Digital Marketing Agency In Epsom, Surrey | Fingo Marketing https://www.fingo.co.uk/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:16:21 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 https://www.fingo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/web-app-manifest-512x512-1-150x150.png Digital Marketing Agency In Epsom, Surrey | Fingo Marketing https://www.fingo.co.uk/ 32 32 June 2026 SEO & AIO Industry Update https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/june-2026-seo-aio-industry-update/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:12:24 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=4069 June Brought Stronger Evidence For Where Search Is Heading Over the past few months we’ve explored how AI is becoming part of modern search, how visibility is extending beyond traditional website clicks, and why reporting those changes has become increasingly complex. June didn’t fundamentally change that direction. Instead, it provided some of the clearest evidence […]

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The Emerging Evidence For Where Search Is Heading

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June Brought Stronger Evidence For Where Search Is Heading

Over the past few months we’ve explored how AI is becoming part of modern search, how visibility is extending beyond traditional website clicks, and why reporting those changes has become increasingly complex. June didn’t fundamentally change that direction. Instead, it provided some of the clearest evidence yet that these trends are becoming established.

New consumer research has shown how people are actually using AI alongside traditional search, Google has started introducing dedicated reporting for AI search performance, and UK regulators have begun placing greater accountability on how search results, including AI-generated answers, are presented. At the same time, Google’s latest core update reinforced something that hasn’t changed at all: high-quality, relevant websites continue to provide the foundation for visibility, regardless of how people discover them.

In Short:

The Evidence Behind AI Search Is Becoming Clearer

Business Impact

If you’ve been looking at your reports and wondering why search visibility, website traffic and referral sources no longer seem to move together as neatly as they once did, June provides several useful explanations. Customers are increasingly researching across multiple platforms before making a decision, meaning your website may influence a purchase even if it isn’t the first or final destination within that journey.

What happened

One of the biggest questions surrounding AI search has been whether people are replacing Google with AI assistants. A new YouGov study suggests that isn’t what’s happening.

The research found that 85% of UK online searchers used a traditional search engine during the previous 30 days, compared with 31% who used an AI assistant. More importantly, only 15% of AI users described AI as their typical starting point. Most instead use AI alongside traditional search engines or after searching elsewhere.

The report also found that AI is most commonly used for answering direct questions, summarising information, verifying findings and comparing options rather than replacing wider research altogether.

Why this matters

Earlier this year we discussed how search journeys were becoming more fragmented across AI assistants, search engines, maps and other discovery platforms. June provides much stronger evidence that this is exactly how people are behaving.

Rather than replacing search engines, AI is becoming another stage within the wider decision-making process. That means businesses shouldn’t think about AI visibility and SEO as competing priorities. Increasingly, they support one another throughout the same customer journey.

AI Referrals Continue To Emerge As A New Traffic Source

What happened

Adobe reported that AI referral traffic to US travel websites increased by 194% year on year. While the research focuses on one industry and one geography, it adds to a growing body of evidence that AI assistants are beginning to generate measurable referral traffic alongside traditional search.

Why this matters

We’ve touched on AI referrals in previous updates, but June strengthens the case that this is becoming an emerging acquisition channel rather than simply an interesting statistic. Referral volumes remain considerably smaller than traditional organic search, but more businesses are likely to begin noticing AI traffic appearing within their analytics over the coming months.

Website Traffic Tells Less Of The Whole Story

What happened

SparkToro’s latest clickstream analysis estimated that approximately 68% of Google searches now end without a click to an external website, while only around 23% result in an organic website visit. The research also found that a growing proportion of user activity remains within Google’s own ecosystem, including AI-generated experiences, Maps, Images and other Google-owned surfaces.

Why this matters

Viewed on its own, this could suggest organic search is becoming less valuable. When combined with the wider evidence from June, however, it paints a different picture.

People are increasingly discovering, comparing and validating information before deciding whether they need to visit a website at all. Success therefore isn’t defined solely by generating a click. Visibility throughout the wider research journey is becoming increasingly important.

ChatGPT Is No Longer The Only AI Platform Businesses Should Watch

What happened

New market data reported by TechCrunch found ChatGPT’s measured share of the AI assistant market has fallen below 50% for the first time, with Gemini, Claude and several other AI assistants continuing to grow their audiences.

Why this matters

This doesn’t necessarily mean ChatGPT is losing users. Instead, it reflects a more competitive AI landscape where businesses can no longer assume a single platform represents AI search as a whole.

As AI discovery expands across multiple assistants, measuring visibility across different ecosystems will become increasingly important.

What This All Means For Brands

June doesn’t suggest traditional SEO is becoming less important. Instead, it provides stronger evidence that visibility is becoming broader than website traffic alone.

Customers increasingly move between search engines, AI assistants, maps, news websites and other trusted sources before making decisions. Businesses that understand how these journeys connect, rather than measuring each channel in isolation, will be better placed to understand their true visibility as search continues evolving.

Search Quality Continues To Shape AI Visibility

Business Impact

If rankings shifted following Google’s May Core Update, or you’ve questioned why some competitors appear within AI-generated answers despite having similar organic visibility, June provides useful context. The latest analysis suggests the qualities that drive strong SEO continue to underpin AI visibility, even if being cited by AI introduces another layer of competition.

Google’s May Core Update Continued Rewarding Relevance

What happened

Google’s May Core Update completed at the beginning of June. Analysis of the rollout suggested that pages more closely aligned with user intent and local relevance generally performed better than broader, less targeted alternatives. Rather than favouring authority alone, the update appeared to reward content that most effectively answered the searcher’s intent.

Why this matters

This closely reflects patterns we’ve observed across client portfolios over recent months. While every Core Update affects websites differently, June’s analysis reinforces that Google’s direction remains consistent. Producing genuinely useful content that closely aligns with user intent continues to outperform simply expanding keyword coverage or publishing more content.

Strong Rankings Don’t Always Mean Strong AI Visibility

What happened

Research into enterprise B2B search found that AI Overviews appeared for around half of the relevant searches analysed, yet the median enterprise brand was cited in only 3% of those AI-generated answers.

Why this matters

This is one of the clearest examples we’ve seen of SEO and AI visibility working together rather than being identical.

Organic rankings remain an important prerequisite for discovery, but they don’t automatically guarantee that a brand will be referenced within AI-generated answers. AI systems appear to apply an additional level of confidence when deciding which sources to cite directly, reinforcing the importance of expertise, authority and genuinely useful content.

Technical Foundations Continue Supporting AI Discovery

What happened

Cloudflare reported that automated systems now account for 57% of worldwide webpage requests. While these requests include search engines, monitoring services, AI crawlers and other automated systems, the research highlights the growing role machines play in accessing and understanding website content before it reaches users.

Why this matters

As AI assistants increasingly rely on automated systems to understand websites, established technical SEO fundamentals continue becoming more valuable.

Crawlability, logical site architecture and accessible content all help search engines and AI systems understand what a page is about. Structured data sits firmly within this category. It remains valuable because it improves the quality and clarity of information available to machines, rather than acting as a shortcut to AI visibility or guaranteed citations.

Community Content Continues Gaining Visibility

What happened

Following Google’s May Core Update, Reddit continued increasing its visibility across a wide range of industries, although improvements remained considerably more limited within sensitive sectors such as health and finance.

Why this matters

As AI assistants increasingly rely on automated systems to understand websites, established technical SEO fundamentals continue becoming more valuable.

Crawlability, logical site architecture and accessible content all help search engines and AI systems understand what a page is about. Structured data sits firmly within this category. It remains valuable because it improves the quality and clarity of information available to machines, rather than acting as a shortcut to AI visibility or guaranteed citations.

What This All Means For Brands

One of the clearest messages from June is that AI visibility continues to build upon strong SEO rather than replacing it.

Businesses investing in relevant content, technical quality, structured information and genuine expertise are building the same foundations that increasingly support both traditional rankings and AI-generated search experiences. While new AI tactics continue to emerge, June provided little evidence that they outweigh the importance of established SEO best practice.

Search Platforms Are Becoming More Accountable

Business Impact

One of the biggest frustrations surrounding AI search has been explaining its commercial impact. Businesses know customer behaviour is changing, yet reporting has often lagged behind reality. June marked the first meaningful step towards improving that visibility, while also introducing greater scrutiny of how search platforms rank and present information.

Google Begins Reporting AI Search Performance

What happened

Google announced dedicated Generative AI performance reports within Search Console, providing reporting for impressions generated through AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI experiences in Discover. The rollout is currently phased, meaning not every Search Console property will have immediate access.

Why this matters

Until now, understanding AI visibility has relied heavily on third-party tools and observation.

Google’s own reporting represents an important step forward. Although the current reports focus primarily on impressions and availability remains limited during rollout, businesses are beginning to receive first-party evidence showing how their websites appear within Google’s AI experiences.

Microsoft Continues Expanding AI Reporting

What happened

Microsoft expanded Bing Webmaster Tools with additional AI reporting, including search intents, topics, citation share and competitor comparison.

Why this matters

While Google and Microsoft approach reporting differently, both platforms are moving towards making AI visibility more measurable.

That should gradually improve businesses’ ability to understand where they appear within AI-generated search experiences and how that visibility develops over time.

The UK Introduces Greater Accountability For Search

What happened

The Competition and Markets Authority introduced new fair-ranking requirements for Google Search covering both traditional organic rankings and generative AI search features. The measures require Google to apply objective and non-discriminatory ranking criteria, provide greater transparency around significant changes affecting publishers and improve processes for raising concerns.

Why this matters

This is one of the first significant UK regulatory developments to explicitly recognise that AI-generated search experiences should be subject to similar expectations around fairness and transparency as traditional search results.

Businesses shouldn’t expect Google’s ranking systems to suddenly become fully transparent, but this represents an important step towards greater accountability as AI becomes a larger part of online discovery.

What This All Means For Brands

Reporting is gradually catching up with the way people now search.

Over the coming months, businesses should expect AI visibility, traditional SEO performance and wider discovery metrics to become increasingly interconnected. Rather than replacing established reporting, these developments should provide additional context for understanding how customers discover brands across an increasingly diverse search landscape.

What To Watch Next

  1. Google Reporting On Brand Platform SERP Performance
    • Google has also begun rolling out support for connecting eligible YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X accounts to Search Console. Once available, businesses will be able to understand how their social content performs within Google Search, extending first-party reporting beyond traditional websites.
  2. Google Introducing Search Profiles
    • Google has also launched Search Profiles for publishers and creators in the United States. These profiles bring together articles, videos and social content into a single discoverable profile, with wider international availability expected in the future.
  3. Cloudflare Introduce AI Publisher Controls
    • Finally, publisher controls over AI crawlers continue developing. Cloudflare and beehiiv have introduced new tools allowing publishers to control how AI systems access their content while also providing better visibility into AI crawler activity. Although these developments are currently more relevant to publishers than most lead-generation businesses, they demonstrate how AI discovery and content ownership continue to evolve together.

June’s Key Learnings

June didn’t introduce a completely new direction for search. Instead, it provided much stronger evidence for trends that have been developing throughout the first half of 2026.

Customers continue to research across an increasing number of platforms, AI assistants are becoming another stage within the search journey rather than replacing it, and search engines are beginning to provide better reporting into how that visibility is generated.

Perhaps the strongest message from June, however, is that the fundamentals remain remarkably consistent. High-quality content, technical accessibility and genuine expertise continue to underpin visibility across both traditional search and AI-generated experiences. The businesses most likely to benefit are those that continue investing in those foundations while broadening how they measure success.

Looking back across the first six months of the year, one thing has become increasingly clear. Traditional SEO has not become less important, but success is no longer defined solely by rankings or website visits. Understanding how your brand is discovered, represented and measured across search engines, AI assistants and other discovery platforms is becoming an increasingly important part of modern search marketing.

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]]> June Paid Media Updates https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/june-paid-media-updates/ Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=4058 What June’s Paid Media Changes Mean for AI Search, Platform Control and Community-Led Advertising June showed how quickly paid media is expanding beyond traditional platform delivery. Search, social, creator content, commerce and community conversations are becoming more connected, with AI now shaping not only how campaigns are built, but also how users discover, compare and […]

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The Rise Of Conversation-Led Paid Media

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What June’s Paid Media Changes Mean for AI Search, Platform Control and Community-Led Advertising

June showed how quickly paid media is expanding beyond traditional platform delivery. Search, social, creator content, commerce and community conversations are becoming more connected, with AI now shaping not only how campaigns are built, but also how users discover, compare and act.

Across OpenAI, Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and Reddit, the direction is clear. Paid media is becoming more automated, more conversational and more dependent on the quality of the signals advertisers provide.

