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The Upp.ai blog

Articles, customer stories, and playbooks from the team building Upp.ai. Built for retail and ecommerce operators who care about results.

Four-week Black Friday countdown checklist for Google Ads: audit the new controls in the week of 2 November, conclude tests and set peak budgets by 9 November, set guardrails and thresholds by 16 November, then a structural freeze from the week of 23 November, with Black Friday badged on 27 November.

FeaturedPaid media

Black Friday 2026 PPC strategy: the first peak under Google's new controls

Black Friday lands on 27 November — the first peak since Google shipped four major control changes. The four-week countdown for UK retail accounts: what to audit, what to set, and what to freeze.

Upp.ai insights team

Editorial

30 Oct 20269 min read

Diagram of Meta's 2026 ads algorithm update: Facebook, Instagram, Reels and Threads feeding into GEM, one central foundation model with Andromeda retrieval and GenRecs semantic understanding and no toggle in Ads Manager, producing a claimed 18.9% conversion uplift, one billion ads scored per second, and a 14% year-on-year rise in price per ad.

Paid media

Meta's 2026 algorithm update: what GEM and Andromeda mean for retail advertisers

Meta rebuilt ads delivery around one central AI model and claims 18.9% more conversions — with no setting to check and no baseline to verify. What GEM, GenRecs and Andromeda change, and the number that's actually on your invoice.

Upp.ai insights team

29 Oct 20269 min read

Diagram of a Conversion Lift holdout test: a treatment group that sees ads converts at ten per thousand users, a holdout group with ads withheld converts at six, and the difference of four conversions is labelled as the sales the ads caused.

Paid media

Incrementality testing for retail PPC: how to prove true ROAS

Google has made Conversion Lift self-serve for Search and Performance Max. How to run holdout tests that separate the sales your ads caused from the sales you'd have made anyway.

Upp.ai insights team

29 Oct 20267 min read

Two-column comparison of PPC reporting metrics: click-through rate, impression share, platform ROAS alone and keyword-level CPC struck through under 'retire from the board pack', with incremental revenue, profit after ad spend, blended return and match-source spend split highlighted under 'report instead'.

Paid media

PPC reporting in 2026: what metrics actually matter after the AI Max migration

September's AI Max migration quietly rewired how Search campaigns match and report. The metrics worth presenting now, the ones to retire from the board pack, and how to reconcile the change.

Upp.ai insights team

27 Oct 20268 min read

Diagram of a Google Shopping product listing next to a feed health checklist: title structure, GTIN and price accuracy and product types pass, while 1,406 images below the new 500 by 500 pixel minimum carry a warning ahead of enforcement on 31 January 2027.

Google Ads

Google Shopping feed optimisation: the 2026 playbook for UK retail brands

PMax assembles your ads from your product data, so the feed decides which auctions you enter. A practical playbook for UK retail — and the 31 January 2027 image deadline to beat.

Upp.ai insights team

25 Oct 20268 min read

Diagram of Performance Max channel prioritisation: Google channels set to high priority and funded first, with Search partners and the Display Network set to low priority under 10% and 50% daily budget caps, and a note that Display Expansion migrates in February 2027.

Google Ads

Performance Max channel prioritisation: the complete UK ecommerce guide

Google is rolling out channel prioritisation and budget allocation controls from 15 October. What UK retail teams can set inside PMax, what they still can't, and the February 2027 date to diary.

Upp.ai insights team

23 Oct 20269 min read

Illustration of reported ROAS 4.2x with the portion that would have happened anyway stripped out, leaving 1.6x incremental revenue proven against a holdout.

Paid media

Why incrementality has replaced ROAS as the measure that matters

Finance is now asking a different question, and incrementality is the only lens that answers it.

Upp.ai insights team

26 Aug 20261 min read

Split graphic contrasting a team managing platforms manually with a team setting strategy while Rubin executes across Google, Meta and Microsoft Ads, captioned: Your team decides the direction. Rubin executes inside it.

Paid media

What is Microsoft PMax, and how is it different from Google's?

The same automation concept as Google's, with different inventory, less signal and its own pacing. Where the two differ and why they should be managed separately.

Upp.ai insights team

24 Aug 20261 min read

Illustration of a Search campaign card upgrading to AI Max, with search term matching and text customisation switched on and Rubin executing to the target

Google Ads

Google AI Max auto-upgrade: what changes on 1 September

Two Search features move into AI Max automatically between 1 and 30 September. What changes, which defaults switch on, and the checklist to run before the window opens.

Upp.ai insights team

18 Aug 20264 min read

Split illustration: a cluttered manual bid sheet on the left, Rubin monitoring Google, Meta and Microsoft on the right, under the line Bring clarity to your paid media.

Paid media

Why the paid media market moves faster than teams can react

53% of PPC professionals say the job is harder than it was two years ago. The reason is not a skills gap: purchase intent now forms across more surfaces than any team can watch.

Upp.ai insights team

14 Aug 20262 min read