Open Banking has moved from compliance to commercialisation, with PSD2 establishing an important baseline. According to Stephen Whitehouse, head of payments for Europe at Oliver Wyman, PSD3 and the Financial Data Access Act (FiDA) will further drive this movement, increasing the scope of data involved and thereby enabling new business models and use cases.
Open Banking has moved from compliance to commercialisation. PSD2 established the baseline. PSD3 and the Financial Data Access Act (FiDA) will further drive this movement, increasing the scope of data involved and thereby enabling new business models and use cases.
Google is expanding AI Mode with Canvas travel planning, global Flight Deals rollout, and agentic booking for restaurants, events, and local appointments.
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Google Search Console now lets you add custom annotations to performance charts, making it easier to track when changes or external events occurred.
The post Google Search Console Adds Custom Annotations To Reports appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Attribution in the modern marketing age can be confusing. But the pressure on marketing teams to “prove what’s working” never goes away.
Traditionally, marketers had certain data we could always rely on, but the data pool we can pull from seems to be growing and shrinking at the same time. Between privacy constraints, zero-click searches, AI Overviews, and channel-walled gardens, marketers are flying blind in more ways than they realize. Attribution has always been an imperfect science. And in 2025, it’s gone from fuzzy to fragmented.
If you’re planning marketing budgets and trying to defend where your spend is going, there’s no need to freak out. Marketing attribution is possible. It doesn’t look like it used to, though. And if you’re still only relying on touch-based models or last-click reports, you might be measuring the wrong things entirely.
Let’s break down where attribution is failing, what’s making it harder, and what forward-looking marketers are doing to close the gap.
Attribution used to be about stitching together clicks. Now, we’re lucky if we get clicks at all thanks to zero-click search.
Today’s buyers bounce between different platforms on multiple devices and AI-curated content. They’re influenced by ads on a connected TV or product mentions in a ChatGPT thread, and neither of those leaves a clean digital trail.
Meanwhile, ad platforms like Meta and Google have leaned hard into automation. That means fewer transparent levers to optimize and more “black box” performance metrics. According to NP Digital analysis, there are over 90% fewer optimization permutations in Google and Meta Ads today compared to 2023. So yes, marketing attribution is back. But the infrastructure around it seems more broken than ever.
Unfortunately, the reality is that attribution blind spots don’t come with a warning light. You may be staring directly at your dashboard and not notice traffic is piling up in areas you’re not tracking. And the amount of potential blindspots is growing.
Here are the big ones:
To make matters worse, these blind spots can stack. Before you know it, you find yourself in a nightmare marketing scenario where you’re not just missing one data signal, you’re missing combinations of them, making optimization even harder.
You can keep up with all of this. It just requires a switch in perspective. Marketers should evaluate their campaigns using a combination of modeled attribution and traditional touch-based metrics. You may never fully connect every dot, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection, just enough clarity to defend marketing budget allocations.
Modern marketers are using these tools:
The best strategies blend these methods based on spend level, complexity, and conversion volume. Leveraging AI in your marketing efforts is one of the best ways to automate this research as much as possible and maximize the benefit of these tactics.
Some marketers may feel like AI is eroding attribution. While that could be true, the technology is also helping to rebuild it.
Here’s how AI is stepping in:
Still, only 55% of marketers trust AI-generated insights, according to CoSchedule. The key is to treat AI as an assistant, not the authority. Use it to speed up testing and build models, but validate with your own data.
Analytics platforms like Adobe Analytics are also making steps to better capture attribution from AI tools. In October they released a new referrer type called “Conversational AI Tools” to segment out traffic from ChatGPT and other LLMs from the other channels marketers have historically monitored.
So, how do you go from blind spots to better planning? You don’t need perfect clarity. You need consistent signals and a smarter strategy.
Here are some ways marketers are closing attribution gaps:
Attribution and business outcomes go hand-in-hand. Understanding where your most profitable leads originate is essential to growing any business, regardless of its size.
You want to connect your data to actual decisions, such as forecasts, budgets, and resource allocation. But, with the marketing landscape changing so quickly and drastically, how do you know which metrics to follow?
Here are the metrics that matter now:
Remember: even if your models aren’t perfect, if they get you closer to optimal spend, it’s working. Continuous improvement for your attribution strategy will get you closer and closer still.
It’s any part of the customer journey you can’t track, like dark social shares, offline sales, or LLM referrals that may be influencing conversions without showing up in your data.
Yes, but only if used smartly. AI can simulate behavior and identify patterns, but it’s not a silver bullet. Use it to complement your experiments and first-party data.
There isn’t one. The most effective models mix touch-based data with testing and contextual clues. Choose based on your business size, channel mix, and data maturity.
When it comes to effective attribution, you just need to see enough to move forward.
Mastering this skill in the modern marketing world is less about getting the credit right and more about making smarter calls with what you can measure. The key is to stop chasing perfection and start building a system that helps you plan and adapt to the data you gather from your testing in real-time. Attribution isn’t the whole picture, but it remains the best tool we have to illuminate the path forward, including its blind spots.
Naturally, we can still learn from tried and true marketing methods. We may just have to think outside the box on how to apply them to today’s search environment and customer journey. It’s worth checking out our guides on which marketing campaigns drive the best impact and how to track your marketing ROI. Combining this extra knowledge with your new attribution perspective could be the secret sauce to put you ahead of the pack in 2026.
Unlock the power of local search to attract more customers. Elevate your marketing strategy with effective local search techniques.
The post From Listings to Loyalty: The New Role of Local Search in Customer Experience appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
BDO’s UK wing is in advanced merger discussions with BDO Ireland. The move is subject to a partner vote – but could create a combined firm of more than 8,000 staff. Amid a sustained slowdown in demand, the UK consulting market is looking to shore up its financial performance in a number of ways.
Matt Tyler has joined Bishop Fleming as business development director. He will now work to support the audit and advisory firm’s growth strategy in the West Midlands. Tyler remarked, “I’m thrilled to join Bishop Fleming at such an exciting stage in its journey.
UpSlide is a leading AI-enabled automation add-in for Microsoft 365, supporting financial and professional services businesses globally in over 60 countries. Diane Dumas, head of product at UpSlide, talks about her mission: to help the financial and professional advisory sector work better through automation and AI.
KPMG has welcomed a new head to its Edinburgh office. Jo Thomson will lead the Big Four firm’s 400-strong team in the city. Thomson commented, “Taking on this role marks an important milestone in my career.
