smec | Growing Ecommerce Podcast with Mike Ryan

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28 min

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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28 min

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

Google's AI Now Picks Which Product You Sell | Plus: ChatGPT Shopping Ads Arrive TooGoogle's new AI-powered Shopping ads can now decide which of your products wins the click — and it's optimizing for the user, not for your margin, your brand, or your strategy. This Gemini-built format writes its own product descriptions and may re-rank which product gets shown, beyond your bid. Mike Ryan and Chris…

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30 min

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

The EU Is Breaking Temu & Shein — Plus Google's Hidden AI MetricThe EU is finally using its teeth on Chinese e-commerce — and the auction landscape is already shifting. Mike and Chris break down what falling CPCs in Europe mean for your accounts, why the July 1st customs change could matter more than any fine, and the playbook for grabbing market share before the window closes. Then: a major Google…

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35 min

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

Meta Overtakes Google in Ad Spend & What It Means for Ecommerce │GML 2026 RecapMeta has overtaken Google in ad budgets - and for ecommerce advertisers, that changes everything. It means Google is on the offensive. It means the pressure to split your budget between platforms is about to intensify. And it means that if you're not set up correctly on Google's AI surfaces right now, you're already losing…

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34 min

Google Just Added Text Ads to Shopping Campaigns — Is AI Max for Shopping a Win or a Trap?

Google Just Added Text Ads to Shopping Campaigns — Is AI Max for Shopping a Win or a Trap?Google just dropped a PMax special — and there's a lot to unpack. In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris break down three major updates reshaping how ecommerce advertisers run Performance Max and Shopping campaigns in 2025: 1. Network exclusions for PMax: You can now opt out of Search Partner…

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29 min

Don't Buy ChatGPT Ads Until You Watch This (Plus: The Google Cloud vs AWS Cage-Match)

Don't Buy ChatGPT Ads Until You Watch This (Plus: The Google Cloud vs AWS Cage-Match)In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller dive into the much-anticipated updates to the OpenAI ads platform and break down Google's staggering Q1 earnings report. While OpenAI has finally transitioned their ad platform from a primitive Excel spreadsheet to a proper User Interface, their…

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31 min

RIP DSA: What to expect from September's Sunset

RIP DSA: What to expect from September's SunsetIn this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller dive into the end of an era: Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are officially dying. While Google's new AI Max for Search currently sits at a tiny 1.5-2% adoption rate, the mandatory migration of all DSA campaigns by September will trigger an instant hockey-stick growth curve. We explain exactly…

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28 min

How OpenAI Just Lost the Ecommerce War

How OpenAI Just Lost the Ecommerce WarIn this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller break down the latest shifts in the battle for AI dominance and the future of online shopping. We analyze the quiet death of OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). With major tech giants—including ACP co-founder Stripe, as well as Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon—joining Google's Universal Commerce…

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Episode 32

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New episodes

28 min

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

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

28 min

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

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

30 min

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

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

35 min

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

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

34 min

Google Just Added Text Ads to Shopping Campaigns — Is AI Max for Shopping a Win or a Trap?

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

29 min

Don't Buy ChatGPT Ads Until You Watch This (Plus: The Google Cloud vs AWS Cage-Match)

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

31 min

RIP DSA: What to expect from September's Sunset

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

28 min

How OpenAI Just Lost the Ecommerce War

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Apple

Discover more

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