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.
Amazon Ads
Amazon introduced automatic Streaming TV deal selection for Brand+ campaigns. The system picks premium STV deals rather than requiring manual selection.
Amazon Ads
A new Targeting strategy beta appeared at campaign level in manual Sponsored Products campaigns, off by default. Enabled, AI adds up to four new keyword and product targets.
Amazon Ads
A Seller Central alert and help page set out requirements for AI-generated human images, with immediate effect. Sellers must comply with the new disclosure rules as legislation rolls out.
Walmart Connect
Alphabet reported $112bn in net profit for the quarter, more than all 40 DAX companies earned across 2025. The stock still fell on the report.
Walmart Connect
Walmart is adding negative keywords to its ad platform. The long-requested control lets advertisers exclude irrelevant queries.
Amazon Ads
FBA sellers can now configure which products qualify for refunds without a physical return. Shipping back a $5 item can cost $8 to $12, so skipping the return saves money on cheap products.
OpenAI
OpenAI is licensing Yelp's reviews, ratings, photos, and business data to power real-time local recommendations in ChatGPT, per Axios. Human experience data becomes a key input for AI search.
Amazon Ads
Amazon expanded location-based video ads into three new locations in the Americas, with customisation for store locations, local offers, and clickthrough. A new console checkbox lets advertisers block demographic signals, limiting them to audiences without age or gender data, and applies only to first-party Amazon Studios video creative.
Amazon Ads
Amazon disclosed that Amazon Business now generates $60bn, up from $35bn in 2022. The B2B marketplace grows quietly inside the consumer one.
Amazon Ads
Amazon caps most product titles at 75 characters from 27 July, with media categories exempt. A new searchable Item Highlights field of up to 125 characters holds overflow specifications.
Amazon Ads
Some Amazon product pages no longer show the "Other Sellers on Amazon" section beneath the Buy Box, even where multiple offers are active on the SKU. Amazon has not confirmed the change, and results vary across accounts and locations, suggesting a test that follows the Featured Offer eligibility change covered in Week 28.
Amazon Ads
Bradley Sutton has shared Search Query Performance data suggesting clicks straight after an Amazon keyword search have changed little in two and a half years. Clicks rose through Q1, then dipped in the two months since Alexa for Shopping replaced Rufus, which he says could indicate more shoppers consulting Alexa after searching.
Amazon Ads
Amazon is expanding AI analysis of listing images, evaluating visual attributes alongside titles, descriptions, and attribute fields to understand products. Strong, relevant imagery may help Amazon match products to shopper intent across its AI-powered experiences.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has begun notifying 1P vendors that it will reverse tariff-related cost price increases, effective as of August 2026, presenting this as a change rather than a negotiation. Martin Heubel notes that a cost shown on a purchase order form is part of Amazon's contract terms once confirmed.
Amazon Ads
Amazon's Global Warehousing and Distribution now offers 30 days of free storage for shipments received between 1 July and 31 December 2026, at rates already up to 45% below AWD. Amazon is also opening a Shanghai facility and adding FOB support, allowing exporters to keep separate invoices for tax rebates.
Walmart Connect
Walmart has released new content guidelines that take effect now, and sellers report titles over 90 characters being rejected ahead of a formal mandate. Walmart's standardisation of Sparky, its AI shopping agent, whose weekly active users are up over 100% quarter-on-quarter.
Google Ads
Eligible Shopping campaigns are moving towards Local Inventory Ads enabled by default, with an inventory filter replacing the previous local-products control.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amazon Ads
Amazon's updated consent requirements are now in force. The practical question is not whether the Amazon Consent Signal is enabled, but what valid signal Amazon actually receives from your setup.
Amazon Ads
Amazon rolls out the New Selection Program 2026 on 30 July with fee credits, free storage, Vine credits, and liquidation coverage for new-to-FBA branded ASINs. Enrolled sellers must confirm participation by 31 October.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has removed the Variation Wizard, changing how sellers build parent-child listing relationships. Sellers now rely on flat files and listing tools instead.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has started notifying sellers that eligible ASINs will automatically receive Virtual Multipack listings by the end of the month. The pilot is opt-out rather than opt-in.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has rolled out Canvas, an AI analytics feature in the new Seller Central experience. Sellers ask questions in natural language instead of digging through reports.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has announced enhancements to its New Selection programme, effective 30 July 2026, flagged by Ivan Marynych. The programme provides brands with more support when launching new FBA products, including fee credits on the first 200 units, reduced referral fees, and credits that can offset referral and FBA fulfilment costs.
Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads and Asda have announced a partnership to reach customers across Asda's digital platforms, on the Amazon Ads account. The deal lets brands engage Asda shoppers through Amazon's advertising infrastructure, marking a step in the evolution of Amazon's retail-media offering beyond its own properties and into a major UK grocery retailer's channels.
Amazon Ads
Amazon has announced Alexa+ Agentic Ads on the Amazon Ads account. The format lets shoppers complete purchases entirely within a conversation: from ordering pizza to buying concert tickets: turning a voice or chat exchange with Alexa into a transactional surface.
Amazon Ads
Google's Tag Gateway for advertisers now supports Amazon CloudFront as a CDN option, effective 3 June 2026, flagged by Matteo Zambon. The gateway routes Google tag traffic through an advertiser's own domain or CDN infrastructure before it reaches Google's servers, improving first-party data collection, match rates, and resilience against browser restrictions and tracking prevention.
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