Google Ads has announced three significant updates to the way it bids and manages budgets on your behalf. While the technical detail can get complex, the implications for your advertising spend are straightforward, and for business owners and marketing managers who rely on Google Ads to drive growth, understanding what’s changing matters more than ever. These updates began rolling out this month, with the most impactful change scheduled for 17th August.

Google’s AI Will Now Hunt for Customers You’re Currently Missing

The first update is the global expansion of a feature called Smart Bidding Exploration. In simple terms, Google’s AI will now actively look for additional customers you might be missing, people who are ready to buy but whose search behaviour falls slightly outside the patterns your campaigns normally target. Previously available only to a limited set of advertisers, this is now accessible to all, including those running Shopping campaigns. Crucially, it does this without requiring you to loosen your return-on-ad-spend targets, meaning Google is doing the exploratory work while still holding itself to your performance benchmarks. For businesses that feel they’ve hit a ceiling on their current campaigns, this is a meaningful new lever for growth.

Promotions and Sales Periods Just Got a Lot Less Manual

The second update introduces something called Promotion Mode, currently in beta. If you’ve ever run a product launch, a seasonal sale, or a flash promotion, you’ll know the manual effort involved in temporarily adjusting ad budgets and targets to match the spike in demand, then carefully resetting everything afterwards. Promotion Mode is designed to automate that process, giving Google permission to be more flexible during defined short windows without permanently changing your campaign settings. It’s an operational improvement as much as a strategic one, reducing the risk of human error during the moments when your campaigns matter most.

The August Update Every Advertiser Should Prepare For Now

The third update is the one that deserves the closest attention, because it will affect all campaigns that regularly run up against their daily budget limits, whether you actively choose to engage with it or not. From 17th August, Google will change how it optimises these campaigns behind the scenes, with the goal of delivering more predictable results when budgets are increased. Google will begin sending account notifications from 6th July and is recommending that advertisers review their cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend targets ahead of the rollout. Our advice: don’t wait for the notification. If you’re running budget-constrained campaigns, now is the right time to review your targets and ensure they still reflect your actual business goals, before Google’s changes trigger a recalibration that catches you off guard.

OpenAI have begun the rollout process of ads across its AI generative engine, ChatGPT. Users in the UK were prompted to select whether they wanted tailored ads based on the collected data from previous prompts or generic ones.

How can brands secure ad space on ChatGPT?

The sign-up process for marketing campaign ads on ChatGPT prompts users to create an account and provide basic business details.  Then, once the account is live, you’ll need to follow this process to upload your campaign:

1. Create a campaign

Setting up a campaign is done within ChatGPT’s ads manager. This provides controls around goals, which are the desired reach and clicks. Once set, you’ll then input the campaign name, your budget, the start and end dates, as well as toggle the targeting settings to your preference.

• Create ad groups

Ad groups are designed to provide conversion context hints. Allowing you to position campaigns by contextual relevance rather than utilising keywords like Google Ads would.

Within the ad groups, there are additional controls on bidding settings and in certain cases, audience parameters are also available.

• Start producing your ads

Unlike a Google, Meta or LinkedIn ad campaign, the actual result achieved greatly differs. Ad managers need to paste in a headline, description and the landing page URL.

The key difference is the asset; while a traditional style campaign image can be used, it’s often better to use a high-resolution logo or photograph, as the display size is modest and will need to be legible to users.

• Upload campaigns in clusters

ChatGPT is fitted with capabilities to support multiple campaign uploads.

The workflow is:

• Download your campaigns template.
• Fill in all of your campaign, ad group, and ad information.
• Upload the completed file through Ads Manager

What do the ads on ChatGPT look like?

Each campaign is displayed just above the text box, positioned below any search results.

How will UK regulation impact advertising on ChatGPT?

There are a number of regulations that will impact both the user experience and campaign managers. EU regulations and policies stipulate:

Consent requirements in the EU mean users must provide consent before their personal data can be used to personalise advertising. If users choose not to opt in, advertisers may need to rely on contextual targeting or generic advertisements instead.

