Paid Media & MarTech through the lens of Zenda
Clear analysis on what shifts in the growth ecosystem: platforms, data, martech and judgment.
Instagram Goes Long-Form With Features, and There Is Nothing to Buy in Ads Manager Yet
On October 26, 2026 Instagram introduced Features, horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, with no placement to buy in Ads Manager. According to Mosseri, creators get paid mostly by brands: what to put in writing before sponsoring one and what Meta hasn't answered.
ChatGPT Ads Now Rewrites, Translates and Redirects Your Ads by Default Starting October 30, and Adds a Multi-Image Format
Starting October 30, 2026, ChatGPT Ads creative enhancements are on by default: OpenAI can rewrite, translate, resize and change the destination URL with no per-version approval. It was opt-in before. Also new: a 4 to 6 image 1:1 beta format. When to turn it off and what to check.
Google Ads Channel Prioritization: Search Partners and Display Stop Being All or Nothing, and Display Expansion Migrates in February 2027
Google Ads now lets you set channels to High or Low priority and cap Low priority channels like Search partners and Display at a best-effort % of average daily budget. In February 2027, Search campaigns with Display Expansion migrate automatically. How each bid strategy responds and what to review first.
ChatGPT Ads Opens Self-Serve Across Latin America: What US Advertisers Running the Region Can and Can't Plan Yet
On October 21, 2026, OpenAI added 14 Latin American countries to ChatGPT Ads, including Argentina, Chile and Colombia, and its self-serve table lists 16 in the region. What OpenAI documented, what it left undisclosed, and what a US advertiser running the region should set up first.
AI Agents in Your Ad Account: 5 Use Cases for Muse, Dots and Meta's Ads Manager Assistant
Meta's Muse for Small Business is live for US advertisers, OpenAI's Dots can be set to act without asking, and Meta is testing actions in its Ads Manager assistant. Five use cases with their documented backing and status, and how to decide what an agent may do without approval.
WhatsApp Now Charges for Service Replies: What Changes in the Cost of Selling and Supporting Over Chat
As of October 1, Meta is charging again for service messages on WhatsApp Business Platform, free since November 2024. The rate depends on each customer's country and varies widely across Latin America, every number gets 1,000 free messages a month, and the 72-hour Click-to-WhatsApp window stays free, now as a budget argument too.
Brazil Is About to Make Your Ad Targeting Public, Not Just Who Paid For It
Starting September 23, a joint ordinance requires platforms with over one million users in Brazil to publish a repository with each ad's targeting, reach and payment data, and to verify financial advertisers' identity before letting their ads run.
Amazon Ads Adds Its DSP as a Way to Buy ChatGPT Ads, With Not a Word on Measurement
Amazon Ads announced a partnership with OpenAI to sell ads inside ChatGPT, with Delta Vacations among the first brands testing the pilot. Digiday clarifies the buying flows through the Amazon DSP, but neither Amazon nor the trade press covering the announcement says a word about how that spend will be measured.
ChatGPT Ads opens self-serve in 52 countries, and only two are in Latin America
OpenAI opened ChatGPT Ads self-serve access in 52 countries on August 31, but only Brazil and Mexico are on the official list from Latin America. For the rest of the region, getting into the channel is no longer a budget decision; it depends on where the company holds a legal entity.
Google is migrating Search campaigns to AI Max all through September, and the ones that came from ACA get copy rewriting left on
On September 1, 2026, Google started automatically migrating Search campaigns running Campaign-level Broad Match or Automatically Created Assets into AI Max, with no warning and no button to click. Accounts that came from ACA get automatic copy rewriting turned on by default.
ChatGPT Ads adds 31 European countries and nears forty markets, ten weeks after running in five
OpenAI rolls ChatGPT Ads out to 31 European countries the week of Aug 24 and says ad revenue grew over 25% in August: what it means for LatAm budgets.
Google Ads is removing language targeting from Search, and in a region that runs three languages that is not a minor detail
Google confirmed that starting in late September 2026 it removes the campaign-level language targeting control from Search and from the Search Network portion of Performance Max. For accounts running Spanish, Portuguese and English in the same region, the change puts reporting, campaign names and how market splits used to run on language all in play.
