Video, Agents, and Algorithms Are Rewriting the Marketing Playbook
YouTube Is Becoming the Front Door to AI Search
Google’s AI Overviews are increasingly built on video, not webpages.
What’s the News:
Google AI Overviews are citing YouTube at an unprecedented rate. Recent analysis shows that nearly 30% of AI Overviews now reference YouTube content, making it the most-cited domain overall—outpacing publishers, forums, and brand websites.
Why It Matters:
Video has been a “nice to have” in SEO for years. AI search is turning it into a prerequisite. As Google increasingly answers queries directly—often without a click—brands that don’t show up in video risk losing visibility at the very top of the funnel, where consideration now begins.
Marketers Should:
Treat YouTube as a primary SEO channel, not a distribution afterthought
Align video content to search queries that influence downstream conversion
Prioritize upper-funnel topics where AI Overviews are most prevalent
Measure YouTube’s role beyond views, tying it to assisted demand and brand lift
Google Is Laying the Groundwork for Agentic Commerce
From Direct Offers to UCP, search is moving from answers to actions.
What’s the News:
Google announced several initiatives pushing commerce toward AI-driven execution: Direct Offers inside AI Mode, a Business Agent that allows shoppers to converse directly with brands in Search, and the Universal Commerce Protocol—an open standard enabling AI agents to manage the full purchase journey. Industry adoption is accelerating as infrastructure usage surges.
Why It Matters:
Discovery is no longer just human-driven. Brands are increasingly competing for visibility inside AI agents that parse data, compare options, and execute purchases. In this environment, machine-readable product data determines whether a brand is even considered.
Marketers Should:
View agentic commerce as a gradual shift, not an overnight flip
Prioritize Data UX alongside Website UX
Treat product feeds as a brand surface, not a backend file
Audit structured data to support conversational and substitute-based queries
Prepare now so your brand is agent-ready before adoption accelerates
Meta Turns Creators into Performance Infrastructure
Partnership Ads formalize creator content as a scalable performance lever.
What’s the News:
Meta expanded Partnership Ads, making it easier to turn organic creator content into paid ads and adding new APIs and performance metrics to scale the format programmatically. Meta reports that these ads are delivering meaningfully stronger performance, with lower acquisition costs and higher engagement than standard ads.
Why It Matters:
Performance creative isn’t just about brand storytelling anymore. It’s about authenticity, social proof, and relevance at scale. Meta’s algorithm increasingly favors content that already resonates organically—allowing paid media to inherit trust instead of trying to manufacture it.
Marketers Should:
Shift performance strategy toward creator-first creative pipelines
Identify organic or creator posts that already drive engagement and amplify them with paid
Benchmark creator-led ads against traditional brand creative to validate impact
Reconsider the long-term risk of not having an organic presence on Meta platforms
Disney Signals the End of “Social vs. CTV”
Vertical video and AI production tools point to a unified viewing experience.
What’s the News:
Disney announced TikTok-style vertical video formats alongside a new AI-powered video generation tool that allows advertisers to create CTV-ready ads using existing brand assets and guidelines.
Why It Matters:
Disney’s move reflects how consumers already behave. A growing share of viewers consider scrolling social video and streaming content as the same activity—and many are doing both at once. The distinction between “social” and “TV” is rapidly becoming irrelevant.
Marketers Should:
Plan video creative for environments, not channels
Design assets that flex across vertical, horizontal, and second-screen contexts
Use AI to scale production while maintaining clear brand and audience inputs
Rethink reach strategy around time spent, not platform labels
Not All MMM Tools Are Created Equal
A timely reminder that “doing MMM” isn’t a single decision.
What’s the News:
Search Engine Land published a breakdown of four major open-source MMM tools—Robyn, Meridian, Orbit, and Prophet—highlighting what each actually does, and just as importantly, what each doesn’t.
Why It Matters:
As MMM adoption grows, many teams assume all models deliver equivalent answers. In reality, these tools vary widely in complexity, speed, and analytical rigor. Choosing the wrong framework can slow insights or misguide budget decisions.
Marketers Should:
Match MMM tooling to team capability and decision needs
Use Robyn when speed, accessibility, and experiment calibration matter
Lean on Meridian when geo-level granularity and causal rigor will change outcomes
Avoid treating Prophet as a standalone MMM solution
Know that Silverback deploys both Robyn and Meridian based on client needs
Performance Max Continues to Push Video to the Center
Expanded video limits could simplify structure while improving coverage.
What’s the News:
Google is testing expanded video limits in Performance Max, potentially allowing significantly more videos per Asset Group. This would reduce the need to fragment campaigns just to support different formats and ratios.
Why It Matters:
Video already plays a central role in PMax performance, but current limits force advertisers to make trade-offs between coverage and simplicity. Expanded capacity would allow more creative testing without sacrificing structural efficiency.
Marketers Should:
Build creative libraries with multiple ratios and formats ready to deploy
Consolidate Asset Groups where possible to improve learning
Treat video diversity as a performance requirement, not an enhancement
Expect Google to continue increasing creative demands inside automation
We’re reinventing performance marketing because everything changed while you were reading this.
We help you navigate this new landscape with data-driven insights, platform expertise, and creative that connects, so your brand not only keeps up, but gets ahead.
Work with Us