August saw developments in stories that began in July, with the impact of Amazon leaving Google Shopping continuing to be felt, as well as the fall out from job losses at Reach PLC. There are many new feature roll outs across Meta’s platforms, and Google has rolled out their first spam update of 2025. School may have been out for summer, but Dark Horses’s vigilantes have kept their finger on the pulse.
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SEO
1. Google rolls out its first spam update of 2025
Google announced that it is rolling out a spam update for the first time in over eight months. The last update was released in December 2024, which caused shockwaves through the rankings and targeted websites with low quality content, spammy backlink profiles, and a lack of value to users. The last update took a few weeks to roll out and we expect this one to be the same, so we recommend keeping a close eye on your visibility over this period as Google refine the update.
Source: Search Engine Land
2. Data reveals there is a lack of consistency across ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews
A study conducted on tens of thousands of identical prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews found that the same brands were only recommended 17% of the time, meaning that LLM optimisation can’t be bundled up into one service, just like you can’t optimise for Google, Bing and Baidu in the same way.
The study found that:
- Google’s AI overview shows 2.5x more recommendations than ChatGPT, while AI mode has 6x more mentions, meaning you have a better chance of being featured
- Ecommerce queries had the most disagreements at 57.1%
To have the best chance of being featured on both, we would recommend:
- Use structured content with schema markup, such as FAQs
- Build strong industry relevant citations across as many sources as possible
- Build trust through reviews and testimonials on site
- Use bullet points, tables and make your content easy to digest
Source: BrightEdge
3. Google is testing preferred sources in Google News
Google has rolled out the option for users to select ‘preferred sources’, which will result in stories from those sources showing more frequently in the search results. At the moment this is only available for users in the US and India, however, we usually see the pattern where it is rolled out to other locales within a 6-12 month period.
If you’re an SEO working on a news website, this may have a negative impact on your stories showing up and gives more reason to make sure that the content is delivering value to users so that the readers are loyal to your brand and manually search your publication.
Source: Google Keyword Blog
4. The top 10 Google results don’t matter for showing up in LLMs
A study of over 15,000 queries has shown that there isn’t a correlation between ranking in the top 10 positions of Google and appearing in answers in ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, with only 12% of results being consistent across the tools.
This highlights the importance of having a strategy to target LLMs and not just rely on what we’ve been doing as SEO’s for the last 2-3 years. The algorithms are vastly different and require different techniques to rank, although they will naturally complement each other.
Source: Ahrefs
PPC
1. Google briefs brands on AI Mode ads ahead of Q4 rollout
Google is preparing to scale ads in AI Mode and has briefed agencies on how they work. Ads will target users based on the full context of AI conversations rather than individual keywords. The internal guide outlines how complex queries will influence ad placements.
This is a major shift from traditional search. Ads now rely on conversation context instead of keywords. With AI Mode usage growing rapidly and ads set to expand before Q4, brands that adapt early can reach high-intent consumers in this new search environment.
Source: Search Engine Land
2. Microsoft Audience Planner levels up
Microsoft upgraded its Audience Planner to forecast reach based on personas, create campaigns or ad groups directly from the tool, and flag “unwinnable math” situations such as under budgeting a huge audience or overbidding a tiny one.
Not just a shinier dashboard, this is a proper safety net. The new planner stops you from throwing money at lost causes, speeds up campaign creation, and backs it all with solid reach forecasts. That equals less guesswork and more time for strategy.
Source: PPC News Feed
3. Amazon gap still opening (maybe dangerously so)
In July, we shared that Amazon has pulled out of Google Shopping. Impressions and clicks rose, CPC dropped, but conversion rates, value, and ROAS all slipped. This is a classic case of more traffic but less profit.
In August, we’ve seen a short term bump in impressions and slightly lower CPCs across client accounts, but the quality of traffic has been patchy. If trends continue, campaigns will need more careful bid and audience management to make this new visibility truly profitable rather than just busier.
Source: Search Engine Journal
4. Google shrinks language targeting
By the end of 2025, manual language targeting in Search campaigns will be joining the dodo. Instead, Google’s AI will take the reins, deciding who sees your ads based on a mashup of query context, user behaviour, and settings.
Fewer targeting knobs sounds convenient, but you are giving more control to AI. If the machine misinterprets intent or mishandles language nuances, your ads could go off course. Automation can be smooth, but autopilot is not without risks.
Source: Search Engine Land
5. Google Ads enhances transparency with full placement reporting for Search Partner Network
Google has introduced full placement reporting for the Search Partner Network across Search, Shopping, and App campaigns, giving advertisers detailed site level impressions and placement insights.
For years, lack of SPN transparency left many hesitant to participate. Now, we can see exactly which third-party sites and apps are displaying ads, which helps with brand safety, budget allocation and optimisation. But bear in mind that impression data alone does not give the full picture of performance.
Source: PPC News Feed
DPR
1. Not Swift enough
Taylor Swift’s engagement news broke and spread across social media and global press within minutes. Brands and publishers who moved quickly were able to insert themselves into the conversation, benefiting from the surge in searches and attention, but those who reacted too slowly missed the wave of engagement entirely.
It’s a keen reminder that timeliness is everything – cultural moments now have a lifespan of hours, not days.
