What's changing in AI and digital marketing.

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in the US in February 2026, opened a self-serve Ads Manager to US businesses in May, and switched ads on in the UK in early June, making Britain its first European market. A self-serve beta for UK businesses began rolling out shortly afterwards, though OpenAI describes the rollout as gradual and some advertisers still need to register interest first.

How ChatGPT ads work

• Ads appear beneath ChatGPT's answers and are clearly labelled.
• Only Free and Go users see them. Paying Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users don't, and OpenAI says ads aren't shown to under-18s.
• No traditional keywords. Advertisers describe the kinds of conversations they want to appear alongside, and OpenAI's system matches ads to the topic being discussed.
• Buying options include paying per thousand views or per click.
• OpenAI says ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives.

Should you test it?

It's early. Agencies running tests report that clicks currently cost more than on mature platforms like Google and Meta, and the reporting tools are still developing. For businesses already stretching their Google Ads budget, it's probably not the place to start. For businesses with budget to experiment, an early test can show whether your customers are asking ChatGPT about your type of product or service.

The free step everyone should take

Before spending anything, ask ChatGPT the questions your customers would ask, such as "best [your service] in [your town]", and see what it says. If your business doesn't appear, or the details are wrong, that's an SEO and reputation job worth fixing first, because those organic answers are free.

Chartbeat's 2026 Publisher Playbook, reported by Search Engine Journal in late September, found that Google Search traffic to publishers across its network fell 40.2% between July 2025 and July 2026. The year before, the drop was 21.9%, so the decline has nearly doubled.

Google Discover, the article feed on phones, followed the same pattern, with its decline widening from 6.6% to 34.3%. Meanwhile, the share of visits arriving directly, from people who already know the site, grew from 13.5% to 15.9% over two years.

Traffic from AI chatbots grew eightfold over the same period, but from such a small base that it remains a tiny fraction of the total. AI tools are not yet replacing the clicks Google used to send.

A note on the data

Chartbeat's figures skew towards news and media websites, and Chartbeat sells analytics tools to publishers. It's a strong signal of direction rather than a forecast for your site specifically.

Why clicks are falling

Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode now answer many questions directly on the results page. If someone asks how often a boiler should be serviced, they may get the answer without visiting any website at all.

What it means for your business

• Purely informational content is most exposed. General how-to articles lose clicks first.
• Searches with intent still drive action. People searching for a service in their area still need to pick a business and get in touch.
• Your Google Business Profile matters more than ever, because local results and AI answers draw on it heavily.
• Build an audience you own. Repeat customers, email lists and people searching your brand by name are the channels that grew in this data.

The goal is shifting from chasing traffic to being the business that gets chosen, whether the customer finds you through a click, a map listing or an AI answer.

Google began rolling out its September 2026 spam update in late September. It applies worldwide and in every language, and Google says it could take up to two weeks to finish. It's the fourth spam update of 2026, following others in March, June and August.

As usual, Google hasn't said exactly what this update targets. Earlier spam updates this year completed within a few days, so a two-week window suggests a larger change to its automated spam detection.

What a spam update actually does

Spam updates improve the systems Google uses to spot pages that break its spam policies. Sites that lose ground are usually ones relying on shortcuts: pages mass-produced to target search terms with little real value, bought or swapped links, or near-identical pages where only a town name changes.

Ranking movements were reported across the industry around the start of the rollout, which is normal. Rankings often wobble while an update is in progress and settle once it's complete.

What to do right now

• Don't react mid-rollout. Wait until Google confirms the update is complete before judging any changes.
• Check Google Search Console for manual action notices and any sharp drops on specific pages.
• Review your weakest pages honestly. Would a customer find them useful, or were they written purely for search engines?
• Look at your location pages. If they're copies with the town swapped, rewrite them with real local substance: projects you've done there, areas you cover, local questions you get asked.

What it means for your business

Every spam update rewards the same thing: useful pages written for people. That's why every location and service page we build for clients has genuine, specific content rather than a template. It's slower than churning out pages, but it holds up when updates like this land.

Simply Business's 2026 SME Insights Report, published in September, found that 47% of UK small businesses now use AI tools, up from 22% a year earlier. The survey of 1,842 small business owners also found a clear confidence gap: only 19% described themselves as very confident using AI day to day.

A separate survey from the bank bunq, also published in September, compared founders across Europe. It found 51% of British business owners had used AI for their business in the past year, behind Germany (79%), France (76%) and Spain (73%). The most common barrier for UK founders was a lack of knowledge or trust, cited by 38%, rather than cost.

Earlier in the year, the British Chambers of Commerce reported that 54% of SMEs were actively adopting AI. The surveys define "using AI" differently, so the exact numbers vary, but they all point the same way.

Growth and AI appear to go together

Research from Novuna Business Finance found that 59% of small businesses reporting significant growth were using AI, compared with 23% of those that were shrinking. That doesn't prove AI caused the growth, but businesses that are moving forward are clearly more likely to be experimenting.

What it means for your business

The question is no longer whether AI is relevant to small businesses. It's how to use it without wasting time and money. The most effective starting point is usually one specific, repetitive problem:

• calls you miss while you're on a job;
• an inbox that eats your evenings;
• quotes and follow-ups that slip through the cracks.

Fix one of those properly, measure the time and enquiries it gives back, then move on to the next. That's how AI goes from an experiment to something that genuinely runs part of your business.

