Microsoft Advertising is starting 2026 with a broad set of updates aimed squarely at search-first marketers, with a focus on better controls, clearer insights, and easier campaign management across the platform. Driving the news. In its latest product roundup, Microsoft is rolling out new Performance Max capabilities, expanding audience targeting options, improving imports from Google, […]
Google AdSense publishers are reporting sharp drops in earnings over the past 24 hours, with many seeing eCPM and RPM declines of 50–70%, according to widespread forum complaints. Why we care. For publishers that rely on AdSense to fund operations, sudden revenue swings can threaten sustainability — especially when traffic hasn’t changed and costs remain […]
Marketers can now set a total budget for a campaign over a defined period. Google automatically optimizes spend to fully use the budget by the campaign’s end date. The feature, earlier only available for Performance Max, is now available Search and Shopping campaigns, reducing the need for daily adjustments. Why we care. Managing budgets for […]
Google Ads is adding account-level placement exclusions, letting advertisers block unwanted inventory across all campaigns from a single setting. What’s new. Advertisers can now apply one exclusion list at the account level. Exclusions apply across Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube, and Display campaigns. Previously, blocks had to be set at the ad group or campaign […]
YouTube is upgrading its Promotions tool, letting creators target potential viewers by interests, not just age, gender, or location. What’s new. Creators can now target users by interest categories like Food & Dining. These categories are built from aggregated, anonymized signals, including search behavior and viewing habits. Example: Users who frequently search for recipes and […]
Most people have a favorite coffee mug. You reach for it without thinking. It fits your hand. It does its job. For a long time, SEO felt like that mug. A defined craft, a repeatable routine, a discipline you could explain in a sentence. Crawl the site. Optimize the pages. Earn visibility. Somewhere along the […]
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has published its annual predictions report based on a survey of 280 senior media leaders across 51 countries and territories. The report suggests publishers are preparing for two potential threats: generative AI tools, and creators who attract audiences with personality-led formats. Note that the Reuters Institute survey […]
As search marketers, we tend to focus on what we can control: keywords, links, Core Web Vitals, indexed pages. We have dashboards for our dashboards. But not everything that shapes search behavior lives inside GSC, GA4, or your favorite rank tracker. One of the most influential forces sits just outside traditional SEO reporting: the social […]
“Build a brand” has become one of the most repeated phrases in SEO over the past year. It is offered as both diagnosis and cure. If traffic is declining, build a brand. If large language models are not citing you, build a brand. If organic performance is unstable, build a brand. The problem is not […]
Social Marketing Trends The data you’ve been missing! Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 17th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss […]