Digital Digest
Marketing Intelligence Weekly
Weekly updates on the digital marketing news you need to know, including data reform, AI, cookie deprecation and platform updates.
AI in digital
Platforms
ChatGPT and Perplexity add personalised shopping research
- OpenAI's ChatGPT now offers a smart shopping assistant that delivers tailored buyer’s guides using web data, memory, and follow-up questions—live across all plans.
- Perplexity has launched a similar AI-powered personal shopper in the US, featuring interactive product cards, preference memory, and direct purchases via PayPal.
- Both tools target more thoughtful, high-consideration shopping (think: gadgets, beauty, home), blending conversational UX with ecommerce convenience.
- Perplexity takes a swipe at traditional search and affiliate-heavy content, positioning its AI as more user-first and “intent-aware.”
- Mobile rollouts are incoming for Perplexity, while OpenAI is teasing ChatGPT Pulse and direct retail integrations soon.
- Read more here and here
Platforms
Post scheduling and multi-location publishing in Google Business Profiles
- Google has rolled out post scheduling and multi-location publishing for Google Business Profiles, just in time for the holiday season.
- Businesses can now plan posts in advance, automating when they go live—ideal for campaigns and promotions.
- Multi-location publishing lets users create one post and publish it across multiple locations, saving heaps of time.
- These updates aim to boost efficiency and visibility, especially for businesses managing multiple branches.
- The features are based on user feedback and designed to help brands stay top-of-mind during busy periods.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Ads Feature coming to ChatGPT Android app
- Reports show that ChatGPT’s Android beta app (version 1.2025.329) contains code referencing an “ads feature”, including strings like “search ad”, “bazaar content” and “search ads carousel” — suggesting ads are actively being built in.
- If rolled out, ads on ChatGPT may focus on contextual, search‑ or recommendation‑based formats (e.g. product suggestions or “sponsored responses”) rather than traditional disruptive banner ads.
- For marketers: this could open a major new channel — with ChatGPT’s large user base, early advertisers may gain a first‑mover advantage.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.5
- Claude Opus 4.5 is Anthropic’s smartest, most efficient model yet, excelling in coding, research, and long-form content creation — while slashing token usage and improving speed.
- It's now more affordable ($5/$25 per million tokens), making top-tier AI power accessible to more teams and businesses.
- Major upgrades include better support for long, multi-step tasks and integration with Excel, Chrome, and desktop workflows, ideal for automating day-to-day marketing operations.
- Early users praise its deep reasoning, adaptability, and precision, especially in code generation, planning, and content structuring.
- Anthropic also rolled out improved developer tools and agent functionality, hinting at more advanced, autonomous workflows ahead.
- Read more
Platforms
Google expanding custom segments for display campaigns in Personalized Ads policy update
- Google is rolling out a change on 12 Dec 2025 that expands access to Custom Segments for certain display campaigns that had previously been restricted by its Personalized Ads policy.
- The update specifically affects campaigns that were limited under the policy—not all display campaigns.
- For marketers, this means previously blocked verticals (e.g. some health, finance, or other regulated categories) might now build custom intent or interest‑based segments to reach more precise audiences.
- While this unlocks stronger targeting tools and could improve performance for restricted advertisers, the announcement lacked clarity: it didn’t specify exactly which verticals will benefit, whether all Display formats or also Demand Gen campaigns are included — leaving a degree of uncertainty.
- Bottom line: If you run restricted‑category Display campaigns, this could meaningfully expand your targeting toolkit
- Read more
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Adobe says AI chatbots playing significant role this holiday shopping season
- Holiday shoppers in the U.S. have already spent $79.7B online — a 7.5% YoY increase — with AI chatbots playing a growing role in purchase decisions.
- 32% of consumers have used AI for shopping help, and 81% say it improved their experience; AI traffic surged 830% YoY this season.
- Mobile is dominating, contributing $41.3B in sales so far and projected to drive 56.1% of all holiday revenue.
- Buy Now, Pay Later usage is up 5% YoY, peaking during Cyber Week, with mobile accounting for over 82% of BNPL spend.
