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IAB’s latest “State of Data” report reveals that despite recognizing its potential, 70% of agencies, brands, and publishers have yet to integrate AI into their campaigns fully.
Here’s a look at the study, which examines the current use of AI in advertising, the challenges of adoption, and the opportunities for success.
A report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) surveyed over 500 experts and found that AI use varies across the industry:
One SVP from an undisclosed brand stated in the report:
“We have been slow to fully implement AI into our day-to-day processes. We are wary to go ‘all in’ until it’s become a bit more of a societal norm with a long-standing track record of scalable success.”
Companies using AI generally have positive experiences:
AI excels in data-heavy tasks, like audience segmentation and targeting, but struggles with tasks needing human judgment, such as RFP management and campaign setup.
The research found several barriers to adopting AI in media campaigns:
Interestingly, job displacement isn’t seen as a major issue, with only 37% identifying it as a concern.
Agencies, brands, and publishers face unique challenges with AI:
AI is changing media campaigns, and IAB’s report highlights some important points.
First, many companies are in the early stages of adopting AI, but this is happening faster than before. Companies without clear plans risk falling behind by 2026.
Second, companies need good data and solid governance guidelines to succeed with AI. Organizations should train their teams in best practices and set clear goals.
Standards for transparency, privacy, and reliability are still being developed across the industry. Companies that collaborate to set these standards will be best positioned to handle this change in digital advertising.
The full “State of Data” report is available through IAB.
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Google’s March 2025 Core Update, announced on March 13th and expected to complete its rollout this week, is creating turbulence in search results according to multiple industry tracking tools.
Data from Local SEO Guide and SISTRIX indicate this may be a highly impactful update.
According to tracking data from Local SEO Guide, which monitors 100,000 home services keywords, the week of March 10th showed the highest SERP volatility observed in over a year. This aligns with Google’s official announcement of the March Core Update on March 13th.
SISTRIX data confirms these findings, with its Google Update Radar showing movement beginning March 16th across both the UK and US markets. The company monitors one million SERPs daily to track the update’s impact.
Local SEO Guide identified several clear winners and losers in their tracking data. Sites gaining the most visibility include:
Conversely, sites experiencing the most significant drops in visibility include:
SISTRIX’s analysis revealed additional impacted domains in the UK market, with significant losses for quora.com (-15.76%), vocabulary.com (-10.93%), and expedia.co.uk (-20.60%). Government sites weren’t spared either, with hmrc.gov.uk showing a dramatic 52.60% visibility decrease.
The retail sector has seen interesting shifts. SISTRIX data shows that notonthehighstreet.com experienced a 56.28% visibility increase in UK searches, while uniqlo.com saw a 76.12% gain.
On the negative side, several retailers lost ground, with zara.com dropping 24.00%, amazon.com declining 13.84%, and diy.com falling 7.75% in visibility.
Andrew Shotland, CEO of Local SEO Guide, identified several potential patterns in this update:
Two forums, DIYChatroom and GarageJournal, saw visibility drops despite having experienced a 1,000%+ increase over the past year.
Shotland notes this may not be a direct demotion, but Google is elevating sites like Reddit alongside features like Discussions and Forums widgets and Popular Products grids.
Sites like Bluettipower.com, which appears to have created thousands of data-driven pages likely using AI, have seen visibility declines. Other sites with “kitchen-sink, made-it-for-SEO” content are similarly affected.
Unlike some updates targeting specific niches, this core update affects sites across various sectors, including retail, government, forums, and content publishers.
Google has provided little information about the improvements to its search algorithm in this core update. The full effects may not be clear until the rollout is complete.
Google’s March Core algorithm update is still rolling out. Search Engine Journal will monitor changes and offer updates as more information becomes available. Please continue sending in your reports.
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
Google has publicly committed to December 31 as a deadline for improving how independent publishers appear in search results.
This timeline emerged during an exchange on X between Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, and several concerned publishers.
The exchange began with Jonathan Jones sharing notes from a discussion where Google addressed concerns about independent content creators.
Danny covers “independent” content creators.