Reactive marketing is most effective when brands are set up to act instantly, not retrospectively, and missing these spikes means lost opportunities for visibility, engagement, and cultural relevance. For internationally relevant news this can be a killer across timezones.
Source: BBC
2. YouGov x Metricomm partnership
YouGov and Metricomm announced a new partnership to launch a tool measuring the real impact of media coverage on brand health. This tool will combine YouGov’s audience insight with Metricomm’s analysis of earned media, and promises to provide a more accurate understanding of how PR activity directly affects consumer perceptions.
PR measurement has long been difficult to quantify, but this tool could make ROI clearer, strengthening the case for integrating PR into wider marketing strategies. Based on performance, brands will be able to make smarter investment decisions, tracking how coverage shapes brand reputation in real time.
Source: YouGov
3. Reach editorial reorganisation
Reach PLC has announced a radical reorganisation of its editorial teams, creating one centralised “Live News” unit. This restructuring comes after declining revenues and significant job cuts. The move is designed to improve efficiency and respond faster to breaking stories across multiple titles.
As with any cuts, media consolidation means fewer journalists covering more ground, impacting depth and diversity of coverage. The journalist to PR ratio has shifted again, fewer journalists receiving press releases means more competition for PRs.
The focus on “Live News” suggests an even greater premium on speed and shareability, meaning brands and PRs will need to adapt, offering stories that are not only newsworthy but easy to slot into fast-moving, centralised workflows.
Source: Press Gazette
Paid Social
1. Meta partners with Midjourney to improve visual generation elements
In August, Meta announced they are partnering with Midjourney to license its AI image and video generation technology. The partnership will bring advanced image and video creation tools into Meta’s platforms, part of Meta’s broader AI strategy to stay competitive by blending in-house and external innovations.
There’s lots to consider with this change. The partnership could significantly lower the cost and time required to produce ad creatives, allowing businesses to generate professional-quality visuals without the need for photoshoots or external content creators. In particular, this benefits companies who struggle with resource limitations. On the other hand, whilst it might streamline campaign setup and management, it could also reduce the level of creative control advertisers have over their campaigns, leading to challenges around brand consistency and originality.
If this integration makes campaigns more visually appealing and engaging, it has the potential to improve ad performance and ROAS. But it also raises important questions about copyright ownership, content authenticity, and the ethical use of AI-generated media.
Source: Social Media Today
2. Threads test a way to share long-form text on the platform
Threads is testing a “text attachment” feature, enabling users to add longer blocks of text directly to a post instead of writing multiple threaded posts. The feature comes with styling tools and supports deeper content formats like news snippets, book excerpts, or long-form thoughts, all visible in an expandable grey box within the post. Unlike X’s “Articles,” which are limited to Premium subscribers and accept images and video, this feature is currently text-only but accessible to all users.
With the ability to embed longer-form text, brands can move beyond short snippets and launch deeper narrative-driven campaigns. This could include behind the scenes stories, detailed product explanations, or thought leadership pieces, all without fragmenting messages across multiple posts.
Marketers will need to rethink creative assets by finding the right balance between clarity and depth, while also assessing how longer text affects audience attention, comprehension, and overall engagement with the content.
Source: Tech Crunch
3. Instagram adds retention metrics for Reels
Instagram has introduced a Retention chart for each Reel, showing where viewers drop off during playback. A flatter curve indicates stronger engagement. The platform has also replaced the View Rate metric with a Skip Rate, which measures the percentage of viewers who leave within the first three seconds of a Reel.
These insights support smarter creative testing and iteration. Marketers can compare different versions of Reels, measure improvements with clear metrics, and invest spend into the most effective assets.
The Skip Rate metric makes hook strategy more data-driven, so marketers can immediately see how well the opening moments of a Reel perform and adjust creative approaches to maximize attention.
Retention charts enable precise content optimisation by showing exactly where audiences lose interest, information marketers can use to refine pacing, cut weaker sections, and insert moments that keep viewers engaged.
Source: Social Media Today
4. TikTok adds new website visitor retargeting options
In August, TikTok began testing a new retargeting tool called “Engaged Session”, which enables advertisers to target users who spend at least 10 seconds on their website after clicking a TikTok ad, without requiring a tracking pixel. The tool is designed to identify high-intent users by tracking metrics like Total Engaged Sessions and Cost per Engaged Session.
For now, the feature is still in the testing phase.
Although TikTok has confirmed that not all tested features are guaranteed to become final products, Engaged Session would offer the potential to better identify and retarget users who demonstrate genuine interest on landing pages, rather than just counting clicks. This could result in more efficient media spend and stronger conversion opportunities.
Because the tool operates without using tracking pixels, it sidesteps many privacy and technical limitations affecting pixel-based tracking, such as iOS restrictions and cookie policies. This makes it a promising option for maintaining accurate retargeting.
If it becomes widely available and effective, it may shift industry expectations around key performance metrics. Instead of focusing on surface metrics like CTR or page views alone, engagement-based indicators (such as engaged sessions and session duration) may become new benchmarks for success in TikTok paid social campaigns.
Source: Social Media Today
Want more? Earlier this month we shared an empirical breakdown of the impact of the recent rise of VPN use on tracking. If you want to know how your performance marketing stacks up against the latest industry changes, get in touch for a full digital audit.