Marketing Optimization

Retailers need a separate Performance Max campaign for Google's new local shopper setting

Google's Local Customer Optimization won't run on feed-based Performance Max campaigns, and Store Sales lands in Data Manager at the end of September.

Google Ads Adds AI Dashboards and In-Store Sales Tools

Google Ads rolled out prompt-based AI dashboards and new in-store sales measurement tools in early September 2026, per Search Engine Land.

Marketing teams are spending 16.6 hours a week trying to show up in AI answers

A WordPress VIP data point is turning “AI SEO” into a CMS and analytics problem, just as MarTech’s September event doubles down on AI and data ops.

Optimizely’s Forrester Wave leader slot turns “agentic” marketing into an enterprise architecture decision

Optimizely’s Forrester Wave recognition spotlights a shift: “experience optimization” is being bought as agent-driven workflow plus data architecture, not just

Meta’s AI-first ad buying is forcing a new operating model for paid social teams

Meta’s latest push toward AI-managed campaign decisions is shifting paid social work from manual optimization to data, governance, and creative throughput.

Forrester’s Q3 2026 Wave puts Optimizely’s agentic experimentation on procurement shortlists

Optimizely’s Forrester Wave placement shifts experience optimization buying toward governed, warehouse-native agentic experimentation.

Demand Gen Report’s 2026 benchmark survey turns AI in B2B marketing into an operations problem, not a tooling debate

Demand Gen Report’s 2026 survey is asking where AI actually produces measurable lift in content, lead scoring, campaign optimization, and orchestration, and whe

Global ecommerce is on track to surpass $6 trillion, and enterprise operators are still leaving money on the table

Global ecommerce is closing in on $6 trillion, yet cart abandonment, mobile friction, and slow AI adoption mean most enterprise operators are underperforming th

AI agents are replacing human B2B buyers at the top of the funnel, and most vendor data isn't ready

Autonomous AI agents now handle product research, comparison, and in some cases purchasing on behalf of B2B buyers. Traditional SEO won't get your brand cited.

Nine in 10 B2B marketing leaders now treat AI visibility as an investment priority, but most brands are optimizing for the wrong signals

AI answer engines reward authority, not content volume. B2B marketers still running the classic SEO playbook are accelerating their own invisibility.

92% of B2B organizations are already experimenting with GEO, and GNW Consulting's new tool Leo is built to operationalize it

GNW Consulting launches Leo, a proprietary GEO tool for B2B LLM placement, as new research shows 92% of organizations already experimenting with generative engi

B2B marketing's top performers share three traits: buying groups, full-funnel attribution, and AI-visible brands

New research and a fresh GTM intelligence partnership reveal what separates high-performing B2B marketing teams from the rest in 2026.

Earned media stops paying off the moment it's filed away, and AI-assisted repurposing is changing that

PR teams are leaving pipeline on the table by treating media placements as one-time wins. AI repurposing and attribution tools are closing the gap.

AI search is rewriting how authority is measured, and backlinks alone won't keep you ranked

Nearly 70% of marketers say backlinks still heavily impact rankings, but AI platforms are increasingly reading unlinked brand mentions, entity signals, and comm

AI-assisted buying is flooding B2B pipelines with noise, and most marketing agencies are making it worse

AI tools are reshaping how B2B buyers research and shortlist vendors, but most AI marketing agencies still optimize for demo polish over pipeline accountability

Marketing budgets are flat at 7.7% of revenue, but AI-mature companies are spending 11%

Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey finds marketing budgets holding steady at 7.7% of revenue overall, while organizations with fully optimized AI processes average

CTM brings closed-loop attribution to ChatGPT advertising with native OpenAI Ads integration

CTM launches a native OpenAI Ads integration and AskCTM agent, giving performance marketers the same closed-loop call attribution for ChatGPT campaigns they alr

DriveCentric's new Service-to-Sales Agent turns service appointments into trade-in leads without adding a vendor

DriveCentric launches a native AI agent that identifies high-potential trade-in customers in the service drive and engages them automatically inside the existin

Info-Tech Research Group publishes blueprint to cut B2B buyer journey friction caused by low-value marketing assets

Info-Tech's new framework helps marketing leaders benchmark, retire, and rebuild content assets to cut acquisition costs and accelerate B2B buyer decisions.

32% of B2B SaaS LinkedIn ad budgets are wasted on audiences that can't buy, GrowthSpree audit finds

A GrowthSpree audit of 56 accounts and $9.4M in spend found $3M lost to wrong targeting, and a 90-day fix that cuts waste to 11.8%.

AI answer-engine visibility becomes a measurable discipline as GEO platforms multiply in 2026

A new software category around generative engine optimization has matured fast, with eight platforms now competing to tell brands where AI recommends them.