smec | Growing Ecommerce Podcast with Mike Ryan

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1 in 4 of Your Exact-Match Impressions Now Come From AI Max

1 in 4 of Your Exact-Match Impressions Now Come From AI MaxGoogle's AI Max is now serving 1 in 4 of your exact-match ad impressions — and it's quietly reshaping Search and Performance Max campaigns. Chris and Mike deliver the AI Max deep-dive they promised last episode, breaking down exactly how that number gets generated and what it costs you in control. Picking up where Alphabet's Q2 earnings call…

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Meta's Ad Costs Are Rising: What It Means for Your Budget

Meta's Ad Costs Are Rising: What It Means for Your BudgetMeta, Google, and Amazon just posted Q2 2026 earnings — and the numbers reveal exactly where ad costs are headed next for advertisers. Plus: Shein's IPO filing shows what happens when ad dependency meets a broken profit model. Chris and Mike break down all four Q2 earnings calls that matter for anyone running paid search or social budgets right…

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Google’s CSS "20% Discount" Myth, Busted | Plus: The Hidden CPC Tax of PMax + Shopping

Google’s CSS "20% Discount" Myth, Busted | Plus: The Hidden CPC Tax of PMax + ShoppingEveryone selling in Europe has heard the pitch: use a third-party CSS and get a "20% discount" on your Google Shopping bids. Mike Ryan and Chris finally settle what that number actually means — and it’s not a discount at all. They break down the real math behind Google Shopping Europe’s mandatory margin, whether a…

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A German Court Just Made Google Liable for Its AI | Plus: Temu & Shein Fall Off a Cliff

A German Court Just Made Google Liable for Its AI | Plus: Temu & Shein Fall Off a CliffA small regional court in Germany just handed down a ruling with global consequences: Google is liable for what its AI Overviews say. The "AI can make mistakes" disclaimer? Insufficient. Text generated by Gemini counts as Google’s own words — and Mike Ryan and Chris break down why this precedent could quickly spread…

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AI Max vs DSA, PMax vs Shopping, tROAS vs Max Conv. Value | Google Ads World Cup

AI Max vs DSA, PMax vs Shopping, tROAS vs Max Conv. Value | Google Ads World CupWe turned Google Ads into a World Cup bracket. Three head-to-head rounds, two hosts, no referee — just the campaign types and bid strategies advertisers argue about most. In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris go feature vs. feature: 🥊 Round 1: AI Max for Search vs. Dynamic Search Ads — is DSA's sunset…

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Google's Smart Bidding Change: Why Your ROAS Is About to Drop

Google's Smart Bidding Change: Why Your ROAS Is About to DropStarting August 17th, Google is quietly rewriting how Smart Bidding treats campaigns that are limited by budget — and if your account is currently over-delivering on Roas, this affects you directly. In this episode, Mike Ryan and Chris break down Google's upcoming change to budget-limited campaigns, why "over-delivering" Roas is being treated…

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Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Explained: What Every Ecommerce Brand Must Know

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Explained: What Every Ecommerce Brand Must KnowAI is coming for your checkout — and the infrastructure behind it is called Universal Commerce Protocol. In this episode, Mike Ryan breaks down exactly what UCP is, why Google and Shopify built it together, who's already on board, and what ecommerce brands actually need to do to prepare. Whether you're being pressured…

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Google Goes a Box Too Far — Plus Why OpenAI’s $100B Ad Dream Doesn’t Add Up

Google Goes a Box Too Far — Plus Why OpenAI’s $100B Ad Dream Doesn’t Add UpGoogle just announced the biggest change to search in its history — and not everyone is happy. At Google I/O, the search bar became a search box, signaling a full shift toward conversational, Gemini-powered search. The market is already reacting: DuckDuckGo rocketed from around position 400 to the top 100 in the app stores almost…

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New episodes

1 in 4 of Your Exact-Match Impressions Now Come From AI Max

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Meta's Ad Costs Are Rising: What It Means for Your Budget

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Google’s CSS "20% Discount" Myth, Busted | Plus: The Hidden CPC Tax of PMax + Shopping

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

A German Court Just Made Google Liable for Its AI | Plus: Temu & Shein Fall Off a Cliff

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

AI Max vs DSA, PMax vs Shopping, tROAS vs Max Conv. Value | Google Ads World Cup

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Google's Smart Bidding Change: Why Your ROAS Is About to Drop

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Explained: What Every Ecommerce Brand Must Know

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YouTube

Apple

Google Goes a Box Too Far — Plus Why OpenAI’s $100B Ad Dream Doesn’t Add Up

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Apple

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Google's AI Now Picks Which Product You Sell | Plus: ChatGPT Shopping Ads Arrive Too

The EU Is Breaking Temu & Shein — Plus Google's Hidden AI Metric

Meta Overtakes Google in Ad Spend & What It Means for Ecommerce │GML 2026 Recap

The “Amazon Killer”? How JD's Joybuy Invades Europe | PLUS: Meta's Zero-Click Threat

OpenAI’s $25 BILLION Loss – is Agentic Shopping Dead?

How the Top 1% Retailers Run Google Ads in 2026

Temu Hits 71% Market Share – Should You Worry? Plus: Google's Coming for Your Landing Pages

Sam Altman SCREWS UP ChatGPT Shopping | Plus: Google Product Feed Deep Dive

State of PPC 2026: Live from SMX Munich w/ Wijnand Meijer(TrueClicks) & Frederick Vallaeys(Optmyzr)

The end of Dynamic Search Ads is here! Insights from 200+ AI Max campaigns

The Expensive Problem with Google’s Search Partner Network (SPN): Insights from 1,500+ Campaigns

Is ROAS Overrated? – Why the “Revenue Trap” Might Kill Your Google Ads Profit

Google’s UCP Explained: Will "Agentic Commerce" Replace Search in 2026?

Ecommerce Trends 2026: Google AI, Temu & CPC Forecast

Are Your Google Ads Lying to You? - Marginal ROAS Explained | Growing Ecommerce

Black Friday Bloodbath: ROAS Down 12%, Gross Margins Down 9% | Post-Mortem Data

Google is bidding on the WRONG products: The ‘Clicked vs. Bought’ dilemma explained

Google AI Max is A TRAP?! Plus: New Data on ROAS, Demand Gen & DSA Sunset

Google's $155 Billion Backlog: The Real Cost of Advertising

​​CPC Crisis: 30% Inflation is Here! What now? | Growing E-commerce

Google & OpenAI are FORCING You to Pay: The AI Ad Overhaul | Growing Ecommerce

The (Costly) Reason Why Zalando Bans Customers | Growing Ecommerce

Google Email Leak Explained: What’s coming next to Google Ads?

Google AI’s Secret Plan: The BIGGEST THREAT to Your Retail Business Yet?

Will Google's AI Max Start a BIDDING WAR? | TEMU's aggressive EU takeover.

AI's Reality Check: Financial Bubble or Foundation for the Future?

Google vs. Amazon vs. TikTok vs. Meta: Welcome to the AI Ad Wars | Growing Ecommerce

Is AI Shattering Google’s Fortress? Plus: Inside Amazon’s Risky Ads Test | Growing Ecommerce

New co-host, same chaos: Amazon Haul, Nike's DTC regrets, Perplexity AI Shopping, and more

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CPC Crisis: 30% Inflation is Here! What now? | Growing E-commerce