- Marketers should focus on seamless mobile UX, omnichannel integration, and personalised social ads to capture rising mobile and AI-driven traffic.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
It’s official, more ads now appearing in AI Mode
- Google is increasingly showing ads embedded inside its “AI Mode” results — not just the regular search results — signalling a new ad surface is emerging.
- The testing has been expanding: what began as a limited desktop experiment has more sightings lately, giving the indicator that this move is gearing up for a wider rollout.
- The inclusion of ads in AI‑generated answers could reshape visibility and click‑through rates — adding both opportunities (less competition) and complexities (new ad formats, evolving SERP dynamics).
- Advertisers should start preparing for this shift: AI Mode may become a mainstream channel within Google search advertising.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Google rolls out Gemini 3 to AI Mode
- Google has rolled out Gemini 3 Pro to its Search’s AI Mode, promising smarter, more context-aware results.
- The AI now uses deeper reasoning and an upgraded "query fan-out" to surface more relevant, often previously overlooked content.
- New generative UI tools let the search interface build more dynamic, visual layouts, enhancing user engagement.
- Currently, Gemini 3 Pro is only live for U.S. users with access to AI Mode.
- Marketers should start considering how visual and dynamic search presentation impacts their SEO and content strategies.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
TikTok lets users decide how much AI content they want to see
- TikTok now lets users adjust how much AI-generated content appears in their For You feed via a new control in "Manage Topics".
- The platform is introducing invisible watermarking tech to better label AI-generated content, complementing existing C2PA Content Credentials.
- TikTok will start applying these watermarks to content created with its own AI tools and uploads containing verified metadata.
- The platform is also investing $2 million in an AI literacy fund to educate users about AI safety and media literacy.
- This move aligns with growing industry trends, as rivals like Meta and OpenAI also explore AI-only content feeds.
- Read more
Platforms
Search Console adds a branded queries filter and custom chart annotations
- GSC now includes a built‑in Branded Queries Filter — you can filter your Performance report by queries that clearly include your brand name (or its variants/misspellings) versus those that don’t.
- Read more
- GSC also now supports Custom Chart Annotations — you can place short notes directly on your Performance report charts to mark when you made a major site change, ran a campaign, or when external events might have impacted traffic.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Group Chat rolls out for ChatGPT users
- The group‑chat feature is now rolling out globally to all logged‑in users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans of ChatGPT.
- Up to 20 participants can join a shared chat with ChatGPT, enabling “group conversations” alongside the AI for things like planning events, working on projects, or brainstorming.
- ChatGPT’s behaviour in the group chat is designed to step in when helpful but also stay quiet when the human discussion is flowing — it uses a “social behaviour” model to decide when to respond.
- Privacy and memory: Group chats are separate from your personal one‑on‑one conversations — none of the group chat content is fed into your ChatGPT memory, and you can control participants.
- Read more
Platforms
Reddit launches interactive ads
- Reddit is launching Interactive Ads, a new ad‑unit format that lets brands build custom, playable, or engaging creative experiences (quizzes, dynamic reveals, countdowns) directly in its feeds.
- These formats are native to Reddit’s ecosystem of 100,000+ topic communities and are designed for true participation (taps, swipes, choices) rather than passive viewing.
- Early adopters include big‑names like Paramount Pictures (via a “movie‑themed escape game”), Electronic Arts (with a game challenge + countdown) showing how interactive storytelling works within the platform.
- The key benefits: greater creative freedom, deeper engagement, and upper‑funnel brand impact — moving beyond static image/video ads into something more immersive.
- Note: the format is currently in limited alpha testing; brands need to contact Reddit’s ad team to secure participation.
- Read more
AI in digital
AI in travel
Platforms
Platforms in travel
Google Maps gets smarter with Gemini
- Google Maps is introducing hands‑free, conversational navigation via Gemini: you can ask things like “What vegan‑friendly restaurant’s along my route?” and it will handle multi‑step tasks.
- It’s adding landmark‑based navigation, meaning directions will reference real‑world visible landmarks (e.g., “turn right after the Thai Siam restaurant”) instead of just street names or distances.
