Advertising, brands, media buying, and the platforms selling attention. Coverage of how the business of persuasion is changing, not tips for doing it better.
SEO consultant Cyrus Shepard determined that Google AI Overviews and AI Mode drove roughly 21 percent of his website Zyppy's search clicks, based on a four-week opt-out experiment. Shepard temporarily removed the site from Google generative search features via Search Console throughout September before restoring access. The experiment was designed to isolate AI-driven traffic, which Google Search Console currently aggregates alongside standard web clicks without distinct categorization.
During the exclusion period, Zyppy vanished from Google AI features almost immediately, reducing total search impressions by about 10 percent. Comparing the opt-out window to the subsequent 28 days of restored visibility, Shepard calculated that AI listings achieved a click-through rate of approximately 0.9 percent, compared to the site average of 0.4 percent. He also observed a halo effect, noting that standard search listings gained additional clicks when displayed alongside AI answers.
Accounting for both direct AI citations and the lift on organic results, Shepard estimated that AI features influenced 23 percent of total search traffic. While cautioning that individual website performance will vary, he concluded that optimizing for AI inclusion remains advantageous for digital publishers. Regulators in the United Kingdom have separately pressured Google to provide transparent metrics on impressions, clicks, and engagement across its generative search offerings.
AI visibility dashboards have been promoted as a way to justify marketing budgets, but recent studies show the data behind them is weak. Greg Jarboe, president of SEO‑PR, reviews four datasets that reveal AI assistants account for only a sliver of the traffic Google delivers, with ChatGPT sending just 0.62% of organic volume and all large language models together 0.73%. The studies also show that the few conversions attributed to AI are far outweighed by Google, which still drives 96.5% of total conversions, and organic traffic converts 27 times more than all LLMs combined. Direct traffic spikes that appear linked to AI are largely unengaged, with one site recording 409,000 direct sessions but only 198 engaged, suggesting bots rather than buyers. Kevin Indig’s placebo tests found that even when data dates are deliberately shifted, the same correlations appear, indicating the signal may be noise. The industry is catching up: on May 20, 2026, AMEC launched GEO Principles at its Dublin summit, urging marketers to treat AI citations as a brand channel rather than a search ranking. While AI visibility may influence some buyers, the evidence for a measurable, isolated impact remains elusive, and marketers should be cautious before building dashboards around it.
Publicis Groupe has created a dedicated leadership team for its internal AI platform Marcel, appointing Scott Hagedorn as CEO and Sam Levine Archer as chief strategy officer, according to a press release. These appointments aim to broaden Marcel’s offerings in influencer marketing, sports, culture, and AI chatbot optimization.
Hagedorn and Archer bring four years of AI experience at Publicis, having previously worked at Omnicom. Marcel, launched in 2017, will now leverage Publicis Sapient, Epsilon, and Lotame to weave data from enterprise, consumer, and marketing intelligence into its services, supporting the firm’s “Power of One” strategy for cross‑agency collaboration.
The leadership shift signals Publicis’s commitment to agentic AI as a growth engine, coinciding with the acquisition of data assets like Lotame and the pending $2.2 billion LiveRamp deal. While the group reported 5 % organic revenue growth in Q3, it noted slower uptake of enterprise‑wide AI transformation. CEO Arthur Sadoun said Publicis will double down on data and technology, contrasting competitors who are cutting headcount.
Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman outlined a new focus at Mod World that prioritizes deep, user‑driven communities over broad advertising. During a pseudo‑AMA, Huffman explained that the home feed’s role is to funnel users into subreddits, making each community feel distinct. He highlighted a potential split between following and joining, allowing users to observe before contributing and earning voting rights. The change aims to reduce spam and give moderators clearer tools to welcome newcomers who fit a community’s culture. Marketers, CMOs, and CEOs are encouraged to rethink how they build brand subreddits, as Reddit’s platform now rewards sustained participation. Huffman noted that Reddit’s quarterly earnings reports have increasingly emphasized the platform as a daily destination, not just a traffic source. The company’s Q2 shareholder letter described this destination strategy, reinforcing the shift toward community‑centric growth. If Reddit successfully implements these changes, brands could see higher engagement and more authentic conversations within their own subreddits.