“How do we spend more time to guide smaller independent sites to succeed”
Reference to a trip to Zurich where they discussed how they could do more. What could they do internally.
Reference to “we’ve done things to help”
Unlikely… https://t.co/tzt9xvkfoO pic.twitter.com/Ob2C8KNNwt
— Mr Jonathan Jones 🇹🇼🇬🇧 (@Jonny_J_) March 20, 2025
According to Jones’ post, Sullivan acknowledged Google’s need to “reward sites better” and expressed interest in helping “smaller independent sites to succeed.”
What made this conversation notable was publisher Nate Hake’s push for accountability, which resulted in Google providing a deadline. Something Google typically avoids when discussing ranking improvements.
“Can we take that to mean ‘December 31, 2025’ (if not before)?” Hake asked directly.
“Yes,” responded Google’s Search Liaison, adding the caveat that “this doesn’t mean all sites will go back up to wherever they were if they are down from a previous peak.”
1) Yes. With the important caveat that this doesn’t mean all sites will go back up to wherever they were if they are down from a previous peak.
Our results have continued to change since 2023, including showing more social content, for example. The results are going to continue…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 21, 2025
The exchange highlighted the tension between Google and independent publishers, which have seen their search visibility decline in recent years.
“Honestly, everything you are saying sounds exactly like what you said when we visited Google HQ in October,” Hake wrote. “Same words, same inaction.”
Hake then detailed what he claims Google has done since October: “reduced independent publisher visibility even more” while continuing “to preference Reddit, Quora, and the 16 VC-backed media companies.”
Others joined the conversation, expressing similar frustrations with Google’s communication style. Mordy Oberstein characterized Google’s guidance as “ethereal” and “anything but concrete and consistent,” noting that publishers need more precise models of “what good sites look like.”
In response to these criticisms, Sullivan explained that improvements would be incremental rather than delivered in one major update:
“There’s no specific date because there’s no one specific thing that the teams are working on to improve. There are multiple things, because search has multiple things that are involved in ranking.”
He added:
“There have been some changes already launched with that goal. Some sites may have benefited from them; others might not, but that’s also because the sites themselves are all different.”
Sullivan acknowledged the need for better guidance, stating:
“I’d like to see us do a better job with guidance and documentation focused on content issues to add to our existing stuff that’s primarily about technical issues.”
Many publishers have reported traffic declines following recent Google updates, with some claiming visibility has dropped despite maintaining high-quality content.
As Google’s March Core Update continues to roll out, publishers are anxious to see if it will resolve their ranking issues.
Some websites might notice changes with this update. However, we can expect improvements for more publishers by December.
Sullivan’s commitment is a small but notable victory for those who have pushed for greater transparency and accountability from Google.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, shared insights about AI Overviews, explaining how predictive summaries, grounding links, and the query fan-out technique work together to shape AI-generated search results.
Danny Sullivan shared insights into how AI Overviews are generated, helping explain why Google may link to websites that don’t match the typical search results. While the links can differ, he emphasized that the fundamentals of search optimization remain unchanged.
This is what Danny Sullivan said, based on my notes:
“The core fundamental things haven’t really changed. If you’re doing things that are making you successful on search, those sorts of things should transfer into some of the things that you see in the generative AI kind of summaries.”
One of the main takeaways from this part of Danny’s presentation was his explanation of why Google AIO search results are different. This is the clearest explanation of why the AIO search results are different, every SEO and publisher needs to know this.
He introduced two concepts to familiarize yourself with in order to better understand AIO search results.
Danny solved the mystery behind AIO search results that show content and links that are different from what organic search results show, which makes it harder to understand how to optimize for that kind of AI search results.
He shared that the reason for that kind of AIO is something called predictive summaries. Predictive summaries show answers to a search query but also try to predict related variations of what a user will also want to see. This sounds a lot like Google’s patent about Information Gain. Information Gain is about predicting the next question that a searcher may ask after reading the answer to their present question. Information gain is a patent that is strictly to the context of AI Search and AI Assistants.
Here is what he said, according to my notes:
“One thing I think that people find really confusing sometimes is that they’ll do a query and especially you’ll see …these are the top 10 results, but I don’t see them in the AIO, what’s going on?