Restrictions on the types of campaigns allowed. EU regulations place significant restrictions on the use of sensitive personal data for advertising, profiling of children, and certain forms of political advertising. As a result, advertisers face tighter controls over how campaigns are targeted and delivered compared with many non-EU markets.

As ChatGPT continues to evolve from a conversational AI platform into an advertising channel, brands are being presented with a new opportunity to reach users in highly contextual environments. While the platform’s advertising capabilities are still developing, its emphasis on conversational relevance rather than traditional keyword targeting could reshape how marketers approach campaign planning. However, with increasing regulatory scrutiny around privacy, personalisation and AI-driven advertising, businesses will need to balance innovation with compliance as they explore this emerging marketing channel.

The digital advertising landscape is experiencing a foundational shift. OpenAI has officially transitioned its conversational AI advertising from a quiet pilot into a fully-fledged media channel. With a self-serve Ads Manager, cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, and advanced tracking pixels now live, conversational marketing is moving from an experimental tool into a core acquisition strategy. For forward-thinking brands, understanding how to navigate this new ecosystem is no longer optional.

Understanding the Conversational Ad Engine

Unlike traditional search engines that rely heavily on keyword bidding, ChatGPT ads are triggered by contextual relevance and user intent within a live chat session. Sponsored cards appear cleanly beneath the AI’s organic response, ensuring that the ad does not compromise the core user experience. This means brands are purchasing premium proximity to highly engaged, intent-rich decision moments. Furthermore, if users opt into personalisation, the system can safely leverage previous chat history and session memory to match the most relevant ad to the consumer.

Strict Guardrails and Product Catalogue Demands

OpenAI has established non-negotiable parameters around data privacy and brand safety. Advertisers never receive raw chat logs, names, or precise locations; instead, performance is delivered via non-identifying aggregate data. Additionally, ads are strictly prohibited in sensitive verticals like healthcare, politics, and financial services. For e-commerce retailers utilising the new automated product feed ads, entry requires a rigorous compliance check. Brands must submit a flawless 100-product sample feed evaluated for data completeness and high creative standards before their full catalogue is accepted.

Preparing Your Brand for AI-First Marketing

To capitalise on this rolling expansion, marketing teams must optimise their assets for conversational environments rather than keyword density. Ad copy should adopt a calm, confident register that echoes the natural phrasing of user queries. Because the system utilises session memory, establishing a strong organic presence through Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is vital. Ensuring your brand is consistently cited in early research stages will organically compound your relevance when the ad auction triggers later in the buyer’s journey.

Nostalgia marketing is a key tactic used to tap into emotional and resonant memories from the past. When used effectively, it can bring feelings of joy or contentment; this familiarity that’s established helps to reinforce trust and authority.

What Can Make Nostalgia Marketing So Effective?

Creating feelings of nostalgia is a technique which taps into culture, emotion, identity, social connection and even moments of escapism. By creating a moment for viewers to reminisce, brands are able to effectively make the audience engage, which can help with their effort to strengthen emotional bonds and influence purchasing decisions.

Utilising nostalgic elements is particularly effective for prompting emotional engagement; it often helps brands stand out in oversaturated markets. People are more likely to engage with and invest in something which creates this kind of response.

When a campaign is able to successfully connect to existing memories, the recall of messaging, helping to forge trust. Rather than the viewer creating a new association, it is associated with memories consumers already have.

Familiarity often prompts people to discuss the past, which encourages viewers to share and engage with campaigns. This not only helps improve reach, but it also improves brand awareness and recognition. This type of engagement helps create social proof. Consumers engaging with it in this sense implicitly signal that it’s worth paying attention to.

When Doesn’t Nostalgia Marketing Work?

Whilst it can be powerful, this tactic isn’t automatically effective. This can happen when the nostalgic element overwhelms the messaging, isn’t aligned with the offering, or lacks relevance to the audience. For instance, what may be nostalgic for a millennial may not land at all for a Gen Z consumer.