In Short: What Matters This Month

For advertisers, this creates a major opportunity. Campaigns can reach users across more moments of intent, more content environments and more discovery-led journeys. But it also creates a more complex challenge. As platforms take on more decision-making, advertisers need stronger control over feeds, creative, tracking, compliance, reporting and post-click experiences.

The practical question is no longer only where ads appear. It is whether advertisers are set up properly for the systems now deciding how, when and why those ads are served.

AI Search Is Becoming A Commercial Advertising Channel

Business Impact

AI search is moving from a discovery and research tool into a more commercial advertising environment.

This matters because users are no longer only searching through keywords and clicking standard results. They are asking longer questions, comparing options and receiving recommendations within conversational interfaces.

For advertisers, this creates a new type of intent environment. The opportunity is to reach users while they are actively researching and evaluating. The challenge is making sure product data, messaging and feed quality are strong enough to support this new form of ad delivery.

OpenAI product feed ads move ChatGPT closer to performance advertising

What happened

OpenAI introduced product feed ads in its Ads Manager beta, allowing retail advertisers to upload product catalogues and generate ads from individual catalogue items.

This gives brands a way to serve more relevant product-led ads inside ChatGPT conversations, particularly where users are showing purchase intent.

Why this matters

This is a major step towards ChatGPT becoming a performance advertising environment, not just an awareness or experimental placement.

Instead of manually creating ads one by one, retailers can use structured product data to scale relevance inside conversational journeys. This makes ChatGPT more comparable to other commerce-led ad environments, but with a different type of user behaviour.

The key difference is that intent may develop during the conversation. A user may not start with a clear purchase query, but the conversation can move towards comparison, recommendation or product selection. That gives advertisers a new way to appear when commercial intent is forming.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Retail and e-commerce advertisers should start assessing whether their product feeds are clean, complete and suitable for conversational ad environments.

Product titles, descriptions, pricing, availability, category data and product imagery will all become important if ChatGPT ads continue to develop into a serious commerce channel.

Advertisers should also consider how their products are described outside traditional ad platforms. In conversational environments, clear product information and strong value propositions may become just as important as bids and budgets.

This is also a platform we are actively testing and trialling, helping us understand how OpenAI Ads works in practice and where it may create future opportunities for advertisers. While it is still early, having a presence in the beta environment allows us to monitor platform development, test available features and stay proactive as conversational advertising continues to evolve. 

Google Is Giving Advertisers More Time To Prepare For AI Max

Business Impact

Google’s delay to the Dynamic Search Ads migration gives advertisers more time, but it does not change the wider direction of travel.

Search campaign delivery is still moving towards AI-led matching, broader interpretation of intent and more automated use of advertiser inputs.

The extra time should be used to prepare properly. Advertisers relying on Dynamic Search Ads, broad matching or automated assets need to make sure their landing pages, exclusions, conversion data and campaign structures are ready before migration becomes unavoidable.

Dynamic Search Ads migration to AI Max has been delayed

What happened

Google updated its Dynamic Search Ads migration timeline in June 2026, confirming that the DSA sunset and automatic upgrade to AI Max will now begin in February 2027, rather than the original 2026 timeline.

Google said the extension gives advertisers more time to complete the transition. The ability to create new Dynamic Search Ads was also restored from 15 June 2026.

Why this matters

This gives advertisers breathing room, but it should not be treated as a pause in Google’s automation strategy.

Google is still moving search campaigns towards AI-led matching and broader query interpretation. The delay simply gives advertisers more time to test, audit and transition in a more controlled way.

For advertisers, the issue is not whether AI Max should be ignored until 2027. The issue is whether accounts are using the additional time to understand how AI-led matching affects queries, assets, landing pages and conversion quality.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should audit any campaigns still relying on Dynamic Search Ads before the automatic upgrade begins.

Landing pages, exclusions, conversion tracking, asset coverage and search term behaviour should be reviewed now. AI Max should also be tested where appropriate, so advertisers can understand performance before migration becomes mandatory.

The strongest accounts will be those that use the delay strategically, rather than waiting for the automatic change.

Meta Is Connecting Advertising With AI-Assisted Customer Conversations

Business Impact

Meta is increasingly looking beyond the ad click.

Instead of focusing only on campaign delivery, Meta is building tools that support what happens after a user engages. This is particularly important for lead generation, e-commerce and service-led businesses where response speed, qualification and follow-up can have a major impact on performance.

The opportunity is better lead handling and faster customer response. The risk is that poor messaging, weak FAQs or unclear handover processes could create a bad user experience after the click.

Meta Business Agent turns clicks into conversations

What happened

Meta announced Business Agent in June 2026, positioning it as an AI tool that helps businesses respond to customers across Meta surfaces.

The tool is designed to support customer conversations, answer questions and help businesses show up for customers more consistently.

Why this matters

Meta is moving further into AI-assisted customer journeys, not just AI-assisted ad delivery.

This matters because paid media performance is not only shaped by the click or the lead. It is also shaped by what happens immediately afterwards. If a user asks a question, requests information or starts a conversation, the speed and quality of the response can influence whether that interest turns into a conversion.

For advertisers, this makes post-click experience a bigger part of paid social performance.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should review what happens after a Meta lead, message or click is generated.

FAQs, product information, appointment booking processes, lead qualification questions and brand tone should be reviewed before AI-assisted conversations are used at scale.

If AI tools are handling customer conversations, businesses need clear rules for when a conversation should be escalated to a human. Lead quality should also be assessed beyond volume, especially where automated responses are involved.

Meta’s Data Signals Are Becoming More Connected

Business Impact

Meta’s personalisation changes show that business-shared data is becoming more influential across the wider platform experience.

For advertisers, this reinforces the importance of clean, compliant and useful data signals. Pixel events, Conversions API data and off-platform activity are not just technical tracking details. They are part of the signal layer that helps platforms personalise experiences and optimise delivery.

This makes consent, data quality and event governance more important than ever.

Meta is expanding how it uses business-shared activity data

What happened

Meta announced changes to how it uses information that businesses already share with Meta.

This data is already used to personalise ads. Meta said it will also be used to personalise other parts of the experience, including Feed content and AI responses. Meta is also streamlining related controls under “Activity from other businesses”.

Why this matters

This broadens the role of off-platform business signals.

For advertisers, it shows that the data shared through Meta’s ecosystem can influence more than paid ad personalisation. It may also shape wider content experiences and AI-led interactions.

That makes tracking quality and consent management more strategically important. Poor event setup, duplicated tracking or unclear data-sharing practices can affect both campaign performance and user trust.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should review Pixel, Conversions API and event setup.

Consent management, event quality and data-sharing settings should be checked carefully, especially for brands operating in regulated sectors or privacy-sensitive markets.

Advertisers should also make sure they understand which events are being shared with Meta, why they are being shared and whether they are accurate enough to support automated delivery.

TikTok Is Tightening Compliance Across Sensitive Categories

Business Impact

TikTok is continuing to mature as an advertising platform, and stronger policy controls are part of that process.

For advertisers, especially those in regulated or sensitive categories, policy changes can directly affect campaign approval, delivery, creative wording, landing page requirements and account stability.

The opportunity is that clearer rules can create a safer advertising environment. The challenge is that brands need to keep up with policy changes before campaigns are submitted for review.

TikTok updated several advertising policies in June

What happened

TikTok’s official ad policy change log shows several June 2026 updates, including changes to Rewarded Gaming, Social Casinos, Offensive Content, Adult Content, Baby Food Products, Alcohol, Financial Services and Political Advertising policies.

Why this matters

TikTok is tightening rules across sensitive and regulated categories.

This matters because policy changes can directly affect whether ads are approved, restricted or rejected. For advertisers in affected sectors, even small changes to wording, claims, visuals or landing pages can create review issues.

As TikTok becomes more full-funnel and commerce-led, compliance will become a bigger part of campaign planning.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers in regulated or sensitive categories should review TikTok’s latest policy updates before launching new campaigns.

Creative, claims, targeting, landing pages and disclaimers should all be checked carefully. Teams should also build policy review into the campaign planning process, rather than treating it as something to resolve after an ad is rejected.

For agencies, this is particularly important when working across multiple clients in different categories. What is acceptable in one sector may not be acceptable in another.

LinkedIn Is Moving Further Into B2B Creator Partnerships

Business Impact

LinkedIn’s Creator Marketplace shows how B2B advertising is becoming more influenced by expert-led content and trusted voices.

This is different from traditional influencer marketing. On LinkedIn, credibility, subject knowledge and professional relevance matter more than broad reach alone.

For advertisers, the opportunity is to use creator content to build trust, support thought leadership and improve paid performance in sectors where buying decisions involve research, expertise and stakeholder confidence.

LinkedIn Creator Marketplace supports B2B creator discovery

What happened

LinkedIn is launching a Creator Marketplace within its ad platform to help advertisers connect with B2B creators.

The marketplace is designed to help brands find credible professional voices, promote creator content or build direct partnerships.

Why this matters

This shows LinkedIn moving further into creator-led B2B marketing.

Unlike consumer influencer platforms, LinkedIn’s value sits in subject-matter credibility, professional trust and industry relevance. This could be particularly useful for brands selling complex products or services, where audiences need education and reassurance before they convert.

It also gives advertisers another way to test content that feels more human and authoritative than standard brand-led ads.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

B2B advertisers should consider where expert-led content could support paid performance.

Founder posts, consultant content, industry commentary, customer education and credible creator partnerships may become stronger paid media assets.

Advertisers should also test whether creator-led content performs differently from standard brand creative, particularly across awareness, engagement and lead generation campaigns.

Reddit Is Turning Community Conversations Into An Advertising Asset

Business Impact

Reddit is leaning into one of its biggest strengths: authentic discussion.

As users increasingly look for real opinions, reviews and recommendations, Reddit’s community conversations are becoming more valuable to advertisers. This is particularly relevant in categories where people actively compare products, ask for advice or validate decisions before buying.

The opportunity is to use community intelligence to understand what people really care about. The challenge is that Reddit requires a more native and conversation-aware approach than many other paid media platforms.

Reddit Community Intelligence powers new ad tools

What happened

Reddit is rolling out new AI-powered advertising products built on its Community Intelligence engine.

The products are designed to help brands tap into Reddit’s large archive of consumer conversations, which includes more than 25 billion posts and comments.

Why this matters

Reddit is positioning community conversation as a serious paid media advantage.

This matters because purchase decisions are increasingly influenced by real user opinions, peer recommendations and category discussions. Reddit is not only selling reach. It is selling access to the language, concerns, objections and motivations that show up in community conversations.

For advertisers, this can support creative strategy, audience understanding and campaign messaging.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should use Reddit to understand category language, objections, pain points and product comparisons.

Campaigns should feel native to Reddit’s discussion-led environment rather than overly polished or sales-heavy.

This is especially relevant for SaaS, tech, finance, gaming, automotive, travel and high-consideration consumer products, where users often research options before taking action.

What To Watch Next

  • The next few months will be important for advertisers as AI-led advertising becomes more established across search, social and community platforms.
  • OpenAI is one to watch closely. Product feed ads are still early, but they point towards a future where conversational platforms become more directly commercial. Retail and e-commerce advertisers should monitor how quickly access expands and what performance reporting becomes available.
  • On Google, the delay to Dynamic Search Ads migration gives advertisers more time to prepare for AI Max. The key thing to watch is whether advertisers use that time to test properly, or wait until the change becomes unavoidable.
  • On Meta, Business Agent and personalisation changes show that paid media is becoming more connected to customer experience and data governance. Advertisers should pay close attention to lead handling, event quality and consent controls.
  • On TikTok, compliance will become increasingly important as the platform expands further into full-funnel advertising. Policy changes should be reviewed regularly, especially for sensitive sectors.
  • On LinkedIn and Reddit, the key development is trust. LinkedIn is leaning into credible B2B creators, while Reddit is turning community conversations into an advertising product. Both updates show that paid media is no longer only about targeting audiences. It is also about understanding the voices and conversations that shape decisions.

What June Tells Us Overall

June’s updates show that paid media is moving into a more complex phase.

OpenAI is taking steps towards conversational performance advertising. Google is continuing its move towards AI-led search, even though it has delayed the DSA migration timeline. Meta is connecting ads with AI-assisted conversations and broader personalisation signals. TikTok is tightening compliance as it matures as an advertising platform. LinkedIn is building around creator credibility, while Reddit is turning community insight into a paid media advantage.

The opportunity for advertisers is greater scale, stronger discovery and more ways to influence users before they convert.

The risk is losing control if campaigns are not supported by strong inputs, accurate data, clear governance and proper reporting.

That means paid media management is not becoming less important. It is becoming more strategic.

Advertisers need to spend less time thinking only about campaign switches and more time thinking about the systems that shape automated delivery. Feeds, creative, landing pages, conversion data, compliance, customer conversations and reporting all need to work together.

