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
AI Mode now available in more languages
- AI Mode now supports five additional languages: Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.
- Powered by advanced Gemini 2.5 model: Google emphasises that beyond mere translation, the AI Mode delivers nuanced, locally relevant insights by leveraging localised information understanding.
- More sophisticated than traditional search: With reasoning and multimodal (text + image) capabilities, AI Mode enables deeper learning—especially useful for asking complex questions in one’s preferred language.
- Accessible via google.com/ai: Users can now engage with AI Mode directly, asking complex queries in their new supported language and exploring richer web content.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Updated shopping results in ChatGPT
- Visual refresh on product grids: The display is cleaner now—larger product images, no overlaid labels, and removal of the “ChatGPT chooses products independently” notice.
- Product titles sometimes pulled from HTML <title> tags: Instead of just using the feed title, ChatGPT shopping results may now pull titles directly from the website’s <title> tag—this is different to how Google Shopping works.
- Product-specific reviews removed: Feed‑eligible reviews no longer appear in the results. ChatGPT has stopped displaying product review snippets altogether.
- Currency now clearly shown in the grid when relevant: ChatGPT grids now reflect the currency appropriate to the user’s location (e.g. showing AUD when browsing from Australia).
- Shifting away from Shopify‑centric sources: The results now seem less reliant on “partner” platforms like Shopify; more variation in content sources is evident—OpenAI‑hosted images, fewer Amazon/eBay links.
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AI in digital
Platforms
AI may become default for Google Search
- Google may soon default to AI Mode for search: Logan Kilpatrick (lead PM at Google DeepMind/Gemini) announced AI Mode will become the default “soon.” This follows google.com/ai redirecting directly to the AI Mode interface.
- Mixed messaging from Google leadership: Robby Stein (VP Product, Google Search) cautioned against interpreting “default soon” as imminent, suggesting instead that the focus is simply on making AI Mode easier to access.
- Google clarifies AI Mode isn’t replacing standard Search: Logan later emphasised that AI Mode isn’t meant to supplant “main Search”; rather, more AI‑powered responses and functionality will be integrated into core search experiences like AI Overviews from the search box.
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Platforms
Google Ads combines App + Web campaigns with new features
- Expanded Web to App Connect: Now supports more campaign types including YouTube, Hotel, and Demand Gen, in addition to prior support for Performance Max, Search, and Shopping. This means ad clicks from these channels can now direct users straight into an app.
- Unified Reporting & Workflows: Incorporates in‑product nudges prompting marketers to optimise toward in‑app events. Unified conversions now bundle together web and app events for simpler setup and clearer insights. Plus, a combined overview card on the Ads homepage lets you compare web and app performance side‑by‑side.
- App Install Measurement via Web Campaigns: For the first time, Search and Shopping campaigns can be credited with driving app installs and in‑app conversions.
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Platforms
Platforms in travel
Sales & Promotions Feature Bundle with Flighted Budgets
- New feature bundle launched: Google is piloting a “Sales & Promotions Feature Bundle with Flighted Budgets” to help advertisers amplify spend during short, high-impact promotional periods—without overspending.
- Main components: Campaign Total Budgets – lets advertisers set a total spend limit over a defined window (3 to 90 days). Promotion Mode – accelerates spend over a shorter burst (3 to 14 days), shifting focus toward volume rather than strict efficiency.
- Cross‑campaign compatibility: Supports Performance Max, Search, and Shopping campaigns, including those using tROAS and tCPA bidding strategies.
- Smarter spend orchestration: Unlike standard Smart Bidding which reacts to expected conversion shifts, this bundle actively uses sale dates, promotional assets, and explicit ROAS trade-offs to deliver stronger signals for promo periods—and reallocates budget accordingly.
- Best suited for: Time-sensitive promotions like flash sales, holiday weekends, seasonal campaigns, ticket launches, travel deals, or any short‑term event where timing and quick impact matter.
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Platforms
Add custom event parameters to Ads and Floodlight tags directly in GTM
- Google Tag Manager now lets you add custom event parameters directly to Ads and Floodlight tags, something previously only doable via manual gtag() implementations.
- New “Event Parameters” field group appears within GTM’s interface for Ads and Floodlight event tags—so you can send custom parameters like audience or conversion details, configure tracker settings (e.g. user data dispatch), and reuse those via an Event Settings variable.