Meta has made its customer support AI, now called Meta Business Agent, available to businesses worldwide inside WhatsApp, after nearly two years of testing in markets including India and Mexico. It was announced at Meta's Conversations 2026 event in London and reported by TechCrunch in June.

What it can do

• answer customer questions about your business;
• recommend products from your catalogue;
• book appointments and qualify sales leads;
• hand a conversation over to a real person when needed.

It also works in Instagram DMs and Messenger. Businesses can train it on their information, and optionally on past chats, so it responds in their own tone. Meta is also testing daily briefings that summarise overnight conversations.

Meta plans to charge for the agent through some tiers of its WhatsApp Business Premium subscription, with larger businesses paying based on usage.

Where it fits, and where it doesn't

For a small business answering the same questions on WhatsApp every day, this is a genuinely useful, low-cost first step into AI customer service. It's worth switching on and testing.

It has limits, though. It lives inside Meta's apps, so it won't answer your phone, connect to your own CRM or quoting system, or follow a custom process for qualifying leads. Businesses that need AI to work across phone calls, email and their own systems will still need something built around how they actually operate.

What it means for your business

Customers increasingly expect an instant reply, whatever time they get in touch. Whether through Meta's tools or a bespoke system, being responsive around the clock is quickly becoming a baseline rather than a bonus.

At the Cannes Lions festival in June, Meta announced what it describes as an end-to-end AI system for creating ads. It includes a shared workspace where advertisers can see which ads are performing, generate new variations based on those results and test them, all in one place.

Meta also said it's developing a "brand memory" feature designed to remember a company's tone, identity and previous ads, so new creative stays on brand. Ads Manager is getting AI tools for writing text inside images, translating ads and a built-in approval workflow for teams. Separately, Meta is bringing its creator partnership tools together into one Creator Marketing Hub.

The bigger picture

This follows reports since 2025, first in the Wall Street Journal, that Meta aims to let businesses create entire campaigns from little more than a product image and a budget, with AI handling the creative, targeting and spend.

What it means for your business

When anyone can generate dozens of ad variations in minutes, the ads themselves stop being the advantage. The businesses that win will be the ones that get the fundamentals right:

• A clear offer that's genuinely compelling. AI can't fix a weak one.
• Accurate tracking, so Meta's AI optimises for real enquiries and sales rather than cheap clicks.
• Landing pages that convert the extra traffic the AI sends.
• Human review of AI-generated creative, so nothing off-brand or inaccurate goes live in your name.

AI will do more of the production. Strategy, judgement and a good website are what make it pay off.

Google Business Profile is testing a feature called "Set your hours automatically". Instead of filling in opening and closing times for each day, you describe your hours in your own words and Google uses AI to turn them into a proper structured listing on Search and Maps. The test was spotted and reported by Search Engine Roundtable in late September.

It's a small change, but it's part of a bigger pattern. For several years, Google has used machine learning to identify business hours it believes are wrong and update them automatically, based on signals such as the hours of similar businesses nearby.

Why this matters

If your profile is incomplete or out of date, Google is increasingly willing to fill in the gaps itself, and its guess might not match reality. Wrong hours mean wasted trips, frustrated customers and poor reviews.

A quick Google Business Profile check-up

• Set special hours in advance for bank holidays and Christmas. You can schedule them months ahead.
• Check your profile regularly for changes suggested by Google or the public, and correct anything inaccurate.
• Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere they appear online.
• Add your services, service areas and real photos so your listing answers questions before customers have to ask.
• Reply to reviews, good and bad. It shows customers, and Google, that the business is active.

What it means for your business

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a local customer sees, before your website. Ten minutes a month keeping it accurate is some of the highest-value marketing time a local business can spend.

AI search tools don't publish a ranking formula, but they share a common habit: they recommend businesses they can clearly understand and that others vouch for. This checklist covers the steps that help with exactly that, whichever AI tool your customers use.

1. Complete your Google Business Profile

Services, service areas, hours, photos and a clear description. It's one of the most-used sources of local business information on the web.

2. Answer real questions on your website

Write service pages and FAQs that answer what customers actually ask: what it costs, how long it takes, what areas you cover. Plain language beats clever copy for AI tools.

3. Keep your details identical everywhere

Your business name, address and phone number should match exactly across your website, Google, directories and social profiles. Inconsistencies create doubt.

4. Earn reviews that say something

A review that mentions the service and the town ("great new kitchen in Ballymena") gives AI far more to work with than "great job".

5. Add structured data

Schema markup tells search engines exactly what your business is, what you offer and where. It's invisible to visitors but very readable to machines.

6. Build genuine location pages

If you serve several towns, give each its own page with real local substance: work you've done there, how you serve the area, local questions. Copy-and-paste pages can count against you.

7. Get mentioned elsewhere

Local press, industry directories, suppliers and partners linking to or mentioning you all build the picture that your business is real and trusted.

8. Check what AI says about you

Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode the questions your customers would ask. Note who gets recommended, and whether anything said about you is wrong.

9. Measure enquiries, not just traffic

As AI answers more questions directly, website visits matter less than whether the phone rings. Track calls, forms and bookings, and ask new customers how they found you.

None of these steps is a trick. They're the foundations of being findable, and they work for traditional search, map results and AI answers alike.