Paid Media
Updates by Kris Skavish
ChatGPT Ads Come Closer
ChatGPT continues to move quickly towards showing users ads in the tool. The first offering is reportedly targeting advertisers with $1,000,000 to spend, and is priced per impression. Another report suggested that ChatGPT is pitching ads at costs of $60 per 1,000 impressions, about 3 times higher than typical Meta prices, accompanied by high-level impression and/or click data, but no conversion data.
Meanwhile, executives at Google have publicly stated that they are prioritizing trust and functionality in Gemini, and don’t expect ads to appear in that platform in 2026.
TikTok US-Based Ownership
A joint venture between Silver Lake, Oracle, MGX, and Chinese-owned ByteDance appeared to meet US regulatory demands for TikTok to continue operating in the US. Data will be hosted in Oracle’s US-based servers, and feed algorithms will be based on US data.
This arrangement is more than a year in the works, after the US government demanded the Chinese company submit to a different business ownership structure that would enforce tighter security controls for US users. This resolution should allow content creators and advertisers to feel more secure in the lasting power of TikTok going forward.
Ads in Threads Now Available Globally
Threads ads will be available to Meta advertisers globally, after testing in the US and Japan. Advertisers can leverage text and image advertising from Meta’s business manager.
A report from SimilarWeb showed that just this month, Threads’ daily user count exceeded that of X on mobile devices, with 141 million daily users. X usage still outpaces Threads usage on desktop.
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol Enables Agent-Led Purchases
Google’s open protocol, Universal Commerce Protocol, allows for shopping platforms like Shopify to integrate at a data level and allow consumers to purchase entirely within Google. We expect to see the new shopping capabilities in AI Mode and Gemini. ChatGPT announced a similar Agentic Commerce Protocol last fall.
Meanwhile, a new ad type, Direct Offer, aims to feature brand discounts when Google’s AI detects a consumer is close to purchase. Google is positioning agentic shopping, where agents handle interfaces between consumers and shops, as inevitable.
SEO & AI
Updates by Brett Woodward
Brand and product recommendations vary across AIs and prompts
A study from SparkToro found that for questions about brands and products, AI responses vary widely in how they answer.
Questions with answers that fall outside of established facts will always open the door for various responses. Ask any AI how far it is to the moon and they’ll all give the same answer, but ask one for recommendations on the best headlamp for backcountry skiing and outputs will differ because there isn’t one “correct” answer.
But as this study demonstrates, AI outputs are so dynamic that even if you keep all variables constant (same user, same question, same word choice, etc.) you’ll often get a unique response each time. And not only will the response be unique but the brands and products mentioned in the response are also likely to change. All this variation is one of several major hurdles for 3rd party AI visibility trackers.
At Two Octobers we’re trying to shift our clients’ focus to the engagement metrics that come from our efforts to increase visibility, rather than treating directional AI visibility data as a KPI itself.
Google makes updates to nudge users from Search to AI Mode
In a recent product update post, Google announced that the “See More” button that currently truncates AI Overview outputs in Search will soon redirect users to AI Mode.
Right now that “See More” button simply shows the full AIO. But soon it will take users out of the search engine results page entirely and bring them to the more insulated AI Mode version, where one can’t scroll past the AI generated response to view organic results.
As more users adopt AI Mode we’ll continue to see clicks from organic search drop, especially from basic searches around broad topics. There’s still plenty of value in creating content, but it needs to be content with value that can’t be summarized in a paragraph. Content that goes deeper and targets pain points further down the funnel will be valuable for building trust, even if it doesn’t grow clicks.
