Marketing Trending Topics Small Businesses Should Act On

The short answer

Four marketing trending topics deserve a small business's attention right now: how AI search decides who gets recommended, ad platforms changing your settings on their own, short video that gets found through search, and local visibility. Most of the rest on the trending lists is noise for a business your size. Pick one topic, do one thing about it this week, and let the others scroll by.

What you will learn

• Which marketing trending topics matter in September 2026 and which ones you can skip
• Why trend lists rarely turn into decisions, and what I do about that
• What to check inside your ad accounts this week
• How to test whether AI tools recommend your business
• The four-question filter I use before a trend gets near a client plan

Why I Stopped Trusting Trending Topics Lists

I'll start with something a little embarrassing. When I pulled my own Search Console data for the last three months, I found 91 different searches for "trending topics" where my site shows up, at about position nine on average. Nearly two thousand impressions. Zero clicks. Not one.

And my biggest post from June, the one on AI search, ChatGPT ads and Meta, racked up around 59,000 impressions and 11 clicks. Eleven. I stared at that number for a while.

So what's going on? People search for trending topics constantly, they see a list, and they don't click, probably because they already know a list won't help them decide anything. I can't blame them. Most trend roundups, mine included on some weeks, tell you what happened and then stop. You finish reading and you still have no idea what to do on Monday.

This post goes the other way. Fewer trends, and an opinion on each one. If you disagree with me on any of them, good. Send me a note and tell me why.

The Filter I Use Before a Trend Touches a Client Plan

I spent years around enterprise marketing budgets, and those budgets can absorb a wasted trend. Somebody tries something, it fizzles, life goes on. A small business can't do that. Your marketing budget might be one person's part-time attention, and if that goes to the wrong thing for a month, you feel it.

So I ask four questions before anything goes near a client plan.

1. Does this change how a customer finds me?
2. Does it change what I'm paying for?
3. Can I do something about it inside a week?
4. Will I still care in ninety days?

If a trend gets a no on three of those, it's news, not a priority. Fine to read. Not fine to build a plan around.

Sounds too simple, I know. But it clears out most of the list, which is exactly the point. The trends that survive tend to be a little boring, and boring is usually where the money is.

Trending Topic One: AI Search Decides Who Gets Named

I'd put this first, and not only because I write about it constantly (although I do). When somebody asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews for a plumber or an accountant or a marketing consultant, they don't get ten blue links. They get a few names. Or none. If you're not one of the names, you never even knew there was a race.

I've spent a lot of time on this. My post on how GEO works holds position one for that exact question, and it got there because it sits inside a group of connected posts, like what generative engine optimization is and GEO versus SEO for small business, not because of one clever page. Connected content seems to give AI tools more reasons to trust what you say. I keep seeing that pattern.

There's a fresher reason to pay attention too. In my September 14 roundup I covered Promptwatch reporting an 86 percent drop in ChatGPT answers citing Reddit over a few days in August. If the sources these tools lean on can move that fast, whatever you learned about being visible six months ago might already be stale.

What to do this week: open ChatGPT and Gemini, ask who they'd recommend for what you sell in your town, and write down what comes back. My guide on how to check your AI search visibility walks through it. It takes ten minutes. And yes, it can be a humbling ten minutes. If you want help closing the gaps you find, that's what my generative engine optimization service is for.

Trending Topic Two: Ad Platforms Changing Settings Without a Phone Call

On September 1, Google began migrating certain Search campaigns to AI Max without a public announcement. Around the same time, Meta quietly started removing the placement exclusion controls in Ads Manager. Both are in my September marketing trends post, and I went deeper on the Meta change in the week of September 21 roundup.

Automation isn't the problem. Automation nobody told you about is.

Here's my opinion, plainly. You built a campaign in the spring, it's been humming along, and something changed underneath you. Nobody sent a memo. Why would they?