And it’s like, yeah, the query in the search box is the same query, but the model that’s going out there to try to understand what to show is kind of an overview, going beyond just the top 10 results. It’s understanding a lot of results and it’s understanding a lot of variations that you might kind of get and so that it’s coming back and it’s trying to provide its predictive summary of what the query is related to.”
Sullivan also revealed that “grounding links” are another reason why AIO search results are different from the regular organic search results. An AIO search result is a summary of a topic that includes facts about multiple subtopics. The purpose of grounding is to anchor the entire summary to verifiable information from the web ecosystem.
In the context of AIO, grounding is the process of confirming the factual authenticity of the AI summaries so that a searcher can click to read about any subtopic discussed in the answer summary provided by AIO. This is the second reason why the links in AIO show a variety not normally seen in the organic search results.
One way to look at this is that the links are more contextual than the regular ten blue links of the organic search results. These contextual links are also referred to as qualified clicks or qualified links, links that are hyper-specific and more relevant in general than organic search results.
Danny appears to say that the grounding links are created from searches that are related to the initial search query, but are not the same. Like, if you want to explain how a conventional automobile runs, you need information about the powertrain which is made up of a gas combustion engine, a transmission, the axles and so on. Answering a complex question requires grounding from a wide array of information sources.
According to my notes, this is how Danny Sullivan explained it:
“And then on top of that, it’s then also trying to bring in the grounding links. And those grounding links, because it kind of comes from a broader set aren’t just going to match. The queries are going to be different and the overall set is going to be different.
Which is why it’s a great opportunity for diversity and whatever our query thing is that we say, but that’s why you can see different things that are showing there.”
Sullivan cautioned about trying to rank for both the organic and the different parts of the AIO summaries, saying that it’s likely to “mess things up” because “it doesn’t really work like that.”
Danny Sullivan also touched on the topic of AI Mode, saying that right now it’s not really something to optimize for because it’s still in Google Labs and it’s very likely to change and be something different if it ever gets out of Google Labs.
But he did say that AI Mode uses something called a query fan-out technique.
He said:
“…one of the things they talk about is like ‘we use an advanced query fan out technique with multiple related queries in it…’ And it’s basically that what I said before.
You issued a query. You try to understand the variations and things that are related. which by the way is not that much different to how search works at the moment even when you didn’t have the AI elements to it. Because when you would issue a query now we try to understand synonyms, we try to understand the meaning of the entire query. If it’s a sentence, we try to match it in all sorts of different ways …because sometimes it just brings you better results.”
Google Search Liaison, aka Danny Sullivan, encouraged the use of the core SEO fundamentals, saying that they are still relevant for ranking. Danny explained why the links in AI Overviews can sometimes differ significantly from those in the organic search results, introducing three concepts that help understand AIO search results better.
Three concepts related to AIO search results to understand:
Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude now searches the web, providing current information with source citations for paid US users.
Google’s Martin Splitt explains why indexed pages may not appear in search results, highlighting relevance and ranking competition.
LinkedIn has published its “Skills on the Rise” report, which lists the 15 fastest-growing skills in the U.S. job market.
To stay competitive, here’s what professionals should focus on.
AI is driving major workplace changes. LinkedIn predicts that by 2030, about 70% of skills in most jobs will significantly change. A quarter of professionals plan to learn new skills this year.
“AI Literacy” is now the most in-demand skill, reflecting the need for workers who can use AI tools across all industries.
While many list “AI” as a skill, this usually means basic familiarity with tools like ChatGPT rather than in-depth expertise.
The complete list of fastest-growing skills identified by LinkedIn includes:
The report explains why each skill is gaining importance and the most common job titles and industries where these skills are prevalent.
While AI skills are essential, there is a growing need for soft skills. These skills are valuable as organizations address complex workplace issues such as return-to-office policies and managing teams from different generations.
For example, “Conflict Resolution” (ranked #2) is essential for customer service representatives, administrative assistants, and project managers in the technology and internet sectors.
“Adaptability” (ranked #3) is becoming essential for teachers, administrative assistants, and project managers as they face fast technological and economic changes.
