ChatGPT reaches a fifth of Google search volume as Taboola blames AI

The numbers that matter most in advertising this week did not come from an earnings release. They came from a podcast. On Wednesday, November 4, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Adam Fry of OpenAI had told the interviewer Alex Kantrowitz that ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth of Google's. The same day, Taboola told investors that fewer ad impressions, and the rise of AI summaries, had pushed its quarterly revenue down 6.9%. Criteo said ChatGPT had become its fastest-growing channel. And Anthropic, which until now had not paid a digital news publisher for content, struck a licensing deal with the Associated Press for election coverage. The pieces fit together. As more questions are answered inside chat windows, the companies that sold traffic on the open web are reporting the bill, and the companies running the chat windows are starting to pay for the information inside them.

ChatGPT counts its searches

Barry Schwartz reported at 7:31 Eastern that OpenAI says ChatGPT is at 20% of Google search volume. "ChatGPT's volume of search-like queries is now roughly one-fifth the volume of queries of Google," Fry said. He defined a search as any time a user asks a question and the web is searched, and said lookups for people, places, things, finance and health trigger web searches. Fry said ChatGPT grew from one billion to 1.2 billion users over the past two months. He said the service added roughly 100 million users in one month and another 100 million in the next. Glenn Gabe, who described Fry as ChatGPT's consumer product lead, added that voice reaches 250 million weekly users and remarked that ChatGPT is now bigger than Bing; Kantrowitz noted Bing's 5% search share. Schwartz pointed out that Google says its own search volume is at an all-time high, so a fifth of a growing number is not, by itself, evidence of Google shrinking.

The claim is a definition as much as a measurement. OpenAI counts any question that triggers a web search, which includes queries no one would have typed into a search box a few years ago. But for advertisers the comparison is the one that counts: a fifth of Google's query volume is an audience large enough to justify its own budget line, and ChatGPT now carries ads.

The agents that do the searching are multiplying too. Schwartz reported that Microsoft Clarity added agentic analytics and Ask Clarity on November 4. An Agent Activity dashboard shows which AI agents visit a site and what they do, from searches to checkout, while simulation assessments test whether an agent can complete a task, reporting "whether the task was completed, how long it took, how many interactions it required." Simulations start with commerce and travel scenarios. Ask Clarity answers plain-language questions about site behaviour, and Brand Agents now extend to local businesses for lead capture and booking. "AI agents nearly doubled in three weeks to almost 2 million," Microsoft said.

Anthropic pays the AP for the news

Mark Stenberg reported in Adweek that Anthropic struck its first licensing deal, with the AP, for election coverage. It is the first time Anthropic has paid a digital news publisher to license content. A Claude user asking about polling on election night received up-to-the-minute information attributed to the AP, and two people familiar with the matter said the deal was struck just before the midterms. Neither side disclosed terms or duration; Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment, and the AP did not comment on the record. OpenAI has negotiated more than a dozen such deals, including with Axel Springer, News Corp and The Atlantic. Stenberg's own conclusion was blunt: "an information index without access to up-to-date data is dramatically limited in its utility." The election was a natural first case. Polling and results change by the minute and cannot be inferred from training data, which is precisely the kind of information a chatbot must buy if it wants to be trusted on the night.

Taboola and Yahoo head to mediation

The open web's distributors reported the other side of that shift. PPC Land reported that Taboola faces Yahoo mediation over its 30-year native ad deal. Third-quarter revenue fell 6.9% to $462.3 million, and Taboola lowered its full-year outlook, even as gross profit rose 9.6% to $152.3 million, ex-TAC gross profit rose 6.8% to $188.8 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 16.1% to $56.0 million. Net income was $18.4 million. The disclosure that matters sits in the 10-Q: after September 30, Taboola and Yahoo each submitted a notice of mediation, each asserting material non-compliance with the Digital Property Services Agreement dated November 28, 2022. Yahoo supplied $68.2 million of revenue in the quarter, or 14.8% of the total. Neither company named the obligations in dispute.

Management tied the revenue decline to fewer ad impressions and cited AI summaries and large language models. "The environment in which we operate is changing," said Adam Singolda, founder and chief executive. "We're seeing shifts in how consumers discover and engage with content across the open web." Fourth-quarter guidance of $477 million to $493 million implies a 7% fall at the midpoint, and Scaled Advertisers fell about 4% to 2,081. A native advertising business sells placements beneath articles; when readers get answers without reaching the article, the inventory beneath it thins.

The New York Times grows, but slower than promised

Publishers with direct relationships fared better, though not as well as forecast. PPC Land reported that New York Times digital ad sales rose 12%, below its own forecast. Digital advertising revenue reached $109.9 million in the third quarter, up from $98.1 million, against the mid-to-high-teens growth the company guided to in August. Total revenues rose 9.7% to $768.5 million and operating profit grew 16.4% to $121.9 million. The company added about 420,000 net digital-only subscribers, against 280,000 in the second quarter, taking the total to 13.76 million. "Digital advertising again delivered double-digit growth at 12%, and total advertising grew as well," said Meredith Kopit Levien, president and chief executive. Fourth-quarter digital advertising guidance is for high-single-digit to low-double-digit growth. The Times ended the quarter with $1.26 billion in cash and marketable securities and no debt, and repurchased $79.1 million of shares.

Criteo takes shopper data to television, and to ChatGPT

Criteo used its quarter to argue it is more than a retail media company. PPC Land reported that Criteo plans shopper-data TV ads in nine more countries through 2027. Its Performance Connected TV product will reach Brazil and Mexico by the end of 2026, then Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and "select additional markets" in 2027. Criteo said its CTV business is on track to double in the fourth quarter compared with the third, without disclosing its size. The same morning it reported third-quarter Contribution ex-TAC of $240 million, down 17%, and revenue of $416 million, down 11%. "CTV represents a significant growth opportunity for Criteo," said chief executive Michael Komasinski.

James Hercher of AdExchanger argued that Criteo is a survivor, but expanding beyond retail media will be its toughest challenge yet. Profit shrank from $40 million a year earlier to $6 million, and the market value has hovered between $700 million and $750 million for a month. Connected TV, AI platform advertising and social integrations now account for 13% of spend in Criteo's Commerce Growth business, up from 6%. Criteo was in seven countries with ChatGPT a few months ago and is now in 89. "ChatGPT has been our fastest-growing partnership and channel for some time," Komasinski said. Criteo gave no revenue figure for its language model business.

Amazon lets advertisers find Walmart shoppers

Retail data is crossing store boundaries. Mitchell Parton reported in Adweek that Amazon advertisers can now target shoppers that buy elsewhere, through an integration between the data firm Attain and Amazon's DVA+ buying tool. Display and video ads can reach Amazon users who also shop at Walmart, Dollar General, Kroger, Walgreens or Sephora, using purchase behaviour from tens of thousands of merchants in Attain's network, across Amazon inventory including Prime Video and Amazon's third-party network. Brian Mandelbaum, Attain's chief executive, described it as "really bridging the gap between what happens on Amazon to what happens at retailers like Target and Walmart." Pricing was not visible.

TikTok Shop is preparing sellers for the busiest weeks of the year. PPC Land reported that TikTok Shop's AI estimates extra orders for each listing fix ahead of Black Friday, in a November 4 guide grouping its Seller Center agents under one name. "We call it Seller AI," the guide says, adding: "Seller AI is not a general-purpose chatbot." The Product Growth Opportunities agent shows an expected payoff in additional orders for each recommendation, without any method or accuracy figures. PPC Land noted that Smart Promotion charges 3.5% of a store's GMV outside campaign periods and 4.5% during major campaigns, a fee the guide does not mention. Black Friday falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.

The agencies are buying the expertise. Lauren Johnson reported in Adweek's Commerce Advantage that ecommerce agencies are buying up TikTok Shop specialists: Chief Media acquired Reach Social in July, Podean bought Social Commerce Club later that month, and Power Digital acquired uptickk in September, all on undisclosed terms. "Mastering TikTok Shop requires strong creator content as well as an understanding of ecommerce fundamentals," said Grace Yang of Pattern.

Gifting data gets its own playbook. Allison Schiff's AdExchanger Talks episode, Intent data is a gift, with Edible Brands, featured Erica Randerson, chief digital officer, who said Edible sells 350 SKUs year-round but only about 10% on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, which together drive roughly 40% of annual orders. Peak conversion reaches 10% to 15%. Chatbots send less than 10% of traffic, but those visitors spend about $10 more per order. "It's clear that these channels are helping convert our customers before they get to us," she said.

Meta and Google change the defaults

Platform defaults moved quietly. PPC Land reported that Meta's API v27 may add catalog products to new ads by default. From Graph API and Marketing API v27.0, released November 4, Product showcase may switch on for new ads that carry no showcase settings unless integrations explicitly opt out. New eligible Sales ad sets that target specific devices will reach other mobile devices by default when the device field is omitted, a change that reaches all versions about three months later, which PPC Land puts at February 2, 2027. Lookalike requests containing location fields are rejected, and the catalog batch endpoint stops working. "Applications may break if they don't update their code to use /items_batch instead of /batch," Meta warned. Graph API v21.0 is removed on January 21, 2027.

Google expanded a healthcare route. PPC Land reported that telemedicine advertisers gain a second Google Ads certifier in three countries: providers accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy will be able to apply for Google Ads telemedicine certification in Canada, the UK and the US, alongside LegitScript. "Advertisers must be NABP-accredited before applying to Google," the notice says. NABP's accreditation costs $1,075 per website.

Reporting tools grew more precise. Schwartz reported that Google Ads explained the difference between its two search terms match type metrics, after Mike Ryan noticed the interface now shows "Search terms match type" and "Search terms match type (Keywords)." Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the keywords version is the renamed older field mapping to the Keywords tab, while the new field maps to the Search terms tab and covers AI Max when the search term column is included. "Those two fields map to two different places in the UI," she wrote, adding that a fix is in progress. Schwartz also reported that Search Console's performance report now allows multi-select device filters, so desktop, mobile and tablet can be combined, a month after multi-select arrived for countries. And he reported on a list of 120 Google twiddlers for re-ranking search results published by Olivier de Segonzac at Resoneo, grouped into seven categories, from quality and spam to images and YouTube. "111 names are exclusive, among them AI Mode's fan-out plan, a filter still named after Bard or an Expertise twiddler," Seg wrote on X.

Google trims staff as AI spending climbs

The cost of the AI race showed up in headcount. PPC Land reported that Google is offering exit packages in five more countries as AI costs mount. Reuters reported that Google has been offering voluntary exit packages since June to some employees in Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, extending a programme that had run only in US and British divisions. In Switzerland, where Google employs about 5,000 people, staff who accepted received one month's salary per year of service, up to 12 months; DeepMind was excluded. "In 2025, some of our teams introduced a voluntary exit program with severance," a Google spokesperson said. Alphabet's third-quarter capital expenditure reached $51.4 billion, free cash flow was minus $9.1 billion, and headcount still rose to 204,757.

The trade desk of the creative economy took a similar decision. Rebecca Stewart reported in Adweek that Canva will cut or redeploy 22% of its staff after its "hardest year yet". The restructuring affects 1,271 employees through layoffs, relocations or role changes, chief executive Melanie Perkins wrote on November 3, after Canva's growth slowed for the first time in a decade. "We have made the incredibly hard decision to make significant changes to how we're organized," she wrote.

Agents enter the buying platforms

The demand-side platforms are wiring agents together. Trishla Ostwal reported in Adweek that The Trade Desk and Dstillery are linking AI agents to reshape audiences mid-campaign, connecting Ask Koa with Dstillery's DS-1 so the two systems can build new audiences from live performance data. Building a custom Dstillery audience through The Trade Desk previously required manual coordination and "typically took four days," said TJ In, Dstillery's chief product officer. Buyers, the article noted, question whether such integrations will change media buying much.

GumGum organised to reach the agencies. PPC Land reported that GumGum assigned six executives to put its Mindset data in agency buying systems, forming a global Agency Partnerships team to apply its Mindset Graph and Relo Metrics sponsorship data to planning and measurement. "Holding companies and independent agencies are building the next generation of planning and buying infrastructure," said chief revenue officer Katy Loria. No clients or terms were disclosed.

Out of home, audio and TV measurement

Outdoor advertising had a strong quarter. PPC Land reported that JCDecaux beat its third-quarter target as programmatic revenue climbed 37.5%. Revenue reached €1,010.5 million, up 6.6% organically against a forecast of around 5%. Digital screens produced 45.4% of group revenue, and programmatic sales reached 13.3% of digital revenue. "This performance was driven by double digit growth in digital and was positively impacted by the 2026 FIFA World Cup," said Jean-Charles Decaux, co-chief executive. JCDecaux expects fourth-quarter organic growth of around 6%.

Audio extended into video and sport. PPC Land reported that AdsWizz puts audio ads with banners into Apple Podcasts video episodes, opening tools that pair existing audio campaigns with branded companion banners "without requiring new video ad production." "With this solution, we are giving podcasters and video-first creators a new way to reach audiences on Apple Podcasts," said Anne Frisbie of AdsWizz. The release did not address Apple's planned impression-based fee for dynamic ads in video. PPC Land also reported that SiriusXM puts every MLS Cup playoff match in its $5 Sports Pass, from the Wild Card games on November 19 to the final on December 18, with an exclusive national broadcast of the final.

German television measurement may widen. PPC Land reported that Disney+ is weighing joining Germany's official TV ratings, as AGF Videoforschung and Disney examine the prerequisites for integrating Disney+ into AGF's measurement. "Our goal is a shared, independent market standard for video, across all distribution channels," said Kerstin Niederauer-Kopf, chair of AGF's management board. No date was given; Prime Video took about 14 months from announcement to active data.

Creators, priced and ranked

Brands are learning what creator programming costs. Tim Peterson's Digiday Future of TV Briefing on what brands pay to fund long-form creator series quoted Cyndi Steele of G&B Digital Management's &Beyond Creators' Studio estimating a range of $150,000 to $5 million. A ten-episode series with three short videos per episode averages $300,000 to $500,000, while a ten-episode unscripted show of 40-minute episodes costs about $5 million in production alone. Ownership splits often run 60-40 or 70-30 in favour of the talent. "The way we've approached it so far is they're not owning the IP," Steele said.

Digiday+ Research's 2026 Creator Marketing Index, by Li Lu and Catherine Wolf, analysed 1,755 posts from 20 branded hashtag campaigns between January and September. Instagram Reels averaged 11% engagement against 7% for still posts and 5% for carousels, and sponsored posts averaged 334,055 views against 48,008 for gifted ones. Charlotte Tilbury's #exaggereyes ranked first and Neutrogena's #hydroboost second.

Watches that listen, and brands that sell nostalgia

Apple drew an age line for its most sensitive features. PPC Land reported that Apple blocks under-18s from Apple Watch features that listen to conversations. The watchOS 27.3 beta enables Live Rewind, which shows the previous 15 seconds of speech as text, and Siri Recap, which summarises speech through Private Cloud Compute. Neither is available to anyone under 18, in the EU or in China. "There is no recording to share, forward, or produce if requested by any party, because no recording exists," Apple's support page says. Attorneys in four states had questioned the features under all-party consent rules.

Marketers spent the day on brand building. Jenny Rooney's Brandweek conversation with Generac chief marketing officer Amanda Teder, Can too much attribution make marketing worse?, argued that attribution can drag investment to the bottom of the funnel; the show notes put it as "Measurement should sharpen strategy, not shrink it." Parton reported that RadioShack is making a retro-centric comeback under El Salvador's Unicomer Group, which bought it in 2023; once a chain of more than 7,000 stores, it now has 170 authorised dealers and sells mostly online, on demand for products echoing its old Realistic house brand. And Richard Lowe reported that Channing Tatum suits up as Gambit for Dunkin's first Marvel partnership, launched November 4 ahead of "Avengers: Doomsday" on December 18. "Doomsday is here, mon ami," Gambit says, while a robot brings Munchkins. On a day when the open web counted what AI had taken from it, the oldest brands in the room were selling memory.