- This fills a long‑standing gap in GTM’s capabilities, freeing advertisers from workaround custom code and aligning GTM’s tooling more with raw gtag() functionality—while keeping everything manageable through the GTM UI.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Google’s informational search share drops while ChatGPT usage triples
- ChatGPT usage nearly tripled in six months: from 4.1% of U.S. users in February to 12.5% in August, while Google's share of general information searches dropped from 73% to 66.9%.
- Daily AI tool usage doubled: the share of respondents using AI tools every day rose from 14% to 29%.
- Platform switching is rising: 35% of users reported changing their primary search tool, up from 28% in February.
- Local search is being influenced too: even local searches saw AI use doubling to 10%, indicating AI is gaining ground across different search types.
- AI’s mainstream adoption is accelerating: overall, the trend indicates a growing shift toward AI tools for everyday information seeking, presenting a challenge to Google’s traditional search dominance.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Apple AI coming in 2026
- Apple’s World Knowledge Answers arriving in 2026: A new AI-powered answer engine for Siri, internally named World Knowledge Answers, is expected to debut next year as a major upgrade to Siri’s search capabilities.
- Multimodal answers with richer content: Unlike Siri’s current fact-check format, the new system will produce dynamic, multimodal summaries that integrate text, images, video, and local search results.
- Expansion beyond Siri into core iOS tools: The technology will also be rolled out in Safari and Spotlight, broadening its presence across Apple’s ecosystem.
- Powered in part by Google’s Gemini LLM: Apple will leverage Google’s Gemini AI model as a key component of this system.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Microsoft Copilot jumps 175% in a quarter, outpacing ChatGPT growth
- Microsoft Copilot is skyrocketing: From March to June, Copilot added 5.6 million mobile users in the U.S.—a whopping 175% jump—taking its total to around 8.8 million. This growth significantly outpaced ChatGPT’s 3.9 million users (17.9% increase) in the same period.
- ChatGPT remains the heavyweight: Despite slower growth, ChatGPT still leads with 25.4 million mobile users—clear sector dominance even as rivals close in.
- Mobile is where it’s at: Overall mobile usage of AI tools rose 5.3% (from 69.7M to 73.4M) over the past three months, while desktop usage plunged 11.1%. From November 2024 to June 2025, mobile adoption surged 82%, signalling consumers truly shifting to AI on the go.
- Google’s Gemini is climbing, too: Growth of 68% brought its mobile user base to about 14.3 million—boosted in part by being preloaded on Pixel phones.
- Enterprise muscle and stickiness matter: Most notably, over 85% of frequent AI assistant users stick to one platform, showing these tools are becoming habitual. OpenAI boasts the strongest user retention, while Microsoft’s integration with enterprise tools like Microsoft 365 gives Copilot a unique growth edge.
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AI in digital
Platforms
AI platforms disagree on 62% of queries
- According to a new Brightedge report, when it comes to brand mentions, different AI platforms disagree on 62% of queries.
- Across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT, brands were only seen across all 3 platforms 33.5% of the time per prompt.
- Just 4.6% of queries got zero brands across all platforms.
- Google AIO mentions 2.5x more brands than ChatGPT.
- Only 17% of queries result in the same brands across all platforms. But add “compare” or “buy” and agreement jumpts to 62-80%. Commercial intent doesn’t just trigger brands, it aligns them.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Claude flips on privacy-first approach: Users must now opt-out their data
- Major policy shift: Anthropic now defaults to using consumer chats and code to train Claude models—unless users actively opt out—marking a clear departure from its earlier privacy‑first approach.
- The UI nudge: A prominent “Accept” button opts users in by default, while the smaller “help improve” toggle (which disables sharing) is off to the side and easily overlooked.
- Retention changes: Opt‑in = data retained for up to five years for model training; opt‑out = stays under the existing 30‑day deletion policy.
- Who’s affected: Applies to Claude Free, Pro, Max, and Claude Code consumer tiers. Commercial, educational, government, and API (via Bedrock or Vertex) users remain unaffected.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
AI traffic converting at same rate as organic
- LLM traffic converts at roughly the same rate as organic search, with organic averaging 4.60% and LLM referrals at 4.87%—a difference that is not statistically significant.
- LLM-driven sessions remain rare, accounting for less than 1% of overall traffic, while organic search comprises roughly 32%.
- The challenge is scale, not quality—despite claims that AI referrals bring more qualified clicks, current data suggest conversion effectiveness is similar to organic search.
