Google Merchant Center
A 4,827-word Google Merchant Centre audit framework
Simone Parodi published the full Merchant Centre audit he runs for ecommerce clients, with real case studies, data breakdowns, and a title-audit structure.
SourceLinkedIn
THE COLLECTIVE NEWSROOM
Paid media news and updates.
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.
MAIN TOPIC
Explore paid search news Paid search 5
YouTube
YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements tighten
Google updated its YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements in August, revising what creative qualifies for feed placements.
SourceGoogle Ads Policy
Official SourceGoogle
Google Ads
Travel campaigns migrate to Search campaigns for Travel in Q3
As planned, Google is migrating Travel campaigns to Search campaigns for Travel in Q3 2026, with no specific date announced.
SourceSearch Engine Roundtable
Official SourceSearch Engine Roundtable
Google Ads
Financial services verification expands to 13 more countries
Google Ads is extending its Financial Services verification requirements to 13 additional countries. This continues the programme covered in Weeks 25 and 30.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorAdriaan Dekker
Google Ads
Google Ads offers up to $1,500 in Demand Gen credit
Eligible advertisers creating their first Demand Gen campaign can claim up to $1,500 in credit via a promo code, subject to setup requirements.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorThomas Eccel
MAIN TOPIC
Explore paid social news Paid social 4
Meta Ads
Meta adds a Customer Lifecycle Strategy for new-customer bidding
A new Customer Acquisition option lets Meta advertisers choose between conversions from all audiences or acquiring new customers only, prioritising people who have never bought from you: mirroring Google's equivalent setting.
SourceLinkedIn
Meta Ads
Meta ships two more updates spotted this week
Meta continued its rollout pace with two further changes. For you, this means both setup and offers keep gaining options, so revisit flows you built around Meta's old limits.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorMatias Axel Ramayo
Meta Ads
Meta tests Personalised Sales Objectives in beta
Meta introduced a new campaign setup experience with Personalised Sales Objectives, now in beta. The system draws on your last 30 days of account data to suggest ready-made campaign strategies, with built-in creative testing and real-time optimisation.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorEmirhan Bayutmuş
Meta Ads
Meta adds lead notifications with channel and frequency controls
Meta is rolling out notifications for new leads from Meta ads, configured at ad level under Automated lead delivery. Mobile alerts can arrive as Facebook app push, Messenger messages, Ads Manager app push, or WhatsApp, either instantly or after a set number of leads, while email notifications go to chosen recipients on a day-and-time schedule, with the leads attached as a CSV or XLS file.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorBram Van der Hallen
MAIN TOPIC
Explore creative news Creative 1
Meta Ads
Meta offers free Adobe Express tools for Reels creative
Meta Ads now offers free Adobe Express access with more than 100 Reels templates, allowing advertisers to create and test Reels creative without additional design resources.
MAIN TOPIC
Explore measurement news Measurement 4
Google Analytics
GA4 conversion windows accept any custom day count
Per the 11 August release notes, click-through and engaged-view conversion windows in GA4 now accept any custom integer day count instead of preset buckets.
SourceLinkedIn
Google Analytics
The GA4 SPY cheat sheet reaches version 2.0
Brais Calvo Vázquez updated his GA4 SPY cheat sheet with more than 220 new parameters, including additions related to the Measurement Protocol.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorBrais Calvo Vázquez
Looker Studio
Looker Studio adds fullscreen charts and layout controls
The 13 August release adds fullscreen viewing for individual charts, rotation controls for text, images, and shapes on non-responsive canvases, centred labels on stacked bars, and settings search in the properties panel.
Official SourceGoogle
Google Merchant Center
An organic reporting dip appeared in Merchant Centre analytics around 11 August
Merchant Centre analytics showed a dip in organic figures across multiple accounts from around 11 August, suggesting a reporting issue rather than a real change in performance.
SourceLinkedIn
MAIN TOPIC
Explore strategy news Strategy 11
OpenAI
ChatGPT launches a native restaurant experience
ChatGPT now offers a native restaurant experience, returning bookable recommendations in conversation: an early glimpse of super-app behaviour.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorJuozas Kaziukėnas
OpenAI
Six ChatGPT ad formats are now live
A roundup of ChatGPT's ad rollout counts six formats now serving, from standard placements to the newer commerce units, though not everything announced is visible yet.
