https://www.todays.marketing/news/Marketing news every day: ad platform and algorithm changes, SEO and AEO updates, privacy rules and big martech launches, each with a source link and our take.en-usTue, 27 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500https://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ranking-volatility-october-27/https://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ranking-volatility-october-27/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Search Engine Roundtable reported a larger spike in Google ranking volatility and SEO chatter on October 27, after unconfirmed swings on October 16, October 20 and 21, and October 24. Google has not confirmed an update. The last confirmed ranking event was the September 2026 spam update, which completed on October 8. Our take: Hold off on rewriting pages because of a week of tracker charts, since Google has confirmed nothing and the tracking tools are struggling. Mark these dates in your reporting and compare Search Console clicks for the two weeks after with the two weeks before. If one page group dropped and stayed down, review that group first.Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.todays.marketing/news/googlebot-favicon-redirects/https://www.todays.marketing/news/googlebot-favicon-redirects/Tue, 27 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Google updated its favicon documentation to say Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page and follow any redirects to the page where the favicon is specified. Googlebot-Image must be able to crawl the favicon file, and none of these URLs can be blocked by robots.txt or other means. Search Engine Roundtable reads it as a clarification of the earlier wording. Our take: Your favicon sits next to your result in Google, so a missing one makes your listing look less trustworthy. Crawl your homepage, follow every redirect to the favicon file and confirm robots.txt blocks none of those URLs. Teams that moved domains or added a www redirect this year should check first.Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ads-ai-review-summaries/https://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ads-ai-review-summaries/Mon, 26 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Google published a help document on review summaries, the AI summaries of online reviews shown as part of Search ads. Google aggregates reviews from across the web, and the summaries are positive only. They run in Search campaigns in all ad positions on Google.com. Our take: Reviews on third party sites now write part of your Search ad. Ask happy customers to name the specific result they got, since specific praise gives the summary better material. Search your top keywords to see what Google pulls for your brand, and fix outdated claims on any review profile you control.Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.todays.marketing/news/chatgpt-ads-learn-more-link-amazon-dsp/https://www.todays.marketing/news/chatgpt-ads-learn-more-link-amazon-dsp/Mon, 26 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Search Engine Roundtable reports that certain ChatGPT ad units now show a dotted, underlined Learn more link with an arrow. A marketer shared that a share of ChatGPT ads are served through Amazon DSP, based on click URLs that pass through Amazon’s click tracking server. He added that there is little detail on how the integration works. Our take: If Amazon DSP can buy ChatGPT inventory, retail media teams may reach ChatGPT users without a separate OpenAI account. Ask your Amazon DSP contact whether ChatGPT placements are open to you and how they report. Until then, write ChatGPT ad copy that earns the click on its own, since the new link is small.Search Engine Roundtablehttps://www.todays.marketing/news/eu-council-cookie-purposes-without-consent/https://www.todays.marketing/news/eu-council-cookie-purposes-without-consent/Sun, 25 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500EU ambassadors agreed a negotiating position on October 21 that rewrites Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive inside the Digital Omnibus. The text lists six purposes that would need no consent, including first party audience counting, media audience measurement and measurement of contextual advertising. Websites would still have to ask for consent for tracking and remarketing. Our take: Leave your cookie banner alone for now, because the European Parliament still has to agree and the final text can change. Start separating first party analytics and contextual measurement tags from tracking and remarketing tags today. When a final rule lands, you can move the first group out of the consent gate the same week.PPC Landhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/smart-bidding-exploration-performance-max-shopping/https://www.todays.marketing/news/smart-bidding-exploration-performance-max-shopping/Fri, 23 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Google Ads expanded Smart Bidding Exploration from Search to Performance Max and Shopping campaigns. The feature lets Target ROAS bidding pursue additional eligible searches that the standard strategy would skip. Campaigns must use Target ROAS and should not be limited by budget. Our take: This gives you a controlled way to loosen ROAS targets on search traffic without rebuilding campaigns. Turn it on for one Shopping or Performance Max campaign that hits its ROAS goal with budget to spare, and watch the new search terms for two weeks. If the new queries convert below your margin floor, switch it off before the holiday peak.Search Engine Landhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/performance-max-landing-page-images-sourced-videos/https://www.todays.marketing/news/performance-max-landing-page-images-sourced-videos/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Google Ads added two options to Performance Max asset optimization: Landing page images, which uses images from your website, and Sourced videos, which uses videos from other channels. The advertiser who spotted the change reports that Sourced videos was switched on automatically and can add up to 10 videos to an asset group. Ads using these assets carry an AI label in the European Union, India and New York state. Our take: Open every Performance Max campaign this week and check the Sourced videos toggle, since it may already be on. If your site has old product