Kantar’s 2026 Media Reactions report finds only 57% of advertisers feel their media mix is right, down from 64% a year earlier. 51% say they receive actionable intelligence to support marketing goals, while just half are confident about balancing brand building and performance marketing. The study surveyed 806 senior marketers and 23,452 consumers across 33 markets between May and September 2026. Despite uncertainty, firms are increasing bets on new channels, with plans to raise micro‑creator spend by 66% and nano‑creator spend by 61% in 2027. Generative AI is also a focus, as 75% of marketers intend to boost AI‑assistant investment next year, though only 23% of consumers trust AI recommendations. Cross‑channel measurement remains a hurdle, with disparate dashboards and partners making it hard to attribute outcomes. Kantar’s CEO Jeff Greenspoon notes the media ecosystem’s fragmentation and the need for portfolio‑level measurement to restore confidence. The report underscores that no single channel works alone; aligning goals and data across creators, AI, and retail media will be key to future media mix decisions.
Ecommerce advertisers must proactively restructure their Google and Meta accounts to ensure full-funnel coverage before the Q4 peak. Automated campaign types like Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ tend to concentrate spending on bottom-funnel conversions because they are cheaper and more efficient. While this maintains short-term returns, it risks exhausting existing demand without investing in brand awareness or new customer acquisition.
To combat this, advertisers should implement manual controls to protect prospecting budgets. On Meta, the removal of the automated existing customer budget cap means marketers must now manually use custom audience exclusions or ad set spending limits to control the split between new and returning customers. This manual approach also allows for more tailored creative for different audience segments.
On Google, the new customer acquisition goal provides a way to prioritize new buyers, but its effectiveness depends on high-quality data. Marketers are encouraged to move beyond basic conversion history by uploading comprehensive Customer Match lists to ensure the system accurately identifies existing buyers. Preparing these structures now is essential for maintaining scalable growth during the Black Friday period.
Greg Jarboe, president of SEO-PR, suggests that marketers should move away from extreme AI narratives of total doom or effortless abundance. Instead, he argues that the reality involves navigating a middle ground where AI functions as a tool requiring careful human oversight. A primary concern is that AI-generated content requires more than simple fact-checking; practitioners must engage in ground-truthing to ensure underlying inferences and market recommendations are actually correct.
Jarboe also warns that AI has increased the risks associated with departmental silos. Inconsistency between PR, social media, and landing pages can now lead to citation risks when AI models attempt to summarize a brand. To mitigate this, he recommends integrating PR, content, and analytics teams early in the planning process to ensure unified messaging.
To prepare for this shift, marketers should prioritize building evidence-based stories that can withstand scrutiny from model updates. Rather than relying on dramatic hooks alone, professionals should focus on data-driven content that provides a cohesive brand narrative. This approach helps ensure that brand information remains consistent and reliable for both human readers and AI systems.
Westmalle Abbey’s flagship Trappist beer, Westmalle Dubbel, is celebrating its centenary, marking 100 years since the monks first brewed the original table beer in 1836. The anniversary celebration will feature a redesigned 33‑centilitre bottle label and a matching crown cap, giving the classic brown ale a fresh look for the first time in a century. In addition, the brewery will release a commemorative glass with a silver rim that echoes the style of earlier Westmalle vessels, offering collectors a tangible piece of history. Between late September and late October, pubs across Belgium will pair a Westmalle Dubbel order with a bite of limited‑edition Westmalle cheese, a special product created solely for the milestone. The monks, who run the abbey with 17 residents and 75 staff, maintain that their brewing remains a means of sustaining the community and supporting charitable causes, rather than seeking profit. While the recipe has evolved over the decades, the core philosophy and flavour profile have stayed consistent, according to head of marketing Manu Pauwels, who highlighted the beer’s role in defining the Trappist style. The centenary not only celebrates a historic brew but also underscores Westmalle’s enduring commitment to quality and community, reinforcing the brand’s status as a benchmark for Trappist ales worldwide.
With search no longer the primary entry point for users, publishers must adapt to a broader landscape of discoverability. Social platforms, AI assistants, and recommendation engines have changed the game, and publishers must focus on building meaningful relationships with their audience. Discoverability is no longer about ranking high in search, but about creating moments where users can directly engage with content. Publishers must understand the changing behaviors and preferences of their audience and adapt their strategies to meet them in their passive phase of consumption.