The changes that matter to advertisers, with the sources behind them and a practical next step. Pick a topic and catch up at your own pace.
Google Ads
Google has raised the request size cap for BatchJobService.AddBatchJobOperations from approximately 10.5 MB to approximately 41.9 MB. The change reduces the number of separate requests required when batching multiple large assets: particularly images, which can each reach up to 5.24 MB.
Google Tag
Google has updated Data Manager to include ActiveCampaign as a supported direct integration, allowing advertisers to connect CRM and email marketing data directly to Google Ads without relying on third-party connectors. The integration supports creating Customer Match audiences and importing offline conversion data.
Google Ads
Glenn Gabe has spotted two distinct monetisation formats appearing in Google AI Mode product queries: a "Sponsored Stores" link when clicking a product in AI Mode results, and a "Quick results from the web" section that surfaces direct links to retailer websites. The dual format suggests Google is testing multiple ad and commerce surfaces within AI Mode simultaneously rather than committing to a single model for monetising shopping queries.
Google Ads
v23.2 adds a VideoEnhancement resource that surfaces whether a video ad is Google-generated or advertiser-provided: an important signal as AI-generated video proliferates across PMax and Demand Gen. An AppTopCombinationView resource provides top-performing asset combination insights for App campaigns.
YouTube
Google has launched the Top Sports Podcast Lineup, making it generally available to all US advertisers via YouTube Select. The package allows brands to align with sports podcast content: from New Heights to The Rich Eisen Show: through a single placement buy covering the most-watched sports commentary and analysis channels on YouTube, without manually curating individual channels.
Google Ads
Ginny Marvin's Ads Decoded podcast has released episode 5, focused on lead generation measurement. The episode covers mapping the full customer journey from first click to offline sale, using Data Manager to connect CRM and offline data sources for high-frequency uploads, identifying conversion actions that balance volume with short enough delays to fuel Smart Bidding, and the role YouTube plays in a performance-led lead-gen strategy.
Google Ads
Effective April 16, Google will require election advertiser verification for Shopping Ads featuring certain political content in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Google will also prohibit some Shopping Ads featuring political content in India.
OpenAI
Shopify has announced that Agentic Storefronts: a new sales channel that enables merchants to sell directly to ChatGPT users: is now active by default for eligible stores. Products synchronise in real time across surfaces, with live inventory and pricing, and, if checkout is enabled, customers can purchase without leaving the chat.
Meta Ads
Sam Hall has spotted a new "Customer Life Cycle Strategy" setting appearing in Meta ad accounts, adding an apparent signal layer beyond existing audience exclusions. The setting appears to provide Meta's delivery system with additional context around new customer acquisition goals: potentially improving performance where exclusions and customer matching are imperfect.
Meta Ads
A broad coalition of industry associations, consumer organisations, and digital rights groups has formally called on the European Commission to adopt a binding non-compliance decision against Alphabet under Article 6(5) of the Digital Markets Act, which prohibits self-preferencing in general online search. The coalition states that two years of investigation, one year of preliminary findings, and compliance discussions have produced no meaningful change, and that remedies and fines must make continued non-compliance economically unviable.
Meta Ads
Bram Van der Hallen has confirmed that the WhatsApp Status ad placement is now being automatically enabled for Traffic campaigns optimising for link clicks, daily unique reach, or impressions when Advantage+ Placements is active at the ad set level. Meta also added an option to include WhatsApp users whose age is unknown, which may increase reach at the cost of defined audience composition.
Meta Ads
Bianca Bergshoeff has published a practitioner guide to three underused Meta API endpoints. The /insights endpoint slices performance beyond Ads Manager's standard breakdowns: by placement, age, gender, country, and frequency patterns: and includes creative ranking scores that can surface inefficiencies before they cost budget.
Meta Ads
Shopify has launched Rollouts, a native server-side-controlled deployment feature in the Shopify admin under the new Markets section. Merchants can now schedule storefront changes, release updates to a percentage of visitors, analyse performance, and decide when to push to 100%: without third-party testing tools or custom infrastructure.
Meta Ads
New York State has enacted S.8420-A, the first US state law requiring advertisers to conspicuously disclose when an ad features a synthetic performer: defined as any AI-generated or algorithmically created figure designed to appear as a real human. The law covers any AI-generated human figure in any ad across any medium, not just deepfakes of identifiable individuals.
Meta Ads
Meta has updated the Threads Marketing API with two significant additions. App Ads can now be purchased globally on Threads, supporting APP_INSTALLS and app event optimisation for LINK_CLICKS or CONVERSIONS via Threads feed placement: using existing image, video, or carousel assets with no bespoke creative required.
