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 renamed the Local Services platform policies document to Local Services Ads requirements, and published guides explaining how to set up, target, and optimise Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals. Both continue the migration covered in Weeks 30 and 31.
Microsoft Advertising
Brodie Clark ran a Bing product feeds experiment in which free listings only began showing after ads were enabled. He highlights Bing feeds' growing importance as grounding data for LLMs, including ChatGPT.
Google Ads
The Leads interface under Goals, Conversions, is now showing for some advertisers, listing every lead from Google-hosted lead sources. This continues the announcement covered in Week 29.
Google Ads
Google announced a pilot for more secure Google Ads API access on its developer blog. The pilot lets advertisers restrict sensitive API actions to approved applications only, adding a security layer over integrations.
Google Ads
The ad-quality badges announced in mid-June are now serving, first discovered live by Sachin Patel and replicated by others. The badges use existing ad quality and relevance signals to label how well an ad matches the query.
Google Ads
Google Ads is testing hyperlinked, keyword-rich anchor text inside sponsored ad descriptions. Clickable phrases within the copy deep-link beyond the headline URL.
Google Ads
Google Ads is offering free ad credits to existing advertisers to increase their budgets, not just new accounts.
Google Ads
The conversions interface now links directly to a call report from phone call conversion actions. Call performance detail sits one click from the conversion summary.
Google Ads
Microsoft Advertising is rolling out Audience ads placement exclusions within Performance Max, alongside age exclusions and age and gender targeting. Controls advertisers had on Google's PMax arrive on Microsoft's.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising now supports bulk editing and appealing of disapproved text and image assets, live in all accounts.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising published the first edition of a monthly product newsletter on 4 August, consolidating feature announcements in one place.
Google Ads
The new Ad Preview Hub lets advertisers preview how eligible Performance Max ads may appear across devices and placements before approval.
Google Ads
Google Ads is piloting a restriction that stops users on free email addresses, such as Gmail or Yahoo, from making sensitive account changes. It follows the Passkey requirement covered in Week 31 as part of a broader security tightening.
Google Ads
Google notified advertisers that Search campaigns using Automatically Created Assets or campaign-level broad match would start migrating to AI Max from 1 September.
Meta Ads
Meta's campaign, ad set, and ad tree now shows a status dot at each level, with the ability to activate or pause directly from the structure.
ChatGPT Ads
ChatGPT is testing a descriptive heading directly above the ad unit in results, similar to what Google's AI Mode already shows.
Industry
An analysis of 3,900 Google ads across 65 accounts found Ad Strength does not correlate with CPA. The grade reflects headline volume, keyword relevance, asset uniqueness, and pinning rather than performance.
Industry
Nielsen announced it will acquire DoubleVerify for $2.15bn, taking the largest independent verification vendor off the stock market and combining audience measurement with ad verification in one company.
Industry
Google's Ads Liaison posted a video Q&A addressing advertiser concerns about the 17 August bidding changes first covered in Week 25.
Industry
The Competition Appeal Tribunal certified a collective claim worth up to £5bn against Google, covering advertisers who bought UK search ads between 2011 and 2025. The case is opt-out: every qualifying UK advertiser is in the class by default.
Anthropic
Self-hosted environments let Claude Code sessions run on your own infrastructure, started from web, mobile, desktop, or a routine, next to internal services and security controls.
ChatGPT Ads
"The Beginning of ChatGPT Ads", to be published at AAAI/ACM AIES 2026, examines OpenAI's early advertising rollout from a computers-and-society perspective.
Gemini
Google is restructuring its AI leadership with co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly overseeing Gemini directly as the company chases OpenAI and Anthropic.
Industry
Teads filed an 85-page antitrust complaint against Google in the Southern District of New York on 3 August, seeking treble damages over 6.88 trillion impressions it says were diverted from rival exchanges via Dynamic Allocation, Last Look, and Project Bernanke. In the same SEC filing, Teads warned Google could retaliate by cutting its revenue: an unusually candid dependency disclosure.
Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads introduced a dedicated Ad Groups tab that brings ad groups from Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Multimedia Solutions into a single centralised view. The interface currently appears on UK accounts, with a broader marketplace rollout expected.
Amazon Ads
Sellers can now see Subscribe & Save sales broken down by completed deliveries, including three, four, and five-plus delivery tiers rather than just active versus cancelled.
Amazon Ads
The directive took effect on 31 July and applies to every EU Amazon order from that date, amending the Sale of Goods framework consumers already rely on.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is rolling the new Seller Central to all users, with no option to revert once the transition completes and no timeline warning beforehand.
Amazon Ads
US advertisers can now pay by invoicing or seller account balance alongside credit cards.
ChatGPT Ads
The newsletter reports product carousel ads in ChatGPT, adding a product-led format for eligible advertisers.
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