- There’s a new proactive traffic‑alert system: you’ll get notifications of unexpected closures or heavy jams even if you’re not already navigating.
- Plus, the “Lens built with Gemini” mode lets you point your camera at a café/shop/restaurant and ask natural questions like “What’s popular here?” or “Should I stop here?” — essentially bridging augmented reality + search.
- Roll‑out is initially in the U.S. (Android & iOS) for landmark navigation and proactive alerts; Lens mode comes later this month in the U.S.
- Read more
AI in digital
AI in travel
Platforms
Platforms in travel
AI Mode experiments with agentic booking for tickets, restaurants, and more
- Google’s AI Mode is now experimenting with agentic booking — meaning it can search across multiple sites and help users book things like restaurants, events and wellness appointments in one go.
- The rollout is currently US‑only, in English, as part of the Search Labs experiment. Restaurant bookings are available to all eligible users; event tickets and wellness bookings are available to subscribers of Google’s higher tiers (Pro/Ultra) with bigger usage limits.
- Restaurants: specify party size, date & time, location, cuisine, and AI Mode returns available slots + booking links.
- Event tickets: users can say e.g. “2 cheap tickets for X”, prefer standing floor etc., and get a list of options + links.
- Wellness appointments: shows real‑time availability from local booking platforms and links to finalise.
- And of course travel bookings can’t be far behind with Sundar Pichai stating last week: “We're working on multiple agentic experiences across key verticals such as travel, commerce shopping and so on.”
- Having real‑time, structured data (availability, pricing, timeslots, etc) and deep‑link-friendly booking flows becomes more important so you’re surfaced in these agentic experiences.
- Users still complete the actual booking on the provider’s site (AI Mode links through) so you’ll want to ensure your booking UX and tracking is solid.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
PayPal partnering with ChatGPT to enable in-chat shopping and payments
- PayPal is teaming up with OpenAI to enable in-chat shopping and payments in ChatGPT via the new “Instant Checkout” feature, launching in 2026.
- It uses OpenAI’s open-source Agentic Commerce Protocol, letting merchants list products in AI apps and users shop via AI agents.
- PayPal will support wallet and card payments within ChatGPT, offering buyer/seller protection and handling backend integrations.
- Merchants’ products across fashion, beauty, home, and electronics will become discoverable in ChatGPT—no setup needed.
- PayPal is also rolling out an agentic commerce suite for merchants to manage listings, payments, and user insights across AI platforms.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Snap partners with Perplexity to bring more AI to its users
- Snap’s partnering with Perplexity to embed its conversational AI search directly into Snapchat from early 2026.
- The integration will live in Snapchat’s chat interface, offering verified, real-time answers within the app.
- It’s a $400 million deal (cash + equity) that positions Snap as a major AI platform for mobile-native users.
- This is Snap’s first large-scale external AI partnership and part of a push to make AI more “social, personal and fun.”
- Users can still chat with Snap’s existing My AI—Perplexity will complement it as a new answer engine.
- Read more
Platforms
Link videos to product listings in Google Merchant Center
- Google Merchant Center has launched a new “Creative Content” section that allows brands to upload and map video assets to product listings — boosting both paid and organic visibility.
- Videos can come from social channels (including TikTok), the brand’s website or via Google’s own Product Studio — and you can now link specific videos directly to SKUs.
- Once uploaded, videos in this new section sync automatically with the linked Google Ads asset library — saving time and keeping creative assets aligned across campaigns.
- The feature shows up in GMC under Creative content → Video assets (below Product Studio) — if your account has it enabled.
- For marketers: this is an early chance to test how attaching video directly to product listings affects discoverability and performance (especially for e‑commerce) — worth digging in.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Microsoft Copilot’s new AI Search features clickable citations
- Microsoft Copilot now supports “AI Search” via its generative answers, featuring prominent, clickable citations and an option to view aggregated sources.
- The update includes a dedicated “Search” mode inside Copilot, enabling users to shift from chat‑style responses to more traditional search‑style results (concise answers or in‑depth summaries depending on the query).
