The archive
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Short, plain-English reads on what changed in AI and marketing, why it matters, and the move to make next.
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- Jun 17, 2026
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Meta Advantage+ is the default now. Here is your move
Meta Advantage+ is the default now. Here is your move
Meta merged manual and Advantage+ into one flow in February 2026, so its AI sets targeting, placements and budget by default. What you still control.
Jun 13, 2026 · 5 min read
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ChatGPT shopping is now product discovery, not just search
ChatGPT shopping is now product discovery, not just search
AI assistants now name products and businesses directly. Here is what changed in 2026, why it matters for a small shop, and the feed-and-review move to make.
The move. Assistants now recommend products from feeds and reviews, not your homepage. Get into Merchant Center and the merchant programs, then grow reviews. No feed, no mention.
AI Overviews are eating top-of-funnel clicks
AI Overviews are eating top-of-funnel clicks
Google answers most informational searches on the page now. Here is what that does to small business traffic and the moves that still pull customers.
The move. Stop chasing clicks that are vanishing. Own branded search, build buying-intent pages, win local on Maps.
Google Ads quietly handed you back three controls
Google Ads quietly handed you back three controls
Performance Max used to be a black box. In 2026 you can see the search terms, block placements account-wide, and add negatives. Here is how to use all three.
The move. Turn on the three controls Google added: campaign negatives, account-level placement exclusions, and the search terms report. Then watch your brand spend.
When AI recommends a business, how does it pick?
When AI recommends a business, how does it pick?
Half of US shoppers research with AI now, and that traffic converts better. Here is what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode pull from, and how to get named.
The move. Get into the feeds and reviews AI reads from. Merchant Center, Perplexity's merchant program, clean schema, fresh reviews. Not in the data means not in the answer.
Why your emails hit spam now, and the 2026 fix
Why your emails hit spam now, and the 2026 fix
Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now reject bulk mail that fails authentication. Here is the plain-English setup that gets your newsletters and follow-ups into the inbox.
The move. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your sending domain, add one-click unsubscribe, keep spam complaints under 0.1%. Skip the first three and bulk mail now bounces outright.
The asset AI cannot take: a brand people search by name
The asset AI cannot take: a brand people search by name
AI answers are eating generic search. The one traffic they cannot intercept is people looking for you by name. Here is how to build it on a small budget.
The move. Build demand for your name, not just your category. Branded search, a clean owned first screen, being known. That is the traffic AI cannot answer for you.