June’s trends continue into July, with Google and Meta forcing transparency around AI generated content, and Qwoted saying it has banned hundreds of PR agencies, executives and ‘experts’ who use AI dishonestly. Google has rolled out new trust signals for its Open Knowledge Format, and Threads has rolled out parental supervision tools. It is, as ever, all change.
SEO
1. Five new trust signals have been added to Google’s Open Knowledge Format
Google has rolled out version 0.2 of its Open Knowledge Format (OKF), which is designed to give AI agents, LLMs and automated applications a helping hand in understanding the trustworthiness of content. Here’s a roundup of the newest trust signals, which Google positioned as five questions about the OKF bundle:
- Provenance (field: sources)
Related question: what was this created from? - Trust (field: generated & verified)
Related question: how much should I trust it? - Freshness (field: stale_after)
Related question: Is it still true? - Lifecycle (field: status)
Related question: Is it the current version? - Attestation (new concept type: Attested Computation)
Related question: was this number produced the way we said it must be?
These signals give a clear information source to consumers that allows them to weigh up for themselves if a concept is trustworthy, essentially serving as machine-readable E-E-A-T.
Source: Search Engine Journal
2. Google review guidelines have been expanded
Fakers beware. Google continues to crack down on falsified reviews, recently updating its Review Snippet structured data guidelines, alongside an explicit warning that manual actions may be triggered by violations.
The key updates you should take note of are:
- Undisclosed incentives are banned – if you offer benefits like money, discounts, free products, or vouchers in exchange for a good review, this has to be clearly stated on the page and in the schema markup
- Fake reviews are strictly prohibited – an obvious one but still worth stating, fake reviews will get you nowhere and should not be included on a page or within its markup
Another win for transparency and integrity as it gets increasingly harder to get around these guidelines.
Source: Search Engine Journal
3. New DMA decisions demand that Google releases data to its competitors
This month saw more movement from The European Commission, who have released two new binding decisions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) aimed at Google. Google is now required to open up search data in an anonymised format to competitors.This doesn’t include information on its core ranking algorithms or sensitive user data – but it does include information on search queries, clicks, page views, and more.
Any rivals with 50K+ monthly EU users, 2 years of operating history, and who pass screening will be able to access Google’s search dataset. Of course, Google has opposed this – so watch this space for updates.
Source: Search Engine Journal
4. Google releases Platform Properties in Google Search Console
Platform Properties have been rolled out globally to Google Search Console, further bridging the data gap between website owners’ own sites and their social platforms. You can now track how content published on social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X perform across organic search results.
There are plenty of benefits to having this data – including getting a better understanding of search intent, spotting trends, and the ability to spot legacy content that is worth optimising for search visibility.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable
Digital PR
1. Reach PLC turns down the volume
Reach PLC is “moving away from volume” in its editorial output to focus on original content as financial results for the first half of 2026 showed traffic and revenue both down. The publisher’s chief executive Piers North told Press Gazette that the publisher’s “future will be less about volume and more about original content, distinctive brands and securing better returns”.
As one of the UK’s biggest news publishers, anything Reach does or says should be of great interest to the PR industry. On the face of it, this news might seem like an issue for DPR – fewer stories published could mean fewer opportunities for PR campaigns to cut through. However, Reach’s new focus on quality over quantity should only be a problem for people churning out identikit campaigns that are only good for filling an overworked journalist’s article quota.
The campaigns that offer journalists value will continue to secure good coverage – whether that is through exclusive data, targeted regional angles, bespoke commentary or myriad other ways.
Source: Press Gazette
2. “Fakespertise” fightback
The expert commentary crisis continues, as journalist response platform Qwoted reveals it has banned hundreds of PR agencies, executives and ‘experts’ who either appear not to exist, use AI to write, or opine on areas outside their expertise. Unfortunately it’s not hard to see why this is still happening – the source article shows some amazing coverage results featuring quotes from “experts” who we can be pretty sure do not exist.
The more this goes on, the stricter journalists will get about using quotes from experts, and the more important it will be to be able to prove that a real person has actually said/written the comment you are providing. Any PR planning to use commentary from their client to secure media coverage should think about collating their proof of existence and credentials in an easy to share package to give journalists peace of mind. It could be something as simple as a link to their LinkedIn (ideally active) profile, but whatever it is will be appreciated by journalists for whom the previously straightforward task of getting expert insight has become much more complicated.