Strong setup, clean signals, useful assets, clear messaging and human oversight are becoming essential to getting value from automation without losing control.

Need help?

If you are already investing in Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit or emerging AI ad platforms, now is the time to review how prepared your campaigns are for more automated, AI-led and conversation-led delivery.

The question is no longer only whether your campaigns are live and spending efficiently.

It is whether your feeds, assets, tracking, landing pages, creative settings, compliance processes and reporting are strong enough to guide automation in the right direction.

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Lizzie Connick
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]]> The Rise of the AI-Educated Customer and the Commercial Impact for Brands https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/the-rise-of-the-ai-educated-customer-and-the-commercial-impact-for-brands/ Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:11:21 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=3957 Considering the Commercial Impact for Brands Over the last few months, a number of our clients have noticed a clear shift in how customers arrive at conversations with their brand. In many cases, customer enquiries are coming through with specific feature requests, well-researched questions, a more detailed understanding of their needs and a much clearer […]

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The Rise of the AI-Educated Customer

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Considering the Commercial Impact for Brands

Over the last few months, a number of our clients have noticed a clear shift in how customers arrive at conversations with their brand.

In many cases, customer enquiries are coming through with specific feature requests, well-researched questions, a more detailed understanding of their needs and a much clearer sense of direction than brands would typically expect at such an early stage in the journey.

Conversations that would normally begin with broad discovery or general questions are, in some instances, moving far more quickly into suitability, availability, pricing, comparison and decision-making.

A growing part of this appears to be linked to the role AI tools like ChatGPT are now playing during the early research phase, helping users shape their thinking, compare options, narrow preferences and form expectations before they ever engage with a brand directly.

AI Is Becoming the Starting Point of the Customer Journey

Increasingly, when users have a problem to solve, need a recommendation, or want to explore possible options, they begin that journey within AI tools like ChatGPT.

Rather than immediately moving through multiple websites independently, users are starting with a conversation.

They ask questions, explore ideas, compare products or services, challenge assumptions, refine priorities and gradually build a clearer understanding of what they actually need over time. In many cases, the value is not just the answer itself, but the ability to work through a decision interactively in a way that feels guided and tailored to their situation.

What makes this important for brands is that those conversations are heavily influenced by the information that AI tools can interpret and surface across the internet.

Websites, articles, landing pages, supporting content, reviews, FAQs, product information, social proof and broader digital signals all contribute towards the responses users receive as they move through these conversations. As the discussion develops and the user asks more specific questions, AI tools continue refining the information they surface, which increasingly shapes not only the user’s understanding of what they need but also the brands they begin considering.

That changes the way brands enter the consideration process.

Historically, users may have discovered brands gradually through online browsing, search behaviour, referrals, social content, review sites or comparison research. Increasingly, however, brand discovery is happening in AI-assisted conversations before a user ever reaches a website directly.

Once a brand is surfaced or referenced within that process, users are far more likely to engage, with a stronger level of understanding and a much clearer sense of what they are looking for than they would through traditional browsing behaviour alone.

The Commercial Risk of Being Left Out of the Conversation

This creates a very real risk for brands.

If AI-assisted research increasingly influences which brands users consider during the early stages of the customer journey, then brands whose content cannot be clearly interpreted, surfaced or referenced within those conversations risk being excluded from consideration entirely.

This is not simply about ranking in search results anymore.

It is about whether your content is structured clearly enough, technically accessible enough and useful enough for AI systems to confidently surface your brand as part of a relevant conversation.

If your website lacks depth, clarity, supporting information, or strong SEO foundations, then AI tools have far less useful material available to interpret and reference when users are exploring options within conversational research journeys.

In practical terms, that can mean your brand never enters the shortlist before a user even begins actively comparing their options.

Importantly, this does not reduce the importance of websites or SEO. If anything, it increases it.

AI tools still rely heavily on publicly available website content to understand brands, interpret products or services, compare options and generate responses. The difference is that this information is increasingly being consumed indirectly through AI-assisted conversations before users ever visit a website directly.

The Rise of the Higher-Expectation Customer

Another important shift is happening alongside this.

As users continue asking questions and refining their thinking through AI conversations, they often arrive on brand websites with a much higher level of knowledge, specificity, and expectations than many businesses are currently prepared for.

Historically, many websites were designed primarily to support early-stage discovery and broad understanding. High-level product or service pages and brand-led messaging were often enough to move a user towards an enquiry or purchase because much of the deeper education happened later, either through direct conversations, showroom visits, sales teams, reviews, or additional research.

That is becoming less reliable.

As users progress further in the decision-making process, they increasingly expect websites to answer more detailed, practical questions immediately. They want clarity around features, benefits, pricing expectations, suitability, availability, limitations, comparisons, reviews, aftercare, delivery, guarantees, returns, timelines and what makes one option different from another.

In many cases, brands are encountering users whose questions have already moved beyond the level of detail their websites can support.

That creates a disconnect.

A user may arrive highly engaged after a long AI-assisted research process, only to encounter a website that feels too broad, too vague, or too introductory for the level of information they are seeking.

When that happens, brands risk losing users not because the product or service is wrong, but because the content available does not match the sophistication of the questions being asked.

Why Content Depth Is Becoming a Visibility Advantage

This is where content strategy becomes increasingly important.

Broad, high-level pages still matter and continue to play an important role in helping AI systems and users establish an initial understanding of what a brand offers. Those foundational pages should not disappear.

However, they can no longer be the only layer of content brands rely on.

As AI conversations become more detailed, the supporting content beneath those core pages becomes increasingly important, as it helps AI systems better interpret deeper relevance, expertise, and usefulness as user conversations evolve.

In practical terms, that means brands increasingly need content that answers the types of questions more informed users are now asking, including:

  • pricing expectations
  • product or service comparisons
  • suitability for different needs
  • practical limitations
  • availability and delivery considerations
  • common customer concerns
  • feature differences
  • quality indicators
  • aftercare, guarantees or support
  • reasons to choose one option over another

This creates a sort of visibility cycle.

The more useful, structured and relevant supporting content a brand provides, the more likely AI systems are to surface that brand within relevant conversations. The more a brand is surfaced during those conversations, the more likely users are to engage, carrying stronger intent and clearer expectations.

That does not mean creating content purely for AI systems. It means creating content that genuinely supports how modern users research, evaluate, and compare options before they ever engage with a brand directly.

What Brands Should Do Next

For most brands, adapting to this shift is not about abandoning existing marketing strategy or chasing AI trends. It is about strengthening the quality, depth and structure of the information they already provide.

The opportunity is not necessarily to replace existing content or marketing activity, but to make it more useful, more connected and more aligned with how people now research and evaluate options. Broad pages should continue supporting discovery and initial understanding, while deeper supporting content can answer the more specific questions that informed users are now bringing with them.

That might include clearer service information, comparison content, FAQs, pricing guidance, suitability advice, customer proof points, local information, sector-specific pages or content that addresses common concerns before purchase.

Strong technical and SEO foundations still matter too. Content needs to be easy for users to navigate, but it also needs to be clear, accessible and structured enough for search engines and AI systems to interpret accurately.

However, even with all of this in place, the most valuable insight is knowing where you currently stand.

Customers are no longer forming opinions through one channel alone. Search results, AI-generated answers, local listings, reviews, social proof, comparison content and broader digital signals can all influence whether a brand is found, understood and considered before a user ever reaches the website.

This is where Prism becomes invaluable.

Prism gives brands a single view of how they are being seen, cited, compared and understood across AI, search, social and local ecosystems. It helps reveal where visibility is strong, where competitors are gaining ground, where brand messaging may be unclear or inconsistent, and where gaps in content, SEO, local presence or digital authority could be limiting consideration.

That insight matters because it turns good intentions into focused action. Rather than improving content or visibility in a broad, reactive way, brands can see where they are underrepresented, where they are being misunderstood, where competitors are more visible and which areas of the discovery journey need the most attention.

In that sense, Prism helps turn uncertainty into action. It can guide content, SEO, PR, communications and wider digital strategy, helping brands strengthen the signals that influence how they are discovered, interpreted and trusted.

For brands, the next step is to stop assuming they are visible and start understanding where they truly stand. In a customer journey increasingly shaped before direct website engagement, that view is becoming essential.

Final Thoughts

The idea of the “AI-educated customer” is still emerging, and user behaviour is unlikely to change uniformly across every industry overnight.

What is increasingly difficult to ignore, however, is the growing role AI-assisted conversations are playing in shaping expectations, brand shortlists and early-stage decision-making before brands ever receive an enquiry or website visit.

For brands, the implication is significant.

If users increasingly begin their journey inside AI-assisted conversations, then visibility is no longer just about attracting traffic to a website. It is about whether your brand is being surfaced, understood and considered during the conversations that are now shaping decisions before direct engagement ever begins.

The brands most likely to succeed within this shift are unlikely to be those chasing AI trends most aggressively, but those that build strong digital foundations, create genuinely useful content and align their websites with the way modern users now research and evaluate options.

For businesses that want to better understand how visible they are within AI-assisted discovery journeys, Prism can help provide that insight. It gives brands a clearer view of how they are being surfaced, interpreted and positioned, helping identify where improvements to content, SEO and website strategy may be needed.

To find out more about Prism and how it could support your brand’s visibility in an AI-led search environment, please get in touch with our team.

Ginny Gilmour avatar
Ginny Gilmour
Senior Marketing Executive

10 minute read

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]]> May 2026 SEO & AIO Industry Update https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/may-2026-seo-aio-industry-update/ Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:26:00 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=4061 What May’s Changes Mean for Your Visibility May showed further signs that AI search is becoming a more mature part of the discovery journey. The story is no longer only about AI summaries reducing clicks. Google, ChatGPT and Microsoft are also making AI-led results more visible, more link-led and, in some cases, more measurable. That […]

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AI Search Becomes More Measurable, More Accountable And More Commercially Relevant

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What May’s Changes Mean for Your Visibility

May showed further signs that AI search is becoming a more mature part of the discovery journey. The story is no longer only about AI summaries reducing clicks. Google, ChatGPT and Microsoft are also making AI-led results more visible, more link-led and, in some cases, more measurable.

That does not remove the challenges around traffic, attribution or content use. Publishers in particular are still under pressure from answer-led search experiences. But the direction of travel is becoming more balanced: if brands are being cited, linked to or used as sources inside AI answers, that visibility may become more commercially valuable.

In Short:

Business Impact

Businesses may have seen AI search become a more visible part of the discovery journey, particularly where Google or ChatGPT answers now include clearer links to external websites. Some brands may have started to see early referral opportunities from AI-led search, while others may still have seen informational clicks absorbed by answer-led results.

What happened

Google has said it has increased the number of inline links within AI responses, added website previews and brought Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode. It also stated that AI Overviews now has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly users.

Why this matters

This changes the AI search story from pure traffic loss to a more nuanced visibility opportunity. If AI answers show clearer links, source previews and preferred publisher signals, being cited or selected as a trusted source may become more commercially useful, even where traditional organic click behaviour continues to shift.

ChatGPT Referral Traffic Shows How Small UX Changes Can Matter

What happened

Industry reporting from Search Engine Roundtable, citing Similarweb data, suggests ChatGPT referral traffic increased after OpenAI made links to brands more prominent inside answers. The data is global and based on a limited timescale, so it should be treated as an early signal rather than a settled benchmark.

Why this matters

The useful point is not the exact percentage alone, but the mechanism behind it. Small interface changes inside AI tools can materially affect whether users click through to websites, which makes AI referral traffic and AI citation visibility worth monitoring more closely.

Preferred Sources Expands The Role Of Publisher And Thought Leadership Visibility

What happened

Google is rolling out Preferred Sources globally in supported languages, allowing users to select publishers and websites they want to see more often in Top Stories. Google has also been bringing Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode, making source preference more visible within AI-led search experiences.

Why this matters

This is most relevant for publishers, trade media, insight-led organisations and brands that invest in thought leadership. It reinforces the value of being a recognisable, trusted source rather than simply competing for individual keyword rankings.

What This All Means For Brands

Brands should not treat AI visibility as a future-only issue. The practical opportunity is to become a reliable, citable and link-worthy source within AI-led answers, while continuing to track whether AI referrals, assisted journeys and brand-led enquiries start to grow.

AI Answers Are Facing More Accountability

Business Impact

You may have seen more debate around whether AI-generated answers reduce traffic, misrepresent brands or reuse content without clear value returning to the original source. This is most immediate for publishers and content-led businesses, but the underlying issue matters to any brand whose expertise, services or reputation may be summarised by AI systems.

UK Publishers Get More Control Over Google AI Search Use

What happened

The UK Competition and Markets Authority has imposed a conduct requirement on Google in relation to general search services, including requirements around publisher controls, clearer information about how publisher content is used in generative AI, engagement metrics and attribution or access routes. The Guardian reported that this gives UK media groups more power to block their articles from being used in Google AI search summaries without losing visibility in traditional search.