Meta Ads
Google released a core update on March 27 and a spam update on March 25, with both rollouts active within 48 hours of each other. The core update is designed to surface more relevant and satisfying content across all site types, with the rollout expected to take up to two weeks.
Google Ads
Google has rolled out Asset Group Theming for Performance Max campaigns, allowing advertisers to clone a high-performing asset group and apply a seasonal theme: Easter, Summer, Back to School, Cyber 5, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and others: with AI-generated themed image backgrounds, updated headlines, and matched descriptions applied automatically. The original asset group remains untouched throughout.
Google Ads
Nikki Kuhlman has spotted Animated Clips, now available in Performance Max campaigns inside Asset Studio. Advertisers upload a source image; the system enhances it and generates multiple variations, with each selected enhanced image producing two animated video clips.
Google Ads
Google has made Veo, its generative video model, globally available within Asset Studio inside Google Ads. Advertisers upload up to three static images; Veo generates a unique video clip up to 10 seconds long from each, with fluid, natural motion added automatically.
Meta Ads
Jon Loomer has confirmed that Meta's attribution changes, announced in early March, are now active in accounts. Click-through attribution now requires an actual link click prior to conversion: reactions, shares, comments, and other non-link clicks no longer qualify under click-through and instead fall under the renamed "engage-through" window, which carries a one-day lookback rather than seven.
Google Ads
Google has announced infrastructure changes to the Offline Conversion Import experience, rolling out in April 2026, with no breaking API changes. The first phase, in April, introduces improved GCLID attribution and fallback recovery: expired GCLIDs and clicks that occurred before a conversion will now be attributed where previously they were not, reducing EXPIRED_EVENT and CONVERSION_PRECEDES_EVENT errors and raising overall attribution rates.
Anthropic
Anthropic has shipped MCP integrations accessible directly in the Claude mobile app, allowing users to connect to and query tools such as Figma, Canva, and Amplitude from their phones. Charly Wargnier flagged the update as a significant shift: MCP-powered workflows: previously limited to Claude Desktop and Claude Code: are now available on mobile, removing the constraint that agent-connected workflows required a desktop session.
OpenAI
OpenAI has launched Library in ChatGPT: a new sidebar tab providing a central location for all files uploaded across conversations, with browsing, sorting, search, and direct attachment from the composer. OpenAI reports that more than 1 billion files are uploaded to ChatGPT each week.
Anthropic
Anthropic has launched auto mode in Claude Code, available as a research preview on the Team plan, with Enterprise and API access rolling out over the following days. Auto mode allows Claude Code to handle file writes and bash command permissions autonomously, without requiring approval for each action or disabling safeguards entirely.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft has updated the AI Performance Dashboard in Bing Webmaster Tools to surface bidirectional citation insights: advertisers and SEOs can now see which specific pages are being cited for a given grounding query, and which grounding queries are driving citations to a specific page. Aleyda Solís flagged the update as a direct response to community feedback, tagging the Bing team by name.
Apple Ads
Simo Ahava has revised his guide on mapping an IPv6 frontend to a server-side Google Tag Manager load balancer on Google Cloud, following a platform change that now requires a Certificate Map for configuring SSL on multi-frontend load balancers. The updated steps involve configuration steps that cannot be completed entirely within the Google Cloud Platform UI, requiring some manual intervention until Google integrates the flow.
Apple Ads
Apple has announced paid advertising placements inside Apple Maps, launching initially in the United States and Canada. Local businesses will be able to bid on search queries: such as "coffee near me" or "pharmacy": and surface directly in Maps search results, with users able to call, navigate, or order directly from the placement.
Gemini
Google has released Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, described as its highest-quality audio and voice model, now powering Search Live, Gemini Live, and Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. The model delivers faster response times than its predecessor, can follow the thread of a conversation for twice as long, and has improved tonal understanding: dynamically adjusting to user frustration or confusion.
Amazon Ads
Amazon will end commingled FBA inventory for Brand Registry owners on March 31, 2026. Brand owners with valid GTINs will be able to use manufacturer barcodes (UPC, EAN) without their stock being pooled with other sellers' inventory: eliminating the risk of counterfeit or expired units appearing in fulfilment and reviews.
Amazon Ads
Alexander Swade observed a new badge appearing across Amazon listings during the Big Spring Sale event, displaying "Lowest Price in 90 Days": and in some cases "Lowest Price in 30 Days": in place of the standard Big Spring Sale badge. The new badge appears to take precedence where the price qualifies, suggesting Amazon is testing a price-history transparency signal as a higher-value trust indicator than a generic promotional label.
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