Microsoft cuts manual bids, Google opens AI Max tests, and Shopify quietly fixes your tax

Microsoft Ads removes Max CPC from new campaigns on October 1

Starting October 1, 2026, Max CPC will no longer be selectable when creating new non-portfolio campaigns on Microsoft Advertising that use Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, or Maximize Clicks. Existing campaigns keep their Max CPC setting, and portfolio bid strategies are unaffected. Target Impression Share and Enhanced CPC are also unaffected. Microsoft's guidance is to manage performance through budgets, Target CPA and Target ROAS goals, conversion value rules, and seasonality adjustments.

This hits any lean team that has been using Max CPC as a hard ceiling against surprise expensive clicks on Microsoft. If you were planning to launch new campaigns in Q4, the safety net changes shape before you launch.

Move this week (about 45 minutes): list every Microsoft Ads campaign you plan to launch between now and end of year. If any depend on a Max CPC ceiling, either launch them before October 1 to preserve the setting, or convert the plan to a portfolio bid strategy where Max CPC will still be available.

Search Engine Journal: Microsoft Ads is removing Max CPC from new campaignsSearch Engine Land: Microsoft Advertising removes Max CPC from new standalone bidding campaignsPPC Land: Microsoft Advertising drops Max CPC from new campaigns on October 1

Google Ads opens multi-campaign AI Max experiments in September

Google announced a new set of experimentation and planning tools for Search and AI Max. Starting in September, advertisers will be able to A/B test different budgets and ROI targets across multiple Search campaigns in a single experiment. AI Max experiments now also support tests that keep brand and location controls enabled, so you no longer have to strip those constraints to measure impact. Performance Planner can now visualize the effect of bidding or budget changes and apply Google's suggestions to live campaigns in one click.

This is for any founder or fractional CMO who has been avoiding AI Max because they could not measure it cleanly against their current setup. The brand and location control change is the specific blocker that just went away.

Move this week (about 30 minutes): pick your one Search campaign where AI Max would be most consequential if it worked, and draft the experiment on paper: control settings, AI Max settings, brand list, location list, budget split, and the single metric that decides the winner. When the multi-campaign version rolls out in September, you have the plan ready to click in.

Search Engine Journal: Google Ads launches new Search and AI Max experimentation toolsSearch Engine Land: Google adds new AI Max testing and planning tools

AI Mode prompts are in Search Console, if you filter for them

Google's John Mueller confirmed that Search Console lists AI Mode prompts, including follow-up prompts, as queries in the main Performance report. The dedicated generative AI performance reports still do not include query data, so the way to see AI Mode prompts is to filter the standard Performance report for the long, conversational strings AI Mode users type.

This hits any site owner treating Search Console as read-only. AI Mode traffic is already in your data, but it hides in the long tail alongside regular queries.

Move this week (about 20 minutes): open Search Console Performance, add a Query filter, choose Custom (regex), and filter for queries above a length threshold or containing conversational markers like question words and follow-up phrasing. Export the list, and mark which of your pages currently answer those questions in the first paragraph. That export is the input for next month's content pass.

Practical Ecommerce: Filter AI Mode prompts in Search ConsoleSearch Engine Watch: Google Search Console shows AI Mode follow-up queries

Generated UI is rolling into AI Overviews, and tool pages face competition

On August 19, Google confirmed that Generative UI, the technology that builds interactive visuals and simulations inside Search, is being extended from AI Mode into AI Overviews. The example Google shows is a pH scale query returning an interactive visual inside the Overview instead of a written explanation. Google has not published data on click impact yet, but the direct competitive line is drawn at free tool pages: calculators, converters, graders, quiz-style diagnostics.

This hits SaaS companies and publishers whose top-of-funnel depends on a free tool page that ranks organically. If Google can render a comparable interactive answer inside the result, the first interaction could move off your domain.

Move this week (about 40 minutes): in Search Console, filter to your tool-type URLs only. Look at impressions and clicks over the last 90 days versus the prior 90. Flag any tool page where impressions held or grew but clicks dropped. Those are your early displacement candidates, and they need a reason to click through beyond the calculation itself: saved history, export, account-tied results.

Search Engine Journal: Google's generated interfaces could compete with tool pagesTechWyse: Google Generative UI in AI Overviews

Shopify tax now follows the fulfillment location, not the store default

Shopify Tax is now compatible with order routing. US tax on an order is calculated using the fulfillment location that your order routing settings select for that order. For local pickup orders, tax is calculated from the pickup location. A related August 13 update recalculates tax automatically when a shipping address is edited after the order is placed, and shows the merchant a preview of the updated amounts before saving.

This hits US Shopify merchants with more than one fulfillment location, and anyone whose support team routinely edits shipping addresses on existing orders. Before these updates, tax could stay pinned to the original destination and drift out of sync with what actually shipped.

Move this week (about 30 minutes): in Shopify admin, open Settings then Shipping and delivery, and confirm each fulfillment location's address is correct and the routing rules match how you actually pick and ship. Then spot-check three recent multi-location or edited-address orders in the tax report and confirm the collected tax matches the fulfillment or updated shipping location. If it does not, that is the reconciliation task for your bookkeeper.

Shopify Changelog: Shopify Tax is now compatible with order routingShopify Changelog: Taxes now recalculate automatically when you change an order's shipping address

Shopify checkout pre-selects the last used payment method for signed-in customers

As of August 21, Shopify checkout remembers a signed-in customer's last used payment method and pre-selects it on the next purchase. The behavior is only active on D2C and B2B checkout flows where saved payment methods are already enabled. Merchants without saved payment methods turned on do not get the default.

This hits Shopify D2C and B2B stores relying on repeat purchase conversion. The lift is automatic once saved payment methods are on, and zero if they are off.

Move this week (about 10 minutes): in Shopify admin, open Settings then Payments, and confirm that saved payment methods are enabled for your D2C storefront and, if you sell B2B, for that channel too. If they are off, turn them on. That single toggle is the entire prerequisite for this default.

Shopify Changelog: Checkout now defaults to last used payment method for signed-in customers

Checked, and quiet

LinkedIn, Instagram captions, X's new MCP server, and email deliverability threads all came through the queue this week, but none produced a change that a lean marketing team needs to act on before next Monday. The Smart Bidding conversion-tracking audit guide and the AI Mode query-length data are both worth reading, but neither is a this-week trigger: one is evergreen advice, the other summarizes data Google published back in May. If any of these shift, they lead next week.