Source: Press Gazette
3. State of PR report reveals AI reliance
Media database MuckRack released their State of PR 2026 report, based on a survey of more than 1,000 PR pros to understand how they work, the tools they use and the challenges they face. The majority of respondents are based in the US, but the results are instructive for PR professionals everywhere.
The headline result is that 80% of PRs are using generative AI in their workflow, and just 10% don’t have any plans to explore using it. Nearly half say generative AI is either very important (28%) or extremely important (15%) to their workflow.
Companies need to think carefully about how AI usage is managed. Alongside the obvious concerns about AI slop press releases being churned out, or the aforementioned fake experts, there are bigger questions about institutional knowledge and responsibilities. A lack of oversight or leadership about AI usage within a team could easily lead to individuals using LLMs in conflicting or overlapping ways that don’t end up providing the efficiency and productivity gains that make AI worth considering in the first place.
Source: Muck Rack
PPC
1. ChatGPT Ads adds new features
ChatGPT Ads improves campaign optimisation, conversion measurement and budget pacing to scale performance on the platform. These are focused on smarter bidding, improved measurement, budget pacing & campaign management.
Rather than just buying raw clicks, clients can optimise campaigns toward bottom-funnel actions like leads, sales, and app installs. Geographic exclusions prevent ad spend in areas clients don’t service, while auto-pacing ensures budgets aren’t exhausted during early morning hours.
These infrastructure updates align ChatGPT Ads with established platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads, making it significantly easier (and safer) for clients to adopt and test as a viable new channel.
Source: Search Engine Land
2. Updated exclusions across Performance Max campaigns
Google is rolling out campaign-level household income exclusions for Performance Max campaigns, so advertisers can now directly exclude specific income brackets such as the Top 10%, Lower 50%, or Unknown income groups from seeing their pMax ads.
This feature will help to reduce wasted ad spend: High-end clients (e.g., luxury goods, real estate, financial services) can exclude lower-income brackets, while budget/value-driven brands can cut top earners, ensuring budget goes strictly toward actual target audiences.
Source: Search Engine Land
3. Google Ads introduces AI content labels
Google is rolling out AI content disclosures across ads. Ads using AI-generated or AI-edited assets (images, video, text) will disclose this in a “How this ad was made” panel. In certain jurisdictions (e.g., the EU, India, and New York), AI labels appear as direct visible overlays on the ad itself.
Content made directly via Google’s AI ad tools will be auto-disclosed (embedded with SynthID watermarks/C2PA metadata), while third-party AI assets must be flagged manually in Asset Studio.
Using AI tools to draft or edit ad creative now carries a compliance layer. Failing to label third-party AI assets, or misplacing overlay labels, risks ad disapprovals or policy penalties ahead of strict regulations like the EU AI Act. Because AI labels can show directly on ad creatives in key regions, clients must design creative assets thoughtfully so that on-ad AI disclosures don’t cover core branding or text elements..
Source: PPC News Feed
4. AI Max expands to Standard Shopping
Google is bringing AI Max features to traditional Standard Shopping campaigns. This includes AI-driven query matching, auto-generated ad copy using Merchant Center feed attributes, Final URL Expansion, and the ability for Google to serve either text or Shopping ads based on query context.
E-commerce clients get the intent-matching reach and creative automation of Performance Max without being forced to abandon the manual campaign structures and budget control of Standard Shopping. As consumer search behavior shifts toward longer, AI-style conversational prompts, these features allow clients’ product feeds to stay relevant and capture incremental conversions they would otherwise miss.
Source: Search Engine Land
5. Changes to target based bid strategies
Google is updating how Smart Bidding (Target CPA and Target ROAS) behaves in campaigns marked as “Limited by budget”.
Clients with budget-capped campaigns that are beating their targets will see their CPAs rise or ROAS fall toward their literal target setting unless targets are updated. You will need to manually lower Target CPAs or raise Target ROAS to match recent actual performance before August 17 to protect profit margins and maintain current cost efficiency.
Source: Google
Paid Social
1. Meta adds updated disclosure tags for AI-generated ads
Not dissimilar to Google, Meta has updated its Facebook and Instagram ad labels so that ads made or edited with AI tools now show a disclosure inside the “About this ad” panel, accessible via the three dot menu on any promoted post.
The labelling applies both to Meta’s own generative AI features, such as Background Generation, Image Generation and Add Animation, when used to create or significantly edit an image or video, and to third party AI tools like Photoshop or Dall-E, which Meta identifies using industry standard detection methods such as C2PA metadata.
