Tuesday, June 23, 2026

What makes a brand machine-readable in AI search

While auditing businesses across Prince Edward Island, I found the same problem repeatedly: companies with deep expertise were nearly invisible to AI systems because their knowledge wasn’t machine-readable. Many were respected leaders in biotech, manufacturing, hospitality, agriculture, and retail. But critical business information was buried in PDFs, locked behind forms, trapped in vague marketing copy, […]

Microsoft rolls out AI-powered bidding, reporting and import updates for advertisers

Microsoft is rolling out a slate of new advertising updates aimed at simplifying campaign management and improving AI-powered optimization across its ad platform. What’s new. Microsoft introduced a new Import Center designed to simplify importing campaigns from Google Ads and Meta Ads into Microsoft Advertising. The new hub allows advertisers to: Search and filter imports […]

Dean Kadi talks clients ignoring performance data

In a recent PPC Live podcast conversation, Dean Kadi, Head of Paid Growth at One Link Media, shared a real-world agency experience where a client insisted on replacing high-performing Meta ads with heavily branded creative — despite clear evidence that the existing strategy was delivering strong results. The discussion highlights the tension agencies often face […]

Microsoft Advertising expands LinkedIn profile targeting to CTV

Microsoft Advertising is bringing LinkedIn profile targeting to connected TV campaigns, giving advertisers a new way to blend professional audience data with streaming inventory. The announcement was made by Product Liaison Navah Hopkins during the SEM Stories event on May 14. Why we care. Microsoft has long differentiated itself through access to LinkedIn audience data. […]

Google Ads to auto-link YouTube channels starting June 10

Google is set to automatically link Google Ads accounts with associated YouTube channels — according to communications sent to multiple advertisers — tightening the connection between video engagement and ad performance. What’s happening. Advertisers have received notices that, from June 10, 2026, Google Ads accounts that aren’t already linked to a YouTube channel will be […]

Veronika Höller talks on a perfectly set-up but poor performing campaign

In this episode of PPC Live The Podcast, I sit with Veronika Höller to unpack a real-world PPC mistake — from campaigns that looked perfect on the surface to the deeper issues that were quietly killing performance. From “perfect” campaigns to zero revenue Veronika Holler didn’t walk into a broken account. Quite the opposite. Everything […]

AI answers need a smarter search index

The search index is evolving from ranking pages to supporting AI-generated answers. In a technical blog post “on the evolving technical characteristics of the index,” published today, Microsoft Bing explained why AI search needs a different indexing system than traditional web search. Traditional search vs. grounding systems. Microsoft said traditional search can rely on users […]

Ask.com shuts down after over 25 years

Ask.com, formerly Ask Jeeves, which launched 29 years ago on June 3, 1996, before Google launched, shut down on May 1, 2026. Ask.com now has a turn down page that reads: Every great searchmust come to an end.As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which […]

Google Ads API v20 sunset set for June 10

Google is enforcing a hard cutoff for older API versions, meaning advertisers and developers who don’t upgrade risk losing access to critical campaign management tools. What’s happening. Google Ads API v20 will officially sunset on June 10, 2026. From that date onward, all requests to v20 will fail, requiring migration to a newer version to […]

LinkedIn expands Event Ads beyond its own platform

LinkedIn is rolling out Off-Platform Event Ads, giving marketers a new way to promote events without needing a native LinkedIn Event Page. What’s happening. The new format allows advertisers to run Event Ads that link directly to external destinations — such as webinar platforms, landing pages or livestream sites — instead of keeping traffic on […]