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.
Industry
The European Commission has sent Requests for Information to large advertisers, as it has indications of potential concerns regarding the auctions for advertising on Google and Apple platforms.
Meta Ads
Microsoft Excel can now be integrated with Meta's Click-to-WhatsApp lead campaigns via the API as a CRM. The connection works the same way as Google Sheets integration.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has updated its flat-file system to include expiration dates for the templates you're currently using.
OpenAI
OpenAI has announced GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, an ultra-fast model purpose-built for real-time coding. It's available as a research preview for ChatGPT Pro users in the Codex app, Codex CLI, and IDE extension.
OpenAI
Deep research in ChatGPT is now powered by GPT-5.2. You can now connect to apps in ChatGPT, search specific sites, and track real-time progress with follow-ups.
Campaign Manager 360
LinkedIn Campaign Manager now offers benchmarking features that let you compare ad set performance against industry averages and your own account history over the past 90 days.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has launched Search Query Performance in Vendor Central, along with additional Search Analytics tools previously limited to Seller Central. Vendor brands now have access to deeper visibility into search terms and branded demand-capture data.
Industry
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has announced how it intends to proceed with its inquiry into Apple and Google's control over their mobile ecosystems. The investigation focuses on competition concerns in app distribution and mobile browsers.
Looker Studio
Google has released several Looker Studio updates: you can now share specific charts, including filter settings and time periods, export charts natively to PNG, view Gemini's reasoning process in Conversational Analytics, and manage Looker Studio Pro licenses centrally in Google Workspace.
Industry
You can export GTM Tag Assistant preview sessions and share them with teammates or clients for debugging. The exported file can be re-imported at tagassistant.google.com to inspect variables, payloads, and server-side requests after the fact.
Anthropic
Anthropic has launched Slack integration for Claude on Pro and Max plans. You can search workspace channels, prepare for meetings, and send messages without leaving the Claude interface.
Industry
Starting February 5, 2026, Google no longer allows personalised targeting for App campaigns promoting Rummy or daily fantasy sports apps in India. Only non-personalised delivery is permitted for these verticals in that market.
Anthropic
GitHub has added Claude and OpenAI's Codex as agent options within GitHub Copilot for Pro+ and Enterprise subscribers. You can now choose which AI model powers your coding assistant in GitHub and Visual Studio Code.
TikTok Ads
The European Commission has preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and its recommendation system.
Industry
Microsoft Advertising and Microsoft AI have launched the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), a framework for publishers to license premium content for AI training and retrieval. The marketplace provides transparent economics for content licensing.
Amazon Ads
Amazon reported record Q4 revenue of $213.4 billion (up 14% YoY), with advertising revenue reaching $21.32 billion (up 23%). AWS grew 24% to $35.58 billion: its fastest growth in 13 quarters.
Meta Ads
Meta is rolling out Threads ads to advertisers globally and now prompts you to add your Threads account to your Meta Business Portfolio. Threads is available as a placement within existing Meta campaigns.
Industry
The 11th annual PPC Salary Survey is now accepting responses until February 28, 2026. Your participation helps benchmark compensation across the industry and shapes how agencies and employers understand market rates.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising is testing a magazine-style layout within its Answer Card format on Bing Search. Ads appear in card formats at the top of results and can be served through Shopping, Multimedia Ads, or PMax: there is no separate auction.
Industry
Google announced the February 2026 Discover Core update, an algorithmic change to improve article quality in Discover feeds. Alongside the rollout, Google updated its Discover documentation to include "Provide a great page experience": warning against overloading pages with intrusive ads and auto-playing content.
Google Tag
Google Ads has added a diagnostics tool in Data Manager to help identify and fix data connection issues. The feature flags problems with linked data sources directly in the interface.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is rolling out Workspace Studio in beta for users with the "join beta" option enabled in their admin console. The feature integrates AI-powered automation and workflow tools directly into Workspace.
Industry
Google reduced its HTML file crawl limit from 15MB to 2MB on February 5, 2026, an 86.7% reduction. Content beyond 2MB will not be indexed.
Gemini
Gemini can now produce interactive images where you can highlight any region and receive a detailed explanation. The feature turns static visuals into explorable learning tools.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has updated FBM shipping settings to better support multi-warehouse operations. The changes fix delivery promise accuracy when fulfilling from multiple locations.
Google Ads
Google has acknowledged delays in reviewing applications for Google Ads API developer tokens following the release of Explorer Access, the MCP Server, and the Developer Assistant. Additional reviewers have been assigned to clear the backlog.
Industry
SpaceX has acquired Elon Musk's AI startup xAI in a merger valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion. Musk cited plans to build space-based data centres to meet AI power demands. xAI, which owns the Grok chatbot and previously acquired X (Twitter), is currently burning around $1 billion per month.
Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Centre is now surfacing recommendations to improve product descriptions, highlighting specific attributes customers search for that are missing from your feed. The suggestions include attributes not yet available as standard feed fields, such as recommended age, playtime, genre, and maximum players for games.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is beta testing an "Automatically optimising ROAS within the campaign budget" option under rule-based bidding for Sponsored Products. You set the daily budget, and Amazon adjusts bids to maximise ROAS without a target floor.
YouTube
Alphabet reported Q4 2025 earnings with annual revenue surpassing $400 billion for the first time. Google Cloud revenue reached $17.7 billion (up 48% YoY) with operating margin jumping to 30% from 17% a year ago.
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