Why this matters

This supports the broader accountability story. If AI search uses website and publisher content to generate answers, platforms are under pressure to provide clearer controls, better attribution and more transparent measurement.

A German Court Ruling Highlights Responsibility For AI-Generated Answers

What happened

A Munich court ruled that Google could be held responsible for false claims made in an AI Overview, treating the generated summary as Google’s own words rather than a neutral list of search results. The case is specific and should not be treated as a UK legal change, but it is an important signal in the wider debate around AI answer accountability.

Why this matters

The ruling highlights a key difference between traditional search results and generated answers. When a platform summarises information in its own words, the commercial and reputational impact for brands can be greater because users may treat the answer as authoritative.

What This All Means For Brands

AI search is not just a visibility channel. It is also a brand representation surface. Businesses should monitor how they are described, make sure their own sites clearly state facts, services, expertise and credentials, and avoid assuming AI systems will always summarise them accurately.

Bing And Microsoft Are Becoming More Commercially Relevant

Business Impact

Businesses may still see Google dominate organic traffic and search demand, but Microsoft’s search ecosystem may now represent a more meaningful secondary opportunity. This is especially relevant where paid search, biddable media or higher-consideration buying journeys are part of the channel mix.

Bing Reaches 1bn Monthly Active Users

What happened

Microsoft said Bing monthly active users reached 1 billion for the first time, while Edge had taken share for 20 consecutive quarters. Microsoft also reported that search advertising revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, increased by 12% year on year.

Why this matters

This does not make Bing the priority over Google, but it does make Microsoft’s search and AI ecosystem harder to ignore. If Bing, Edge and Copilot continue to grow together, the opportunity is not just organic visibility, but also paid media diversification and incremental search demand.

Microsoft’s Growth Matters For Paid And Organic Discovery

What happened

Microsoft’s growth comes at a time when search, browser usage and AI assistants are becoming more closely connected. Bing’s scale, Edge’s continued share gains and Copilot’s integration across Microsoft products all point to a wider ecosystem rather than a standalone search engine story.

Why this matters

For brands, this creates a practical reason to review Microsoft visibility more seriously. Google remains the commercial priority for most businesses, but Bing may offer additional paid search opportunities, different competitive dynamics and a useful secondary route into AI-assisted discovery.

What This All Means For Brands

Brands should still prioritise Google, but Bing and Microsoft should not be ignored. The sensible position is measured diversification: review Bing visibility, monitor paid opportunity, and consider where Microsoft’s ecosystem may support incremental reach.

Technical Foundations Still Matter As AI Visibility Grows

Business Impact

Familiar SERP features continue to change, including reduced visibility from FAQ rich results. At the same time, technical SEO, structured content and schema remain important because they help search engines and AI systems understand pages, entities, services, products and relationships more clearly.

FAQ Rich Results Are Removed, But Structured Content Still Has Value

What happened

Google has removed FAQ rich results from Search, with FAQ rich results no longer appearing from 7 May 2026 and related Search Console reporting and testing support being phased out. FAQ structured data can remain on pages, but it no longer creates the same visible FAQ rich result opportunity in Google Search.

Why this matters

This reduces one familiar SERP visibility tactic, but it does not remove the value of useful FAQ content or appropriate structured data. FAQs can still help users, support clearer page structure and provide a better basis for search engines and AI systems to interpret page content.

Schema Remains A Useful Signal Of Page Quality And Structure

What happened

Google’s guidance on generative AI search continues to point website owners back to strong SEO fundamentals, including clear technical structure, crawlable pages, useful content and accurate structured data where it supports eligible rich results. Google also states that optimising for generative AI features in Google Search is still part of SEO, rather than a completely separate discipline.

Why this matters

Schema should not be positioned as a guaranteed ranking lever, but it remains valuable as part of high-quality page creation. When schema accurately reflects strong on-page content, it helps reinforce page meaning, entity clarity and the relationship between visible content and machine-readable context.

Speculative AI Files And Shortcuts Should Be Treated Separately

What happened

Some AI visibility tactics, such as LLMS.txt files, AI-specific page rewrites, artificial brand mentions and early bot-authentication approaches, continue to attract attention. Google’s generative AI guidance says website owners do not need special AI markup, LLMS.txt files or content written specifically for AI systems to appear in Google’s generative AI search features.

Why this matters

These tactics are very different from established schema implementation and should not be grouped together as the same type of technical SEO work. Schema remains part of a defensible SEO foundation when implemented accurately, while speculative AI shortcuts should be treated as optional, low-certainty or experimental unless stronger evidence emerges.

What This All Means For Brands

Brands should keep investing in strong technical foundations, clear page structure and appropriate schema, especially where there are opportunities to clarify services, locations, products, articles, FAQs, reviews or organisational information. The priority is not to chase AI hacks, but to make high-quality pages easier for search engines and AI systems to interpret accurately.

What To Watch Next

  1. AI Citation Formats And List-Led Content
    • Third-party research reported by Search Engine Land suggests AI systems often cite list-style content, but this should not be treated as a reason to turn every article into a listicle. The more useful takeaway is that clear structure, comparisons, summaries and source-rich content may make pages easier for AI systems to use and cite.
  2. Web Bot Authentication
    • Google’s Web Bot Auth work is still experimental, but it points to a future where bot verification, AI crawling and crawler access controls become more important. For now, it is a watch item rather than a recommended standard implementation.
  3. Publisher Planning Around Lower Search Traffic
    • Condé Nast’s reported planning around a future with much lower search traffic is useful publisher-sector context, but it should not be read as a universal forecast for all businesses. It does, however, reinforce why publishers and thought-led brands are paying close attention to AI attribution, referral traffic and audience loyalty.

May’s Key Learnings

May’s updates show AI search becoming more embedded in how people discover, evaluate and click through to information. The most important shift is not that AI search replaces SEO, but that AI visibility is becoming part of the same commercial picture as rankings, referrals, brand demand and content authority.

For brands, the opportunity is to be visible where answers are being formed. That means continuing to invest in strong SEO foundations, useful content, accurate structured data and clear brand information, while also monitoring how AI systems cite, summarise and link to the business.

The direction from Google, ChatGPT and Microsoft suggests AI search may become more valuable for the brands it shows, cites and links to. The key is to track that change carefully, avoid overreacting to unproven tactics, and build the kind of content and technical foundations that support visibility across both traditional and AI-led search.

David Urry avatar
David Urry
Head of Operations
8–13 minutes

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]]> May Paid Media Updates https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/may-paid-media-updates/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:55:46 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=4030 What May’s Paid Media Changes Mean for AI Search, Automation and Full-Funnel Advertising May reinforced how quickly paid media platforms are moving towards AI-led campaign delivery, automated creative production and broader discovery environments. Across Google, Meta and TikTok, the major updates all point in the same direction: advertisers are being given more ways to reach […]

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Why Paid Media Management Still Matters In An AI Era

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What May’s Paid Media Changes Mean for AI Search, Automation and Full-Funnel Advertising

May reinforced how quickly paid media platforms are moving towards AI-led campaign delivery, automated creative production and broader discovery environments. Across Google, Meta and TikTok, the major updates all point in the same direction: advertisers are being given more ways to reach people across search, social, commerce and video-led discovery, but more campaign decisions are being handled by automated systems.

For advertisers, the opportunity is scale. Campaigns can reach users across more placements, formats and moments of intent than before. But this also makes campaign quality, tracking, creative inputs and reporting frameworks more important.

The practical challenge is no longer only how campaigns are set up. It is whether advertisers are giving the platforms enough high-quality signals to make automation work effectively.

In Short: What Matters This Month

For most advertisers, the key message is that automation is not removing the need for paid media management. It is changing where that management effort needs to sit. Strong campaign inputs, clean tracking, useful creative, clear reporting and proper quality assurance are becoming more important, not less.

Paid Media Is Moving Deeper Into AI-Led Discovery

Business Impact

Advertisers are likely to see more campaign delivery shaped by AI-led formats, automated optimisation and cross-platform discovery journeys.

This creates an opportunity to reach users in more relevant moments, especially across Search, YouTube, Shopping and AI-led placements. However, it also means advertisers may have less control over every individual query, placement or creative variation.

The practical challenge is making sure the platform has strong enough inputs to guide automation properly. Product feeds, landing pages, audience signals, creative assets and conversion data will all play a bigger role in campaign performance.

Google Marketing Live 2026 expanded Google’s AI advertising roadmap

What happened

At Google Marketing Live on 20 May 2026, Google announced a wider set of AI-powered ad and commerce updates across Search, YouTube, Shopping and measurement.

Key announcements included new ad formats built for AI Search, further AI Max expansion, Ask Advisor as an AI collaborator across Google Ads, Google Analytics, Merchant Centre and Google Marketing Platform, plus new AI creative tools in Asset Studio.

Why this matters

Google is moving paid media further into AI-led discovery, creative generation, automated optimisation and agentic commerce.

This means advertisers may have less manual control over every individual placement or query, but more opportunity to appear across conversational, visual and shopping-led journeys if their campaign inputs are strong.

This also means reporting needs to evolve. Advertisers should not only be looking at traditional keyword performance, but also how Search, YouTube, Shopping and AI-led placements work together across the customer journey.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should review whether Search campaigns are ready for AI Max and broader query matching.

Product feeds, landing pages, creative assets and audience signals should be strengthened, as these are becoming more important inputs for automated campaign delivery.

New AI Search and Demand Gen opportunities should be tested carefully, rather than waiting for automatic adoption. Reporting frameworks should also be reviewed so performance is assessed across Search, YouTube, Shopping and AI-led placements, not only traditional keyword activity.

Search Is Becoming More Conversational

Business Impact

Paid search is becoming less about serving a standard ad against a typed keyword and more about appearing within assisted, conversational search journeys.

This could affect how users interact with ads before reaching a website. A user may now engage with AI-generated answers, product information, comparisons and recommendations before seeing or clicking a traditional search result.

For advertisers, this means search performance may become more fragmented across impressions, assisted interactions, product visibility and conversion paths.

Google is introducing ad formats built for AI Search

What happened

Google introduced new ad formats designed for the AI era of Search, including ads that can sit more naturally inside AI-led responses and shopping journeys.

Google described these formats as being tailored to a user’s specific query, offering more context to help users move from question to purchase.

Why this matters

This continues the shift from traditional text ad results into a more assisted, conversational search experience.

Users may interact with Google’s AI-generated answers, product explainers and recommendations before reaching the standard search results page. This could change impression volume, click-through rate and conversion paths.

It also means advertisers need to think about how their ads, product data and landing pages answer user questions, not just how they match a keyword.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should monitor search query behaviour, click-through rate and impression trends as AI Search adoption grows.

Ad assets and landing pages should answer user questions clearly. Product data, commercial messaging and feed accuracy should also be prioritised, especially for retail, e-commerce and product-led advertisers.

AI Search visibility should be treated as part of paid search planning, not as a separate experiment.

Meta Is Becoming A Larger Performance Platform

Business Impact

Meta’s continued growth shows that paid social is playing a bigger role in full-funnel performance, not just awareness or engagement.

This is particularly important for advertisers that still treat Meta as a supporting channel while relying heavily on Google for conversion activity. Meta’s growth is being driven by automation, creative optimisation and newer surfaces that give advertisers more ways to reach users across the funnel.

The opportunity is greater scale. The challenge is making sure creative strategy, tracking and lead quality measurement are strong enough to support that scale.

Meta is projected to overtake Google in global ad revenue

What happened

In May 2026, Emarketer forecasts reported by The Next Web projected that Meta could overtake Google as the world’s largest digital advertising business in 2026.

Meta was forecast to reach $243.46 billion in global net ad revenue, compared with Google’s projected $239.54 billion. The growth was linked to Advantage+ automation and newer ad surfaces, including WhatsApp and Threads.

Why this matters

This reinforces Meta’s position as a major performance platform, not just a social awareness channel.

The growth is being driven heavily by automation, AI-led campaign setup, creative optimisation and new surfaces that expand where Meta can serve ads.

For advertisers, this means Meta should not be treated only as a brand or engagement platform. In many accounts, it may now have a more direct role in acquisition, retargeting and lower-funnel performance.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should review whether Meta is being used properly across prospecting, retargeting and lower-funnel campaigns.

Creative strategy needs more attention, as Meta’s automation relies heavily on creative variety and quality. Tracking quality should also be checked, including Pixel and Conversions API setup.

Meta performance should be assessed using incrementality and lead quality, not only platform-reported ROAS or conversion volume.

