Author: Ryuzaki

Google is rolling out VRC Non-Skip ads, expanding how brands reach connected TV audiences on YouTube. What’s happening. VRC (Video Reach Campaign) Non-Skips are now live globally in Google Ads and Display & Video 360. The format is built specifically for the living room experience, ensuring ads run as non-skippable placements optimized for connected TV (CTV) screens. Why we care. YouTube has become the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. for three consecutive years, making the TV screen a critical battleground for brand budgets. With guaranteed, non-skippable delivery, advertisers can ensure their full message reaches viewers in premium, lean-back…

Google is expanding its recurring billing policy to allow certified U.S. online pharmacies to promote prescription drugs with subscriptions and bundled services. What’s happening. Certified merchants can now offer: Prescription drug subscriptions — recurring billing for prescription medications. Prescription drug bundles — combining drugs with services like coaching or treatment programs, as long as the drug is the primary product. Prescription drug consultation services — recurring consults to determine prescription eligibility, either standalone or bundled with medications. Requirements for eligibility. Merchants must maintain certified status, submit subscription costs in Merchant Center using the [subscription_cost] attribute, include clear terms and transparent…

Google updated both its image SEO best practices and Google Discover help documents to clarify that Google uses both schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as sources when determining image thumbnails in Google Search and Discover. Image SEO best practices. Google added a new section to the image SEO best practices help document named Specify a preferred image with metadata. In that section, Google wrote: “Google’s selection of an image preview is completely automated and takes into account a number of different sources to select which image on a given page is shown on Google (for example, a text…

If you’re not actively managing your branded search campaigns, you’re leaving money on the table and your reputation in the hands of competitors, review aggregators, and affiliate marketers.  Brand protection through PPC isn’t just about bidding on your own name. It’s a strategy that spans defensive bidding, query monitoring, ad copy testing, and reputation management across the entire customer research journey. Why brand search deserves more than basic defense Most PPC managers treat brand campaigns as an afterthought. Set up a campaign, bid on the exact brand name, maybe add some close variants, and call it done.  But the reality…

If your brand’s content arm has been active for a few years, I’m guessing you have plenty of material that can be revised to help you show up more prominently in AI search answers — we’ll call this AEO throughout the article. I’m getting bombarded with brand marketers’ questions about how to get AEO traction these days. “Revise your old content” is a favorite answer that often produces an “aha” moment for the other party, possibly because the nature of AEO is so forward-looking. That answer sparks a few important follow-up questions I’ll tackle below. How do you reformat content…

Google published a new help page detailing how its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) works — offering merchants clearer guidance on how checkout flows operate across Google properties. What’s happening. The documentation explains how UCP and its UCP-powered checkout enable a native “Buy” button that moves the transaction directly onto Google surfaces, while merchants remain the seller of record. To activate the feature, merchants must implement the native_commerce attribute in Merchant Center. Payments run through stored Google Wallet credentials, and processors must support Google Pay tokens. Why we care. UCP was first introduced as part of Google’s agentic shopping push and…

For years, ecommerce ran on a simple model: Google drove traffic, and your site did the selling. Rankings, clicks, and conversion rate determined performance. That model just changed. With the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and AI Mode, Google can now discover, compare, and complete purchases inside its own AI experiences. Search is shifting from a traffic channel to a transaction layer. Visibility now depends on whether Google’s AI selects your product data. When AI makes the recommendation and closes the sale, optimization moves upstream. The question isn’t just whether you rank. It’s whether you’re chosen. Here’s what changed and what…

Google Discover caught my attention in 2021, when it was driving millions of clicks a month to publishers. I underestimated how pervasive it would become.  My feed cycles through soccer, television, Baltimore news, SEO, and world events — a reminder that Discover understands users at an almost uncomfortable level. It’s not limited to one app. Discover appears in Chrome new tabs, the Google app, Android home screens, Google.com on most mobile browsers, and other Google surfaces. If Google Discover is everywhere, it’s our job as SEOs to capitalize on this opportunity. Let me show you how.  Essential considerations before we…

Here’s a question every marketing leader should be asking right now: How healthy are your customer relationships? Not your campaigns, not your channels but the actual relationships.  It’s a harder question than it sounds. Most organizations have spent the last two decades building around channels.   Email had a team. Social had a team. In-store, ecommerce, service, each with their own stack, their own metrics, their own version of success. And from the inside, it looked like progress. Every team was hitting their numbers.  But from the customer’s perspective it felt like dealing with multiple companies wearing the same logo. Marketing…

Self-serve negative keyword lists are now live in Microsoft Advertising, according to Ads Liaison Navah Hopkins — giving advertisers long-requested control without submitting support tickets. What’s happening. Advertisers can now create and manage shared negative keyword lists directly in the UI. Lists support up to 5,000 negative keywords (one per line) and can be applied at either the campaign or account level. Match types function the same way in Performance Max as they do in traditional Search campaigns. Lists can also be edited, exported as CSV files, or removed from campaigns as needed. Microsoft notes that match type formatting requires…