The most common causes for nostalgia-based campaigns not working include:

• When the campaign feels forced
• Seeming inauthentic
• It conflicts with the brand’s position
• The nostalgia factor overshadows the product
• People’s unique experiences and responses
• Potentially overused or tired product campaigns

Key Examples of Successful Nostalgia-Based Marketing Campaigns

Some key examples of when it’s been done right include Argos’ “toys” campaign. McDonald’s adult Happy Meal product campaigns, along with Cadbury’s 200-year celebration of the brand.

‘There’s more to Argos than toys’

Argos’ latest campaign draws on nostalgia through clever visual references. Using everyday items like fridges and sofas in bold packaging reminiscent of children’s toy boxes, the campaign reminds people that Argos is more than just a place to buy toys.

For readers who grew up in the generation of catalogues, the throwback to getting toys from Argos is a fond memory. I too grew up circling the ideal toys for my Christmas list, so seeing this campaign puts a clever spin on how brands grow alongside their audience.

The campaign cleverly reminds passers-by that Argos stocks far more than what’s in the toy box, reinforcing the message that “there’s more to Argos”.

Cadbury’s Celebrated 200 Years of Business

Arguably, one of the best campaigns for its nostalgia factor was Cadbury’s 200-year celebration, which saw packaging revamped or, more fittingly, pulled back in time through the revival of its historic designs.

The TV advert produced alongside the campaign perfectly matches the nostalgic feel. It sets the scene at the advent of the Dairy Milk bar before transitioning into a present-day setting, showing that whilst times may have changed, consumer buying habits and emotional connections to the brand remain the same.

McDonald’s Adult Happy Meals

Whilst McDonald’s hasn’t explicitly marketed its adult meals as “Adult Happy Meals”, many of us who grew up pleading with our parents for a Happy Meal will recognise the same sense of excitement through its recent promotional releases.

Initially, it was the Grinch collaboration that sparked excitement. Customers could order a Grinch meal, featuring adult-sized products accompanied by a free pair of socks. This was then followed by the Friends x McDonald’s collaboration, where consumers were able to collect one of six figurines of the characters. Now, the excitement continues with the announcement of a new cup release for the FIFA World Cup.

The latest “Adult Happy Meal” taps directly into 2000s nostalgia through the return of the collectable Coca-Cola glasses, something that seemed to exist in every British household.

The campaign is particularly effective because it taps into the positive emotions attached to nostalgic purchasing experiences, reminding consumers of the excitement and familiarity associated with childhood treats and collectables.

Nostalgia is most effective when it supports a brand’s message rather than replacing it. While nostalgic campaigns can build emotional connections, trust, and engagement, they can fail when they feel inauthentic, target the wrong audience, or rely so heavily on the past that consumers lose sight of the product itself. The most successful campaigns use nostalgia as a bridge between meaningful memories and a compelling modern brand story.

If you run paid search campaigns, this week just got urgent. Google has begun deleting hourly, daily, and weekly reporting data older than 37 months, with the policy taking effect from 1 June 2026. This is what needs to be done over the coming days.

What’s Actually Changing and What Isn’t

It’s easy to panic, so let’s be precise. Granular reporting data, including hourly, daily, and weekly figures, will now only be retained for 37 months, while monthly, quarterly, and annual data remains accessible for 11 years. Once data passes its retention window, it will no longer be accessible through the Google Ads interface or APIs – meaning your dashboards, automated reports, and data warehouse pipelines could all be affected. If your agency holds years of campaign history for benchmarking or client reviews, that granular layer is now gone unless you already exported it.

Why This Hits Agencies the Hardest

For those of us managing multiple client accounts, the operational risk here is significant. Organisations running complex omnichannel reporting by blending data from multiple Google APIs need to audit their extraction workflows carefully to avoid serving clients incomplete performance dashboards. Think about seasonal trend analysis, day-of-week performance benchmarking, or long-term A/B test comparisons; all that granular intelligence becomes inaccessible without proactive data management.