Meta Is Reducing Manual Setup Work

Business Impact

Meta is continuing to simplify campaign setup, tracking configuration and creative production through AI-assisted tools.

This can help advertisers move faster, particularly when creating lead forms, testing creative variations or setting up conversion events. However, it also increases the need for quality assurance.

If AI-generated forms, creative outputs or tracking settings are not reviewed carefully, advertisers could end up with weaker lead quality, incorrect event tracking or creative that does not fully match brand expectations.

Meta’s May rollouts point to more AI-assisted setup

What happened

May 2026 Meta Ads coverage highlighted several mid-rollout updates, including AI-generated instant forms from a URL or prompt, new Pixel settings in Events Manager, reported longer purchase audience retention windows, ad-level placement controls and additional Advantage+ creative image generation categories.

Some of these updates appear to be account-dependent and may not be visible everywhere yet.

Why this matters

Meta is reducing manual setup work across lead generation, creative testing, retargeting and tracking configuration.

This is useful for speed, but it increases the need for advertisers to check the quality of AI-generated forms, event setup and creative outputs before campaigns go live.

It also means account audits need to include more than campaign structure. Advertisers should be reviewing platform settings, event quality, audience windows and creative enhancement options regularly.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should check Ads Manager and Events Manager to see which updates are live in each account.

Any AI-generated lead forms should be reviewed before launch to ensure the questions, privacy wording and qualification logic are correct.

Pixel and conversion events should be audited to confirm Meta is receiving clean optimisation signals. Longer audience windows should also be used carefully, especially where purchase intent or product relevance declines over time.

TikTok Is Building A Fuller Advertising Ecosystem

Business Impact

TikTok is continuing to move beyond awareness and engagement into a more complete paid media ecosystem.

For advertisers, this means TikTok may increasingly support more stages of the customer journey, from discovery and creator-led influence through to search behaviour, shopping actions and conversion-focused campaign delivery.

This is especially relevant for brands with strong creative assets, visual products, younger audience segments or content that can be adapted into native-feeling video formats.

TikTok World 2026 introduced full-funnel advertising updates

What happened

TikTok World 2026, announced on 13 May 2026, introduced a broad set of advertising updates focused on AI-powered creative, campaign automation, creator discovery, search visibility, commerce and vertical-specific experiences.

TikTok positioned the updates around turning discovery into measurable business growth.

Why this matters

TikTok is pushing beyond top-of-funnel awareness into a more complete advertising ecosystem.

The platform is trying to connect creator content, search behaviour, shopping actions, AI creative production and campaign optimisation in one environment.

This means advertisers should not only think about TikTok as a place to generate views or engagement. For the right sectors, it may become a stronger test channel for traffic, product discovery, search-led intent and conversion activity.

What advertisers should be paying attention to

Advertisers should treat TikTok as a full-funnel test channel where appropriate, not only an awareness platform.

TikTok creative testing should be used to identify hooks, formats and product angles that can support both traffic and conversion.

TikTok Search and commerce-related placements should be explored where user intent is stronger. Measurement also needs to be set up properly before scaling automated or commerce-led campaigns.

What To Watch Next

  • The next few months will be important for advertisers using Google Search, Performance Max, Meta Advantage+ and TikTok automated campaign tools.
  • On Google, the key thing to watch is how AI Search changes campaign reporting, query behaviour and user journeys. As ads appear in more conversational and AI-led environments, advertisers will need to understand whether visibility, click-through rate and conversion paths are shifting.
  • On Meta, advertisers should watch how quickly AI-assisted setup tools become available across accounts. Lead forms, Pixel settings, creative generation and retargeting controls may reduce setup time, but they still need careful review.
  • On TikTok, the main thing to watch is whether new full-funnel tools can turn discovery into measurable performance. Creative quality, search behaviour and conversion tracking will be critical if advertisers want to move beyond awareness-led testing.

What May Tells Us Overall

May’s updates show that paid media is becoming more automated, more conversational and more connected across the full customer journey.

Google is expanding AI-led advertising across Search, Shopping, YouTube, measurement and creative production. Meta is strengthening its position as a major performance platform, while also using AI to simplify setup and creative production. TikTok is building a broader advertising ecosystem that connects creator content, search behaviour, commerce and automation.

The opportunity for advertisers is greater scale, stronger discovery and more ways to reach people before they actively convert.

The risk is reduced visibility and weaker control if campaign inputs, tracking, creative assets and reporting are not properly managed.

That means the role of paid media management is not becoming less important. It is shifting. Advertisers need to spend less time thinking only about manual campaign controls and more time thinking about the quality of the inputs that shape automated delivery.

Strong feeds, useful creative, accurate conversion data, relevant landing pages, clear reporting and regular quality assurance are becoming essential to getting value from automation without giving up strategic control.

Need help?

If you are already investing in Google Ads, Meta Ads or TikTok Ads, now is the time to review how prepared your campaigns are for more automated, AI-led delivery.

The question is no longer only whether your campaigns are live and spending efficiently. It is whether your feeds, assets, tracking, landing pages, creative settings and reporting are strong enough to guide automation in the right direction.

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Lizzie Connick
Biddable Account Manager
9–14 minutes

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]]> From Static Reporting to Active Analytics: What Growing Brands Need Next https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/from-static-reporting-to-active-analytics-what-growing-brands-need-next/ Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:10:39 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=3951 What Growing Brands Need Next In our last article, we looked at why static analytics often fails high-growth teams. The core issue is not that brands lack analytics. Most already have tracking in place. Reports are being produced, dashboards are being reviewed, and campaign performance is being measured in some form. The real issue is […]

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From Static Reporting to Active Analytics

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What Growing Brands Need Next

In our last article, we looked at why static analytics often fails high-growth teams.

The core issue is not that brands lack analytics. Most already have tracking in place. Reports are being produced, dashboards are being reviewed, and campaign performance is being measured in some form.

The real issue is whether that setup is still a good fit for how the business works today.

For marketing and sales leaders, this distinction matters. Analytics is no longer something that sits quietly in the background as a reporting function. It influences where the budget goes, which channels are prioritised, how campaigns are judged, where website improvements are made, and how confident teams feel when discussing performance.

If the data behind those decisions is incomplete, inconsistent or out of date, the risk is not just a messy dashboard. It is slower decision-making, weaker optimisation and missed commercial opportunity.

That is why analytics needs to be treated less like a one-off setup task and more like an operating discipline that keeps pace with the business.

Why Analytics Falls Behind the Business 

Most analytics setups start off on the right foot.

Tracking is implemented, key events are configured, dashboards are built, and reports begin to flow. But the business does not stay still.

New landing pages are added. Forms are replaced. Campaigns launch across more channels. A booking or checkout journey is moved to another platform. CRM fields change. Different teams update pages, content and conversion points over time.

Individually, these changes can feel small. Together, they reshape how people interact with the brand.

If analytics is not reviewed alongside those changes, the setup begins to drift. Reports may still run, dashboards may still update, and platforms may still show conversions, but the relationship between what users are doing and what the business is measuring becomes weaker.

That is often where confidence starts to break down. Not because anyone has done anything wrong, but because the business has moved on and the analytics setup has not.

The Risk is Not Just Bad Reporting

When numbers do not quite align, teams naturally start questioning the data before they can act on it.

Was that spike real? Did leads genuinely drop, or did a form stop tracking? Is paid performance improving, or is attribution overstating the result? Are campaigns generating meaningful opportunities, or just activity?

These questions slow teams down, but they also point to a bigger issue.

If conversions are missing, campaigns may be undervalued. If events are firing incorrectly, performance may be overstated. If platforms are not receiving the right signals, optimisation becomes weaker. If campaign data is inconsistent, reporting becomes harder to interpret.

For marketing leaders, this creates uncertainty around performance. For sales leaders, it can create a gap between reported demand and actual opportunity. For leadership teams, it means decisions may be made on a partial view of what is really happening.

Better Analytics Starts With the Foundations

It is tempting to solve analytics problems by adding another dashboard or building another report. Sometimes that is useful, but it is rarely the first thing to fix.

A dashboard is only as useful as the tracking underneath it.

Before teams can ask more advanced questions about attribution, customer value, forecasting or channel performance, they need confidence that the basics are working properly. Key actions need to be tracked. Conversion points need to fire as expected. Campaign links need to be labelled consistently. Data needs to flow correctly between the website, analytics tools and advertising platforms.

These checks sound operational, but they have a direct commercial impact. They protect the quality of the decisions being made from the data.

As Brands Grow, Analytics Needs to Do More

Once the foundations are reliable, the next challenge is usually the connection.

A brand may start with simple tracking and reporting, but as growth accelerates, complexity quickly increases. More channels, more journeys, more systems and more people using the data all increase the need for analytics to work harder.

Marketing needs to understand which channels and campaigns are creating meaningful outcomes. Sales need visibility of where demand is coming from. Leadership needs reporting that clearly explains performance to support decisions.

At this stage, analytics needs to connect data across platforms, journeys, and systems so teams can understand how activities work together, not just what happened in isolation.

For more mature brands, analytics can then take on a more forward-looking role. Predictive modelling can help teams prioritise leads, forecast performance, or identify risk earlier. Live monitoring can help teams spot meaningful changes without waiting for the next report.

The point is not to replace human judgment. It is to give teams better signals, earlier.

Why We Built Atlas Analytics

This is the thinking behind Atlas Analytics.

Atlas is our structured analytics service for brands that need more confidence in their data as they grow. It is designed to help businesses move from reliable foundations, through to connected insight, and into more advanced analytics capability when the time is right.

It is built around three maturity tiers.

Trek focuses on reliable foundations: tracking, conversion measurement, campaign tagging and baseline reporting.

Climb is for brands with more complex journeys, platforms or reporting needs. It connects data across systems so teams can better understand how activities work together.

Voyage supports brands further along in their data journey, where analytics needs to scale through stronger infrastructure, automation, advanced reporting and more strategic insight.

Alongside these tiers, additional capabilities can be introduced where useful, including predictive modelling and live performance monitoring.

The aim is not to give brands more data for the sake of it. It is to make analytics more reliable, more useful and more aligned with the decisions marketing and sales teams need to make.

Confidence That Holds Up as You Grow

The brands that get the most value from analytics are not always the ones with the most complex dashboards or the largest data sets.

They are the ones who can trust what they are measuring, understand what the data is telling them and act on it with confidence.

That becomes harder as businesses grow. But it also makes good analytics more valuable.

When the foundations are maintained, reporting is connected, and the right capabilities are introduced at the right stage, analytics becomes more than a view of past performance. It becomes a practical tool for improving decisions across marketing, sales and strategy.

Find Out More About Atlas Analytics

If your website has changed, your campaigns have evolved, your reporting has become harder to interpret, or your team is spending more time questioning the numbers than using them, it may be time to look at whether your analytics is still keeping pace.

Atlas Analytics is designed to help brands build more reliable, connected and useful analytics as they grow.

You can find out more about Atlas on our website and contact our team if you’d like to talk through what the right level of support could look like for your business.

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Ginny Gilmour
Senior Marketing Executive

7 minute read

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]]> April SEO & AI Search Updates https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/april-seo-ai-search-updates/ Fri, 29 May 2026 08:58:47 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=4002 What April’s Changes Mean for Your Visibility Updates this month reinforced two clear themes: Google’s Search Console reporting error means many brands will need to reset impression performance benchmarks, while search itself is becoming more AI-assisted and task-led. Between reporting changes, AI-generated results and shifting user behaviour, brands now need more context to judge visibility […]

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New Baselines, Agentic Search and the Next Visibility Layer

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What April’s Changes Mean for Your Visibility

Updates this month reinforced two clear themes: Google’s Search Console reporting error means many brands will need to reset impression performance benchmarks, while search itself is becoming more AI-assisted and task-led.

Between reporting changes, AI-generated results and shifting user behaviour, brands now need more context to judge visibility and performance accurately, much like they did following the &num=100 reporting changes.

In Short:

The main takeaway is that visibility is still critical, but the way it is measured is becoming more complex.

New Reporting Baselines And Continued Ranking Volatility

Business Impact

Brands may have seen impressions decline, rankings fluctuate or CTR change across April and early May. In some cases, visibility data may look different even where clicks, enquiries or conversions have not changed in the same way.

Google Search Console Impressions Need A New Baseline

What happened

Google confirmed a Search Console logging issue that affected impression recording from 13 May 2025. Google said the issue would be resolved over the following weeks and that site owners may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Google also said clicks and other metrics were not affected.

Why this matters

If impression data has been over-reported, historic visibility comparisons may need to be treated with more caution. As with the previous &num=100 reporting disruption, the key point is not that organic performance has necessarily fallen. It is that the reporting baseline has changed.

The March Core Update Completed In April

What happened

Google’s March 2026 core update completed on 8 April after a rollout lasting over 12 days . It was Google’s first broad core update of 2026 and affected rankings globally.

