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 Ad Manager
Google has added a read-only OAuth scope to the Ad Manager API (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admanager.readonly), permitting data reading and report running without write access. The scope is designed for reporting dashboards and alerting tools.
Google Ads
Google has shipped four additions to Performance Max's controls and reporting suite. Advertisers can now exclude specific first-party audience lists from PMax campaigns: providing the targeting guardrails that have been the most consistently requested capability since PMax launched.
Google Ads
Google's March Demand Gen update introduces three new capabilities. Creator Partnerships with Google Ads is now available, enabling advertisers to discover, connect with, and activate creator content directly as Demand Gen assets: Google cites an average 30% increase in conversion lift on YouTube Shorts when authentic creator assets are used versus brand-only creative.
Display & Video 360
Google has launched dedicated Discord channels for the Display & Video 360 API, Structured Data Files, and the Bid Manager API on the existing Google Advertising and Measurement Community server: the first official community engagement channel for DV360 bulk tools. The DV360 API and Structured Data Files documentation has also been redesigned with task guides, concept guides, and improved navigation.
Amazon Ads
Mike Ryan has published an original analysis combining self-reported MAU data from Amazon and Temu with Eurostat consumer data across European markets, producing what he describes as the most comprehensive picture of marketplace market presence to date. The findings show a clear geographic split: Amazon dominates high-GDP western markets, while Temu leads across central and eastern Europe: notably Poland, Romania, and Hungary.
Google Ads
Arpan Banerjee has spotted a new free-text field in the Google Ads campaign creation flow labelled "Tell us about your campaign," which appears to personalise setup suggestions based on the input. The interface also features a cleaner, lighter dashboard layout.
Google Merchant Center
Thomas Eccel has spotted a new ad format in Gmail on mobile, displaying overlay ads as a sticky banner with a grey background at the bottom of email threads. The placement differs from existing Gmail ads, which typically appear at the top of the inbox.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has introduced self-serve negative keyword management for Performance Max campaigns, allowing advertisers to add, modify, or delete negative keywords at the campaign or account level: including via shared negative keyword lists with a 5,000-keyword limit. Negative match types behave identically to standard Search campaigns, and the feature is supported in the API, Ads Editor, and via import from Google Ads.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has made Health Check diagnostics generally available in Property Centre for all advertisers running Lodging campaigns: covering both Property Promotion Ads and Hotel Price Ads. The tool highlights issues that prevent campaigns from serving correctly, such as missing or invalid prices and images, and provides high-level summaries with downloadable, detailed reports for granular resolution.
Google Ads
Google Ads has added a "Capture Screenshot" button directly within support ticket forms, eliminating the need for manual screenshots when raising issues. The button captures the current state of your account or campaign view and attaches it automatically.
Anthropic
Anthropic has added Projects to Claude Cowork, allowing users to keep tasks and context organised within defined work areas. Files and instructions stay on the user's local computer, and existing projects can be imported in one click.
Meta Ads
Bram Van der Hallen identified four updates rolling out across Meta Ads this week. Instagram has been added to the Manus AI connector, allowing advertisers to manage and analyse Instagram content: including posts, stories, and Reels: through the Manus interface, and to configure automations and schedules for publications.
Google Business Profile
Google is running a test of AI-generated reply suggestions inside Google Business Profile, allowing businesses to respond to customer reviews with AI-drafted text that they can review, edit, and submit. The feature was first observed and shared by Darren Shaw of Whitespark, based on a screenshot from Chandan Mishra showing a "Use Google AI to create personalised replies" prompt within the Business Profile interface.
Google Ads
Google has announced a uniqueness check for Lookalike user lists in the Google Ads API, effective April 30, 2026. The enforcement primarily targets Demand Gen campaigns, where automated systems have generated duplicate audience lists sharing identical seed lists, expansion levels, and country targeting: consuming system resources without delivering distinct signal value.
Google Merchant Center
Emmanuel Flossie of FeedArmy has published a practical guide for one of the most common Merchant Centre frustrations among Shopify merchants: product data that stops updating in the feed despite changes being made in Shopify. The issue typically stems from configuration in the Google channel app rather than from Merchant Centre itself: feed refresh settings, mismatched attribute mappings, or suppressed sync jobs are the most frequent causes.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has officially launched its first conversational AI advertising product, marking what Hadia Arif describes as "a step that could significantly change how shoppers interact with brands on Amazon." The product allows brands to engage shoppers through AI-powered conversations within the Amazon ecosystem, drawing on first-party signals from product detail pages, Brand Stores, and advertising data to surface relevant brand information at decision moments.
