The Forgelight Beacon Newsletter — Issue No. 10

🔎 Search Advertising | From Google

On October 15, Google announced updates to its AI Mode and AI Overviews that look to help users connect more with Search. The updates include clearer inline links, more context about sources, and more prominent display for timely articles. The goal is to make Search simpler, more visual, and more engaging.

These updates aim to improve visibility for sources and get the key information users want to read or see quickly and from reliable sources.

Google is also looking to rollout what may be the next wave of Search Influencers. They've begun testing clickable creator and publisher names on video results that link directly to their Search profiles. Search Profiles seem to be a way to bring content from multiple platforms into one place. These profiles also give users a quick way to learn about creators and their broader work, giving searchers even more context.

This harkens a bit back to the old algorithm days of Google Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and other algo-updates that gave us the Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Panels in the SERPs to help lend authority to those publishing news and content on the web. Search Profiles may be the next evolution of that. For this, though, you must come with your own influence. To create a new Search Profile, you'll need at least 10,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter X, or TikTok.

Key Takeaway:

In an information economy that can be filled with loud voices and little insight, and fueled by despairingly-short attention spans, we'll need to continue to monitor what gets pushed into our feeds.

But Google's focus on context and sources is a step in the right direction to making Search useful in what is becoming a more and more crowded screen environment. Useful website content still deserves investment. Give visitors something worth opening, as well as information they can trust.

🖥️ Digital Advertising | From Meta

This month, at Advertising Week New York, Meta introduced new AI capabilities and campaign tools that help advertisers and agencies find new customers and grow their business. Updates include a wider rollout of Ads Creative Studio (its new, dedicated workspace for navigating creative strategy - from planning to execution), Muse for Small Business (the agentic AI assistant to help businesses run ad campaigns with "always-on support"), AI-enabled audience discovery, AI chat conversation-based campaign planning, and more.

That could remove a lot of routine work. However, it also puts more weight on how clearly a business must define success before asking the system to act.

Consider a local service company that wants more booked appointments. Asking an assistant to lower the cost per lead gives it one instruction. Explaining the service area, minimum project size, and what counts as a qualified appointment gives it a much more useful assignment. A cheap inquiry from someone you can’t serve still costs your team time.

Key Takeaway:

Before adopting another layer of automation, write down the business outcome, spending limits, and decisions that require approval. Then, review the results, and expand based on what you learn.

And be aware of the learning curve. Even experienced marketers, including ourselves, need time to test these tools, experiment, and understand where they deliver value and where human judgement is still needed. Many decision-makers, executives, and business-owners alike are still unsure of what AI can and cannot do. The possibilities are exciting, but we must continue to be diligent. Proceed with caution before investing time, energy, effort, and expense when rolling out these measures.