Why this matters

Early-April ranking movement should be viewed in the context of the completed core update. Core updates are broad ranking-system changes, not manual penalties, so affected pages usually need to be reviewed for search intent, content usefulness, competitiveness and user experience.

What This All Means For Brands

April and May SEO reports should clearly note the Search Console impression issue and the completed March core update. Impression changes should be compared with clicks, enquiries, conversions and rankings before being interpreted as genuine visibility movement. Ranking changes in early April should be reviewed in the wider context of core update volatility.

Google Is Raising The Floor On Technical Trust, Crawlability And User Experience

Business Impact

Businesses with poorly managed technical foundations may face greater visibility and usability risks as Google continues to prioritise accessible content, stable browsing experiences and reliable structured data.

Back Button Hijacking Becomes An Explicit Spam Policy

What happened

Google introduced a new spam policy for back button hijacking, targeting websites that manipulate browser history so users cannot easily return to the previous page. Google said sites using these practices may face manual spam actions or automated ranking demotions, with enforcement beginning on 15 June 2026

Why this matters

For most well-managed business websites, this should not be a major concern. However, it shows that manipulative user experience can become a visibility risk, particularly where third-party scripts, ad technology, aggressive lead capture or campaign landing pages interfere with normal browsing behaviour.

Googlebot Byte Limits Reinforce The Need For Lean, Ordered HTML

What happened

Google clarified that Googlebot fetches up to 2MB for individual non-PDF URLs, including HTTP headers. For PDFs, the limit is 64MB. Any bytes beyond the cut-off are not fetched, rendered or indexed.

Why this matters

This is not a reason to move large web content into PDFs. The practical point is that important HTML content should be accessible, well structured and loaded early, including key copy, metadata, canonicals, structured data and internal links.

This also matters for AI visibility because AI crawlers and search systems need to retrieve key information efficiently.

Merchant Center Keeps Ecommerce Data Quality In Focus

What happened

Google published its 2026 Merchant Center product data specification update, covering changes intended to make product data submission easier and improve the shopping experience.

Why this matters

This is most relevant to ecommerce and product-led brands. Product data now supports visibility across Shopping, organic product surfaces, paid activity and potentially AI-assisted product recommendations, so accurate feeds and well-structured product pages are becoming more important.

What This All Means For Brands

Technical foundations still matter across both traditional search and AI-assisted discovery. Key content should be easy to access, scripts should not create poor user journeys, and structured data should be used where relevant.

Businesses with large ecommerce catalogues, script-heavy websites or aggressive lead-generation experiences may be more exposed where technical issues affect usability or crawlability. For ecommerce and product-led brands, product feeds, product pages, pricing, stock information and delivery details should be treated as part of the wider visibility picture.

Search Is Moving From Ranked Answers To Task Completion

Business Impact

Brands may increasingly find that users arrive more informed, compare more options before making contact, or rely on AI-assisted journeys before visiting a site. This may be most noticeable in higher-consideration sectors where customers research, compare and validate providers before enquiring.

Google’s “Agent Manager” Direction Changes The Search Conversation

What happened

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has described Search as moving towards an “agent manager” model, where users can get help completing tasks through multiple agents rather than simply receiving a list of links.

Why this matters

If search becomes more agentic, the winning brand may not always be the one that ranks first. It may be the brand that gives AI systems the clearest, most reliable and most actionable information to use, especially in comparison-heavy journeys such as property, finance, holidays, manufacturing and B2B services.

AI Mode In Chrome Brings AI Assistance Closer To The Browsing Journey

What happened

Google announced AI Mode in Chrome, allowing users to interact with AI assistance while browsing web pages.

Why this matters

Websites remain important, but they may increasingly be interpreted inside an AI-assisted journey. Vague copy, thin service pages and unclear propositions become more exposed, while clear explanations, FAQs, proof points, comparison-friendly content and consistent contact or location information become more useful.

AI Crawlers Are Increasingly Fetching Answers In Real Time

What happened

Search Engine Journal reported research based on 68.9 million AI crawler visits in February 2026. In that dataset, 56.9% of AI crawler activity was linked to user fetch or real-time answers, 28.8% to training and 14.3% to discovery or indexing. OpenAI accounted for 81% of the AI crawler visits.

Why this matters

AI visibility is not only about being included in historic training data. Some AI systems are actively fetching current web information in response to user queries, which makes crawlability, internal linking and answer clarity more important.

More AI Mode Links Could Create New Citation Opportunities

What happened

Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google may be showing more links within AI Mode results, although the article caveats that it is unclear whether this is a test or query-specific behaviour.

Why this matters

This should not be overstated yet, but more visible source links in AI experiences could create additional opportunities for brands to earn citations and traffic. AI visibility is not only about being mentioned; it is also about whether AI systems use your site, cite your content and represent your services accurately.

What This All Means For Brands

Brands should think beyond whether a page ranks and consider whether their wider digital presence gives AI systems enough reliable information to understand and recommend them. Clear service pages, comparison-friendly content, FAQs, current product or service information, credible proof points, accurate local data, schema markup, internal links and external references all support this.

AI Visibility Is Commercially Real, But Uneven And Difficult To Measure Cleanly

Business Impact

Brands may have seen early signs of AI-driven referral traffic, changing CTR patterns or more informed users arriving from research-led journeys. These effects are unlikely to be evenly distributed across every sector or audience, so some brands may see measurable AI traffic while others feel the impact more indirectly.

ChatGPT Referral Traffic Is Growing, But Concentrated

What happened

Semrush reported that outbound referral traffic from ChatGPT grew by 206% in 2025. It also reported that more than 30% of referral traffic from ChatGPT went to 10 domains, and more than 20% went to Google. ChatGPT’s search feature was enabled on 34.5% of queries in February 2026, down from 46% in late 2024.

Why this matters

ChatGPT can drive measurable referral traffic, but the benefit is currently concentrated among a small number of major domains. For many brands, AI visibility may show up first as influence rather than direct referral volume, as users may discover a brand through an AI answer, search for it later, visit through Google, or convert through another channel.

AI Search Adoption Depends On Customer Profile

What happened

Search Engine Land reported that AI search adoption is not equal across audiences and that income is a significant adoption factor, with higher adoption among households earning over £100,000.

Why this matters

AI visibility strategy should be shaped around the customer base. For higher-consideration, higher-income or research-heavy audiences, AI search may already influence discovery, while other audiences may still rely more heavily on Google Search, Maps, social, referrals and paid media.

AI Shopping Traffic Is Showing Stronger Commercial Signals

What happened

Adobe data reported by Search Engine Land found that AI traffic to US retail sites increased by 393% year on year in Q1 2026 and by 269% year on year in March. The same report said AI-driven visits converted 42% better than non-AI traffic in March, compared with a year earlier when AI traffic was 38% less likely to result in a purchase.

Why this matters

This is US retail data, so it should not be treated as a universal finding. However, it is highly relevant for ecommerce and product-led brands because it suggests users arriving from AI tools may be more informed, more task-focused and closer to decision-making.

AI Overviews Continue To Complicate CTR And Click Measurement

What happened

Several April reports showed mixed AI Overview click data. One field study reported that AI Overviews reduced organic clicks by 38% on affected queries and increased zero-click searches from 54% to 72%. Another reported that CTR for brand-cited AI Overview pages fell by 61% from Q3 to Q4, but clicks did not collapse because impressions grew faster than clicks. A further study suggested that AI Overview CTR rose from 1.3% in December 2025 to 2.4% in February 2026.

Why this matters

The data does not support a simple conclusion that AI has killed organic clicks or that AI has no impact. AI Overviews can change user behaviour, increase zero-click searches, alter impressions and shift the relationship between visibility and traffic, which makes CTR harder to interpret on its own.

What This All Means For Brands

AI visibility should not be treated as a universal trend affecting every brand in the same way. The opportunity depends on audience behaviour, sector, query intent and buying journey. Reporting should look beyond CTR and include rankings, clicks, conversions, AI citations, referral quality and whether organic search still supports the wider customer journey.

Local And Publisher Visibility Are Becoming More Preference-Led

Business Impact

Brands with local, regional or content-led visibility strategies may see discovery become more shaped by trust, preference and local context. For publishers, this may affect how loyal audiences interact with news sources. For local businesses, it points to a future where reviews, events, opening hours, business data and location signals may play a bigger role in conversational recommendations.

Preferred Sources Expands To All Supported Languages

What happened

Google announced that Preferred Sources is now available globally in all supported languages. The feature lets users select news sources they want to see more often in Top Stories. Google also said users are twice as likely to click through to a site after marking it as a Preferred Source.

Why this matters

This is most directly relevant to publishers and news-led brands, but it also reflects a wider trend towards user-selected trusted sources. For businesses that publish regular insight, the broader lesson is to build recognisable expertise and content that people want to return to.

Ask Maps Points Towards Conversational Local Discovery

What happened

Google’s Ask Maps feature became available to users in the US and India in April. The feature uses Gemini to help users research places, plan trips and ask conversational questions using local information such as reviews, popular times and events.

Why this matters

This is not yet a UK rollout story, but it is an important direction-of-travel signal. If users increasingly ask conversational questions inside Maps, then Google Business Profile data, review content, photos, event listings, location relevance and local entity consistency all become more valuable.

What This All Means For Brands

Local information and external trust signals should be treated as part of the wider visibility picture. Google Business Profile data, reviews, photos, events, opening hours, locations and service information should be accurate and regularly maintained. For multi-location brands, consistency across the website, Google Business Profile, directories and third-party sources becomes especially important.

What To Watch Next

  1. Search Console baselines should be monitored through May reporting. If impressions decline while clicks and conversions remain steady, the reporting explanation should be made clear before performance conclusions are drawn.
  2. Google’s AI Mode developments should also be watched, particularly around source links, citation visibility and whether AI-assisted browsing changes click behaviour.
  3. AI crawler behaviour may become a more useful reporting layer for larger websites if AI systems increasingly fetch live content in response to user queries.
  4. Ask Maps is currently a US and India story, but it should be watched as part of the wider Local and Entity Visibility picture.
  5. The European Commission has also proposed measures that would require Google to share search data with third-party search engines on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. This is a tertiary story for most clients today, but worth monitoring because it could affect search competition, third-party tools and the future availability of visibility data.

April’s Key Learnings

SEO reporting now needs more context than ever.

  • Search Console impression data may be resetting
  • Core updates are still driving ranking volatility
  • AI Overviews are changing click behaviour
  • AI search tools are influencing how people research and choose brands

But the fundamentals still matter.

Clear content, strong technical foundations, accurate business information and trusted local signals now support both traditional SEO and AI visibility.

The brands that perform best will not be the ones chasing every new AI feature. They will be the ones building reliable, accessible and well-structured visibility across every search experience.

If you want to understand how these changes could affect your rankings, reporting or AI visibility, our team can help identify where your search presence is strongest, where the risks are and where the next opportunities may be.

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Nick Shilton
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]]> What April’s Paid Media Changes Mean for Advertiser Control, Visibility and Automation https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/what-aprils-paid-media-changes-mean-for-advertiser-control-visibility-and-automation/ Mon, 18 May 2026 16:43:07 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=3947 Industry Update April showed how quickly the balance of control in paid media is shifting. Platforms are giving advertisers more ways to reach people across search, social, visual discovery and commerce-led environments, but more of the decision-making is being handled by automated systems. For advertisers, that creates a more complex trade-off. Automation can unlock scale, […]

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What April’s Paid Media Changes Mean for Advertiser Control, Visibility and Automation

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Industry Update

April showed how quickly the balance of control in paid media is shifting. Platforms are giving advertisers more ways to reach people across search, social, visual discovery and commerce-led environments, but more of the decision-making is being handled by automated systems.

For advertisers, that creates a more complex trade-off. Automation can unlock scale, speed and broader discovery, but only when the platform is being guided by the right inputs. Campaign structure still matters, but so do feed quality, creative assets, landing pages, conversion data, reporting visibility and brand governance.

The practical challenge is no longer simply whether automation should be used. It is whether advertisers have enough control, clarity and quality assurance around the systems now shaping delivery.

In Short: What Matters This Month

  • Google’s AI Max migration means advertisers need to review campaign inputs before automation expands further.
  • Performance Max product reporting is changing, making it more important to understand product performance across multiple networks.
  • Sponsored ads in the mobile Images tab give advertisers more visual reach, but this may behave more like discovery than traditional search.
  • Meta’s AI creative tools are creating new quality assurance risks, particularly where brand consistency, compliance or product accuracy matter.
  • Meta’s affiliate and creator commerce expansion gives e-commerce and product-led brands more ways to connect creator content with paid performance.