What to do this week: log into each ad account. Screenshot the settings. Compare them to what you remember choosing. If you don't remember choosing anything, that's useful information too. My posts on paid media strategy for small business and the paid social advertising guide cover the basics. And if your budget is small, losing placement control stings more than you'd think, because you have one less way to cut the spend that wastes money.

Trending Topic Three: Short Video That People Find Through Search

Short video isn't new. What's shifting is where people find it. A lot of buyers now search TikTok and Instagram the way they'd search Google, which means your caption, the words on screen and the words you say out loud all act like searchable text.

The boring advice is the advice that works. Say the topic in the first sentence of the video. Write the caption like a question somebody would actually type. That beats chasing a trending sound nine times out of ten. I've got more on this in social media marketing for business in 2026, and if you sell through social, my July post on GEO, agentic ads and TikTok Shop is worth a skim.

And if organic social has stopped working for you, it may not be you at all. I wrote about that in why organic social isn't working anymore.

Trending Topic Four: Local Visibility Still Pays the Bills

This one is boring, and it's on the list because it works. Everybody's chasing the shiny AI thing while the Google Business Profile sits there with last year's hours. If you're a Louisville business, I'd fix that before you touch anything else in this post.

My piece on GEO for local businesses in Louisville explains how AI search treats local companies, and the local SEO checklist for small business gives you the basics to check off. Nothing fancy in either. Fancy isn't the goal. Showing up when a neighbor types what you sell is the goal.

The Trends I'd Skip

Agentic AI shopping, for now. The big announcements out of events like Cannes Lions were interesting, and my June 22 roundup covers what came out of that one, but I wouldn't rebuild anything around them yet. Viral formats with a ten day shelf life. Any trend that asks you to buy new software before you've checked the basics you already own.

Do I sound cranky? Maybe. But I'd rather you spend a Tuesday fixing something real than reading about something shiny.

What I'd Do in the Next Seven Days

1. Ask ChatGPT and Gemini who they'd recommend for your service in your city
2. Screenshot the settings in every ad account you run
3. Rewrite one video caption or post like a search query
4. Update your Google Business Profile hours, photos and services

Four small jobs. Maybe two hours total, and you'll know more about your own marketing than most of your competitors do.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the top marketing trends right now for small businesses?

AI search visibility, automated ad platforms, short video that people find through search, and local visibility. Those four change how customers find you or what you pay to reach them, which is why they made my list and the rest didn't.

How often do marketing trends change?

Platforms push updates almost every week, but real shifts in how people search and buy move much slower. I read the news weekly and change a client plan maybe once a quarter. Most weeks the right move is to stay the course.

Should a small business follow every marketing trend?

No. You don't have the time or the budget, and you don't need to. Run any trend through the four questions in this post. If it doesn't change how customers find you or what you pay, let it go.

How do I know which trends matter for my industry?

Ask your last ten customers how they found you. Then look at what your competitors show up for in Google and AI search. The trends that touch those paths matter. The ones that don't are just interesting.

Where can I get a weekly update without reading everything?

I send a plain-language weekly roundup through the newsletter for busy business owners, and the full posts live in the News and Blog. Skim the newsletter and click through only when something hits your business.

Conclusion

Trending topics lists are easy to find and hard to use, and I put some of my own posts in that pile. What makes a trend worth your time is whether it changes how customers find you or what you pay. Four things did that this month. Check your AI visibility, look at your ad settings, write captions people would search for, and clean up your local listing.

That's the whole plan. If you'd rather not do it yourself, my digital marketing services are set up for exactly this. Or get in touch and tell me what's been bugging you.

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Written by Bernie Fussenegger, Chief Cheese, Strategy & Engagement at B2The7. Bernie is a Louisville-based digital marketing strategist who helps small businesses get found on Google and inside AI search. He built marketing programs for Papa John's and Confluent Health and now brings that enterprise thinking to owners at a scale that actually fits them. Work with Bernie.