Latest news,
as soon as it drops.
We’re operators on every channel, so we see the changes first. Every post says what changed, and the one move we’d make about it this week.
The Control Room
firebellymedia.co.uk/newsGoogle Ads now adds your website coupons to ads unless you opt out
What it means for you: Check your automated assets settings today and decide who picks your offers: you or Google.
Merchant Center: Google says clean feeds lift conversions by 5%
Fill in every product detail Google asks for. When shoppers ask Google’s AI what to buy, it picks from those details, not from your ads.
SEOGoogle finishes its September 2026 spam update after two weeks
Compare your organic traffic before 24 September with after 8 October, and look hard at any drop.
MetaMeta's AI ads assistant now remembers goals and tests brand guides
Write down your brand properly now, so Meta's AI works from your rules, not its guesses.
Every story
Google Ads now adds your website coupons to ads unless you opt out
Check your automated assets settings today and decide who picks your offers: you or Google.
Google says tag gateway lifts Demand Gen conversions by over 20%
Fix your tracking before you touch your bids: Google's AI only learns from the conversions it sees.
Google AI Max expands AI Brief and adds a full search journey report
Write your brand brief now: Google's AI is asking for business context and guardrails.
Merchant Center: Google says clean feeds lift conversions by 5%
Fill in every product detail Google asks for. When shoppers ask Google’s AI what to buy, it picks from those details, not from your ads.
Merchant Center opens loyalty perks in free listings to every merchant
Connect your loyalty programme to Merchant Center so members see their price on Google.
Google finishes its September 2026 spam update after two weeks
Compare your organic traffic before 24 September with after 8 October, and look hard at any drop.
Search Console now shows traffic from Google Lens and image searches
Treat product photos as search tools: check which pages win visits from camera searches.
Google updates its AI content guidance, with clear rules for shops
Use AI to draft, then fact-check every page, title and image before it goes live.
Meta's AI ads assistant now remembers goals and tests brand guides
Write down your brand properly now, so Meta's AI works from your rules, not its guesses.
Meta keeps removing manual placements: here's how to keep control
Use placement bids, exclusions and per-placement creative now, before manual controls vanish everywhere.
Meta One puts links in Instagram posts behind a paid business plan
Test one paid feature that drives sales, like links in Reels, before paying for a bigger tier.
Instagram's Adam Mosseri explains what its algorithm rewards in 2026
Post original content often, test lots of ideas, and judge posts on engagement rate, not raw views.
Instagram collab posts beat brand posts, says new Emplifi data
Ask creators to publish collab posts and invite your brand, rather than posting everything yourself.
Social posts now feed AI search answers about brands, study finds
Keep your social profiles active and clear, because AI search reads them when it talks about you.
Meta launches Creator Marketing Hub to find creators and run their ads
Use the hub to find people already posting about you and turn their content into partnership ads.
Meta says partnership ads cut cost per new sale 45% in Europe tests
Mix creator partnership ads into your main sales campaigns instead of running them on the side.
Pinterest tests letting brands promote creator Pins as ads
Build Pinterest creator relationships now, so you're ready when promotion opens up wider.
Shopify Canvas lets Sidekick redesign your whole store on one screen
Test Canvas on a copy of your theme before you touch your live store.
Shopify says this is the first holiday season of AI shopping agents
Spell out who your product is for and why it's worth it, in words agents can read.
Shopify's Shop MCP lets any AI agent check out with Shop Pay
Clean up your product data now: agents will find, cart and buy from it.
UK shoppers quit purchases over thin product pages, Syndigo finds
Fill your product pages with the answers shoppers need before they leave.
Baymard: 64% of ecommerce sites get product spec sheets wrong
Make your specs easy to scan, explained and consistent across every product.
Shopify Rollouts can now test a discount on a share of your shoppers
Test your next offer on part of your traffic before you give it to everyone.
ChatGPT cites Reddit less and searches brands' official sites more
Earn coverage in trusted sources and make your own site the official answer.
Ofcom finds one in five Britons now get their news through AI
Aim your PR at trusted outlets: AI tools pass their stories on to your customers.
Anthropic launches Claude Opus 5.5, cheaper and better at writing
Give it your brand rules in writing: it now follows them more closely.
Google's Nano Banana 2.1 image model now makes 4K brand images
Use it for ad scenes and variations, and keep real photos for product pages.
OpenAI turns ChatGPT into an app platform with in-chat suggestions
Treat ChatGPT as a place customers act, not just ask, and plan to be there.
TikTok GMV Max now counts affiliate commissions in your ROI
Reset your GMV Max targets around profit, then back the affiliates who actually make you money.
