In The Know | Google Ads Alert, AI Search & Media Intel
THE MEDIA PULSE DECODED BY YOUR AGENCY
Contents: This month’s edition looks at the developments shaping marketing and advertising strategy right now, from Google’s Smart Bidding deadline and the convergence of AI search + SEO + brand, to fresh insights into First Nations audiences.
Google Ads update: What you need to know
– by Aimee Gossage, Head of Investment, Audience Group
Google has rolled out a batch of updates. Most are worth testing. One requires more immediate attention.
What you need to know
Google is changing how Smart Bidding behaves on budget-limited campaigns. Without intervention, some campaigns may stop over-delivering against their daily budgets, potentially affecting performance.
AG Take: Review and tighten bidding targets on any budget-limited campaigns before 17 August. For Audience Group clients, we’re already reviewing relevant campaigns and will make any necessary adjustments ahead of the change.
YouTube gets simpler frequency management
You can now set a single reach or frequency goal across multiple YouTube campaigns while keeping budgets and creative separate. Reporting also provides one combined view of unique reach.
AG Take: Overdue, but a useful improvement for campaign management and measurement.
Better measurement of brand impact
Google can now report on branded searches influenced by ads, alongside actions generated from YouTube Shorts.
AG Take: A welcome step towards better demonstrating the impact of brand investment.
Demand Gen keeps evolving
Demand Gen now includes AI creative suggestions, app-install measurement from web campaigns and more automatic video resizing.
AG Take: Nothing revolutionary, but worth monitoring and testing where relevant.
AI-generated ads now come with a label
Ads created or materially edited using generative AI can now carry a “How this ad was made” disclosure across Search, YouTube and Discover. Google applies this automatically when its own AI tools are used, while advertisers are responsible for declaring the use of third-party AI tools.
AG Take: With AI transparency requirements increasing, our view is simple: if AI has materially shaped the ad, declare it.
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In Case you Missed it: IAB AI & Search Summit 2026
Our MD attended the IAB Australia AI & Search Summit 2026 and came away with one overriding conclusion: the biggest story wasn’t AI. It was convergence.
James McDonald’s resulting blog connects the themes that emerged across the day, challenges the concept of Total Search, proposes a different mental model for AI’s role in search, and explores the idea that AI search is bringing SEO, PR, content and brand back together.
Read: AI Search is Making Brand Building More Valuable
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Spotlight on First Nations Audiences
– By Fatima Mazhar, Strategy Executive, Audience Group
Several data points shared at SCA’s recent Big Yarn Good Allies breakfast highlighted the scale of the First Nations consumer market and the role First Nations media can play in reaching it.
First Nations Australians spend an estimated $56 billion a year.
Purchasing decisions are often made at a family or community level, extending the influence of a single consumer.
The audience is also experiencing strong growth in home ownership, with significant demand for products including car insurance, home and contents insurance, and financial services.
One in five people is considering switching their main financial institution in the next six months.
The event also highlighted the strengths of First Nations media. NITV stood out for its national reach, high levels of trust and just five minutes of advertising per hour, creating the potential for strong brand recall.
The standout example was NRMA, the first brand to commit 3% of its media budget to First Nations media. It co-created a branded weather segment with NITV, blending traditional language and knowledge into the forecast. It demonstrated what allyship can look like when it’s woven into the work itself, rather than sitting alongside it as a performative gesture. That’s the same thinking behind Beyond 3%, an industry initiative encouraging more brands to invest in First Nations media.
We also heard from Desmond Campbell, CEO of Welcome to Country, a First Nations-led marketplace that has generated $4.1 million in sales of First Nations-made goods while supporting more than 200 businesses.
Keeping up to date with market data like this enables media planners to make evidence-based decisions about where First Nations media fits within the broader media mix.
