Google Marketing Live 2025 was – no surprise – all about AI. Again. Google Marketing Live 2025 made one thing clear: AI isn’t just an assistant anymore. It’s becoming a co-strategist. This year’s event was packed with updates where AI played a central role, powering everything from bidding and creative to product listings and campaign insights. […]

PPC bidding just got a lot more interesting. Just announced at Google Marketing Live, Google is launching Smart Bidding Exploration, a new opt-in feature designed to help advertisers capture more conversions from their existing campaigns. This update marks one of the most significant changes to Google Ads bidding over a decade. This isn’t a cosmetic […]

During its annual Google Marketing Live event for advertisers, Google announced upgrades to its AI measurement tools, making access easier for small brands. These updates were shared ahead of time with Search Engine Journal during an exclusive preview event, which showcase Google’s continued investment in providing advertisers of all sizes better visibility into performance, incrementality, […]

Google today published new guidance on how to “succeed” in its evolving AI-powered search experiences. What’s new. The only real (sort of) news here is that Google has put into writing what Google’s Elizabeth Reid and others have said in recent months – that AI-driven searches are increasing engagement and creating higher-quality clicks. Also: Google said tools […]

Remember when “Just Google it” was the solution to all your search needs? Unfortunately, those days are changing fast. While Google remains the king of search, the ground beneath its feet is shifting as brands, marketers, and end users are noticing that there are some new sheriffs in town. The search ecosystem that puts all […]

Today’s Memo is an updated version of my previous guides on topical authority, one that takes the Google leaks, documents revealed in Google lawsuits, my recent UX study of AIOs, and the latest shifts in the search landscape into account. Image Credit: Lyna ™ I think this is one of these concepts that can fly under […]

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how marketing teams operate—but not through vague promises or futuristic scenarios. In 5 Ways Marketers Are Using AI to Increase Efficiency from Acoustic, marketers will find five tangible, proven ways AI is being applied to improve segmentation, enhance personalization, monitor performance, support content creation, and retarget audiences more effectively. This resource is designed […]

The twin forces of disrupted attribution and changing user behavior are reshaping how audiences discover brands. Google’s mass rollout of AI Overviews and its experimental AI Mode are not surface-level UX tweaks; they represent a fundamental transformation of the search experience – one that compresses the journey from query to answer. PPC is now a […]

Search marketer Michael Bonfils recently discussed how AI is disrupting search marketing and shared insights into what he feels is an appropriate response to one of the most difficult search environments he’s seen in his thirty years of experience. Michael Bonfils (LinkedIn profile) has worked in digital marketing since virtually the dawn of it all, […]

Google Ads costs surged across nearly every industry in 2025, with 87% of sectors seeing higher cost-per-click rates. But the pain is being offset by significantly better conversion rates — 65% of industries are turning more clicks into actual customers. That’s according to a LocalIQ analysis of 16,446 campaigns. Overall 2025 benchmarks: Average cost per […]