|
|
Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.
|
|
|
In today's MarketingShot:
|
|
📉 How AI search is draining your web traffic 🛒 ChatGPT ads now reach 4.47% of US queries ⚖️ The FTC is now fining exaggerated AI claims in your marketing 🍪 California just eased cookie-tracking lawsuits against advertisers 🏷️ Google's tag update lets you track events without code Plus: 💡 6 strategies & tactics, 🎁 5 other news & articles you might like, and 🧰 6 trending marketing tools.
|
|
Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.
Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.
Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.
|
📉 How AI search is draining your web traffic
LINK
|
- Google's AI Overviews, launched in 2024, are appearing against more search results and pulling web traffic away from some sites by as much as 58% as users stay on Google instead of clicking through.
- The change hits businesses unevenly, with direct-to-consumer sellers like jeweler Kendra Scott and firms selling considered purchases such as automakers or white goods facing the sharpest drop in traffic from new search behaviors.
- At marketing services group Brainlabs, organic web traffic fell on average by over 10% after the Overview feature arrived, based on Google Analytics data from 54 clients, including 24 U.S. firms and 24 British brands.
|
🛒 ChatGPT ads now reach 4.47% of US queries
LINK
|
- Sponsored placements inside ChatGPT reached 4.47% of US queries between March and May 2026, with the average ad-bearing answer carrying 1.06 ad items, according to a read-across analysis published by Adthena on August 21.
- Unlike Google's AI surfaces, which averaged 3.53 items per ad-bearing answer and behaved like a carousel, ChatGPT showed a single sponsored unit below the response, meaning only one winner per query in each auction.
- Retail and Fashion made up 24% of US query volume but 39% of ad items observed, running at 6.55% ad frequency, while Logistics hit 12.41%, Home and Garden 11.99%, and Beauty 10.03%.
|
⚖️ The FTC is now fining exaggerated AI claims in your marketing
LINK
|
- The Federal Trade Commission has started fining companies for exaggerated AI claims in their marketing, with proposed settlements announced on May 21 against three firms tied to an advertising product called Active Listening.
- Cox Media Group sold Active Listening as an AI service that supposedly listened through phone and speaker microphones, but the FTC says no voice data was collected and buyers got resold email lists; CMG pays $880,000 and two partner firms pay $25,000 each.
- The FTC also charged MindSift and 1010 Digital Works, which never sold to the deceived customers, over the marketing collateral and sales presentations they wrote, using a means and instrumentalities theory now pointed at AI capability claims moving between businesses.
|
🍪 California just eased cookie-tracking lawsuits against advertisers
LINK
|
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta has dropped the state's long-running lawsuits against Google, Meta, Amazon, and other companies over claims that cookies and tracking tools built detailed user profiles without proper consent.
- Instead of pursuing costly court fights that produced mixed results, Bonta's office will write clearer guidelines for businesses, work more closely with federal regulators, and focus on children's privacy, health data, and algorithmic discrimination.
- The move lands as major browsers phase out third-party cookies and Apple's App Tracking Transparency forces apps to ask permission before accessing device identifiers, pushing companies toward first-party data and contextual advertising.
|
🏷️ Google's tag update lets you track events without code
LINK
|
- Google is overhauling its tagging tools with an August 20 update that lets advertisers set up event and conversion tracking without writing any code, while bringing Google tag and Google Tag Manager closer together.
- Through visual tagging, advertisers can move through their website and select elements directly to define events, such as a purchase, while Google handles technical parts like selectors and triggers behind the scenes.
- Google tags will be upgraded into full Tag Manager containers, and optimized containers will send data directly to Google destinations like Google Ads and Analytics, which Google says can reduce measurement latency.
|
|
Learn AI for Free. 2 Best-Selling Courses.
The 14-Day AI Boot Camp gets you up to speed on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Midjourney fast. Prompting Essentials teaches the pro strategies that get better outputs every time. 37 lessons total.
Strategies & Tactics
|
> Filter AI mode prompts in search console: Filter Search Console for long, conversational queries to uncover the actual AI Mode prompts people use, revealing real questions your content should answer.
|
|
|
Other
news & articles you might like
-
Google To charge For missed & subsequent calls On LSAs
LINK
-
Has Google demoted listicles?
LINK
-
Albertsons says AI shoppers spend more: Is conversational commerce finally proving its value?
LINK
-
Reply to keywords Meta Ads feature
LINK
-
1 in 9 businesses OpenAI recommended carried a wrong claim, audit finds
LINK
|
|
Trending Marketing Tools
|
ChatCut: edit videos using plain-language commands that handle cutting, motion graphics, scripts, and music without touching a timeline manually.
LINK
|
|
Astute: monitors your brand's presence across new media, identifies trusted creators for B2B partnerships, and automates outreach with data-backed strategy.
LINK
|
|
PlugThis: builds working Chrome extensions from plain-English prompts, generating Manifest v3 code, permissions, popup UI, background workers, and a Supabase backend in about two minutes.
LINK
|
|
Adomate: builds branded ad creatives at scale from your Meta account, ad library, and Trustpilot or Amazon reviews, with fully traceable data sources.
LINK
|
|
AI Search Console: tracks brand mentions, rankings, and citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, helping SEO teams monitor AI visibility and generate reports.
LINK
|
|
Migma AI: automatically drafts on-brand email campaigns using your brand, audience, and calendar data, so you just review, approve, and send.
LINK
|
| |
|
Our AI Academy has 330+ step-by-step tutorials on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and every tool that matters. No fluff — just practical workflows you can use at work. Try it free for 7 days.
|
|
💬 How did you find today's edition?
We read every reply — just reply to this email and let us know how we can improve!
|
|
