Author: Ryuzaki

Google is rolling out a significant update to how average daily budgets pace in campaigns that use ad scheduling — and it could materially change monthly spend totals. What’s happening. Starting March 1, 2026, Google Ads will begin proactively pacing budgets to spend up to the full 30.4x monthly limit, even if campaigns only run on specific days via ad scheduling. How it works: The 2x daily overspend rule stays in place. The 30.4x average daily budget monthly cap remains unchanged. Campaigns will not run outside scheduled hours. But Google will now attempt to hit the full monthly ceiling within…

LLMs and their influence on traffic to a brand’s website are a major topic in our client conversations. Everyone wants to know what’s happening, how they can do better, and what the best practices are. My recommendation to brands right now is to start with the data and focus on what they can know for sure. To glean insights into how LLM traffic is influencing key metrics, we analyzed our dataset of LLM prompt referral traffic in Google Analytics across our customer base over the last 13 months (Jan. 1, 2025 to Feb. 7, 2026).  We focused on traffic from…

Google Discover runs on a structured, multi-stage pipeline with hard publisher blocks, strict image requirements, freshness decay, and heavy experimentation shaping what users see, according to new SDK-level research by Metehan Yesilyurt. Why we care. Google Discover can drive massive traffic, but it often feels unpredictable. This research gives you a clearer view of how your content qualifies, gets ranked, or gets blocked — and where things can break before ranking even begins. The details. Yesilyurt analyzed observable signals in Google’s Discover app framework and mapped a nine-stage flow. Google: Crawls and understands your content. Reads key meta tags like…

The web has strong opinions about what “AI-written” content looks like, and even stronger ones about what’s supposedly wrong with it. Scroll any content marketer’s LinkedIn feed, and you’ll find confident claims that em dashes and other AI “tells” signal bad, automated writing. The problem with these debates is that they often confuse taste with performance. What counts as “bad writing” will always be subjective. But if the goal for content marketers is to communicate clearly and compete in the information marketplace, the practical question should be: which LLM habits actually turn readers off? To find out, we analyzed a…

Generative search engines like ChatGPT have successfully used SEO as part of their growth strategy, even as the echo chambers of the web claim they’re killing this powerful marketing channel. Let’s take a look at how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude fare in SEO, and why ChatGPT’s investment in the strategy is paying off. Directional SEO ROI forecast A $600,000 annual SEO investment could generate outsized returns for generative AI platforms. Using Semrush-reported monthly organic traffic — 76.5 million visits for ChatGPT, 908,000 for Claude, and 1.7 million for Perplexity — plus a conservative 0.5% conversion rate and a $20/month entry…

Every week, thousands of media buyers perform the same ritual, opening Meta Ads Manager, scanning metrics, and deciding which campaigns and ads were winners and which were losers. If ROAS is positive, they’re pleased. If not, the mouse quickly heads toward the toggle button to disable the asset. This is the scoreboard trap some advertisers fall into. When you treat metrics like a scoreboard, you’re looking at the outcome without understanding the full picture or how to improve going forward. The score of the game doesn’t include the fact that your strikers aren’t getting any passes from midfield.  To scale…

Google confirmed it had an issue serving search results earlier this morning at around 1:30 am ET on Wednesday, February 25th. The issue seemed to be fixed very quickly and we didn’t see a huge number of complaints about the issue. Google posted a notice saying, “We fixed the issue with serving search results. There will be no more updates.” Why we care. If your website noticed a drop in traffic around midnight last night, it may be related to this serving issue. Again, it seems the serving issue was discovered and fixed very quickly but just because Google posted…

Rediscovering Intimacy: Embracing Connection After 60 As we navigate the rich tapestry of life after 60, the art of intimacy often has us pondering: how can we redefine connection, romance, and love? The world is undeniably different from when we first set out on our journeys, filled with instant gratification and digital interactions. However, nurturing the essence of intimate relationships remains a vital part of our daily lives. Finding Your Unique Rituals Just like transforming a kitchen into a personal sanctuary, relationships thrive on the rituals we create. These rituals are not just about grand gestures; they encompass everyday moments…

Google Ad Grants accounts can now optimize for real-world foot traffic. Advertisers using the nonprofit program are able to set “shop visits” as an account-level goal — a move that enables campaigns to optimize toward in-person visits. Driving the news. Previously, attempting to mark shop visits as a goal inside Ad Grants would trigger an error. That restriction appears to have been lifted, allowing eligible accounts to include store visit conversions in their primary goal configuration. The update means nonprofits and local organizations can now align bidding and optimization with physical visits — particularly impactful for visibility in Maps placements…

Google’s unified video manager inside Merchant Center is no longer empty. After months of appearing in accounts without visible content, the Video Assets section is now automatically populating with sourced videos. Driving the news. The feature — first introduced at Google Marketing Live 2025 — was designed to centralize video content inside Google Merchant Center. It began rolling out in September, but many advertisers were seeing a blank interface with no assets displayed. That’s changed. Videos are now being pulled in automatically, including content from external sources like YouTube. Why we care, This confirms Google is moving ahead with its…