Google changes store rating rules

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ MarketingShot.

In today's MarketingShot:

⭐ Google just changed the rules for your store ratings

🛒 Amazon just blocked Meta's Muse from shopping your store

🤖 Gemini and Claude are stealing your ChatGPT visibility

🛍️ Shopify makes Meta's AI shoppers a new checkout channel

🧵 You can now run Threads ads without Instagram

Plus: 💡 5 strategies & tactics, 🎁 7 other news you might like, and 🧰 6 tools.

⭐ Google just changed the rules for your store ratings LINK

Google now spells out the rules for Store ratings inside Merchant Center, listing what merchants must meet before star ratings can appear next to their paid text and Shopping ads.

A store needs at least 100 eligible, unique post-purchase reviews and an average score of 3.5 out of 5, or the star rating assets stop showing beside ads until the score climbs back up.

Google counts reviews from a rolling 24-month window, with older feedback aging out, and ratings are geo-segmented, so reviews only count toward the badge in the country where they were written.

🛒 Amazon just blocked Meta's Muse from shopping your store LINK

Amazon has stopped Meta's Muse AI agent from making purchases on Amazon.com, saying it never approved the tool or knew in advance that Muse would reach into its store.

Shoppers using Muse now hit a popup warning that access by an unauthorized AI agent breaks Amazon's Conditions of Use, with the messages first showing up early this morning, and Amazon has asked Meta to drop it.

Amazon says Muse captures and stores customer credentials, scrapes account data, and does not identify itself, while also skipping the personalized recommendations and browsing history built into its shopping experience.

🤖 Gemini and Claude are stealing your ChatGPT visibility LINK

ChatGPT's share of AI chatbot prompt volume dropped from 70% to 50% between January and June 2026, as rivals Gemini and Claude gained ground quickly, according to Comscore's Q2 2026 AI Intelligence Report published today.

Gemini's share of prompts nearly doubled from 17% to 30% over that period, while Claude climbed from 2% to 11%, based on Comscore's opt-in panel data covering between 500,000 and 1 million users.

Michael King of iPullRank said publishers should stop asking how to show up in ChatGPT and instead measure visibility per assistant, weighting it by where their readers actually ask questions across a multi-platform approach.

🛍️ Shopify makes Meta's AI shoppers a new checkout channel LINK

Shopify is teaming up with Meta so the Muse AI agent can complete purchases across all Shopify stores using Shop Pay, giving the assistant a direct checkout path through Shopify's commerce infrastructure.

Shop Pay, normally an accelerated checkout option, becomes one of the rails that turns Muse's product selection into a completed purchase, letting merchants avoid rebuilding that checkout path separately for every new AI interface.

Shopify's documentation lets merchants control direct-checkout settings for Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Gemini, but at verification it did not clearly spell out a Muse-specific opt-out, attribution, fees or returns handling.

🧵 You can now run Threads ads without Instagram LINK

Meta is updating how ads work on Threads, letting businesses run promotions without matching usernames across Threads and Instagram and even launch campaigns directly from a Threads profile with no Instagram presence at all.

The change starts in September 2026 and rolls out gradually, so it may not reach every advertiser right away, ending the old rule that tied Threads advertising to a matching Instagram identity.

Advertisers can now build campaigns made specifically for Threads users and tailor them to that audience, rather than leaning on Instagram audience signals as the earlier setup required.

💡 Strategies & Tactics

> How to Create Pro-Quality AI Videos With Gemini Omni: Explains how to make polished social videos using Google's Gemini Omni by building a reusable AI avatar and generating short scroll-stopping hooks from phone prompts.

> Why an evolving commerce funnel demands unified measurement: As shopping spreads across TikTok and AI shopping agents that hide traditional ad signals, brands must adopt purchase-data measurement showing true sales lift across all retailers.

> How to build a marketing team with AI coworkers: Plan which marketing roles become AI agents by first deciding what work is safe to delegate and who stays accountable for strategy.

> The Perfectly Optimized Page For AEO: Structure pages for answer engine optimization, the practice of making content easy for AI search to cite, by letting AI crawlers in, front-loading concise answers, and keeping facts fresh.

> Press release best practices: 12 rules that make a release easier to cover: Rank a release by newsworthiness and reporter relevance before formatting, since most journalists find under a quarter of pitches relevant to their beat.

Other news you might like

• LinkedIn Tests a Network Tab for More Personal FeedsLINK

• Pinterest offers predictive optimization for Performance+LINK

• X shares more insight into penalties impacting post reachLINK

• Google Analytics filter blocks data from domains not on an approved listLINK

• Snapchat report examines the rise of microdramasLINK

• Google Ads To Run Gun Accessory 6-Month PilotLINK

• LinkedIn’s Creator Monetization ExpansionLINK

🧰 Trending tools

AdAnt AI: uses creative AI agents to strategize, build, and test short-form video ads for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, reducing acquisition costs.LINK

Anysite.io: a B2B data layer for AI agents that pulls company and contact lists by geo, industry, and size via MCP or REST, no scrapers needed.LINK

Browzer: connects to your codebase to auto-generate self-healing docs, blogs, quickstarts, and videos, freeing DevRel teams to focus on community and growth.LINK

akta.pro: private company data and signals API with event tracking, news, and entity resolution, helping finance and GTM teams source deals and target outreachLINK

Articos: tests your messaging, positioning, and landing pages against simulated personas matched to your ICP, delivering real audience signal in under 30 minutes.LINK

line-harness-oss: a self-hosted CRM for LINE Official Accounts offering step messaging, broadcasts, forms, and reservations, with MCP and TypeScript SDK.LINK

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ MarketingShot!