SourceLinkedIn
Industry
Cloudflare rolls out AI agent readiness and visibility tools
Cloudflare's new AEO tools audit how accessible your site is to AI agents and track visibility in AI answers.
SourceLinkedIn
Industry
Google's official vibe-coding course goes live
Google released an official course on vibe coding: describe the app you want and build it with AI.
SourceGoogle
First ContributorYoann Ferrand
Industry
French publishers sue Google over AI Overviews
Days after AI Overviews launched in France, French news publishers filed suit, arguing that the value AI answers extract from their journalism must be shared and that competition be respected. This follows the France launch covered in Week 30.
SourceLinkedIn
Google Merchant Center
Merchant Centre performance reports change on 24 August
From 24 August, Merchant Centre performance reports separate YouTube affiliate results from organic traffic, revise the YouTube organic traffic definitions, expand product-level reporting for Google Ads, and add segmentation, aligning definitions across Merchant Centre, Google Ads, and YouTube. Historical data back to 1 July is also restated under the revised definitions.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorBarry Schwartz
Industry
Grok 4.6 matches the frontier at a fraction of the price
SpaceXAI's Grok 4.6 reportedly matches Claude Fable 5 Max and GPT-5.6 Sol Max on frontier benchmarks while costing roughly 80% less, built on the same 1.5T foundation as Grok 4.5 with a longer post-training run.
SourceX
First ContributorYoann Ferrand
ChatGPT Ads
ChatGPT Ads prepare for the EU with an updated privacy policy
OpenAI's Europe privacy policy, updated in June, sets out how personal data will be handled for advertising to users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland: the clearest sign yet that ChatGPT Ads' EU launch is close.
SourceLinkedIn
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity scores whether AI crawlers send visitors back
Microsoft Clarity's Bot Analytics dashboard adds a Scrape-to-Referral Ratio, showing which AI crawlers extract your content and actually return traffic, and which only take.
SourceMicrosoft Clarity Blog
Official SourceMicrosoft Clarity
Campaign Manager 360
The Campaign Manager 360 API adds synchronous report queries
A new reportData.The query endpoint returns Campaign Manager 360 performance data as structured JSON directly in the response, with a 60-second execution limit, for real-time dashboards and ad-hoc checks, while the Reports service continues to handle large or scheduled exports.
Official SourceGoogle
Anthropic
Claude's Compliance API extends to Cowork and Claude Code
Compliance API coverage now spans Cowork on desktop, web, and mobile plus Claude Code in the CLI and desktop, in beta for Enterprise customers, letting security teams pull session content and metadata from both surfaces.
SourceLinkedIn
Official SourceLinkedIn
MAIN TOPIC
Explore retail media news Retail media 5
Amazon Ads
Amazon folds seller support into Seller Assistant
Amazon is retiring the classic Get Help and Resources page, routing case creation and live agent access through Seller Assistant, the AI layer sellers already use. Live agents remain reachable, but the AI becomes the front door.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorVanessa Hung
Amazon Ads
The deny list becomes the control panel for off-Amazon placements
With Sponsored Products now running outside Amazon through Influencer Program creators, the long-ignored deny list is how advertisers control which creators and placements carry their products. This continues the off-Amazon expansion covered in Week 32.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorMansour Norouzi
Amazon Ads
Apple proposes 5% to 15% commissions on external link purchases
Apple proposed new commission rates for purchases made through external links: 5% for small businesses, 15% for standard transactions, and 10% for subscriptions and partner programmes: down sharply from the 27% rate a court blocked in 2025.
SourceLinkedIn
YouTube
YouTube doubles the watch hours required for monetisation
YouTube is raising the watch-hours threshold for earning from ads and subscriptions to double the current requirement, enforced from February 2027, with existing monetised creators unaffected.
SourceLinkedIn
Amazon Ads
Seller Assistant explains why a listing loses the Featured Offer
Seller Assistant can now diagnose why an ASIN is not winning the Featured Offer, reviewing buyability and offer conditions instead of leaving sellers to check manually.
SourceLinkedIn
First ContributorVita K.
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