Google Ads
Google Ads has added a new "Ads using video" segment inside Performance Max Channel Performance reporting, allowing advertisers to break down results by whether video assets were actually used in a given placement. This addition complements the "Ads using product data" segment introduced in July 2025 and helps us understand which creative inputs are driving channel performance.
Apple Ads
New research from Graphite.io, published this week, overturns the conventional view that AI usage data: typically drawn solely from web traffic: provides the full picture. Combining web visits and mobile app sessions across the top five LLM products (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude), the study finds that AI now receives 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide, equivalent to 56% of search engine sessions globally and 34% in the US.
Looker Studio
Google has released Looker 26.4, a substantial update that extends Gemini AI capabilities across multiple layers of the platform. The most significant addition for analytics teams is a new set of modes in Conversational Analytics: Fast mode delivers quicker answers for straightforward queries, while Thinking mode enables deeper reasoning for complex analytical questions: offering a meaningful capability split that was previously unavailable within a single interface.
Meta Ads
Meta has launched a beta feature in Ads Manager called Creative Video Generation with AI, allowing advertisers to transform static images into dynamic multi-clip videos with text overlays and background music. Unlike AI creative suggestions that previously surfaced as recommendations, this feature allows advertisers to generate video from within the ad creation flow.
Apple Ads
Jon Loomer has issued a warning that multiple advertisers have reported their Meta ad accounts being shut down after connecting them to Claude or other AI agents. In his Field Notes newsletter, Loomer characterises the risk as current and unresolved, advising against connecting ad accounts to AI agents until the issue is better understood.
Gemini
Thomas Eccel spotted a new notification bar appearing inside the Gemini app stating that some saved chats may be reviewed by humans to improve Google AI. The disclosure is a standard practice across AI platforms, but its visibility in the interface signals that Google is increasing transparency around data use: potentially in response to regulatory pressure or to user expectations following GDPR enforcement actions elsewhere.
Google Ads
The Google Ads API team has scheduled a v23.2 release event for March 26 at 11:00 AM ET on Discord and YouTube. The update is a minor release with additional features.
ChatGPT Ads
Ashley Fletcher of Adthena reported further observations from the ongoing ChatGPT Ads trial. One advertiser has spent only 3% of their allocated $250,000 budget.
Walmart Connect
Walmart has disclosed that its Instant Checkout integration in ChatGPT achieved roughly one-third the conversion rate of simply sending users to Walmart's own website. Juozas Kaziukėnas, who reported the finding, noted this outcome prompted OpenAI to discontinue Instant Checkout in favour of directing users to merchant sites.
Google Analytics
Google has added documentation for creating an AI Assistants channel in GA4: a dedicated channel grouping intended to capture traffic from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Dana DiTomaso flagged, via Jason Dodge , that the published instructions do not work: the channel grouping configuration cannot be correctly mapped without additional steps that are not yet documented.
Amazon Ads
Amazon DSP has quietly added a Performance+ Tactics Insights section at the order level, surfacing metrics about which AI-driven tactics are contributing to campaign performance. The feature shows advertisers how specific DSP optimisation choices: such as audience expansion, bid adjustments, and placement selection: are affecting their results.
Anthropic
Anthropic has launched Channels in Claude Code: a research preview feature that allows users to connect a persistent local Claude Code session to a Discord or Telegram bot, enabling remote task delegation from a phone or secondary device. Messages sent to the bot arrive as events in the running Claude session; Claude reads the request, executes work on the local machine, and replies back through the same channel.
Google Merchant Center
Google has updated its Merchant Centre landing page requirements to mandate that the buy button on out-of-stock product pages be visually disabled: greyed out and non-clickable: rather than simply hidden or removed. Emmanuel Flossie of FeedArmy, who identified and detailed the change, notes the distinction is specific: hiding the button or styling it as invisible is no longer compliant.
Google Ads
Google Ads has rolled out an updated interface design that repositions the account switcher to the top left corner and refreshes the horizontal campaign hierarchy navigation. The visual change is cosmetic rather than functional, but it affects daily navigation habits for agencies and MCC users who frequently switch between accounts.
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