This move builds on Meta’s recent switch of in-stream labels from “Sponsored” to “Ad” and its existing AI labels for organic content, reflecting a broader push toward transparency that could also help flag misleading AI generated ad imagery.
Ads using AI generated or AI edited visuals may automatically carry a visible disclosure, which is worth factoring into creative testing since it could affect how audiences perceive trust and authenticity, particularly in more sensitive categories like beauty, health or finance.
It raises the importance of understanding which specific editing tools and features trigger automatic labelling, since even minor AI assisted touch ups through third party software could be flagged without the marketer actively choosing an “AI ad” format.
Combined with Google’s move, it signals that platforms are moving toward stricter AI content governance overall, so marketers relying heavily on AI generated creative should expect more labelling, potential creative performance shifts, and possibly future policy or regulatory requirements tied to AI disclosure in advertising.
Source: Social Media Today
2. Meta improves AI image generation tools for advertisers
LinkedIn has officially launched a brand kit feature that lets marketers set brand colors, fonts, logo and voice, which the platform’s AI tools can then reference when generating future creative, giving brands a way to maintain consistency across AI-produced assets. The platform is rolling out an AI-powered ad copy generator that produces promotional text based on the advertised URL, allowing marketers to set campaign goals, add contextual notes and reference past creatives they want the system to emulate.
LinkedIn is also introducing ad variants and flexible ad creation, where marketers supply images, videos and copy and the system automatically mixes and matches them to generate multiple creative combinations, then shifts delivery toward the best performing versions as performance data comes in.
Marketers gain a faster, more scalable way to produce and test ad creative, since the combination of copy generation, variants and automatic mixing reduces the manual workload of writing and building multiple ad versions by hand.
The brand kit and personalisation features could improve consistency and relevance across campaigns, but they also shift more creative decision making to LinkedIn’s algorithm, meaning marketers will need to monitor output closely to ensure tone, accuracy and brand fit are maintained.
Source: Social Media Today
3. Threads rolls out parental supervision tools
Meta is rolling out parental supervision tools to Threads through Family Center, letting parents and guardians view how much time their teen spends on the platform, set daily time limits across devices, restrict access during set days and hours, and manage privacy and tagging settings. The update includes default nighttime protections, with notifications muted and auto replies on for all teens from 10pm to 7am, and gives parents the ability to decide whether teens under 16 can loosen any of these automatic safety settings.
The rollout is tied to growing regulatory pressure and ongoing lawsuits over child safety, and comes three years after Threads launched, with controls going live in the US next week and expanding globally by the end of the year.
Paid social marketers running or considering Threads campaigns should expect a portion of the teen audience to become less reachable or active during certain hours and under stricter daily limits, which could affect reach, frequency and delivery pacing for campaigns targeting younger age groups.
This move also signals that Meta is likely to continue strengthening teen safety controls across all its platforms, so marketers should prepare for a broader trend of stricter youth targeting rules, potential platform policy changes, and increased scrutiny of ads reaching younger audiences.
Source: TechCrunch
4. Snapchat launches AI-powered ad creation tools
Snapchat launched an AI chatbot inside Ads Manager that guides advertisers through campaign set up based on their stated goals, offers notes on fixing errors, and recommends enhancements to improve performance. Dynamic Product Ads were upgraded with agentic recommendation models that combine user behavior, product affinity, full funnel signals and real time intent to surface more relevant product recommendations, alongside new creative tools like smart upscale, image to video generation and background enhancement, plus an open Model Content Protocol server letting advertisers plug in third party AI agents.
Snapchat also introduced Snap Creator Network, an AI powered system launching later this year that matches advertisers with creators based on described audience, tone, category and campaign goals, aiming to speed up creator discovery and campaign activation, a push that comes as Snapchat’s usage declined in the US and Europe in Q1, its two biggest revenue markets.
This gives Paid social marketers faster, more guided campaign setup and troubleshooting through the chatbot, which could lower the skill barrier for new advertisers on the platform. The upgraded Dynamic Product Ads and creative tools could improve targeting effectiveness and creative quality with less manual production work, but marketers relying on automated image to video generation and background changes will need to review outputs closely for brand accuracy and quality control.
By letting third party AI agents plug into its ad platform and rolling out the Creator Network, Snapchat is giving marketers more choice over which tools they use and how they find creators, but it also means paid social teams will have more AI systems to vet and oversee as these tools increasingly influence campaign decisions.
Source: Social Media Today
Keep your eyes on the prize: the bottom line. We’ll do what it takes to bring you riches. Staying on top of what you need to know is merely a scratch on the surface.