photos, claims in images or creator content you only licensed for social, switch these options off. If your library is clean, leave them on in one campaign and compare asset results before you roll them out.Search Engine Landhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/linkedin-ctv-ads-display-video-360/https://www.todays.marketing/news/linkedin-ctv-ads-display-video-360/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500LinkedIn expanded programmatic buying for its Connected TV ads through Google’s Display & Video 360. Advertisers can use LinkedIn targeting such as job title, industry and seniority on streaming inventory while buying in DV360. The option is available now for US targeting through a LinkedIn or Google account representative. Our take: B2B teams that already buy video in DV360 can now test TV with LinkedIn job title targeting without a new workflow. Start with one account segment and measure lift in branded search and direct traffic, since TV rarely gets the click. Keep the creative to one product and one line, because the viewer sees it from the couch.LinkedInhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/chatgpt-ads-creative-enhancements-default/https://www.todays.marketing/news/chatgpt-ads-creative-enhancements-default/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500OpenAI told advertisers it will enable creative enhancements for new and existing self serve ChatGPT campaigns on October 30, 2026. Enhancements can change headlines and descriptions, resize images, optimize destination URLs and translate ad text to fit the conversation. Advertisers can opt out before that date or change the setting later in Ads Manager. Our take: Decide before Friday, because enhanced variations can run without review and without a preview. If your category has legal claims, pricing rules or brand terms that must stay exact, opt out at the campaign level for those ads. For everything else, update your landing pages first, since OpenAI writes the new copy from them.Search Engine Landhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/youtube-shopping-affiliate-aliexpress/https://www.todays.marketing/news/youtube-shopping-affiliate-aliexpress/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500YouTube is expanding its Shopping affiliate program through a partnership with AliExpress, after adding Amazon product links earlier. Creators can tag AliExpress products in long form videos, Shorts and livestreams. The partnership starts in the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Germany. Our take: More products in the affiliate program means more creators tagging the same low cost items in their videos. If you sell physical products, get your own catalog into YouTube Shopping so creators can tag you instead of a lookalike. Give the creators you work with a clear reason to tag your product, such as a code or a better commission.MediaPosthttps://www.todays.marketing/news/reddit-campaign-planner-optimization-score/https://www.todays.marketing/news/reddit-campaign-planner-optimization-score/Wed, 21 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Reddit added three tools to Ads Manager on October 20: a campaign planner that forecasts reach, impressions and costs, an optimization score from 0 to 100%, and campaign budget optimization across ad groups. Reddit says campaigns scoring 80% or higher saw 19.6% lower blended cost per acquisition. Reddit also says traffic advertisers using budget optimization saw 10% lower cost per click. Our take: Use the planner before you spend, because subreddit audiences can be small and a forecast tells you fast if a target can carry your budget. Treat the optimization score as Reddit grading its own advice and accept only the suggestions you would make anyway. Turn on budget optimization for traffic campaigns first, where Reddit reports the clearest gain.PPC Landhttps://www.todays.marketing/news/salesforce-to-acquire-braze/https://www.todays.marketing/news/salesforce-to-acquire-braze/Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire customer engagement platform Braze for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Braze shareholders will receive $47.50 in cash per share. Braze coordinates personalized messages across mobile apps, websites, email, SMS and WhatsApp based on live customer behavior. Our take: The deal still has to close, so Braze customers keep their current setup for now, but the product roadmap will start to follow Salesforce. Check your renewal date and lock pricing and terms before the close. If you also pay for Marketing Cloud, ask both account teams how journeys and customer data will merge before you plan next year’s stack.Salesforcehttps://www.todays.marketing/news/meta-audience-per-ad-creative/https://www.todays.marketing/news/meta-audience-per-ad-creative/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Meta launched a setting on October 19 that lets advertisers choose an age range and gender for each creative inside one ad set. Meta’s examples include retirement planning videos for people aged 50 to 65 and separate sweater images for women and men. Marketing API partners can use the option starting the same day. Our take: This is the cleanest way yet to run age or gender specific creative without splitting ad sets and starving each one of data. Keep one ad set, upload the variants, and assign an audience only where a creative clearly speaks to one group. Leave your best broad creative open to everyone so delivery still has room to learn.Meta for Developershttps://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ads-in-ai-mode-personal-intelligence/https://www.todays.marketing/news/google-ads-in-ai-mode-personal-intelligence/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0500Google confirmed it is testing ads in AI Mode for users who connect their apps through Personal Intelligence. In March, Google said this experience would stay ad free for now. The updated help document says ads will not be based directly on a person’s Gmail inbox or Google Photos library. Our take: AI Mode keeps turning into a paid surface, and the people who connect their apps are heavy users planning trips, purchases and projects. Expect longer conversational queries in your search terms report and write landing pages that answer the full question. Brands that only bid on short head terms will miss where these ads show up.Search Engine Roundtable