2026: Digital marketing changes you need to know about.

2026 has already seen a number of updates and changes rolled out across the digital marketing landscape. Many are changes we knew were coming, some have been out of the blue.

For many teams, the challenge isn’t hearing that something has changed. It’s understanding what actually matters, what might affect their results, and where their focus should be. Especially as rollouts can take time to make a noticeable change.

There are plenty of voices sharing updates on the latest platform changes, but it can still be difficult to work out what’s genuinely worth paying attention to when you’re short on time and responsible for results across a variety of sectors.

Our Communications and Social Strategist, Meg, breaks down some of the key digital marketing updates introduced or rolled out so far in 2026, and the things businesses should be aware of as they plan their strategy.

Google Core Update: Bye bye clickbait, as we name the problem finally

Google released its latest core update in February 2026, making changes to the Discover experience and affecting articles and content delivery, aiming to create a more relevant, location-based experience for searchers looking for worthwhile content.

So what’s the change? Well, clickbait has been named and shamed outright, a term that took hold in 2010s YouTube culture and is commonly used today to bolster clicks by feeding an audience a misleading or sensationalised heading. Now, more in-depth, original content that delivers expertise is being showcased more prominently.

The update will also help address sites that offer a range of content, looking at expertise on a topic-by-topic basis and giving equal opportunities to both specialists and generalists, allowing both a chance for their expertise to be discovered.

As with any big update, Google has hinted at the possibility of fluctuations in Discover traffic, with some seeing both increases and decreases that stand out from usual patterns.

The update is rolling out first in the US and then expanding in the months ahead, so getting ahead of this change early is key. As always, good SEO and well thought-out content with strong trust signals will continue to benefit the overall discoverability of your website and brand.

Selling alcohol? Facebook might be the wrong platform for you

A big, and quiet, rollout that took shape in January 2026 introduced restrictions on profiles engaging in the sale or production of alcohol. Affecting millions of businesses worldwide, marketers took to Reddit to ask if anyone had seen their recommendations suspended without any violations, finding they were very much not alone.

This signals a wider tightening of the Meta algorithm, putting more control back in their hands on the way users interact with and are delivered business content, with rules within the platform becoming less predictable.

There is still some confusion coming out of Meta themselves on this one, with some successfully appealing suspensions and others not seeing any change, while Meta quickly cracked down on widely shared “bug fixes” to get recommendations back up and running.

However, the same updates appear to be allowing ads for these products, as long as they adhere to guidelines, leaving many asking whether this is the best way forward to engage with customers in this thriving and historic industry.

Interestingly, the same changes have not affected Instagram, which remains the more popular and more accessible cousin of Facebook.

The industry is still searching for answers on this emerging update, with many industry press articles discussing businesses still affected by the changes.

Is holistic Digital Marketing the future?

With an ever more crowded marketplace, brands are crunching the numbers to see what is and isn’t working for them in the digital marketing space more than ever. Yes, some are looking at what they can downsize and where tighter budgets can be stretched, but just as many are looking at how they can make their investments go further by working across more platforms and increasing their customer touchpoints in both digital and traditional marketing.

With awareness and clicks becoming a rarer commodity, the rise of SEO within social media, content that can be crawled by AI, backlinks, and local and industry press mentions are working more cohesively together to build brand trust. Community building isn’t just something for social media anymore. It is transcending across platforms, with more businesses looking at ways to nurture their markets more directly through press, content and websites. Using a holistic marketing approach addresses customer’s needs more clearly, answers their questions and provides the support needed for them to make an investment in their products.

Rise at Seven recently analysed 236 of their campaigns across 21 industries and found that when search strategy, cluster content and PR were brought together, campaigns outperformed others by 2.4x. Campaigns that included social content also had a 2.6x higher chance of coverage within PR.

Does this signify a change for all of us in what we focus on for our socials? With strategy bringing back traditional PR, expanding to more direct client platforms and reviving the need for traditional search and SEO? We certainly think so, and it’s why we work to build important trust indicators like backlinks and press articles into what we do.

The Ads are coming to AI

A big announcement from OpenAI on 9 February provoked a reaction from many as they announced that ads would be coming to their free search options. However, they say it’s nothing to worry about and have laid out how these will look different from suggested content.

Boldly announcing in their test rollout statement that “Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you, and we keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers,” many remain sceptical about the reality of this claim. After all, plenty of us still remember the days of Facebook claiming to always be ad-free.

The Free and Go subscription tiers are the ones that will see this new feature, with testing continuing as they gather feedback from users on the ad experience. OpenAI has said they will explore different formats, objectives and buying models to continue building new ways for businesses to interact with consumers in ChatGPT.

It will be interesting to see how many adopt and adapt to this change in the testing phase and, crucially for OpenAI, which businesses see this as a viable way to reach their audience.

For now, OpenAI is looking for businesses to trial the feature, with much likely to be written and reported on. It is a great opportunity for a peek behind the curtain of their data insights and into the millions of us who use the platform every day, from the mundane to the business tasks it supports. Certainly, there is potential opportunity here, as well as potential for backlash from users.

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