TikTok is building one-click checkout for brands, with Shopify
Get your product answers ready for an AI that sells on your behalf.
TikTok Shop cuts visibility for low-quality and misleading listings
Check every listing image against the real product before TikTok checks it for you.
YouTube takes its shopping affiliate programme to 35 countries
Make your products taggable on YouTube and plan a creator commission offer now.
YouTube's Ask YouTube AI now compares products from review videos
Get honest review videos made and tagged, because AI now builds the shortlist.
YouTube Shorts image ads now send viewers to your site in one tap
Upload 9:16 full-bleed images to Demand Gen and test them on Shorts.
Klaviyo adds SMS quiet hours and lets you switch off click tracking
Switch on quiet hours for every SMS campaign before peak season.
Klaviyo now shows which Instagram engagement turns into revenue
Connect Instagram to Klaviyo and measure comment-to-DM as a revenue channel.
Apple Mail in iOS 27 ranks search by relevance and adds app actions
Make every order and shipping email clear enough for Apple Mail to act on.
Klaviyo opens its Composer AI agent to every account, with SQL
Schedule Composer to audit your flows weekly, and check its first answers against numbers you trust.
Meta now helps you exclude existing customers from acquisition ads
Tag your acquisition campaigns and stop paying to win customers you already have.
Meta Advantage+ now turns your product photos into video ads
Use your best photos as the start of new video angles, not as a shortcut past real creative.
TikTok Smart+ now puts your ads, AI and creator videos in one place
Feed Smart+ more distinct angles from more creators, then approve the mix yourself.
Shopify Sidekick now helps you set up checkout and customer accounts
Open the checkout editor on desktop and ask Sidekick to list every block and function currently configured.
Google tests Core Web Vitals that count in-page navigations
Ask your developer whether your store is headless or uses Hydrogen.
Google Tag Manager now sends data without loading extra gtag.js
Ask whoever manages your GTM container to check whether it can be optimised for destination tags.
Merchant Center bug stops product videos playing in Google Search
Open a few products with videos in Merchant Center and check whether the status says preview processing.
Google Ads AI Max report shows searches, ads and pages together
Check whether the report has appeared in your Google Ads account under AI Max campaigns.
Google's Mueller says a site migration can take over four months
Check Search Console Change of Address is set for both www and non-www versions.
Meta merges its ad AI into one model across Facebook and Instagram
Audit your account for campaigns split only by placement or tiny audience differences, and merge them.
Facebook lets people tell its algorithm what they want, in words
Rewrite your next five Facebook captions so the topic is named in the first line.
Meta bans ads that link to TikTok in seven markets, including the US
Audit every live Meta ad and remove any link to TikTok, TikTok Shop or a creator's TikTok page in the affected markets.
TikTok Shop beauty sales stall near $1B as each video earns less
Pull your TikTok Shop sales by video and rank creators by GMV per video, not by number of posts.
TikTok Shop buyers want reviews: 96% more likely to buy with them
Check every TikTok Shop listing and note which ones have few or no reviews.
TikTok Ads made AI ads for the National Trust without warning
Open every live TikTok ad group and check whether auto-add newly generated assets during delivery is switched on.
PR: New York Times and 40+ publishers join SPUR to make AI pay
Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity five questions a customer would ask about your category, and list which publications they cite.
PR: Google pays Reach for news rights in AI pilot programme
List the towns and regions your brand has a genuine link to: founder, team, warehouse, suppliers, biggest customer areas.
PR: Microsoft found 31 firms trying to poison AI recommendations
Ask any SEO or GEO supplier, in writing, exactly where your AI mentions come from.
Klaviyo now lets you run up to 4 RFM models, one per category
Add a second RFM model for your biggest product category.
Merchant Center no longer blocks products for poor image quality
Filter Products, Needs attention in Merchant Center for 'Low image quality [image_link]'.
PR: Marina Hyde leaves The Guardian to launch her own media brand
List five journalists or commentators your customers follow who now run their own newsletter, Substack or show.
Shopify now shows AI agents your compare-at price as a markdown
Find the Compare-at toggle in your Shopify admin and decide whether agents should see markdowns.
Threads Gems reward original posts that spark real conversation
Turn off automatic Instagram-to-Threads crossposting for your brand account.
Omnisend lets you strip Apple Mail privacy opens from attribution
Export your current attributed email revenue by flow and campaign.
Omnisend now tracks Shopify searches and adds search abandonment
Switch on the Search Abandonment preset for known contacts.
Facebook tests opening straight into Reels instead of the Feed
Check your Facebook Page insights to see how Reels perform against static posts.
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