- Past research supports this, with a May 2025 study finding that user engagement from LLM referrals was generally lower than from organic sources—LLMs only edged ahead in specific verticals like health, careers, and catalog sites.
- Our take: Do your own research. Conversion rates will be different across brands, verticals, and industries. We recommend keeping a close eye on conversion rate changes across LLMs for your own traffic.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Google to show more links within AI Mode
- Embedded Link Carousels (Desktop Only for Now): Google has introduced clickable carousels within AI Mode responses on desktop, showcasing multiple contextual source links right inside the answer to encourage deeper exploration. Mobile support is coming soon.
- Smarter Inline Links: The underlying AI models now intelligently determine where inline links should appear directly in the text—especially at moments when users are most likely to want to click and learn more.
- Expanding the Web Guide Experiment: Web Guide, a Gemini-powered feature that groups helpful links by topic, is moving beyond the "Web" tab in Search Labs and will start appearing on the main "All" tab for opted-in users when relevant.
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Help desk
Platforms
Google August 2025 Spam update
- August 2025 spam update rollout: Google launched its August 2025 spam update on 26 August around midday ET. It's a global update covering all languages and is expected to gradually roll out over several weeks.
- Quick-seen impact: Unlike some updates where effects only appear after a few days, this one generated ranking fluctuations in under 24 hours, with many SEOs noticing shifts immediately.
- What’s targeted — and what’s not: The update penalises sites breaching Google’s spam policies, but notably excludes link spam and reputation‑related abuses.
- Context & comparisons: This is Google’s first spam update since December 2024 and follows closely after the June 2025 core update – marking a more aggressive season for algorithm changes.
- Advice for marketers: Don’t rush changes mid‑rollout. Instead, keep an eye on Search Console trends, audit your content for compliance with spam rules, and double down on quality, E‑E‑A‑T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), and user-first SEO tactics.
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Data privacy
Tranche Two of Australia’s Privacy Act reforms now in consultation
- The Australian Government has kicked off targeted stakeholder consultation for the second tranche of Privacy Act reforms—building on the groundwork laid by the 2024 amendments.
- This follows the release of a 116‑recommendation review report in 2023 and the introduction of Tranche 1 reforms in December 2024.
- The next wave is expected to contain new rules on first and third-party data collection, an updated definition of personal information and the introduction of a ‘fair and reasonable test’.
- While the content of forthcoming reforms remains under development, the consultation signals serious momentum toward completing the overhaul of Australia’s digital‑age privacy framework. Though it remains to be seen whether the second tranche is still on track to be completed this year.
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Platforms
Google introduces Merchant API and sunsets Content API for Shopping
- Google has launched the Merchant API (August 2025) — a streamlined, simplified API replacing the older Content API for managing product data and Merchant Center accounts.
- Now generally available, it offers programmatic access to data, insights, and enhanced control over how you showcase products and business information across Google.
- This API serves both organic (free listings) and ad-related experiences, bringing everything under one interface for easier management at scale.
- Google will be sunsetting the old Content API for Shopping and it will be no longer in use after August 18, 2026.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
AI models prefer product descriptions written by AI models
- A peer-reviewed study (PNAS) reveals that large language models (LLMs) consistently favour AI‑written content over human‑written text in head‑to‑head comparisons for product descriptions.
- Preferences quantified: When LLMs themselves generated the AI product descriptions, other models preferred those AI versions significantly more often than human raters did (89% vs 36%).
- “Gate tax” warning: The authors caution that as more commercial platforms use AI to filter or rank content, businesses may feel pressured to use AI tools just to stay visible – creating an unfair advantage for AI‑assisted creators.
- Caveats: The study’s human baseline was small (just 13 research assistants), and the pairwise test method doesn’t measure actual sales or real‑world impact. The cause of the LLM bias is still unclear, and further research is needed.
- Takeaway: With AI systems potentially favouring AI‑written copy, teams should treat this as a testable concern—not a rule. Keep human involvement for tone, veracity and brand voice, and prioritise customer experience over just optimising for AI preferences.
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Data privacy
Marketing by numbers
Data privacy a major concern for Aussies shopping online
- Data privacy a major e‑commerce friction point: According to the 2025 Digital Commerce Imperative report by Publicis Sapient, 42% of surveyed Australians named data privacy as a top concern when shopping online.