To help people develop these skills, LinkedIn is offering free access to related LinkedIn Learning courses until April 18. The list includes a link to a recommended course for each skill.
The report also includes in-demand skills lists for 15 job functions and seven additional countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Spain, and the UK.
LinkedIn created a separate list specifically for marketing job functions, as shown below.
Screenshot from: LinkedIn, March 2025.LinkedIn’s methodology for determining the fastest-growing skills considers three key factors: skill acquisition (the rate at which members add new skills to their profiles), hiring success (the share of a skill possessed by recently hired members), and emerging demand (increased presence of skills in job postings).
See LinkedIn’s full report.
The long-brewing conflict between Google and EU regulators has reached a new milestone.
The European Commission has officially issued preliminary findings that Google has violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in two key areas that directly impact digital marketers and app developers.
Despite Google’s algorithm tweaks over the past year, EU regulators aren’t satisfied. They claim Google still gives preferential treatment to its verticals, such as Google Shopping, Hotels, Flights, and other specialized results.
The Commission called out Google for displaying its services “at the top of Google Search results or on dedicated spaces, with enhanced visual formats and filtering mechanisms” that third-party services don’t enjoy.
If you’ve been wondering why your clients’ listings seem pushed down by Google’s products, EU regulators are validating those concerns.
In a separate finding, the Commission claims Google Play doesn’t allow app developers to freely direct users to alternative channels for better deals or direct purchases.
For marketers working with apps or managing app-based clients, this could eventually lead to new opportunities to reach users outside Google’s ecosystem without the steep Play Store fees.
If the findings are confirmed and Google is forced to make changes, we could see significant shifts in search visibility and ranking opportunities:
For app marketers, we might see new options for communicating with users about direct purchase options and alternatives to Google Play’s payment system.
Google now has the opportunity to respond to these preliminary findings, and the company has consistently maintained that its changes already comply with the DMA.
In previous statements, Google’s EMEA competition director cautioned that further modifications could negatively impact user experience.
This escalation follows the DMA’s implementation in March 2024, which designated Google as a “gatekeeper” alongside other tech giants. The law specifically targets large platforms that serve as critical intermediaries between businesses and consumers.
If Google fails to address the Commission’s concerns, it could face penalties of up to 10% of its global annual revenue. This prospect will likely motivate changes to how search results appear in Europe.
We’ll monitor this situation as it develops and provide updates on how changes might impact your search and app marketing strategies.
Google is expanding AI overviews to “thousands more health topics,” per an announcement at the company’s health-focused ‘The Check Up’ event.
The event included developments spanning research, wearable technology, and medical records.
Here’s more about how Google is refining health results in Search.
Google is showing AI overviews for more health-related queries.
Compared to other types of questions, this topic has had fewer AI overviews. Now, these overviews will be available for more queries and in more languages.
Google states:
“Now, using AI and our best-in-class quality and ranking systems, we’ve been able to expand these types of overviews to cover thousands more health topics. We’re also expanding to more countries and languages, including Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, starting on mobile.”
Google notes health-focused advancements to its Gemini models will go into summarizing information for health topics.
With these updates, Google claims AI overviews for health queries are “more relevant, comprehensive and continue to meet a high bar for clinical factuality.”
Google is introducing a new feature for health queries called “What People Suggest.”
It uses AI to organize perspectives from online discussions and to analyze what people with similar health conditions are saying.
For example, someone with arthritis looking for exercise recommendations could use this feature to learn what works for others with the same condition.
See an example below.
Screenshot from: blog.google/technology/health/the-check-up-health-ai-updates-2025/, March 2025.“What People Suggest” is currently available only on mobile devices in the U.S.
The search updates were part of a larger set of health technology announcements at The Check Up event. Google also revealed:
Hallucination remains a problem for AI models. While Gemini may have upgrades that make it more accurate, it will still be wrong at least sometimes.
Google’s inclusion of personal experiences alongside medical websites marks a shift, recognizing people value both clinical information and real-world perspectives.
Health publishers should be aware that this could affect search visibility but may also increase chances of appearing for more queries or the “What People Suggest” section.