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 launched a pilot that reviews pending Basic Access applications within hours once the linked Google Cloud project is brand verified. Participation is optional, and developers with approved tokens need not act.
Meta Ads
Meta has added a Grouping option in Ads Manager that clusters campaigns by objective, bid strategy, delivery, budget, and business goal; this feature is still rolling out. It gives a faster way to read a large account by structure rather than a flat list.
LinkedIn Ads
Anthony Blatner has flagged new LinkedIn Ads targeting options rolling out this month: more granular company-size bands, company revenue ranges, and device-type targeting. Some are live now, others are ramping up.
Google Merchant Center
Khushal Bherwani has flagged Google testing a 3D product view that animates the product and returns it to its original position as the user scrolls. It adds motion to the product presentation in the results.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has opened deal submissions for Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday Week in Seller Central, with a new bulk-create tool to set up deals across marketplaces at once. Early deadlines carry a discount: submit Prime Big Deal Days deals by 5 August and Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals by 5 September to save on the per-deal fee.
Gemini
Vladimir Hanzlik has flagged Similarweb data showing Gemini's share of combined Gemini and ChatGPT website visits rising from under a quarter in December 2025 to more than a third by June 2026. ChatGPT still leads on total visits.
OpenAI
OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Work, powered by Codex and GPT-5.6, which can act across a team's apps and files and run multi-hour workflows from research through to documents, presentations, and reports. It positions ChatGPT as an agent that returns finished work rather than answers.
LinkedIn Ads
Google has released a leaders' brief and livestream on preparing for the retail peak season in the AI era. It features practitioner panels and research on what Google calls the "AI winning mindset" for growth.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is discontinuing its legacy Sponsored Ads reports: no new reports after 17 December 2026, and the reports page is removed on 31 December 2026, with everyone moved to unified reporting. Custom templates, Excel exports, and older API endpoints tied to the old reports will stop working.
Google Ads
Google has updated its Alcohol policy help article to give clearer information on acceptable ad formats. Google states the update does not change how the policy is enforced.
Industry
Chris Long has flagged Google now showing AI Overviews on brand queries, drawing from sources such as LinkedIn and news articles. Brand searches that once returned a clean listing may now open with an AI summary.
Google Merchant Center
Google is dropping the "Next" name, so the platform you use today is now simply Google Merchant Centre. The change covers documentation, emails, and the interface, and rolls out over several weeks.
Google Tag
Simo Ahava has flagged that Google Tag Manager now automatically restores full capabilities to containers installed on the /gtag/ path rather than /gtm/, which previously ran only Google tags. A GTM container ID (GTM-XXXX) in either snippet now unlocks all tags, while a Google tag ID, such as G- or AW-, still permits only Google tags.
Google Merchant Center
Emmanuel Flossie has flagged that Google Shopping checkout links are now available in Indonesia, France, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, and Australia. The links send ready-to-buy shoppers straight to your cart or checkout on mobile and tablet devices, rather than to the product page.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is removing seller performance as an eligibility requirement for the Featured Offer (Buy Box) from July 2026, rolling it out globally through year-end and automatically pulling in existing offers. The model shifts from gate-then-rank to rank-only, so chargeback rate, order-defect data, and customer complaints become ranking inputs alongside price and delivery, rather than serving as qualifying filters.
Google Ads
Google is testing the addition of SMS as a message asset, alongside WhatsApp, Messenger, and Zalo under "set up your message asset." It uses a native Google Messages preview, keeps the 140-character starter message, and rolls SMS conversions into the account-level leads-from-messages goal.
BigQuery
Google has added multi-level aggregation to BigQuery SQL, letting you nest one aggregate function inside another in a single query, as flagged by Luka Cempre on the GA4 export. It removes the subquery workarounds analysts used for aggregate-of-aggregate calculations.
Microsoft Advertising
Khushal Bherwani has flagged Bing analysing price history inside the product detail window and labelling some items as a good time to buy. The cue sits with the product before the shopper decides.
Industry
Jack Rowbotham has flagged that OpenAI's GPT-5.6 model family is rolling out in Microsoft 365 Copilot across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, and Cowork. Copilot may select it automatically, and users can pick it in the model selector where available.
Industry
Mike Ryan has flagged that, from 1 July, the EU will apply a €3 fee per item to low-value packages that were previously exempt under de minimis rules, affecting marketplaces such as Temu and SHEIN. The UK still allows de minimis, so some sellers may shift budget there.
Google Search Console
Google is rolling out a new Search Console property type, "platform properties," letting you register Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube and see how that content performs in Google Search and Discover. It reports clicks, impressions, top posts, and the search terms that surface your social and video content.
Google Search Console
Google has added a control in Search Console to include or exclude your site's content from AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, under Settings and Search generative AI. Excluding removes all AI-feature visibility, and child properties inherit the parent setting.
LinkedIn Ads
Microsoft has announced Frontier, a new unit committing about $2.5bn and 6,000 engineers to embed AI specialists inside customer organisations. The stated aim is to move companies from stalled AI pilots to production outcomes.
Google Ads
The newsletter revisits Google's move to bring standalone Display campaigns into Demand Gen, including channel controls and a Display-only option.
Google Ads
Thomas Eccel reported being able to select target ROAS and Maximise conversion value while setting up Demand Gen in a new account. The observation concerns setup access and does not establish performance without conversion data.
Google Ads
An Animated Images beta adds motion to static Demand Gen assets and is reported as enabled by default.
OpenAI
Sam Altman has proposed giving the US administration a 5% stake in OpenAI, worth roughly $42.6bn at the latest reported valuation. The proposal would encourage other US AI companies to follow.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is showing review-derived lines such as "Positively reviewed for endurance" in search results. Review sentiment now influences shoppers before they reach the product page.
Google Ads
Google has fully launched the AI-based Top Insights open beta on the Overview page. It surfaces the main performance impacts and insights per account.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Analytics now shows how much of a post's reach comes from inside versus outside your network. Creators and brands can see how far content travels beyond followers.
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