Three Actions to Take This Week

Don’t wait for a client to ask why their historical chart has gaps. First, export all hourly, daily, and weekly data beyond 37 months immediately. Second, review any automated reporting workflows to confirm whether they store historical data independently or only query Google Ads on demand. The latter will now fail silently. Third, consider moving to a third-party data warehouse solution to ensure long-term retention sits outside Google’s control entirely.

Is advertising during a sports game an effective way to spend ad budget?

You may be wondering whether investing in advertising during the World Cup is the right move for your business. The answer depends on several factors. Are your business and product offering suitable for this type of exposure? Do you have the budget and resources to secure ad space, whether pitch-side, online, or during broadcast ad breaks?

These are the key questions businesses must consider when evaluating the practicality of World Cup advertising. For established brands, the risks are relatively low compared to those faced by SMEs.

Take major brands such as PepsiCo. They can launch high-impact campaigns with less risk because their brand is already widely recognised, and they typically have larger budgets to produce memorable, visually impressive advertising. Smaller brands, however, face a greater challenge. If their campaigns fail to stand out, they can easily fade into the background amongst the noise of global competition.

What are the regulations around advertising for FIFA games?

Advertising during FIFA events is subject to several regulations and broadcasting standards, including:

·         Gambling and alcohol advertisements cannot appear in areas affiliated with under-18 audiences, such as junior club sections or youth kits.

·         Campaigns must not imply official endorsement or representation of clubs without authorisation.

·         Foods and beverages high in fat, sugar, or salt cannot be promoted before the 9 pm watershed.

·         Ofcom regulates television advertising time, with commercial breaks generally limited to around 12 minutes per hour.

Does the placement of ads matter during the World Cup?

Placement is critical, regardless of the advertising format. Whether ads appear on websites, pitch-side banners, social media feeds, or during half-time breaks, placement directly impacts visibility and audience engagement.

Effective placement increases the likelihood of capturing viewers’ attention, improving brand recall, and ultimately generating a stronger return on investment (ROI).

Securing ad campaigns during sporting events

The strategy brands choose during the World Cup can significantly influence campaign performance.

For smaller brands, lower-risk strategies such as paid social and browser advertising are often more practical. These channels allow businesses to target audiences affordably without directly competing for premium placements against globally recognised brands.

Brands looking to expand their paid advertising strategy may invest in options such as newspaper takeovers, allowing them to dominate a publication’s homepage or digital front page for a set period.

Larger brands, meanwhile, often pursue premium placements such as pitch-side advertising, sponsorship deals, or impression-based broadcast packages. Sponsorships, in particular, are highly effective during major sporting events, helping to create strong associations between a brand, its products, and global competitions such as the FIFA World Cup.

Ultimately, successful World Cup advertising comes down to strategy, placement, and audience relevance. While global brands may dominate the biggest spaces, smaller businesses can still achieve strong results through targeted, well-positioned campaigns that align with both their budget and objectives.

As marketing experts, we constantly preach the importance of meeting your audience where they are. Right now, that “where” is undeniably short-form vertical video. Fresh data reveals a massive shift in Meta’s ecosystem: half of all ads globally on Instagram are now running on Reels.

If you are still allocating the majority of your paid social budget to traditional static feed placements, you are missing the cultural and behavioural shift happening right in front of your eyes.

The Numbers Behind the Shift

The transition to Reels-first advertising isn’t a slow burn; it is an accelerated takeover. Findings show that Reels accounted for 50% of global Instagram ad placements, up from 35% the prior year. In the U.S. market specifically, Reels secured 46% of the entire ad inventory. This trend isn’t isolated to Instagram either; Facebook Reels saw 29% of its global ad inventory shift to the short-form video format.

Why Meta is Going All-In on Reels

This surge in ad inventory is no accident. Meta has intentionally reoriented its platforms around Reels, algorithmic recommendations, and direct messaging. According to Meta’s internal data, video watch time is up 20% year-over-year, and Reels now command more than half of the total time users spend on Instagram. By testing layouts that replace the traditional home tab with a dedicated Reels view, Meta is training users to consume content vertically and continuously.

