We’ve absorbed all the marketing news from May, taken a scalpel and cut out only the stuff you need to know. Amid the AI generated noise there are updates you need to be in on, and our experts across SEO, DPR, PPC and Paid Social have sorted the wheat from the chaff. No more wasted time.
SEO
1. Google has released AI Mode in the US
This is the big one – Google has released AI Mode in the US. This offers searchers a chatbot style of searching (think Gemini & ChatGPT). It’s not available yet in the UK, but gives us a good idea of what’s to come.
Sources: Google
2. AI Mode reporting will make its way to Google Search Console soon
A data black hole has opened up, with publishers and website owners in the US unsure if searchers are hitting their site from the newly released AI Mode. Good news is, Google has confirmed an AI Mode report will be reaching Search Console soon. Date TBC.
Sources: Search Engine Land
3. Apple reported Google searches in Safari are down
Apple’s Eddie Cue said Google searches taking place in Safari fell in April: “that has never happened in 22 years.” He said this during Google’s antitrust trial and attributed the drops to a growing use of LLM AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copolot, Perplexity, etc.) It triggered a 7.5% fall in Alphabet stock prices.
Google pushed back, saying, “We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple’s devices and platforms.”
Sources: Search Engine Land, The Verge
4. Google has announced ‘Shop with AI Mode’
In the US, agentic search will allow AI Mode to buy a product when it hits a certain price range if users set up price tracking, which will begin rolling out with event tickets. Google has also mentioned a ‘try it on’ feature to allow searchers to virtually try on clothes.
A smoother experience for users perhaps, but it keeps them in Google’s ecosystem and could mean they circumnavigate websites altogether. That has a knock on effect of restricting brand loyalty developing, promotes smaller one off transactions, and has potential to be damaging for ecommerce website owners
Sources: Google
5. 13.14% of search queries trigger AI Overviews
A study by SEMrush looked at 10M+ keywords and showed that by March 2025, 13.14% of queries triggered an AI Overview result, an increase of 72% compared to February. AI o
Overviews appear most frequently for long-tail informational queries, but there’s been an increase in middle to bottom of funnel terms triggering AI Overviews.
Sources: Semrush
DPR
1. DR is out
The Dark Horse fleet have heard rumblings that DR is out as the most important measure of a link’s quality. It’s shiny, but if it doesn’t come with decent traffic then it’s not much better than useless. It’s far more important to focus on getting relevant links from websites with high quality engagement and great referral traffic.
Based on how Google has been working for a while now, along with the emerging prominence of LLMs and AI search, other metrics are valued higher than DR such as site traffic, contextual relevance of the link/coverage and audience engagement.
DR has long been an ‘easy’ metric to report on that immediately signifies quality and high impact to the client. Though it’s still important to report on – at least for now – it should be just one metric along with many others, to determine how valuable a link is and its potential impact on your business.
Sources: Tamara Novitović, Head of SEO at Bazoom Group via Brighton SEO
2. Brand authority over do follow links
Whilst follow links are becoming more and more rare, it’s important to spend your time on getting brand mentions. This focus will pay off in an industry increasingly overwhelmed by AI, where trust and authority will be more significant, and where brand mentions contribute to the success of appearances in LLMs and generative search.
AI search result appearances are something we incorporate into our SEO & DPR reporting so we can show clients the full value and impact of their SEO strategy.
Sources: Matt Cayless, Founder & Director of Bubblegum Search via Brighton SEO, Charlie Clarke, Founder at Minty Digital via Digitaloft Digital PR Summit
3. Coverage in DA >90 sites has increased tenfold in last 5 years
Earlier this year Coveragebook released their ‘Coverage Benchmark Report 2025’. The main finding was that coverage in high DA sites (>90) has increased tenfold in the last 5 years, making up 15% of news URLs uploaded to the platform vs 1.5% in 2020. It also showed that social shares for your news coverage isn’t a common occurrence: 66% of coverage has zero shares on social.
This increase in DR >90 coverage could be attributed to more large brands and agencies using the Coveragebook platform than 5 years ago – but it could also signify a shift towards focusing on fewer high-impact items rather than quantity of coverage.
We all know quality of coverage beats quantity, and yes, one measure of that can be DR. But as we’ve covered earlier, DR doesnt tell the whole story. So while it’s exciting to see perhaps coverage becoming more prolific on high DR sites, the real questions are: are these high DR sites bringing us in front of our target audiences, are they being seen, and are these coverage pieces leading to tangible visibility/engagement for the brand?
Also interesting to note is the low rate of social shares for most news coverage. While this is certainly a nice bonus metric to measure if/when it does happen, using it as a primary metric could be a futile approach. Or, on a deeper level – could it mean that all that coverage on high DR sites we’re seeing, actually lacks value on the engagement front?
Sources: Coveragebook – Coverage Benchmark Report 2025
PPC
1. Google brings ads to AI Overviews
Google’s AI Overviews will now come with ads baked in. This has been rolled out on desktop in the U.S, with more countries to follow. Google is also testing a chat-style search experience that drops sponsored products straight into the thread. Fewer clicks, but more visibility.
Alongside these changes, Google has started new smart bidding that chases rising search queries. This provides more reach, but they haven’t provided much clarity into how it works. They’ve also announced that AI assistants are coming into Google Ads and GA4, serving up campaign insights and suggestions.
Sources: Google internal docs via Marketing Live, Google Marketing Live 2025
2. Microsoft updates
We’ve seen lots of small but useful, and some really important, updates this month from Microsoft. The first is making everything a bit easier: Ads Studio is now in Editor, so you can now manage creatives, feeds, and campaigns in one tidy place. Microsoft is now auto-generating CTAs, meaning it is picked from an approved list to optimise clicks.
Sources: Microsoft Ads Blog – May 2025
3. Performance Max improvements
pMax saw a few updates in May, the first being improvements to view performance by channel: Search, YouTube, Gmail and beyond. Plus there’s greater visibility on what queries are triggering your ads and what assets are performance, including easier negative keyword management. Last but not least, you can now use age-based targeting to refine your pMax audience. All in open beta. All huge.
Sources: Jyll PPC Blog – May 2025, Search Engine Roundtable – May 7, 2025, Google Ads Blog – May 2025
Paid Social
1. Meta introduces value rules
Meta has introduced value rules, allowing advertisers to increase or decrease their bid for specific audiences, based on:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Mobile operating system
This can be utilised to show your ads to people more likely to bring higher value to your business. Value rules are currently available to around 10% of Meta ad accounts, but a wider rollout is expected soon.
Sources: Meta
2. LinkedIn enhances ad engagement insights
LinkedIn has expanded its Revenue Attribution Report to show how multiple individuals from a target company engage with your ads, offering deeper insight into the B2B buying journey. This helps marketers track touchpoints across the decision making team, enabling a clearer view from initial engagement to closed deals.
Sources: Social Media Today
3. Reddit expands dynamic ads to all advertisers
After testing out Dynamic Product Ads with selected partners over the last month, Reddit is now making them available to all advertisers, enabling real-time, personalised ad placements based on product catalogue data and subreddit relevance. With more users turning to Reddit for product advice and a 4x increase in catalogue use year-over-year, the platform is becoming a strong channel for brands looking to connect with high-intent shoppers.
Sources: Social Media Today
4. Instagram Threads is getting video ads
Instagram’s Threads will begin testing video ads, Meta announced earlier this month. Threads now has over 350 million monthly active users and has seen a 35% increase in time spent on the app, driven by improved recommendation systems. This change gives advertisers the ability to reach Threads’ rapidly growing and highly engaged audience with native, in-feed video ads.
Source: Tech Crunch
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