- Microsoft says this change was designed with publishers and content‑owners in mind, helping to create a “healthy web ecosystem” by making source attribution clearer and encouraging clicks to original content.
- From an SEO/marketing lens: this means your content has a better shot at being cited directly in Copilot’s answers—so source‑quality, attribution‑friendly content matters more.
- Read more
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Almost half of AI convos return product and brand recommendations unprompted
- According to new research by Profound on Zero Click: The Machine Customer Era, almost half of AI chats return product and brand recommendations unprompted.
- 33.8% - 1 in 3 conversations contained unprompted product recommendations.
- 41.2% - Almost half of conversations saw the AI mention specific brands, unprompted.
- 12.3% - 1 in 8 conversations included actual prices or price ranges.
- Contact us for a copy of the report.
Platforms
Query Groups now in Google Search Console
- Google Search Console has introduced Query groups in its Insights report: similar search queries are now automatically grouped, giving you a clearer high‑level view of what your audience is searching.
- The groups are generated using AI and can evolve over time; they don’t impact ranking—they’re just for insights.
- Currently, the feature is rolling out gradually and only available to properties with a large enough volume of search queries.
- For content strategy, this means you can now more easily spot top‑topic clusters and allocate resources accordingly (e.g., see which ‘theme’ of queries is dropping or growing).
- Read more
Platforms
New Investment Strategy tab in Google Ads
- Google Ads has introduced a new Investment Strategy tab under the Recommendations page that uses historical performance data to model how additional budget could impact clicks, conversions or conversion value.
- The tool lets you set either an “additional weekly spend” or a “weekly increase in key metric (e.g., +50 conversions)”, and it then estimates impact and suggests which campaigns should receive the extra budget.
- It differs from the existing Performance Planner in that it’s budget‑only planning, aimed at short‑term (next ~7 days) increases and does not support bid adjustments or reallocating budget across campaigns.
- Useful if you’ve got extra spend ready and want to understand where it might do the most good quickly — but less useful for longer‑term strategic planning, bid setting or full campaign reallocation.
- Read more
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
90% of businesses worried about discoverability due to AI growth
- ~88% of businesses surveyed say they’re worried about losing organic visibility as AI‑powered search evolves.
- 85.7% are already investing or planning to invest in AI/LLM‑optimised SEO, and 61.2% plan to increase their SEO budgets as a result.
- 75.5% say their top priority is brand visibility in AI‑generated answers — even when there’s no direct link back to their site.
- Only 14.3% prioritise being cited as a source (which might drive direct traffic) — highlighting a shift in what “visibility” means in the AI‑search era.
- The survey covered 300+ in‑house marketers and business owners, mostly in mid/enterprise levels and nearly half from ecommerce brands.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Google Labs has a new AI Experiment, Pomelli
- Pomelli lets you generate on‑brand social media campaigns by analysing your website and brand assets to build a “Business DNA” profile (tone, fonts, colour palette) first.
- Once the Business DNA is set up, you can either pick from generated campaign ideas or prompt your own, and then receive a suite of branded assets (images + copy) ready for social, web or ads.
- The tool is launching as a public beta in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (English only) — so early access and experimentation are required.
- It’s positioned to solve the pain point for small‑to‑medium businesses of needing time/budget/design expertise to keep content fresh and consistent across channels.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Pinterest launches AI-powered shopping assistant
- Pinterest has launched the Pinterest Assistant, an AI-powered shopping companion that helps users browse, discover, and refine shopping ideas directly in the app.
- It uses conversational AI to help users better articulate what they’re looking for, making shopping on Pinterest more intuitive and personalised.
- The tool integrates with Pinterest’s visual search and product recommendation tech, streamlining product discovery across fashion, home decor, and more.
- Pinterest is rolling this out to select users in the US initially, with plans to expand to other markets in the coming months.
- This move underscores Pinterest’s push into being a serious player in social commerce, aiming to blend inspiration with purchase capability.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
ChatGPT Atlas is here, OpenAI’s new agentic browser
- OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser built with ChatGPT at its core – designed to be your browser and your AI assistant in one.
