5 Marketing & Digital Trends: Week of July 20, 2026
The top marketing trends for the week of July 20, 2026 center on five shifts. Google is generating images directly inside AI Overviews. AI Mode now returns a text ad on nearly one in three commercial queries, and paying for that ad does not get your site cited. OpenAI keeps adding targeting controls to ChatGPT Ads at a pace that suggests it is building a real ad platform. Google Analytics 4 added an AI Assistant channel that separates generative AI traffic from organic search. And LinkedIn now splits post reach into in-network and out-of-network percentages. The through line: paid visibility and earned visibility in AI surfaces are two different games, and the measurement tools finally caught up enough to prove it.
Quick Answer
The top marketing trends for the week of July 20, 2026 are AI-generated images inside Google AI Overviews, ads appearing on 29.45% of commercial AI Mode queries, expanded ChatGPT Ads targeting controls, a new GA4 AI Assistant traffic channel, and LinkedIn's in-network versus out-of-network reach split.
What You Will Learn
Why AI Overviews making its own images cuts another reason to click
How often AI Mode shows ads, and what predicts it
Why buying an AI Mode ad will not get you cited
How to find AI traffic inside GA4 right now
What ChatGPT Ads shipping this fast actually signals
The one LinkedIn number worth more than follower count
Five things landed this week, and four of them broke inside 72 hours. Google put an image generator inside AI Overviews. A study of 50,032 keywords showed AI Mode is running ads on almost a third of commercial searches. OpenAI shipped more ad controls, again. Google Analytics quietly gave you a channel that separates AI traffic from organic. And LinkedIn started telling you whether your posts reach anyone who does not already know you.
None of this is a prediction. It is all live. Here is what actually matters and what to do about it.
This Week's Trends
Google Is Now Making Images Inside AI Overviews
Google announced image generation directly inside AI Overviews, powered by its Nano Banana model. Type a prompt, get a custom image, never leave the results page. It rolls out over the coming weeks in English, everywhere image creation already works in AI Mode. The announcement came bundled with a redesign of Google Image Search on its 25th anniversary, which now opens with a gallery instead of a search box.
Here is the part nobody at Google said out loud. Every reason to click just got a little thinner. If someone wanted a visual and Google makes one in the answer, that visit was never going to happen. Publishers who built traffic on image search should read this twice.
Key takeaways
- AI Overviews now generate custom images, not just summarize text
- Another click reason removed from the results page
- Image search traffic is a real risk category now, not a theoretical one
- Original photography and proprietary visuals get harder to substitute, which is exactly why they matter more
AI Mode Runs Ads on Nearly 1 in 3 Commercial Queries
SE Ranking analyzed 50,032 commercial keywords across 20 niches. 14,733 of them returned a text ad in AI Mode. That is 29.45%. In 71.1% of those cases, the answer held two competing ads side by side. CPC predicted placement better than anything else, climbing from 24.33% ad presence on sub-$2 keywords to 53.56% at $10 and up. Search volume and keyword difficulty showed no correlation at all.
Niche swings are wild. Pets returned an ad on 72.38% of keywords. Healthcare, 2.64%. Data was collected June 30 and reflects AI Mode in the US.
Zero ads to a third of commercial queries in under a year. Whatever you are seeing today is the floor.
Key takeaways
- Sort your commercial keywords by CPC to predict where ads will show
- Expect to share the block with a competitor roughly 7 times out of 10
- Ad presence is a niche-level question before it is a keyword-level one
- Volume and difficulty tell you nothing here, stop using them for this
Paying for the slot buys the slot. Nothing more. In 88% of ad keywords, the advertiser's domain was not among the sources AI Mode cited.
Buying the Ad Will Not Get You Cited
This is the finding that should reset a few budgets. In the same study, only 11.53% of advertiser domains appeared among the sources AI Mode cited for the keyword they were advertising on. At the exact URL level, 1.95%. And 85% of advertisers did not rank organically for the term at all, on any page of their site.
SE Ranking controlled for this properly. They compared advertisers against non-advertising domains of the same Domain Trust, backlinks, referring domains, and organic standing. Advertisers were cited no more often. The ad is a paid media decision. Being cited is an authority and content decision. Neither one moves the other.
So when someone tells you AI Mode spend will "build your AI visibility," ask them for the data. There isn't any. These are two separate channels wearing the same interface, and if you are working on generative engine optimization, this is the clearest proof yet that it is its own discipline.
Key takeaways
- Ad spend buys placement, not citation, and the data controls for brand strength
- Budget AI Mode ads and GEO work separately, they do different jobs
- Most AI Mode advertisers are organically invisible for the same term
- Getting cited stays an earned play, built on content and authority
GA4 Has an AI Assistant Channel and You Can Use It Today
Google Analytics 4 launched an "AI Assistant" channel back in May, and enough data has accumulated for it to be worth looking at. It captures traffic from chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, and look for it in the Session Channel Group dimension.
