Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup

According to the latest AA/WARC Expenditure Report, UK advertising spend is forecast to grow 7.3% in Q4 2025, reaching about £12.0 billion. Within this, Video On Demand (VOD) is predicted to rise 17.2% year-on-year, while Out-of-Home (OOH) is expected to grow 3.1%.

Online formats (search + display) will make up approximately 83% of ad spend during the “Golden Quarter”.

For media planners, this confirms continued investment across digital video and search, and a modest but stable role for OOH in high-impact seasonal campaigns.

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A recent study of 973 e-commerce websites (spanning $20B in revenue) found that traffic referred from ChatGPT / LLM sources converts significantly worse than Google Search referrals.

The LLM referrals accounted for 0.2% of sessions, and delivered lower revenue per session and conversion rates even after adjusting for site, device, and data sparsity effects. This challenges the notion that AI-driven discovery is inherently higher quality.

For planners and SEO teams, the lesson is clear: don’t bet major budgets on LLM referrals yet. Continue investing in strong organic search, content, and hybrid attribution models while monitoring AI referral behaviour carefully.

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In a high-profile move, the UK regulator Ofcom stated that major tech platforms will face algorithm audits to ensure their automated systems don’t expose children to harmful content or adult risk via AI-driven feeds.

Platforms such as X, Snapchat and others are in the spotlight. For media buyers and creative teams, this trend signals increasing regulatory scrutiny over how ad placements, target audience modelling and content recommendations operate in youth-facing environments. Transparent documentation and brand-safe placements become even more critical.

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According to a new LOCALiQ / UK report, over 50% of UK marketers say they trust artificial intelligence in their marketing workflows, but opinions diverge sharply on how and when to use it.

Some favour AI for automation and scale, while others remain cautious about brand risk, transparency and data bias. For advertising teams, the key takeaway is to build AI usage frameworks, test ethically, and integrate AI first in low-risk processes (e.g., optimisation) before creative or brand-sensitive areas.

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Industry watchers report turbulence in organic search rankings starting around October 28, 2025, particularly for UK sites. Google hasn’t confirmed an update, but tracking tools show spikes in ranking volatility, referral traffic drops, and featured snippet shifts.

For SEO teams and media planners: monitor key keywords, review recent content or structural changes, and reassess paid search budgets in case organic traffic dips. While unconfirmed, the scale suggests more than seasonal movement, use this as an opportunity to audit SEO readiness and safeguard high-value landing pages.

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