Mackerel Media’s Search, Media and Digital Marketing Roundup – April 2026
April’s been anything but quiet in the search and media world – from fresh tweaks in Google Search Console reporting to shiny new image ad placements and a fascinating FT report highlighting that streaming platforms are eyeing a dramatic TV ad comeback, there’s been plenty to keep an eye on. Here’s a quick (and easy to digest) rundown of what’s changed over the past month…
Google Got a Little Too Generous
At the start of the month, Google announced that they were fixing a Google Search Console issue which had resulted in inflated impressions being reported since May 2025. The issue stemmed from a logging error that caused search impressions to be over-reported, and from our own internal review, looks to be related to an increase in impressions reported on image search.
Only impressions were affected whilst clicks, click through rate and average search position remained accurate. Whilst not every website has been affected to a noticeable degree, site owners may notice a slight decline in reported impressions in the Performance report. If you notice changes in impression data during this period, we here at Mackerel Media can help review your performance and highlight any fluctuations with your site’s performance.
Google Update: Quality Wins, Aggregators Lose
Google also confirmed at the start of April that their March 2026 core update has now fully deployed. This was a broad core update, which aimed to improve the overall visibility of relevant and satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. Early reports have suggested that aggregator, reference sites and comparison sites were most affected and saw declines in visibility. Whilst Google hasn’t provided any new guidance for this update, the advice of ensuring that your content is high quality, relevant and provides clear value to users still applies.
Google announced that they will begin showing sponsored ads within the image results on mobile search. Previously, ads would appear at the top of the images tab, however this new placement means that users will see ads within Google’s image grid whilst browsing, with each ad clearly labelled as ‘Sponsored’. This new update expands Google’s available ad placements, and should lead to an increase in impressions and potential click-through rates since ads will be more visible to users whilst they scroll on their mobile devices.
AI Helps, But Humans Still Shine
A recent study by Semrush has found that human-written content is much more likely to rank higher on Google compared to purely AI-generated content. The analysis of 42,000 blog posts across 20,000 keywords showed that human content appeared in position one around 80% of the time, compared to just 9% for AI created content. Whilst AI can help as a supporting tool with planning and drafting content, the above data shows the importance of human-written content when it comes to increasing organic visibility and improving search performance.
No Events Page? No Problem!
LinkedIn has released Off-Platform Event Ads, which allows marketers to promote events without needing to create a LinkedIn Event Page. This new ad format means that advertisers can run Event Ads which link directly to external landing pages (including webinar platforms and livestream sites), instead of keeping the user within the LinkedIn platform. This update gives businesses greater flexibility when it comes to promoting events, helping to drive users to their own website whilst taking advantage of LinkedIn’s audience targeting capabilities.
The Advertising Association and WARC have published their updated Advertising Expenditure Report, which highlights the recent changes in the UK media landscape. This report reveals that investment in UK advertising in 2025 reached £46.7 billion – a 6.4% increase from 2024. One of the most noticeable investments was during the Q4 2025 festive season which saw £12.9 billion invested in media, with an increase in growth across retail media (30.5%), addressable TV (26.9%) and social media (22.0%). This report also introduced new channel definitions, with retail media and social media classed as standalone channels for the first time. Across 2025, investment growth was recorded across addressable TV (37%), social media (21%) and retail media (17.5%). Search (5.8%), cinema (3.4%) and out-of-home (2.3%) also saw an increase in investment. The forecast for 2026 predicts a further 6.6% growth to £49.8 billion, along with a predicted 5.6% increase to £52.6 billion in 2027.
Streaming Saves TV Ads
The Financial Times have recently reported on how streaming services are giving TV advertising a new lease of life. Popular platforms such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime Video have all introduced ad-supported pricing tiers, which creates new revenue opportunities and the re-introdution of ads onto their streaming platforms. The report also notes that while traditional linear TV advertising is not as strong, both connected TV and streaming services are continuing to drive growth in video advertising with Netflix forecast to generate more than $8 billion in advertising revenue by 2030. The article highlights how the shift towards streaming has not replaced TV advertising but has instead strengthened it, and offers advertisers a more flexible, data driven and creative environment to reach engaged audiences.
