Bonded Bitesize - Your Midweek Roundup

Research has shown that Chatbot traffic has risen 60% Year-on-Year

Research analysis conducted by 51 Degrees found that AI chatbot traffic has consistently increased over the past year – rising 60% YoY. Publishers have noticed that traffic to their websites has grown with artificial intelligence bots crawling their sites. The released data has raised concerns among publishers, who reference that ‘website scraping’ can lead to content being used without credit, creating further costs.

James Rosewell, CEO of 51 Degrees explains how “AI bot traffic is undermining the viability of the open web publishers used to reach audiences with their advertising”. The research highlighted that the most abundant bot was Amazon’s web crawler, AmazonBot.

The rise of chatbots and growing caution around them needs to be considered by digital strategists to inform strategy and mitigate these risks.

Double-digit figures: UK OOH has exploded exponentially – it's the channel that captures audience attention at the heart of every moment.

Public interest in OOH and DOOH advertising has grown strongly during the first half of 2026. Outsmart reported that channel revenue totalled £402.6 million, a 12.7% YoY increase. It explains that this is the highest Q2 revenue reported for OOH, with DOOH revenue growing by 14.6% too.

This explosion within the second quarter as been attributed to the global event of the FIFA World Cup from this past summer. This shows how advertisers are harnessing the reachability and creativity of this channel as a cultural performance catalyst to drive interest and purchase intent.

The opportunity to capture audiences with OOH can unlock potential within omnichannel strategies, so it’s a channel advertisers should explore.

Instagram’s growth is outpacing Facebook: Meta’s Biannual EU report shows competitive figures between the two platforms

Meta released its EU Digital Services Act report detailing how, within the first half of 2026, Instagram grew at a much faster rate than Facebook. The reported 297 million active users for Instagram compares to Facebook’s 264 million, which demonstrates that the latter app is slowly flatlining. Although both apps have a vast reach, Instagram is projected to rise further throughout the year through greater app engagement amongst users. Alongside the report, Meta revealed its moderation efforts, reinforcing its goal to be fully AI-powered.

Overall, the report highlights potential value, emerging trends and some risks across both platforms, with advertisers urged to consider tapping into Instagram’s popularity to maximise their digital campaigns.

Google Ads releases new Automated Promotions

Google Ads has released a help document that explains how the platform automatically identifies and applies active promotional content pulled straight from your website to your ads. Its aim is to highlight valid offers within your ads to drive conversions both online and offline. Google automatically scans your website to identify promotional offers and link them to Search and Performance Max campaigns, correctly connecting customers to your active offers.

It provides new automation for PPC experts to improve efficiency, drive conversions and expand reach.

X launches custom API chatbot functionality for business accounts on its platform

The new launch of API chatbots will essentially allow brands to create custom bots to become more automated. The API bots can process requests, reply to generic customer queries and provide service updates.

However, brands must spend time manually inputting responses for the bot before fully integrating it. But the speed of responses to potential customers could position the bots as an efficient and useful tool for businesses. X has launched these API chatbots to make its Chat messaging feature more useful for businesses.

For now, this function is for businesses and could provide more opportunities for them to take another step towards automation.

Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup