smec | Growing Ecommerce Podcast with Mike Ryan

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PMax Channel Controls: What the New Sliders Do to Your Budget

PMax Channel Controls: What the New Sliders Do to Your BudgetGoogle is testing channel controls in Performance Max: sliders that let you tell PMax how much YouTube, Maps or Display matter to your business. It is the biggest change to PMax since PMax launched — and it is not a tick box. Unlike Demand Gen, where you opt a channel in or out, channel controls give you a slider per channel that adjusts…

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Amazon Faked a Bidder for 7 Years — What It Cost You

Amazon Faked a Bidder for 7 Years — What It Cost YouThe FTC says Amazon put a bidder that does not exist into its ad auction — for seven years — so the CPCs you paid on Amazon Ads were never the price the auction produced. Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmüller break down the FTC's case against Amazon Ads: what Amazon is accused of doing to its own auction, what it cost advertisers, and why Amazon's defense…

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Everyone Raised Their tROAS 12% — Most of Them Shouldn't Have

Everyone Raised Their tROAS 12% — Most of Them Shouldn't HaveGoogle's August 17 bidding update didn't move CPCs. It moved advertiser behaviour — and most of the market reacted to a change that never touched them. The update removed the conservative buffer that artificially lowered bids on campaigns limited by budget. Those campaigns had been quietly over-delivering efficiency for years by picking up…

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ChatGPT Ads Hit Europe: Why Your First 3 Months Will Disappoint

ChatGPT Ads Hit Europe: Why Your First 3 Months Will DisappointChatGPT Ads are live in 31 European markets — but your account can't use tROAS, remarketing, demographics or an API yet. Here's what to actually expect. OpenAI announced on 18 August that ChatGPT Ads are rolling out across Europe, and advertiser demand is already enormous. Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller go through what advertisers really…

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We Were Wrong About Google - Here's What We're Correcting

We Were Wrong About Google - Here's What We're CorrectingWe got Google wrong this year — and episode 50 is where we admit it, correct it, and share the one thing every advertiser should double-check in their own account. Chris and Mike mark 50 episodes with a "summer school" retrospective: the calls they got wrong, the lessons they're taking into H2, and a rapid-fire lightning round to close it out.…

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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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Episode 46

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New episodes

PMax Channel Controls: What the New Sliders Do to Your Budget

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Amazon Faked a Bidder for 7 Years — What It Cost You

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Everyone Raised Their tROAS 12% — Most of Them Shouldn't Have

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

ChatGPT Ads Hit Europe: Why Your First 3 Months Will Disappoint

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

We Were Wrong About Google - Here's What We're Correcting

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

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

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YouTube

Apple

Discover more

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

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

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

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

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

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