- Data privacy second-most concern for Australians: When shopping online, Australian’s cited data privacy as their second biggest concern (33%), only after customer service issues (39%).
- Australian’s more concerned than other countries: When it comes to data privacy the survey found that Australian’s were the most concerned (42%), before the US (38%), France (35%), UK (30%), and Germany (28%).
- Unfortunatley, we cannot share the report here. Contact us to receive a copy.
AI in digital
Platforms
Upgraded AI Mode rolls out to more countries
- From just a few countries, AI Mode is now rolling out across 180+ countries and territories, though still limited to English.
- It’s not available in Australia yet but it is now across much of APAC, including Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.
- AI Mode is also getting smarter. Now not just summarising, it acts for you: it can find and even book dinner reservations based on your preferences.
- For users who opt into the Labs experiment (especially U.S.-based Google AI Ultra subscribers), AI Mode taps into past activity—like previous searches, Maps history and prior conversations—to serve up tailored results, starting with food and dining but expanding soon.
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AI in digital
Data privacy
Marketing by numbers
61% of Aussies trust AI‑driven product recommendations
- AI shopping assistants gaining ground: Nearly half (48 %) of Aussies have used AI assistants for product searches while shopping online, climbing to 66 % among those under 45.
- Mainstream momentum and trust: 78 % expect AI shopping tools to go mainstream, and 61 % trust AI‑driven product recommendations—suggesting growing confidence in AI‑based retail.
- Concerns linger, especially on privacy: A whopping 92 % of respondents have concerns about AI in shopping, with 64 % citing privacy and data security as the key issue. Still, 57 % would share their shopping habits for the sake of personalised AI recommendations.
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Platforms
Language targeting for search campaigns to be automated
- By the end of 2025, Google Ads will eliminate manual language targeting for Search campaigns — instead relying entirely on AI to detect and serve ads in the language users understand.
- This shift only applies to Search campaigns — language targeting remains manual for Display, YouTube, Shopping, and other formats.
- Google’s move is a further step toward automation-first campaign setups, simplifying things for advertisers but reducing direct control. Marketers will need to monitor performance extra carefully to catch any misfires or mismatched language placements.
- Feedback from the PPC community is mixed: some are hopeful this will streamline campaign management, while others worry about AI going rogue — mismatched languages, diluted targeting precision, especially in multilingual or niche markets.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
ChatGPT referrals drop 52%
- Referral traffic from ChatGPT has dropped 52% since 21 July 2025, according to Profound’s analysis of over 1 billion citations and 1 million referral visits.
- At the same time, Reddit citations surged 87% (over 10% of all ChatGPT citations), Wikipedia jumped 62% (nearly 13% citation share), and together with TechRadar, these three now account for 22% of all citations — up 53% in just one month.
- This decline wasn’t triggered by the release of GPT‑5 (launched 7 August 2025). The shift began earlier, suggesting OpenAI manually reweighted its retrieval system to favour “answer-first” sources.
- As a result, branded or conversion-oriented websites—the ones pushing demos, sign-ups, or sales—are receiving fewer citations and thus fewer referral clicks.
- The takeaway? With this new emphasis on answer-first content, brands must pivot to prioritising clear, informative, user‑first content if they want to remain visible within ChatGPT-driven discovery.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Referral traffic from Google drops 25% from AI Overviews
- Referral traffic from Google Search to premium publishers fell by up to 25%, with a median year‑on‑year decline of around 10 %. News sites dropped nearer 7 %, while non‑news brands dipped around 14 %.
- Broader studies show sharp drop‑offs in clicks and engagement:
Users clicked links under AI Overviews only 8 % of the time, versus 15 % without them—nearly halving click‑throughs.
Ahrefs found average click‑through rates were 34.5 % lower when AI Overviews appeared.
Authoritas reported that top‑ranked sites could lose up to 79 % of their traffic when overshadowed by AI Overviews.
- Google maintains that aggregate click volumes haven’t dropped and criticises these studies as methodologically flawed. Nonetheless, independent data underscores a clear trend of publishers losing visibility.
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AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
The Future of Search: In Marketing We Trust Report
- The way people search and buy online is changing. Younger generations, including Millennials and Gen Z are looking to social media and AI for their product research. We took a deep look into the future of search. SOME key insights include:
- 67% of Gen Z prefer social media to search for local results. New search platforms mean new optimisation approaches are needed.
