News
What's happening in the industry? (11)
We follow AI, search and digital marketing news and add our own reading.
People are using AI agents to strip ads from smart TVs
Developers are using AI coding agents such as Claude Code and DeepSeek to remove ads, tracking and bloatware from smart TVs. The cleanyourtv and dumbtv projects on GitHub lead the trend.
Read News · Platforms 3 min readYouTube Music starts labelling AI-generated songs
YouTube Music is introducing three labels: Fully Gen AI, Partly Gen AI and No Gen AI. Labels come from distributor disclosures and YouTube's own detection, and AI tracks remain eligible for monetisation.
Read News · Ads 3 min readChatGPT adds visual ads alongside image generation
OpenAI is adding an image-based ad format to ChatGPT. The first test runs while users generate images, starting in the US later in October with a group of advertisers.
Read News · Ads 3 min readTikTok launches an AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout
TikTok unveiled a conversational shopping assistant and Buy Direct, which lets users buy from brands without leaving the feed. Both start in the US.
Read News · Ads 1 min readMeta opens its Muse agent to small businesses for free
Muse for Small Business connects to Asana, Zoom, Intuit, Box, Canva and Slack and works with Meta ad accounts. Basic use is free; paid tiers are $20 and $100.
Read News · Ads 1 min readChatGPT Ads opens in seven more Asian markets
ChatGPT Ads launched in seven new markets from Indonesia to Taiwan and now covers more than 60 countries. Ads only appear on Free and Go plans.
Read News · Ads 1 min readChatGPT ads move on to sponsored agents
OpenAI is adding Shopify and HubSpot links to ChatGPT ads and testing a format that lets users chat with a brand's own agent.
Read News · Ads 1 min readChatGPT ads hit a $1 billion annual run rate in under 200 days
On August 31 OpenAI said ChatGPT ads had reached a $1 billion annualised run rate. Ads Manager opened in Europe the same day.
Read News · Ads 1 min readGoogle Ads ends new campaign-level broad match, pushes AI Max
Since August 3, new campaign-level broad match and legacy auto-created assets cannot be set up. AI Max becomes the default.
Read Data · Advertising 3 min readGoogle Ads costs in 2026: what each industry pays
Cost per click rose 12% in a year and the spread between industries reached sixfold. Budget against the table, not against a global average.
Read Data · Conversion 3 min readLanding page conversion rates: the real numbers by industry
There is no single "good" conversion rate. 7.4% is normal in legal, 1.8% in B2B e-commerce. Benchmark against the wrong number and you will break a page that works.
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