Read the fine print though. Google does not put AI Overviews or AI Mode clicks in this channel. Those still report as Organic Search. So this measures the assistants, not Google's own AI surfaces. If you want the platform-level breakdown, the channel will not give it to you, and you will need a regex filter on session source or medium instead.
The useful move: filter Pages and screens by this channel to see exactly which pages AI is citing and sending clicks from. In testing, top organic pages and top AI-assisted pages did not overlap. Different pages, different job. That is worth knowing before your next reporting cycle.
Key takeaways
- AI Assistant channel is live in GA4 under Traffic acquisition
- It excludes AI Overviews and AI Mode, which report as Organic Search
- Filter Pages and screens by it to find your AI-cited pages
- Your AI-winning pages are probably not your organic-winning pages
ChatGPT Ads Keeps Shipping, but the Revenue Math Is Ugly
OpenAI added location and audience exclusions to ChatGPT Ads Manager this week. You can now block a campaign from showing in specific geographies and filter it out for selected audience lists. That follows audience lists, new metrics and reporting, and an overview tab, all inside the last couple of weeks.
That is a real ad platform taking shape, fast. But an analyst quoted by AdWeek says OpenAI's ad business is pacing to miss its own forecast by 90%. Both things are true at once, and that tension is the story.
Exclusions matter more than they sound for a local business. Geographic waste is the fastest way to burn a small paid budget, and until this week you could not stop it here. Now you can. Small test budgets, tight geos, watch it closely.
Key takeaways
- Location and audience exclusions are live in ChatGPT Ads Manager
- OpenAI is shipping ad features weekly, treat it as a maturing channel
- Revenue is reportedly pacing far under forecast, so expect volatility
- Exclusions make small geo-targeted tests viable for local businesses
LinkedIn Finally Tells You If You Reached Anyone New
LinkedIn's reach breakdown is rolling out globally and progressively, which is a polite way of saying it shows up in your analytics whenever it feels like it. Plenty of accounts are just getting it now. Check the Discovery section under impressions in post analytics.
It splits impressions two ways. In-network is people who already follow or connect with you. Out-of-network is everyone else, the people who found you through feed recommendations, reshares, and search. Out-of-network is the one that means something. It is the algorithm deciding your post was good enough to show to strangers.
One caution, because this is where people will get it wrong: it is a percentage. 80% out-of-network on a post seen 300 times is not the same win as 40% on a post seen 8,000 times. Read it next to the absolute number or it will lie to you. Use it as a quality signal across your own posts, not a target to chase. This is the same question social reporting should have been answering all along.
Key takeaways
- Find it in Discovery, under impressions, in post analytics
- Out-of-network reach beats follower count as a performance signal
- Always read the percentage against total impressions
- Compare across your own posts to find what topics actually travel
Frequently Asked Questions
The five trends are AI image generation inside Google AI Overviews, ads appearing on 29.45% of commercial AI Mode queries, expanded ChatGPT Ads targeting controls, the new GA4 AI Assistant traffic channel, and LinkedIn's in-network versus out-of-network reach split.
No. In 88% of ad keywords studied, the advertiser's domain was not among the sources AI Mode cited. Only 1.95% appeared at the exact URL level. When researchers controlled for domain strength and organic standing, advertisers were cited no more often than non-advertisers. Ads buy placement. Citations are earned through content and authority.
Go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition, and look for "AI Assistant" in the Session Channel Group dimension. It covers chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. It does not include AI Overviews or AI Mode clicks, which Google still reports as Organic Search.
High-CPC keywords. Ad presence rose from 24.33% on keywords under $2 CPC to 53.56% on keywords at $10 and above. Search volume and keyword difficulty showed no correlation. Niche matters too, with Pets at 72.38% ad presence and Healthcare at 2.64%.
Out-of-network reach is the percentage of your post impressions coming from people who do not follow or connect with you. They found the post through feed recommendations, reshares, or search. It shows whether your content is growing your audience or just circulating inside it. Read it alongside total impressions, since it is a percentage.
What This Actually Means
There is one idea underneath all five of these, and it is worth sitting with. Paid and earned visibility in AI have officially split into separate channels. The SE Ranking data does not hint at that, it proves it with controls. You cannot buy your way into being the answer. You can only buy the box next to the answer.
Which is inconvenient, because buying is fast and earning is slow. Expect to hear a lot of pitches this quarter that blur the two. Ask for the data. There isn't any.
The good news is the measurement caught up. GA4 will show you which pages AI actually cites. LinkedIn will show you whether your posts reach strangers. Neither existed in usable form a year ago. Both are free. Go look at yours before you spend another dollar deciding what to fix. And if you missed it, our breakdown of AI SEO and the guide to getting recommended by AI instead of just ranked cover the earned side in depth.
Bernie Fussenegger
Chief Cheese, Strategy & Engagement at B2The7. Helping brands Reach, Retain & Regain customers with omni-channel, data-driven strategy. No account managers, no layers, just the person doing the work.
