editing several ad sets, he was prompted to re-authenticate.
Read this update in detail →TikTok adds Series Promotion for episodic entertainment content
TikTok is rolling out Series Promotion, a new campaign type under the App Promotion objective, flagged by Emirhan Bayutmuş. The format lets entertainment brands promote original series created on TikTok to wider audiences, with targeting options to optimise for series engagement and viewer acquisition.
Read this update in detail →TikTok Shop runs a two-week "Deals For You Days" against Prime Day
TikTok Shop is running its Deals For You Days 2026 event from 17 June to 2 July, positioning it directly against Amazon Prime Day, flagged by Daniel Sodkiewicz. Where Prime Day runs four days, TikTok's promotion spans more than two weeks, giving sellers a longer window to reach shoppers through creator content, product discovery, and platform-wide promotions.
Read this update in detail →LinkedIn adds an in-network versus out-of-network Reach metric
LinkedIn has rolled out a new Reach metric that splits impressions into in-network and out-of-network, flagged by Matt Navarra. In-network reach shows the share of impressions from existing connections and followers, while out-of-network reach shows the share from people discovering a creator for the first time via feed recommendations, reshares, or search.
Read this update in detail →Amazon sets Prime Day 2026 for 23–26 June
Amazon has confirmed that its 2026 Prime Day will run from 23 to 26 June, announced by CEO Andy Jassy and flagged by Prem Gupta. The four-day event spans deals across popular brands, back-to-school supplies, groceries, and more, giving sellers a fixed window to plan promotions, inventory, and advertising around.
Read this update in detail →Amazon makes its 1P paid-feature datasets free to query until year-end
Amazon has made its first-party paid-feature signals in Amazon Marketing Cloud free to query for both audience creation and measurement through 31 December 2026, as flagged by Mansour Norouzi and Alexander Swade. The offer removes a fee that previously ranged from about $100 to over $10,000 per month and covers datasets such as Amazon Insights, Retail Purchases, Prime Video Insights, and Brand Store Insights.
Read this update in detail →Amazon auto-enables AI-assembled video on Sponsored Products
Amazon has begun auto-enabling a setting that builds AI-assembled videos for Sponsored Products campaigns, pulling features from images and assets already on the listing, flagged by Alexander Swade and Isaac Gross. Sellers received emails about a beta in which Amazon generates the video and adds it to SP campaigns, and the new campaign setting has appeared to be switched on across many US accounts.
Read this update in detail →Amazon tests an AI-powered Full Funnel campaign type
Amazon appears to be rolling out a new AI-powered campaign type called Full Funnel Campaigns. The format lets Amazon's AI coordinate Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display under a single strategy that spans discovery through purchase, rather than requiring advertisers to run and budget for each campaign type separately.
Read this update in detail →Amazon Vendor Central adds bulk invoice-discrepancy reporting
Amazon has updated the Financial Reports section of Vendor Central so 1P vendors can download financial data in bulk for a selected time range, flagged by Martin Heubel. The export includes purchase order IDs, invoice IDs, invoice status, identified invoice defects, and total deduction amounts, and separates price discrepancies from shortages so vendors can identify different root causes.
Read this update in detail →Amazon removes seller-initiated contact from the Customer Reviews dashboard
Amazon has removed sellers' ability to initiate contact from the Customer Reviews dashboard, as Cameron Gamble flagged. The Contact Customer button is gone, so unless a reviewer messages the seller first, there is now no path to reach them about a review.
Read this update in detail →Meta launches seven premium subscription tiers across its apps
Meta has launched seven premium subscription plans across nearly all of its core apps, including Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus, WhatsApp Plus, and Meta AI Premium, flagged by Matt Navarra. The tiers bundle power-user and expression features such as extra Story controls, premium reactions, more pinned chats, custom app icons, longer Stories, and additional stickers.
Read this update in detail →Google signs a $30bn deal to rent AI compute from SpaceX
Google has agreed to pay SpaceX around $920m a month for AI compute capacity, disclosed in an SEC filing and flagged by Endrit Restelica. The arrangement runs from October 2026 through June 2029, totalling roughly $30bn, and gives Google access to approximately 110,000 Nvidia GPUs plus associated CPUs, memory, and infrastructure, with capacity ramping from September at a reduced fee.
Read this update in detail →UK regulator orders Google to disclose AI search click data
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has issued Google with a conduct requirement that will force it to disclose substantial data on AI search, including clicks, flagged by Lidia Infante. Google will have to provide impressions and clicks disaggregated from other search features, surfaced in a widely available platform such as Google Search Console, with AI clicks made trackable on-site so their quality can be assessed.
Read this update in detail →Trump signs an AI executive order with a voluntary frontier-model framework
President Trump has signed an executive order, "Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security," which establishes a voluntary framework for AI developers to engage with the federal government before releasing advanced models, as flagged by Luiza Jarovsky. Federal agencies are directed to design the framework by 1 August 2026.
Read this update in detail →Microsoft updates its Pilot Program Policies for crypto, gambling, and prediction markets
Microsoft has updated its Pilot Program Policies in a May 2026 revision, opening Audience Ads to cryptocurrency exchanges in all markets where it accepts cryptocurrency advertising. The change, published in the Microsoft Advertising Policies Change Log, sits alongside a gambling expansion covering Belgium and Taiwan and a predictions-markets pilot in select US states.
Read this update in detail →Microsoft introduces Scout, an always-on "Autopilot" agent, at Build
Microsoft has introduced Scout, its first "Autopilot" agent, at Build, flagged by Jack Rowbotham. Microsoft frames Autopilots as a new category of always-on agents that operate autonomously, maintain their own identities, and act on a user's behalf under organisational controls.
Read this update in detail →Clay ships an integration inside OpenAI Codex
Clay has launched an integration within OpenAI Codex, which the Clay team flagged. From OpenAI's cloud coding agent, sales reps can prioritise accounts, research buyers, draft outreach, and send the email, powered by the Clay Functions a team has already built.
Read this update in detail →Google ships a free, fully local AI voice dictation app
Google has released Google AI Edge Eloquent, a free and fully open-source voice dictation app that runs on-device locally using the Gemma 4 12B model, flagged by Shubham Saboo. Unlike the paid dictation tools it competes with, it processes audio on the device so voice data never leaves it, and it offers real-time transcription that strips filler words and fixes mid-sentence restarts, plus a personal vocabulary dictionary that can learn project names and jargon.
Read this update in detail →Microsoft unveils Project Solara, a platform for agent-first devices, at Build
Microsoft has unveiled Project Solara at Build 2026, a chip-to-cloud platform built for devices that run AI agents rather than traditional apps, flagged by Jack Rowbotham. The platform pairs a lightweight operating system with enterprise security and management through Intune and Entra ID, and introduces "just-in-time UI," where agents experience generating and adapting their own interface to whatever device they run on, rather than requiring a redesign per form factor.
Read this update in detail →Use Meta geo bid modifiers before splitting a consolidated international campaign
Curtis Howland has shared a practical tactic for managing multi-geography Meta campaigns in which one region underspends despite maintaining a good ROAS. Rather than splitting the underspending geo into its own campaign, which fragments the data and discards accumulated learnings, he applies a positive location-level bid modifier (value rule) to that geo, starting at around +20% and pushing to +50% if needed.
Read this update in detail →The advertiser takeaway
Each update reflects the source reporting at the time. Open an individual update for its full description, original links and media.
Explore the original edition
Every update from this edition is linked above. Explore the original newsletter for its full context, contributor credits and reporting links.
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