- Atlas integrates ChatGPT’s memory and browsing context so it can draw on your past chats & visited pages to help you complete tasks seamlessly (e.g., “Find all the job postings I was looking at last week…”).
- Built‑in “agent mode” lets ChatGPT act on your behalf (opening tabs, digging through docs, ordering groceries), launching now in preview for Plus/Pro/Business users.
- Privacy & control are emphasised: you decide what ChatGPT sees/does, you can toggle site visibility, archive or delete browsing memories, and it doesn’t by default use your browsing content for model training.
- From a marketing lens: this could shift how brands engage with users – the browser itself becomes an AI “assistant channel”, so think about discoverability, how your content might be surfaced in AI‑driven flows, and how user tasks might get delegated to agents rather than traditional navigation.
- Read more
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
LLM traffic for eComm converts worse than Google Search
- A study looking at 12 months of first‐party analytics data from 973 ecommerce sites (Aug 2024–Jul 2025) with combined revenue of approx. US$20 billion showed LLM traffic converted worse than Google Search.
- Traffic driven by ChatGPT (LLM referrals) was about 0.2% of total sessions—roughly 200 × smaller than organic from Google search.
- LLM referral traffic had a lower conversion rate and lower revenue per session compared with organic search and affiliate channels; only paid social converted worse.
- Session depth and average order value from LLM sources were also weaker than traditional search channels; the authors suggest shoppers may still “verify elsewhere” before buying.
- Read more
Cookies
Data privacy
Platforms
Google shuts down its Privacy Sandbox
- Google has retired 10 remaining Privacy Sandbox APIs (including Attribution Reporting, Topics, Protected Audience) for both Chrome and Android.
- The move follows Google dropping plans to phase out third‑party cookies in Chrome, meaning the familiar ad‑tech ecosystem remains intact — at least for now.
- While this offers stability for advertisers in the short term (you can keep relying on existing measurement/targeting tools), it signals that a truly privacy‑first ad framework is still unresolved.
- Google says it will continue privacy improvements (e.g., CHIPS, FedCM, Private State Tokens) but is moving away from the “Privacy Sandbox” branding.
- For marketers: it’s a moment to reassess your dependency on cookie‑based tracking, explore alternative signals and attribution models, and monitor where the ad‑tech ecosystem is heading next.
- Read more
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
81% of AI Mode sessions result in 0 clicks
- Key takeaways from the first ever AI mode study:
- Across the 250 tasks, the median number of clicks per task was 0. Users often didn't click out of AI Mode.
- Looking at the session level, external clicks were still rare. Only 77.6% of sessions had an external visit.
- Most people claimed that they "skimmed quickly" when reading AI Mode results.
- When external visits happened, they mostly occurred in "Shopping" results. 22% of the exits were attributed to a "Shopping Pack"
- When giving product options, AI Mode preferred to send users to marketplaces over brands for generic queries.
- Read more
AI in digital
Platforms
Meta’s Festive Season Guide is here
- Three key elements were highlighted to capitalise on the festive season to lower cost per result:
- Maximise opportunity score. Score is determined by examining an ad account vs other advertisers in the same industry so it does pay to action recommendations.
- Make use of AI advantage + features to optimise and automate parts of your campaign using AI (creative, targeting, placements, budgets).
- Meta also highlighted adding the meta verified badge to your ad accounts to build consumer trust, increased search result visibility and higher traffic through features like links on organic reels. However, we don’t necessarily recommend this due to the additional cost.
- Read more
Platforms
Import cost data directly from Meta and TikTok in GA4
- Google Analytics now offers native integrations to automatically import cost‑data from Meta Platforms (Meta) and TikTok ads, enabling unified cross‑channel spend and ROI tracking.
- The integration supports pulling up to 24 months of historical cost data and then ongoing automatic updates, reducing the need for manual uploads or third‑party connectors.
- Marketers must ensure they remove any overlapping manual cost‑data imports, as the system doesn’t automatically dedupe imported records — duplicates could inflate campaign cost/ROI results.
- With this update, Google Analytics becomes a more complete hub for paid‑media analysis, helping compare spend efficiency across Google, Meta and TikTok campaigns without siloed data.
- Read more