What This Means for Your Marketing Budget

While short-form video traditionally yields lower immediate monetisation rates than classic feed ads, it is the ultimate engine for user retention. Instagram’s daily active users grew by 2% alongside this Reels boom.

To bridge the gap, Meta has rolled out advanced, AI-driven ad tools like “trending ads” to help brands seamlessly curate culturally relevant creative. As marketers, our mandate for the upcoming quarters is clear: stop treating Reels as an optional add-on campaign extension. It is time to treat vertical, narrative-driven video as the foundation of your social ad strategy.

For years, Google has dominated the digital advertising world. But according to recent forecasts from EMARKETER, 2026 could mark a major turning point: Meta is expected to surpass Google in digital ad revenue for the first time.

At Intelligency, we see this as more than just an industry headline. It reflects how consumer behaviour, AI, and advertising performance are evolving and why brands need to rethink where they invest their marketing budgets.

Why Meta Is Growing So Quickly

Meta’s projected ad revenue is expected to reach $243.46 billion in 2026, slightly ahead of Google’s forecasted $239.54 billion.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are becoming increasingly effective at helping advertisers reach the right audiences at the right time. Meta’s AI-powered tools, including Advantage+ and automated creative optimisation, are making campaigns easier to manage while improving results. Reels has also become a major driver of engagement and ad growth.

In simple terms, advertisers are seeing stronger returns from Meta’s ecosystem, and they’re increasing spend accordingly.

What This Means for Businesses

This shift doesn’t mean Google advertising is disappearing. Search ads still play a critical role, especially when users are actively looking for products or services.

However, Meta’s rise highlights an important trend: discovery-based advertising is becoming just as valuable as intent-based advertising. Consumers are increasingly discovering brands through social content rather than traditional search alone.

For businesses, that means successful digital marketing strategies can no longer rely on one channel. Brands need a balanced approach that combines search, social, video, and AI-driven targeting.

The Bigger Picture

Another important takeaway is market consolidation. EMARKETER predicts Meta, Google, and Amazon will collectively control over 62% of global digital ad spend in 2026.

For marketers, this creates both opportunity and competition. The platforms are becoming more sophisticated, but standing out requires stronger creativity, smarter targeting, and continuous optimisation.

At Intelligency, we help brands navigate exactly this kind of change, turning industry shifts into practical growth strategies that deliver measurable results.

OpenAI’s latest move could have much bigger implications for digital marketing than it might first appear. ChatGPT is reportedly beginning to test cost-per-click, or CPC, advertising, shifting part of its model away from simple ad visibility and towards measurable performance.

That matters because it pushes ChatGPT closer to the territory traditionally dominated by Google. Instead of being seen only as an AI assistant or an experimental branding space, it starts to look more like a genuine performance marketing channel.

For marketers, this is another sign that the platforms shaping search, discovery and digital advertising are continuing to blur together.

What is changing?

Up to now, much of the conversation around advertising in ChatGPT has centred on visibility and impressions. The introduction of CPC ads changes that dynamic. It means advertisers may be able to pay when someone actually clicks, rather than simply when an ad is shown.

That is a major shift in mindset. Impression-based advertising is often useful for awareness, but CPC pricing brings the conversation much closer to ROI, lead generation and commercial performance. In simple terms, it makes ChatGPT feel more like a channel marketers can compare directly with established search and paid media platforms.

Why this matters more than it might seem

The important part here is not just the pricing model itself. It is what the pricing model says about where OpenAI sees ChatGPT going next.

CPC advertising is strongly associated with performance marketing. It is built around the idea that advertisers want to pay for action, not just presence. Google has dominated that world for years because search behaviour often carries very clear intent. People type in what they want, click on a result, and frequently go on to buy, enquire or convert.

By moving towards CPC, ChatGPT is stepping into that same conversation. It suggests OpenAI wants advertisers to view the platform as a place where commercial outcomes can happen, not just brand exposure.

That gives this change a wider significance. It is not merely a product tweak. It is a strategic signal.

