Posts tagged “Paid Media”
Google forces AI Max changes on every eligible Search campaign between September 1 and 30, 2026. We ran the eligibility audit across all 19 accounts under our management: zero enabled campaigns on campaign-level broad match, 25 campaigns still carrying the legacy asset setting, and exactly one enabled, spending campaign in the forced-change path. The story of the audit, the three findings we did not expect, and the queries to run it on your own account.
An operator's field guide to AI Max for Search: what each component actually decides, the A-to-B spectrum we place campaigns on, the seven gates a campaign passes before Google gets more freedom, what the independent evidence shows, and what AI Max served on our own money, audited across all 19 Google Ads accounts under our management. Ships with the four-query GAQL preflight we ran, a scored readiness rubric, and a machine-readable appendix built for your AI agent.
A single ad click sets off pixels, real-time bidding auctions, hashed-email matching and server-side pipelines that survive clearing your cookies entirely. Regulators in the EU, UK, Canada and US have each ruled against parts of this system: Belgian courts found the ad-auction consent string itself is personal data, and the FTC fined BetterHelp $7.8 million and GoodRx $1.5 million for leaking health data to advertisers. This post walks through the machinery in plain language, one stage at a time.
In Q1 2026 Google's three ad lines went in three directions: Search +19%, YouTube +11%, Google Network -4%. EMARKETER projects Meta will overtake Google on total ad revenue this year. Treating 'Google Ads' as one channel with one strategy is now a planning error.
A planner's field guide to ChatGPT Ads, updated August 20, 2026 for the Europe expansion, the conversion-optimized objective, custom audiences, and advanced matching: auction mechanics, targeting controls, the OAIQ pixel and Conversions API, OAI-AdsBot rules, eligibility by country, what our own June test returned, and where the channel fits in a media plan.
ChatGPT ads launched February 9, 2026 with sponsored placements below answers on Free and Go tiers. The targeting signal isn't a keyword; it's the entire reasoning context, and most agencies aren't built to use it.
Between 2025 and 2026 Google stopped shipping a toolkit and started shipping an operating system. The quiet commercial changes will hit Western Canadian SMBs before any AI-Overview headline does.
Seasonal businesses waste money running the same campaigns year-round. We manage the full marketing calendar for trades clients, and one construction company saw 316% organic traffic growth.
When a single dental implant case is worth $20,000-50,000, you cannot afford imprecise tracking. We grew one practice's implant revenue from $300K to $800K by building airtight attribution.
A law firm spending $3,000/month on Meta Ads was getting fake phone numbers and low-intent form fills. We pivoted to Google Ads targeting high-intent searchers. The question is which platform matches how your customers buy.
Percentage-of-spend pricing incentivizes agencies to increase your spend. Flat monthly fees incentivize us to increase your results. We manage 24 Google Ads accounts on flat fees.
A conversion tracking break that goes undetected for 30 days wastes an entire month of ad spend optimization. The pipeline works in four steps, breaks in five common ways, and catching it takes automated monitoring.
Choice OMG implemented enhanced compliance standards for Meta Lead Ads in response to updated privacy and data-handling requirements.
Google expanded advertiser verification in 2025: payer name disclosure, stricter enforcement, and pricing transparency rules.
87% of shopping occasions end in purchase during Q5, the Dec 26 to mid-January window when most businesses pause campaigns.