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Pop-art illustration of Meta and Google logos shaking hands with crossed fingers behind their backs in front of an IAB Tech Lab ECAPI 1.0 specification document and server racks

Meta and Google Helped Write ECAPI 1.0 Without Promising to Honor It

The IAB Tech Lab finalized ECAPI 1.0 on May 3, 2026, a server-to-server specification that defines 42 standard marketing events advertisers can send to any participating platform using one shared payload. Meta, Google, TikTok USA, Walmart, and Roku helped author it, but none have publicly committed to a date

Pop-art illustration of Google Ads PMax campaign settings with Search Partners and Display Network checkboxes, partner network toggled off, audit trail icon locked behind padlock

PMax Alpha Lets You Cut Partner Networks Without Showing What You'd Lose

Google launched an alpha test inside Performance Max that gives advertisers two independent checkboxes for the Search Partner Network and the Google Display Network, letting them exclude either, both, or neither at the campaign level. The feature was first surfaced by practitioners on LinkedIn in early May 2026, not by

Pop-art style illustration of a torn ad spend invoice with the words RAW SPEND and MARKUP separated by a thick black border, calendar marked FEB 2027 in the corner.

Meta Gave Advertisers 21 Months to Pull the Agency Markup Out of the Invoice

Meta updated Developer Policy 10.6.a on April 28, 2026 and gave third-party ad-buying platforms until February 3, 2027 to disclose raw Meta spend separate from their fees on every advertiser request. The 21-month window is the last quiet period before agency markups, currently running 30 to 90 percent

Pop-art collage of a Google Shopping bag stamped MANDATORY across UK and EU flag panels, with a September 30 calendar and a red disapproval stamp on a retail pickup counter sign

Google Made Pickup Cost Mandatory in 32 Markets to Feed AI Max

Google announced on April 28, 2026 that pickup_cost and minimum_order_value will become mandatory feed attributes in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and all 30 EEA countries on September 30, 2026, for any merchant whose in_store products are enabled for pickup. Products that fail to comply may be

Pop-art collage of Amazon Rufus chat showing a 365-day price history chart next to a buy box and a June Prime Day calendar

Amazon's Rufus Just Made Pre-Prime-Day Price Hikes a Two-Click Tell

Amazon expanded Rufus's price-history view to 365 days on May 1, 2026, putting a full year of price data in front of more than 50 million shoppers who already use the feature roughly three times a month. The expansion lands about six weeks before Prime Day moves into

Pop-art illustration of Amazon Prime tape stretched across a June 2026 calendar with an FBA shipping crate countdown timer and an ad-budget gauge cranked past mid-April

Amazon Pulled Prime Day Into June and Your July Prep Calendar Is Already Late

Amazon confirmed on April 29 that Prime Day 2026 will run in June across 26 countries, the first June schedule since 2021. The shift compresses the standard 8-week ad-prep cycle into roughly 4 to 6 weeks of working time, and pulls deal submissions, FBA inventory, and DSP creative deadlines into

Pop-art style illustration of a fatigued Meta ad creative on a calendar with day 14 highlighted, frequency dial at 2.5, and refresh cycle arrow

Andromeda Cut Meta Creative Lifespan From 6 Weeks to 14 Days

Meta's Andromeda retrieval engine, launched in late 2024 and now running across Facebook and Instagram inventory, reaches the responsive slice of an audience faster than the previous system. That compresses creative fatigue from a 5-6 week window down to roughly 10-14 days for most accounts. The early warning