- -14% YoY traffic drop for Google.com worldwide (26 billion visits). Google is losing its hegemony yet still represents 91% of search traffic.
- 700M weekly active users of ChatGPT as of August 2025. OpenAI and other AI platforms continue to grow.
- 82% of consumers use social media for product research, with YouTube (52%) being the most used, with Facebook closely following (45%), and Instagram (38%).
- Amongst US shoppers, AI tools were preferred when it comes to product comparisons and recommendations. However, for general searches and initial product research, respondents preferred traditional search (Google, Bing).
- Download report
AI in digital
Marketing by numbers
Platforms
Study finds ChatGPT adoption increases use of Google
- A study of 260 billion rows of clickstream data between January 2024 and June 2025 to study the Google Search behavior of users before and after their first interaction with ChatGPT found Google useage increased after ChatGPT.
- Google usage didn’t dip after people adopted ChatGPT. In fact, it slightly increased—so both tools are being used side by side.
- Even long-term ChatGPT users didn’t shift away from Googling—it turns out ChatGPT compliments search habits rather than replacing them.
- For CMOs, that means keep your SEO game strong, add AI‑search tactics, and watch your marketing mix to stay ahead.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Study of public GPT chats discovers the average prompt is 42 words long
- Users are prompting ChatGPT like collaborators, not search queries – the average prompt was 42 words long, showing people aren’t just searching—they’re engaging AI to complete multi-step tasks.
- Commands rule the day – 75% of the prompts weren't questions but requests for actions, signalling a clear move towards AI as a task-doer rather than just an answer finder.
- Highly specific, localised commercial queries are emerging – prompts often include high-intent product or service searches tied to a city (think “Shanghai high-temp filters” or “Guangzhou mooncake prices”), highlighting a gap in current SEO strategies.
- Persona-based prompts are on the rise – users are asking AI to "act as" experts like food critics, mental health advisors, or recruiters, shaping response tone and style.
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Platforms
New Conversions with Cart Data Diagnostics tool in Google Ads
- Google Ads has introduced the “Conversions with cart data diagnostics” tool, aimed at helping advertisers pinpoint and fix issues in their product‑level conversion setup—such as missing item details or mismatched IDs—with the goal of ensuring accurate campaign performance.
- The tool assesses conversion tracking health with clear labels—Excellent, Good, Needs attention, or Urgent—and provides actionable alerts to help maintain data integrity before campaign performance suffers.
- Cart-level data (like item ID, price, and quantity) powers richer insights and sharper campaign optimisation—but if this data is incomplete or misaligned, it can lead to underreporting and poor targeting. This diagnostic feature aims to prevent those pitfalls.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Gemini and Claude can now remember you
- Catching up with ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have announced new abilities for the AI tools to remember chats.
- Gemini has a new setting that allows it to learn from your past conversations over time. When this setting is on, Gemini remembers key details and preferences you've shared, leading to more natural and relevant conversations.
- Claude can now reference past chats, so you can easily pick up from where you left off. Once enabled for your account you can toggle on in settings.
- Read more about Gemini and/or Read more about Claude
Platforms
Perfomance Max Campaigns get an upgrade
- Campaign-level negative keyword lists are now available for Performance Max campaigns—making it easier to exclude unwanted search terms across multiple campaigns with a single list.
- The limit for search themes per asset group has increased from 25 to 50, helping expand your reach with more relevant search term coverage.
- You can now access search terms reporting for all Performance Max campaigns (including via API), giving more transparency into how search queries are performing.
- Enhanced demographic targeting has been introduced—including more granular age targeting, new gender-based controls (currently in beta), and device targeting to fine-tune which devices your ads reach.
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AI in digital
Platforms
Google preparing to roll out ads in AI Mode
- Google is preparing a broad rollout of “AI Mode” ads before Q4, pitching brands and agencies on how they differ from traditional search, with placements in Google Search, Google Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns.
- Ads will be text and shopping formats, available in English in the US on mobile and desktop, and are still officially marked as an “experiment.”
- To run ads in AI Mode, AI-powered targeting tools are required, including broad match for Search, AI Max (beta), PMax, and Shopping Ads — with an emphasis on “feed hygiene” to keep product catalogues updated.
- Google says ad targeting will factor in both the user’s search query and the AI Mode’s generated content, offering potentially deeper contextual relevance.
- Contact us for more information.
