☕️ Google is finally giving you PMax controls

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

📉 Why mid-tier influencers are wasting your budget

🎛️ Google is finally giving you PMax controls

🤖 Amazon now makes you label AI models in product photos

⏳ Your AI time savings are quietly disappearing

Plus: 💡 3 strategies & tactics, and 🎁 7 other news you might like.

📉 Why mid-tier influencers are wasting your budget LINK

Creators with 50,000 to 250,000 followers deliver the worst cost per view and cost per engagement of any tier, according to a new OpenSponsorship analysis of 1,527 paid creator deliverables run between January 2025 and June 2026.

The mid-tier's cost per view reached $0.19, the highest of any category, while its cost per engagement hit $7.07, more than double the rate for nano and micro creators, across 513 campaigns.

Median cost per deliverable rose steadily with follower count, from $134 for nano and $150 for micro to $417 for mid-tier, $517 for macro, and $2,727 for mega creators.

🎛️ Google is finally giving you PMax controls LINK

Google is testing a Performance Max feature that lets media buyers exclude inventory from third-party search partners and the Google Display Network, giving them more control over PMax spending than the product allowed since its 2022 launch.

The feature appears in users' PMax consoles as two checkbox options that are enabled by default, letting buyers deselect Search Partners and Google Display Network, both sources buyers describe as junk or remnant inventory they never wanted to opt into.

The change follows earlier PMax updates like channel performance reporting and campaign-level negative keywords, which one agency said produced a 10% average increase in PMax investments after clients shifted ad spend from Google Shopping campaigns.

🤖 Amazon now makes you label AI models in product photos LINK

Amazon is now telling third-party sellers to label any product images or videos that show AI-generated people, following a recent New York law demanding more transparency about "synthetic performers" in ads.

The policy, announced Wednesday, tells sellers to tag images and "A+ content" with specific metadata keywords before upload, though it skips content with TV, movie or game characters, or real people altered with AI.

Amazon said it will add an indicator on listings to tell shoppers when content features AI-generated people, a step affecting outside sellers who account for more than 60% of goods sold on its marketplace.

⏳ Your AI time savings are quietly disappearing LINK

Nearly half of B2B marketers have fully integrated AI into their daily work, but the hours saved are being spent fixing AI output instead, according to a survey of more than 2,000 marketers by Optimizely.

Three-quarters of respondents spend at least three hours each week editing, fact-checking, or fixing AI content, and only 4% said AI saves time across the entire content creation process.

More than 80% of marketers switch among multiple AI applications, creating disconnected workflows, while 65% of leaders would consider pausing their AI rollout for 90 days to rethink their approach.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> AI Search Strategy: 4 Pillars to Show Up More (and Right) in AI Answers: Explains how to appear accurately in AI-generated answers by giving AI reliable business documentation, earning third-party mentions, and tracking your visibility over time.

> 7 Reasons Every Marketing Team Should Monitor Brand Mentions: Track brand mentions daily because they surface content worth amplifying, correct outdated AI descriptions, and reveal press quotes and product uses you can reuse.

> Google Ads automation makes governance a competitive advantage: Govern what Google's automation learns by feeding it clean conversion signals and the right audiences, then adding guardrails that block off-target searches and placements.

Other news you might like

• AI Max spotted in Google Standard Shopping campaignsLINK

• Sponsored messages gain 3.6x InMail lift from LinkedIn Live viewersLINK

• Amazon and Walmart Grew the Crowd but Shrank the BasketLINK

• Google fined €890m by European Commission over DMA violationsLINK

• Adthena partners dentsu as UK ChatGPT CPCs swing 278% with no explanationLINK

• Consumers warm up to streaming ads: Here’s what the numbers sayLINK

• Exclusive: Yelp partners with ChatGPT to surface reviewsLINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!