Amazon Sponsored Products Now Runs Inside Creator Content, and Part of the Keyword Report Becomes Inferred
Starting August 10, Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns begin showing inside creator content with automatic enrollment, and part of the search term report becomes inferred instead of observed.
ChatGPT Ads Finally Arrives in Brazil and Mexico, With the First Ads Already Running
After months as "the next markets," OpenAI has put a date on ChatGPT Ads in Brazil and Mexico: the first ads are already running in Brazil, and the commercial launch arrives this week.
Google started writing the description on your Shopping ads
On July 30, AI-generated descriptions began appearing next to Shopping and Product ads, extending a test already running on Search. There is no documented opt-out and no clean way to isolate the CTR effect. What stays under your control is the feed, and that changes how it should be reviewed.
LinkedIn launched 5 AI creative tools in Campaign Manager: what changes for B2B teams in LATAM
On July 1, 2026, LinkedIn activated five AI tools inside Campaign Manager. The most important figure in the announcement is not the feature list but the benchmark that accompanies it: campaigns with 5 or more ad variants achieve more than 20% higher CTR than single-ad campaigns. For B2B teams in LATAM operating with limited creative resources, that number redefines what acceptable testing looks like.
Every ads platform now speaks MCP
Between February and June 2026, six ads platforms (Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest and Microsoft) shipped official MCP servers: the ads account became operable by AI agents through official OAuth, with no sketchy connectors and no account-ban risk. But the platforms diverge on how much power the agent gets: Google chose read-only, Meta chose full write with everything paused by default, TikTok and Amazon chose full write without that documented brake. That divergence is the news: the governance decision does not come solved out of the box, it has to be made by every team spending real money.
ChatGPT Ads: what early testers are reporting, and which countries are next
In four months, ChatGPT advertising went from a US-only test to five live countries, with Mexico and Brazil next in line. The performance data looks attractive, but almost all of it comes from OpenAI or its commercial partners, with no independent verification. For a team in LATAM, the move today is not to enter the channel: it is to get your own measurement ready before it lands.
X Ads Manager Got a Makeover: New Dashboard, AI Targeting, Vertical Video. But the Migration Broke Things.
X redesigned its Ads Manager with real improvements: AI targeting, vertical video, unified dashboard. The product is better. But the migration brought data discrepancies between API and dashboard, a policy overhaul with 35% rejection rates, an aesthetic scoring system that financially penalizes non-compliant creative, and a global outage during the rollout.
Stripe Enters Facebook Ads: Native Checkout, the Agentic Commerce Protocol
Stripe launched native checkout inside Facebook Ads where users can buy without leaving the app. This isn't just a payments feature: it's the first concrete step toward a model where the funnel compresses to ad-to-checkout. For paid media teams, the urgent question isn't whether to activate, but how to measure when the click to your site disappears.
Meta Andromeda: real revolution in ad delivery or black box with better marketing?
Andromeda radically expanded how many ads compete for each impression on Meta, feeding Advantage+ with more data and more options. The operational response depends on team size, budget, and tolerance for concentration risk.
Manus AI in Meta Ads Manager: the platform now also operates your account
Meta integrated Manus AI into Ads Manager as an autonomous agent available to all advertisers. Current capabilities are reporting and analysis, not campaign execution. But the conflict of interest is structural: the platform that sells your inventory now also controls the intelligence layer inside your account.
ChatGPT Ads Are Now in Testing: An Operational Update
OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT for free tier users in the US. Ads appear below responses without influencing content. There's no buying platform and no performance benchmarks. The honest move today: awareness, not resource investment.
ChatGPT Ads: The Rise of Answer Engine Marketing (AEM)
The launch of ads in ChatGPT marks the transition from Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to Answer Engine Marketing (AEM). This shift will impact performance measurement, especially in Latin America, where deployment is expected by late 2026. Success will depend on brands' ability to become the suggested answer, prioritizing semantic influence over traditional click bidding.
The click tax: The trap of Retail Media fragmentation in LATAM
If you are a mass consumption brand in Latin America, you are not buying advertising; you are paying a "data toll" to each retailer separately. Retail Media is the great promise of the decade, but the lack of standards is creating a black hole in marketing budgets. This post analyzes why your reports from Mercado Ads and Rappi are never going to match and how to avoid being charged three times for the same sale.