Digital briefing, October 6: ChatGPT image ads, TikTok shopping assistant
Five developments that could affect your website and ads today: from Google's content guidelines to TikTok's new shopping features.
- Advertising
OpenAI introduces a new image ad format and measurement tools inside ChatGPT #
OpenAI has announced a new image ad format within ChatGPT. The company is also expanding measurement tools, attribution partnerships and brand safety features for advertisers.
What it means for your business: As ChatGPT grows as an advertising channel, the option to advertise there may become relevant for your business down the line, so it's worth keeping an eye on.Source: OpenAI — Building advertising for the way people use AI
- E-commerce
TikTok rolls out an AI-powered shopping assistant and one-tap checkout #
TikTok has launched an AI assistant called Shopping Assistant that lets users ask questions about products. The company has also introduced a new checkout feature that allows products seen in the For You feed to be purchased in a single tap without leaving the app. These features were built with partners including Salesforce, Shopify, Shoplazza and Stripe.
What it means for your business: For businesses selling products on TikTok, the entire customer decision and purchase journey can now happen within the app; this is a change that could affect your sales conversion. - Advertising
Google Ads will automatically add website discount offers to some campaigns starting October 12, 2026 #
According to an email Google sent to some advertisers, starting October 12, 2026, it will automatically scan discount offers on business websites and add them to certain campaigns. This applies to Search and Performance Max campaigns linked to a location asset, and campaigns that already contain manual promotions are excluded. The feature is on by default but can be turned off with a single account-level setting.
What it means for your business: Businesses with physical stores that use Google Ads may want to check whether discounts on their website are being added to ads without their consent; it's worth reviewing the setting.Source: PPC Land — Google Ads will auto-apply website coupons to some campaigns from October 12
- Search
Google Search Console can now filter multiple countries at once in the performance report #
Google has updated the country filter in Search Console's performance report; you can now select several countries at once to see combined search traffic. Google announced the change on LinkedIn on October 6. Previously, viewing data for more than one country required using the comparison feature, which was limited to two countries at a time.
What it means for your business: Businesses selling in multiple countries can now analyze search traffic for those countries as a group instead of one by one.Source: Search Engine Journal — Google Search Console Lets You Filter By Multiple Countries via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern · Search Engine Roundtable — Google Search Console Performance Report Multi-Select Country Filters
- Search
Google updates its 'helpful content' guidelines with more emphasis on main content quality #
Google has updated its document titled 'Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.' The update clarifies the definition of main content, with added explanations on factors like effort, originality, expertise/experience and accuracy. It also explicitly names fake author identities and fabricated expert profiles as signs of low quality.
What it means for your business: If your website includes AI-generated, careless or duplicate content found elsewhere, reviewing it could help protect your search visibility.