For most advertisers, it’s important to understand that automation is not removing the need for paid media management. It is changing what good management looks like. Strong feeds, strong assets, strong landing pages, clear reporting and tighter governance are becoming more important, not less.

Search Is Moving Further Towards AI-Led Matching

Business Impact

Advertisers are likely to see more campaign delivery shaped by AI-led query expansion, automated creative assembly and broader interpretation of user intent.

That creates an opportunity to capture demand that may be missed through keyword-only structures. But it also makes campaign control and performance diagnosis more complex.

The practical challenge is no longer only choosing the right keywords. It is making sure the platform has the right inputs, including landing pages, product feeds, conversion data, creative assets and exclusions, so automation has enough quality signals to work from.

Dynamic Search Ads are being upgraded to AI Max

What happened
Google announced on 15 April 2026 that Dynamic Search Ads, automatically created assets, and campaign-level broad match settings will be automatically upgraded to AI Max for Search campaigns from September 2026.

Google says AI Max combines advertiser inputs, website content and richer signals to find additional queries while keeping ads relevant.

Google also announced that from 15 June 2026, Google Ads API product reporting will begin including data from all Performance Max networks. This will provide broader product performance metrics across Performance Max, Shopping, Video, App and Demand Gen.

Why this matters
This is another clear move away from tightly managed, keyword-only search activity and towards more automated search delivery.

For advertisers, the issue is not automation itself. The issue is visibility. As more matching asset creation and product performance interpretation happens across automated systems, advertisers need to understand which queries, assets, products and channels are actually driving performance.

This also means reporting needs to evolve. Performance Max product performance should not be interpreted in isolation if the underlying data is now being pulled across multiple networks.

What advertisers should be paying attention to
Advertisers should audit any campaigns still relying on Dynamic Search Ads or legacy broad match settings before the September upgrade. AI Max should be tested early where appropriate, rather than waiting for automatic migration.

Product feed quality, landing page relevance and asset coverage also need closer attention, because these are becoming stronger inputs for AI-led matching. Reporting templates should also be reviewed ahead of the June product reporting change, so product-level performance is understood across all relevant networks.

Paid Search Is Becoming More Visual

Business Impact

Paid search is no longer limited to text-led intent capture. Google is expanding sponsored placements into more visual environments, which means advertisers may reach users earlier in the consideration journey, especially when visual browsing influences decision-making.

This is particularly relevant for product-led, retail, e-commerce and catalogue-heavy brands, where imagery can play a major role in generating interest before a user is ready to click or convert.

Google-sponsored ads are expanding into the mobile Images tab

What happened
Google has started showing sponsored ad units directly within the Images tab on mobile search. Eligible campaigns can appear in the image grid without advertisers changing keyword targeting or campaign structure.

The placement uses existing image assets and shows a full image creative alongside text, clearly labelled as “Sponsored”.

Why this matters
This expands paid search into a more visual discovery environment.

Google Images can play an important role earlier in the buying journey, where users are browsing visually before clicking through to a website. Early indications suggest this placement may drive higher impression volume but lower click-through rates than traditional search ads.

That means advertisers should not necessarily judge it in the same way as standard text search. It may operate more like a discovery or assist placement than a pure last-click search channel.

What advertisers should be paying attention to
Search and Performance Max campaigns should include strong, high-quality image assets. Product imagery, lifestyle visuals and feed quality should also be reviewed, especially for retail and e-commerce campaigns.

Advertisers should monitor impressions, click-through rate and conversion paths closely, particularly because there is currently no dedicated reporting breakdown for images tab placements. This should be treated as incremental visual reach, not judged solely by last-click performance.

AI Creative Is Increasing The Need For Brand Governance

Business Impact

AI creative tools can speed up testing and help platforms adapt assets across placements, but they also create brand control risks.

This is especially important for premium, regulated or brand-sensitive advertisers, where small changes to visuals, wording or product presentation can create quality, compliance or reputation issues.

The more creative decisions are automated, the more important it becomes to check settings, previews and live ad variants carefully.

Meta’s AI creative automation is creating more control concerns

What happened
Meta’s AI creative tools continued to generate advertiser concern in April, with reports of unwanted AI-generated edits, changed image dimensions, altered backgrounds, static assets being turned into video, and ad spend being used on AI-generated creative tests.

Meta said advertisers can opt out of AI creative testing in Ad Account Settings.

Why this matters
Meta is increasingly embedding AI into creative, targeting and budget optimisation. While that can support scale and testing, it also creates quality assurance risks.

Advertisers may see creative variations running that do not fully match approved brand guidelines, especially if AI settings are not reviewed carefully. This is particularly important where product accuracy, visual consistency or brand tone are central to performance.

What advertisers should be paying attention to
Advertisers should audit Ad Account Settings and campaign-level creative enhancement settings. Creative previews should be checked across Feed, Reels, Stories and other placements before launch.

Live ads should also be reviewed regularly to confirm that AI-generated variants have not changed product, brand or visual accuracy. For regulated, premium or brand-sensitive sectors, there should be a clear approval process for AI-assisted creative.

Creator Content Is Becoming A Stronger Paid Commerce Input

Business Impact

Meta is strengthening the connection between creator content, product discovery and paid amplification.

This is most relevant for e-commerce, retail and product-led brands, where creator content can influence consideration and conversion. For these advertisers, product-tagged content can become a more direct paid media input, particularly where partnership ad workflows make that content easier to identify and promote.

The main opportunity is to test whether creator-led product content can deliver stronger engagement, trust or conversion than standard brand-led creative.

Instagram and Facebook affiliate commerce tools are expanding

What happened
Meta expanded creator and affiliate commerce tools across Instagram and Facebook.

Instagram Reels are now shoppable, creators can tag products from Meta’s commerce catalogue, and product-tagged creator content can be surfaced in the Partnership Ads Hub in Ads Manager.

Meta also planned affiliate tests with Amazon and Shopee on Instagram, while Facebook affiliate tests included Amazon and eBay, with Temu, Shopee and Mercado Libre also involved across selected markets.

Why this matters
This strengthens the link between creator content, commerce and paid social amplification.

For e-commerce advertisers, creator-led product discovery can become a more direct route into performance campaigns. If product-tagged creator content can be identified and used through partnership ad workflows, brands have more opportunity to test native-feeling product content alongside more polished brand assets.

This could be particularly useful in Reels placements, where content that feels natural to the platform often performs better than creative that feels too heavily produced.

What advertisers should be paying attention to
Advertisers should review whether creator and affiliate content could support paid social performance. Relevant creators should be identified, particularly where their product-tagged content could be used in partnership ads.

Product catalogues also need to be complete, accurate and suitable for tagging. Creator-led product content should be tested against standard brand-led creative, especially in Reels placements.

For service-led brands, this update is less immediately relevant, but the wider lesson still applies: platform-native content and credible third-party voices are becoming more important parts of paid social strategy.

What to Watch Next

The next few months will be important for advertisers using Google Search, Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ style campaign structures.

Google’s AI Max upgrade does not happen until September 2026, but advertisers should not leave preparation until the automatic migration. June’s product reporting change also matters because it will affect how Performance Max product data is interpreted across networks.

On Meta, the key thing to watch is how much control advertisers retain as AI creative tools become more embedded. The ability to opt out of certain AI testing settings is useful, but only if advertisers know where those settings are and review them consistently.

What April Tells Us Overall

April’s updates show that paid media is becoming more automated, more visual and more closely connected to commerce infrastructure.

Google is continuing to move search away from rigid keyword control and towards AI-led matching, while also expanding paid visibility across more visual surfaces. Meta is pushing further into AI creative automation and creator-led commerce, making paid social more closely connected to product discovery, partnership content and affiliate workflows.

The opportunity for advertisers is a greater scale and broader discovery. The risk is losing visibility over how campaigns are being matched, adapted and reported.

That means the role of paid media management is not becoming less important. It is shifting. Advertisers need to spend less time thinking only about campaign switches and more time thinking about the quality of the inputs that shape performance.

Strong setup, clean feeds, useful assets, relevant landing pages, careful testing, clear reporting and brand governance are becoming essential to getting value from automation without giving up control.

Need help?

If you are already investing in Google Ads, Performance Max or paid social, now is the time to review how prepared your campaigns are for more automated delivery.

The question is no longer only whether your campaigns are live and spending efficiently. It is whether your feeds, assets, landing pages, creative settings and reporting are strong enough to guide automation in the right direction.

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Lizzie Connick
Biddable Account Manager

10 minute read

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]]> What a Wedding Guest Experience Teaches Us About Website UX https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/what-a-wedding-guest-experience-teaches-us-about-website-ux/ Tue, 05 May 2026 14:58:25 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=3863 What weddings reveal about user behaviour Summer is approaching, and that can only mean one thing… wedding season! I have already been to one this year, and it got me thinking about the wedding guest experience. Some weddings you go to are just… easy. You know where to go, what is happening and when, and […]

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What a Wedding Guest Experience Teaches Us About Website UX

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What weddings reveal about user behaviour

Summer is approaching, and that can only mean one thing… wedding season! I have already been to one this year, and it got me thinking about the wedding guest experience.

Some weddings you go to are just… easy. You know where to go, what is happening and when, and what to do with yourself in those in-between moments while photos are being taken. Nothing feels confusing or forced. The day just flows, almost without you noticing it.

Others are not quite like that.

You arrive and find yourself unsure where to go. Timings are unclear or not communicated at all. There is too much waiting, often without a drink in hand, and you start second-guessing simple things like whether you have enough time to disappear to the bathroom before the wedding breakfast. That is a genuine thought I have had.

What is interesting is that when this happens, it is rarely down to the budget or the venue. More often, it comes down to how well the experience has been thought through for the guest, not just the couple.

And there is a very obvious parallel here with websites.

The sites that convert well are rarely just the ones that look good or have had the most investment. They are usually the ones where user needs, messaging, journey structure, interface design and conversion goals are properly aligned.

When that does not happen, the impact is not just a slightly worse experience. It becomes a performance issue. Traffic does not convert, paid media becomes less efficient, and potential enquiries quietly disappear.

In many cases, websites are not underperforming because there is no demand. They are underperforming because the experience does not support it.

Experience Is About Flow, Not Just Visual Design

There is a long-standing assumption that websites are judged primarily on how they look. And while visual design does matter, it is rarely effective on its own.

More often, performance depends on how well the design supports clarity, credibility and progression. It comes down to how it feels to move through.

The difference between a good experience and a poor one is rarely only the colour palette or the typography. Those things matter, but they need to support hierarchy, readability and action. The bigger issue is usually  the flow, the clarity, and the ease with which someone can move from one step to the next without having to stop and think.

This is where a lot of websites fall down.

They may look polished and well put together, but once you start using them, the journey becomes unclear. You are not quite sure where to go next or what the intended path is. The experience becomes something you have to work out for yourself.

A common content and UX issue is the homepage headline that sounds impressive internally but gives users little practical orientation. Phrases like “Innovative Solutions for Growth” might feel safe internally, but they do very little to help a user understand what the business actually does or whether it is relevant to them.

At that point, the burden shifts to the user to interpret and navigate, which is exactly where things begin to break down.

Often, this is an information architecture and content strategy problem. Websites are shaped internally rather than designed externally. Pages reflect internal team structures, and messaging reflects how a business talks about itself, rather than how customers think about the problem they are trying to solve.

So while everything may make sense from the inside, it does not necessarily make sense to the person arriving on the site for the first time.

Many websites do not fail because they look bad. They fail because the experience is unclear, unstructured or difficult to move through.

The Save The Date = The First Touchpoint

The first touchpoint many of us have with a wedding is the save-the-date, usually sent well in advance and often ending up as a permanent fixture on the fridge. 

It is typically simple. A lightly designed card with a short note to block out the date in your calendar. 

It doesn’t come with a lot of detail, but it does set the expectation. It tells you something is coming, gives you the sense of when and starts to shape how you think about the event before you have all the information.

The same applies to websites. 

In many cases, a user’s experience of a website does not start on the landing page. It starts with the touchpoints that bring them there, whether that is a paid ad, a social media post, an email or a search result.

That first interaction sets the context. It frames expectations around what the user is about to see, what they believe they are going to get and how relevant it feels to them.

When that alignment is strong, the transition into the website feels seamless. The messaging connects, the value carries through, and the user continues with confidence.

However, when it is not, friction appears. You click on an ad expecting one thing and land on a page that feels disconnected. The message does not quite match. The value is unclear. You have to stop and re-evaluate whether you are in the right place.

And if this happens, this is where a user journey ends. 

This is why performance does not sit solely in the website itself, but in how well the entire journey has been considered from first interaction through to conversion.

The Invitation = Landing Page

The first tangible touchpoint you have as a wedding guest is the invitation.

