JB’s Digital Update 4th July 2025

AI is crowding out your ads, Broad Match experiments just got easier, Instagram’s trying to replace your video editor, URLs still matter more than you think, and marketing can’t be held responsible if it’s kept out of the room.

Google’s AI Overviews are now sitting firmly at the top of search results, pushing paid and organic links further down—if they’re visible at all. Visibility is dropping, clicks are down, and CPCs are going up, especially in sectors like retail, travel, finance, and healthcare. AI summaries are delivering enough information that people don’t need to click.

This isn’t a bidding problem or a creative issue. It’s a structural change to how search traffic flows. And if your strategy is still based on traditional SERP positioning, you’re likely seeing diminishing returns and wondering what’s going wrong.

Now’s the time to reassess. Check your performance across impacted queries, audit the intent of your top keywords, and experiment with conversational formats that might sneak into AI summaries. Don’t throw budget at something that’s already been crowded off the screen.

This is where PPC & Paid Social meets SEO. If your visibility is getting squeezed from all sides, it’s time for a strategic rethink—get in touch.

You can now run Broad Match experiments inside your existing Google Ads campaigns. No more duplicating campaigns just to test a keyword setting—you can run it all in one place and get meaningful data faster. It’s tidier, more accurate, and actually useful for once.

This is good news for anyone who’s avoided Broad Match like the plague due to messy setups and ropey results. It’s still risky if left unchecked, but at least now you can manage it without the overhead of campaign sprawl.

Don’t treat it like a magic fix—Broad Match still needs tight themes, decent negative keywords, and proper conversion tracking. Run your experiments smartly, and look at both volume and quality before making changes permanent.

If you’d rather avoid the test-and-pray method, our PPC & Paid Social service handles this kind of structured testing for real business outcomes—not just dashboards.

Instagram’s quietly updated its Edits app with some serious upgrades—keyframe motion editing, beat markers, new fonts and transitions, voice effects, and batch editing tools. You can now create pro-grade mobile content without touching a desktop.

It’s a clear play to keep creators—and brands—within Instagram’s ecosystem. More importantly, it means small teams or solo marketers can produce polished content quickly and on the go. No more exporting to third-party apps just to tweak a transition or add a branded font.

Give it a spin. If you’re already posting Reels or Stories, you may as well try trimming production time while levelling up the quality. Just keep an eye on consistency if multiple people are creating on the fly.

This ties directly into Social Media Management. If your brand needs fast, high-quality content without the video-editing overhead, I can help make that happen.

Clean, readable URLs still matter—AI or no AI. If your URLs are long, unreadable, or filled with gibberish, you’re making life harder for users and search engines alike. That means ranking lower and being trusted less.

It’s surprising how often this gets overlooked. Bad CMS defaults, old habits, and dev shortcuts can leave you with sloppy structures that hurt performance. The fix isn’t difficult—but it requires someone to actually care.

Audit your top pages. If your URLs look like code vomit, fix them. If your structure is inconsistent across the site, fix that too. And if you’re still using auto-generated slugs—don’t.

This is a simple win in both SEO and Development & Technology. If you want a proper site audit and fix list, let’s chat.

There’s a fundamental problem still plaguing a lot of businesses: marketing is given KPIs to hit but not included in setting the strategy behind them. That’s how you end up with well-polished campaigns that achieve absolutely nothing.

Marketing isn’t a post-it note stuck on the side of a business plan. If you want real results, marketing needs to help define the goals, not just deliver on someone else’s idea of success. Otherwise, you get metrics that look good and a bottom line that doesn’t.

If you’re in this position—push back. If you’re in-house, demand involvement early. If you’re outsourced, don’t accept “just run the ads.” Strategic input isn’t a luxury—it’s how things work when they work well.

This is the whole point of Virtual Chief Digital Officer (vCDO). If you want real results, start with strategy. I can help you get there.

This week’s reminder: Google will change the rules whenever it feels like it, your content tools are evolving faster than your process, and if you’re not at the strategy table, you’re probably just cleaning up the mess. Take control where you can, and don’t neglect the things that still work—like proper URLs and smart ad testing.

Need a hand with any of it? Contact me—I’m here to help.

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