Last week we hosted our quarterly What’s New in Digital Marketing? webinar, bringing together our PPC, SEO and Web experts to break down the latest updates across paid media, AI, web development and search.
Q1 2026 has not been quiet. From Demand Gen updates and ChatGPT ads to Google’s AI Overviews changes and AI agents browsing websites directly, the pace of change continues to accelerate.
Here’s what matters and what you should actually be doing about it.
Google’s Demand Gen campaigns continue to expand. Key updates include:
These features signal one thing. Google is pushing harder into full-funnel measurement and commerce integration.
If you are running YouTube or upper-funnel campaigns, it is now easier than ever to justify spend with downstream impact reporting.
You can now generate placement reports for PMax campaigns. While it only shows impressions rather than conversions, it allows you to exclude placements that do not align with your brand.
This is a step toward greater transparency. Not perfect, but a move in the right direction.
Google introduced Ads Advisor, powered by Gemini. It acts as a conversational assistant inside Google Ads to support monitoring, troubleshooting and optimisation.
It is currently in beta, but it shows Google’s intent. Campaign management is becoming increasingly AI-supported. The skill will not be in pushing buttons, it will be in guiding strategy.
Microsoft continues to make strong B2B moves:
For B2B advertisers, Microsoft Ads is quietly becoming more valuable.ck. You can use this space for describing your block.
OpenAI confirmed in January that ads are officially being tested within ChatGPT.
With over 800 million active users and a dominant generative AI market share, this could represent a significant new paid channel.
Currently, testing is limited, but if ChatGPT becomes a primary discovery engine, paid visibility inside AI interfaces will matter.
Major model upgrades across ChatGPT and Gemini are leading to:
This reinforces a key point: surface-level content is losing value.
Anthropic analysed thousands of conversations and found that users who iterate and push back on AI outputs get significantly better results.
The takeaway is simple. Treat AI as a collaborator, not a search engine. The first answer is rarely the best answer.
Businesses that train their teams properly on AI workflows will outperform those who use it lazily.
More importantly, Google Chrome is building native MCP support. That means AI agents will soon be able to browse and interact with websites directly through the browser.
If your site is not technically clean, fast and well structured, it will struggle in an AI-driven browsing world.
Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol is becoming the standard for how AI tools connect to other systems.
More importantly, Google Chrome is building native MCP support. That means AI agents will soon be able to browse and interact with websites directly through the browser.
If your site is not technically clean, fast and well structured, it will struggle in an AI-driven browsing world.
Google introduced several significant updates to Search Console:
These are small changes on the surface but make diagnosis and reporting far more efficient.
The December 2025 Core Update favoured niche expertise over broad generalist sites.
The direction is clear. Depth, authority and topical ownership win. Thin, generic coverage does not.
Google has confirmed that AI Overviews are engagement-led. If users do not engage, visibility can reduce.
This suggests AI visibility is not fixed. It is behavioural and adaptive.
Large-scale testing shows mass-produced AI content may rank briefly but drops off sharply. AI is a drafting tool. It is not a publishing strategy.
Microsoft introduced AI Performance reporting inside Bing Webmaster Tools.
This is the first real GEO tracking framework at platform level. Google will likely follow.
Three clear themes emerged this quarter:
Good SEO is good GEO. Strong brand authority fuels both search and AI performance. And structured, fast websites are no longer optional.
If you missed the live session, you can watch the full Q1 2026 webinar below.
You can download the full Q1 2026 deck below.
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