A lot of time tends to be spent on how it looks, choosing between off-white and beige, and Times New Roman or a more handwriting style font, and other small design details that set the tone for the day. But the most important part of the invitation is not the aesthetic. It is the clarity of information.

Where it is. When to arrive. What to wear. What is happening and in what order. 

These are the details that allow guests to understand what to expect and how to prepare.

When that information is missing or unclear, it puts people on the back foot immediately. They arrive with questions, and the experience starts with uncertainty.

The same applies to a website’s landing page.

Very quickly after arriving, a user is trying to answer three simple questions: what does this business do, is it relevant to me, and what should I do next?

A strong landing page answers those questions quickly and confidently. It uses clear, specific language, establishes value early, and guides attention so that the most important information is seen first. Crucially, it presents a clear next step.

Where many landing pages fall down is in trying to do too much, or in trying to satisfy too many internal perspectives at once. Messaging becomes diluted, calls to action compete with each other, and key information is pushed further down the page in the assumption that users will scroll to find it.

It is not uncommon to see forms that ask for more information than the user is ready to give, especially before value or trust has been established. In those cases, the site is effectively asking the user to commit before they have been given a reason to.

All of this introduces hesitation.

And hesitation at this stage is critical, because if a user does not quickly feel confident that they are in the right place, many will not continue.

Arrival = Information Architecture, Navigation & Orientation

Once you arrive at a wedding, the next part of the experience is understanding where to go.

At a well-planned wedding, it is obvious. There is clear signage. People are there to guide you. The layout makes sense. You can quickly work out where the ceremony is, where to get a drink, and where you are meant to be next. And critically, where’s good to stand so you can get away with as little small talk as possible.

At others, you find yourself hovering, looking around, and trying to work it out by following other people. It creates a subtle but noticeable sense of uncertainty.

The same dynamic exists on websites.

Once someone has decided they are in the right place, their next question is simple: where do I go now?

Information architecture, navigation and site structure play a critical role in answering that.

A well-structured website makes it easy to move through. Navigation is clearly labelled, familiar, intuitive, and built around how users think, rather than how the business is organised internally.

Where this often breaks down is when navigation mirrors internal structures. Menu labels reflect departments or services in a way that makes sense to the business, but not to the user, who is typically thinking in terms of outcomes rather than organisational lines.

Labels like “Solutions” or “Capabilities” may feel appropriate internally, but without clear context they require interpretation, which introduces friction.

Unlike a wedding, where people will usually find their way, a website does not benefit from the same level of patience. If users cannot quickly understand where to go, many will lose confidence, hesitate, or leave.

The Flow of the Day = User Journey

What really defines a wedding experience is the flow of the day.

How you move from one stage to the next, whether transitions feel natural, and whether there is a clear sense of what is happening and what comes next.

At a well-planned wedding, everything connects smoothly. You move from the ceremony to drinks, from drinks to dinner, and into the evening without needing to think about it, and without long periods of waiting.

At others, the flow can feel disjointed. There are gaps where nothing is happening, or moments where things feel rushed or unclear. Guests start checking with each other, trying to piece together what is going on.

Websites behave in much the same way.

It is not just about the quality of individual pages, but about how those pages connect to form a coherent on-site journey.

A strong website journey is designed with progression in mind. It considers what someone needs to understand first, what questions they are likely to have next, and what will give them enough confidence to take action.

Where this often breaks down is when that progression has not been properly mapped, or when each page is expected to do everything at once, to educate, persuade, and convert simultaneously.

This can lead to moments where users are pushed towards action before they have been given enough clarity or confidence, such as being asked to book a demo before the product has been properly explained.

The result is a fragmented experience, rather than a continuous one.

The best websites, much like the best weddings, guide people through a sequence that feels natural, building understanding and confidence step by step.

The Details = Usability, Microinteractions & Performance 

Then there are the smaller details that sit around the edges of the experience.

At a wedding, these are the things you might not consciously notice, but which make the day feel easier. Where you go to get a drink, whether there is somewhere to sit during quieter moments, or small touches like having flip flops available for guests in high heels who lost the feeling in their toes halfway through the best man’s speech. 

When these things are done well, the day simply feels smooth, and the guests feel considered.

The same applies to websites.

Small friction points cover the details that support the overall journey: how easy it is to complete a form, whether the site works well on mobile, whether pages load quickly, whether buttons are clear, whether interactions feel obvious, and whether users get the right feedback at the right time.

Some of these details sit within UX. Others sit within UI design, content design, accessibility, technical performance and front-end development. But to the user, they are all part of the same experience.

When these elements work well, users move through the site without friction. When they do not, small moments of resistance begin to add up.

Individually, these issues might seem minor. Collectively, they are often enough to stop someone from completing an action.

Because when an experience starts to feel like effort, people are far less likely to follow through.

The Lasting Impression = Conversion & Brand

At the end of a wedding, what people tend to remember is not a specific detail, but the overall feeling they leave with.

Whether it felt easy and enjoyable, or whether it felt like hard work because you were sat next to a complete stranger instead of your partner.

The same applies to websites.

Users may not remember every individual headline or page, but they often remember whether the experience felt clear, credible and easy. Whether it was clear and trustworthy, whether it was easy to find what they needed, and whether taking action felt straightforward.

This is where user experience connects directly with commercial performance.

If a website feels easy relevant and trustworthy, people are more likely to enquire, book, or buy. If it feels confusing or frustrating, they are more likely to hesitate or leave altogether.

That impression also shapes how they perceive the brand, not just in the moment, but in whether they choose to return in the future.

At this point, UX starts to overlap with customer experience and brand perception. The website may be only one part of the wider customer journey, but it is often the place where first impressions, confidence and intent are either strengthened or lost.

The Real Problem

Most websites do not struggle because of a lack of effort or intent.

They struggle because they are often built in silos.

Design, development, content, conversion and technical performance are handled separately, and decisions are made in isolation. Each element may work on its own, but the overall experience can still feel disjointed.

As a result, websites become collections of pages rather than connected journeys, often without properly considering the user.

It is not dissimilar to planning different parts of a wedding independently, without considering how they fit together as a whole and most importantly, how guests will experience it.

The real problem is often not UX design alone, but the way website decisions are made across design, development, content, marketing, analytics and conversion. When those disciplines are not aligned, the experience can quickly become fragmented.

The Commercial Layer

This is why user experience is not just a design consideration, but a commercial one.

Poor UX affects the performance of every channel that drives traffic to the site, because it influences what happens after the click.

You can invest in SEO, paid media, or social campaigns, but if the experience does not convert, that investment becomes less effective. The issue is not always traffic volume alone, but what happens once users arrive.

This is where businesses often misdiagnose the problem, focusing on channels and campaigns rather than the experience itself.

Understanding user behaviour becomes critical. Not just what people click on, but how they move through the site, where they hesitate, and where they drop off.

That is where meaningful improvements are made.

The Takeaway

The best weddings feel considered, not because of any one standout detail, but because the entire experience has been thought through.

The best websites are no different. They do not leave people unsure, frustrated, or working harder than they need to. Instead, they create a sense of clarity and ease from start to finish.

When it comes to weddings, even with the best planning, there are always things you cannot control. Like that one uncle who has had one too many custom cocktails and decides it is a good time to attempt the worm on the dance floor.

Websites come with fewer unknowns than live events, and many of the most important experience variables are within your control.

And when that experience is designed, tested and measured well, the impact can be significant: better engagement, stronger conversion, and more value from the traffic you are already generating.

Ginny Gilmour avatar
Ginny Gilmour
Senior Marketing Executive

10 minute read

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]]> Biddable Industry Update https://www.fingo.co.uk/news-and-insights/biddable-industry-update/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:06:13 +0000 https://www.fingo.co.uk/?p=3831 March Updates Paid media is moving further into AI-led execution. Platforms are shifting how ads are delivered, how users search, and how campaigns are managed. Two clear changes stand out this month. First, search behaviour is changing as AI becomes the starting point, not the results page. Second, campaign control is reducing as automation takes […]

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Biddable Industry Update – March 2026

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March Updates

Paid media is moving further into AI-led execution. Platforms are shifting how ads are delivered, how users search, and how campaigns are managed. Two clear changes stand out this month. First, search behaviour is changing as AI becomes the starting point, not the results page. Second, campaign control is reducing as automation takes over targeting, bidding and creative decisions.

This creates less predictable performance. Impressions, clicks and costs are being redistributed across new placements and formats. At the same time, the quality of your inputs is becoming more important than manual optimisation. Below is what has changed and what it means for your performance.

AI Is Becoming A New Paid Placement Layer In Google Ads

Business Impact

You may see shifts in impressions, clicks and conversions as users interact with AI results before reaching standard search listings.

What happened

Google’s AI Mode has passed 75 million daily users. It now includes ad formats like Shopping and Direct Offer ads directly inside AI-generated responses. Users can engage with products and recommendations without ever seeing a traditional search results page.

Why this matters

Search is no longer a straight path from keyword to click. Users ask broader questions and get summarised answers with products included. This changes where demand is captured. Some traffic that would have gone through standard search campaigns is now absorbed earlier in the journey. It also changes how auctions work, as intent is interpreted differently in conversational queries.

What you can do

  • Track changes in search queries and impression share
  • Prioritise Shopping and Demand Gen formats
  • Strengthen product data and feed quality

AI Automation Is Accelerating Across Meta

Business Impact

Performance will depend more on the quality of your data, tracking and strategic setup as Meta takes on more of the execution.

What happened

AI-driven ad spend is projected to grow 63% in 2026. Platforms like Meta are pushing toward automated campaigns where advertisers set goals and budgets, and AI handles targeting, bidding and optimisation.

Why this matters

Execution is becoming automated, but the system itself if more complex. Meta is making more decisions, faster, using more signals. That increases the importance of how campaigns are structured, what data is fed in, and how performance is guided. You still influence outcomes, but through inputs and strategy rather than manual tweaks.

What you can do

  • Focus on strong creatives and clear messaging
  • Feed platforms high-quality data and conversion signals
  • Test and refresh creative regularly

AI-generated Video Lowers The Barrier To Entry In Google Ads

Business Impact

Video production becomes faster and more cost-effective, but performance will still depend on strong creative direction and messaging.

What happened

Google has rolled out its Veo model globally. Advertisers can now turn up to three images into a 10-second video directly in the platform.

Why this matters

The barrier to creating video is lower, but that does not remove the need for expertise. The tool handles production, not strategy. Strong performance still depends on having a clear narrative, the right hooks and an understanding of what drives engagement. More advertisers will test video, which will increase competition and raise the standard of what works.

What you can do

  • Turn existing image assets into video
  • Test video across YouTube, Demand Gen and Performance Max
  • Create multiple variations to find what performs best

Meta Is Removing Legacy Campaign Structures

Business Impact

You will need to adapt to fewer campaign types and more standardised, automated setups.

What happened

Meta is deprecating older Advantage+ campaign types, with deadlines set for May 2026. This is part of a broader move toward simplified campaign structures.

Why this matters

Meta is reducing complexity and pushing all advertisers into similar frameworks. This limits custom setups and increases reliance on automation. It also means older campaign strategies will stop working if not updated.

What you can do

  • Audit campaigns for legacy setups
  • Transition to current campaign structures
  • Update any systems or processes tied to old formats

AI Mode Is Becoming The Future Of Google Ads

Business Impact

AI-driven placements are likely to become a core source of traffic and conversions, not a secondary feature.

What happened

Google is positioning AI Mode as its next major ads engine. Early ad formats, reporting and controls are already being introduced as it scales.

Why this matters

Google has a strong advantage because it already has an established ad infrastructure. As AI search grows, it can integrate ads more effectively than newer competitors. This suggests a long-term shift. AI placements will become a standard part of search strategy rather than an experiment.

What you can do

  • Start planning for AI placements as part of your core strategy
  • Focus on full-funnel campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen
  • Monitor how reporting and control evolve

What This Means In Practice

Platforms are moving in the same direction. More automation. More AI-led decision-making. Less manual control. Search is no longer just search. Social is no longer just audience targeting. Both are becoming systems that interpret intent and deliver ads dynamically. This changes how performance is managed.

What to focus on now

  • Data quality. Conversion tracking, product feeds and signals
  • Creative. More variations, tested more often
  • Coverage. Using formats that align with AI-driven delivery

What to watch

  • Shifts in search queries and impression distribution
  • Changes in cost as competition increases in new placements
  • How reporting evolves as AI placements grow

What to prioritise

  • Testing new formats early
  • Strengthening inputs rather than relying on optimisation
  • Adapting to platform changes before they impact performance

The gap between strong and weak performance is widening. Brands that adapt to AI-driven delivery will maintain control. Those who rely on old structures will lose visibility.

Lizzie Connick avatar
Lizzie Connick
Biddable Account Manager

5 minute read

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