Muck Rack's May 2026 study found earned media accounted for 84% of citations in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini answers, with paid content at 0.3%, and other trackers point the same way with different definitions. For agencies, press coverage now works as an input to AI answers, with recency, outlet choice and query type shaping what gets cited.
Two years after the NAR settlement, agents must sell their value in writing, first-time buyers have fallen to a record-low 21% and Compass has dropped its suit over Zillow's listing rules. Here is what that means for agencies marketing agents and brokerages, from social leads to uneven AI adoption.
From Ford and NVIDIA to Robinhood's Sherwood, companies are hiring veteran journalists to publish their own coverage as search traffic to news sites falls. Independent evidence of business results remains limited, and credibility depends on editorial standards.
News job cuts are up 12% year-to-date, while Muck Rack and Cision surveys show journalists drowning in off-target pitches yet still relying on PR for story ideas. Here is what reporters say they want and how agencies should adjust.
Google's 2025–2026 updates to Performance Max campaigns—including channel-level reporting, better brand exclusions, and improved coexistence with standard Shopping—have not quieted the debate over whether PMax is a smart AI-native format or an opaque budget drain. Here is what the evidence says for small and midsize ecommerce operators.
As Google completes its third-party cookie deprecation and Meta's Advantage+ absorbs more DTC ad spend, brands are debating whether investing in first-party data infrastructure is a genuine competitive advantage or costly overhead only large players can justify. The stakes are highest heading into Q4 2026, when signal loss is reshaping how performance marketers measure ROAS, build audiences, and attribute new customer acquisition.
TikTok Shop, Instagram, and YouTube Shopping now function as full storefronts with their own product-data requirements, forcing US merchants to maintain parallel product records and rethink where conversion optimization dollars should go.
Amazon's demand-side platform is pulling DTC ad budgets away from Meta and Google by offering purchase-intent data no other platform can match — but its real value depends heavily on whether a brand already sells on Amazon.
U.S. retail media ad spend has surpassed $60 billion, but independent DTC merchants on Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce face structural disadvantages versus large CPG advertisers — and rising CPCs, questionable attribution, and unequal platform access are prompting a rethink of channel strategy heading into Q4 2026.
Google's AI Overviews are measurably suppressing organic click-through rates, hitting e-commerce brands hardest on upper-funnel informational queries. The industry is split three ways on how to respond — shift budget to Google Ads, diversify to Meta and owned channels, or restructure content for AI citation — while rising paid-media costs put pressure on thin-margin merchants.