What marketers should be thinking about

For most marketers, the big question will not be whether CPC ads exist in ChatGPT. It will be whether the clicks are actually valuable.

That is where the comparison with Google becomes important. Search advertising works well because users often reveal strong intent. Someone searching for a service, a product or a solution is already partway down the decision-making path. ChatGPT will need to prove that conversational interactions can create similarly meaningful opportunities.

That means marketers should be thinking about things like:

• how intent shows up in AI conversations
• whether ChatGPT users are in research mode, decision mode or simply exploring
• how click quality compares with traditional paid search traffic
• whether conversions justify the cost

This is where early testing could become very valuable. Brands that get in early may be able to learn quickly, before competition increases and costs rise.

Could this become a real rival to Google?

Google’s strength has always been its ability to monetise intent at scale. That is not easy to replicate. ChatGPT may have rich conversational context, but advertisers will want evidence that this context can produce commercially useful clicks, not just curiosity.

Still, the direction of travel is clear. If ChatGPT develops stronger ad infrastructure, better measurement tools and broader self-serve ad capabilities, it becomes much easier to see how marketing budgets could begin shifting in its direction.

In other words, this is not yet a replacement for Google Search advertising, but it could become a more serious challenger for parts of the same budget.

What should brands do next?

Most brands do not need to rush blindly into this. But they should pay attention.

A sensible response would be to:

• watch how OpenAI develops its ad platform
• assess whether ChatGPT fits your audience and customer journey
• compare any future test results carefully against Google and other paid channels
• treat this as an emerging performance opportunity, not just a novelty

For marketing leaders, the real value right now is awareness. The advertising landscape is shifting again, and this looks like one of those moments that may seem small at first but become more important very quickly.

Final thoughts

OpenAI’s move towards CPC ads in ChatGPT is about much more than pricing. It is a sign that ChatGPT is evolving into a more commercially ambitious advertising platform, one that may increasingly compete for the same performance budgets that have long flowed into search.

For marketers, the takeaway is simple. ChatGPT is no longer just a tool people use to ask questions. It is beginning to look like a channel where intent, clicks and ROI may start to matter in a much bigger way.

That does not mean Google is suddenly in trouble. But it does mean the competitive shape of digital advertising is continuing to change, and marketers would be wise to keep watching.

Google’s decision to phase out Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) in favour of AI Max marks a notable shift in search advertising. While it is being positioned as progress, marketing departments should approach this change with a degree of scrutiny. Increased automation can drive efficiency, but it also reduces visibility and control, raising important questions about transparency, performance, and long-term reliance on Google’s ecosystem.

A Strategic Shift Away from DSAs

Dynamic Search Ads have long offered a practical way to capture incremental demand, particularly where keyword coverage was incomplete. They were not perfect, but they gave marketers a relatively clear view of how queries mapped to content and performance.

With Google removing the ability to create new DSA campaigns and automatically migrating existing ones, advertisers are being steered toward a more consolidated, AI-led approach. This shift limits optionality and signals a move away from tools that allowed for more hands-on management.

AI Max: Greater Efficiency or Reduced Control?

AI Max promises a more integrated approach, combining keywords, creative, and landing pages into a single system that optimises in real time. In theory, this should improve efficiency and performance.

However, that efficiency comes with trade-offs. As automation increases, the ability to see exactly how decisions are made can diminish. For marketing leaders, this raises valid concerns about where budgets are being allocated, how messaging is being adapted, and what levers remain available for meaningful optimisation.

Preparing for an Opaquer Future

As the transition unfolds, marketing teams will need to balance adoption with caution. Success will still depend on strong inputs such as high-quality creative and landing pages, but oversight becomes more challenging when decision-making is abstracted into AI systems.

Rather than fully embracing the shift at face value, leaders should test incrementally, monitor performance closely, and push for as much transparency as possible. This is not just a change in tools. It is a shift in control.

Ultimately, AI Max may deliver results, but it also concentrates more power within Google’s platform. For marketing teams, the priority should be ensuring that efficiency gains do not come at the expense of clarity, accountability, and strategic flexibility.