Platforms Are Betting Big On AI For Holiday Marketing

The end of the year brings more than just holiday cheer; it delivers a sleigh-full of digital marketing updates from Google, OpenAI and Meta. Together, these changes are helping brands create better content faster, understand performance shifts sooner and reach holiday shoppers more effectively across search and social.

Key Takeaways

• OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 dramatically improves the accuracy, reasoning and speed of AI for high-stakes professional work like coding and complex strategy.

• Google released a Core Update, which means search rankings will be volatile, and maintaining focus on creating quality, helpful content is crucial.

• Google Merchant Center gained new AI tools to help teams quickly analyse performance data and spot issues without deep manual digging.

• Google is prioritising “Preferred Sources” and trusted publishers, giving credible brands a better chance of appearing in AI-driven search results.

• YouTube and Instagram are rolling out more AI and testing tools to make video creation faster and allow creators to pre-test content with small audiences.

• Facebook Marketplace introduced holiday-specific features that create high-intent shopping opportunities for brands and small businesses.

OpenAI Releases GPT-5.2 with Major Upgrades for Professionals

OpenAI has officially launched GPT-5.2, positioning it as their most advanced frontier model to date. This update is specifically designed for complex, professional-grade knowledge work and for powering long-running autonomous agents. 

Key improvements focus on increased accuracy, better reasoning capabilities and significantly faster processing speed across three distinct versions: Instant, Thinking and Pro. The goal is to move the model from being a simple assistant for drafting content to a trusted partner capable of handling multi-step projects, intricate coding, presentation building and deep data analysis.

The Gurus’ take

What the GPT-5.2 update means for your business is a new level of confidence when integrating AI into mission-critical workflows in 2026. Brands can now rely on the advanced capabilities of the model for tasks that were previously too risky to hand over to agents, such as writing large sections of code or producing detailed strategic reports. 

Instead of using AI purely for generating rough drafts or experimental concepts, this model allows companies to use it for finalised assets and core operational planning.

Your action plan

• Evaluate tools: Assess how existing professional tools that use OpenAI’s API can now handle more complex tasks with the higher accuracy of GPT-5.2.
• Update guidelines: Develop clearer internal guidelines for the use of advanced AI, authorising its use in areas like code review and strategic content generation.
• Pilot projects: Begin pilot projects where the new AI model is used for complex, multi-step tasks, such as generating a full-quarter content calendar or producing a detailed competitor analysis.
• Prepare for AI-driven discovery: Factor generative engine optimisation into your content planning, with a focus on how brands are referenced and ranked in ChatGPT and other GPT-powered tools.

Google December 2025 Core Update Rolling Out

Google has officially announced the rollout of the December 2025 core update. As with any core update to its ranking algorithm, this release is expected to introduce significant volatility and fluctuation across search results globally. 

Core updates are broad, foundational changes to Google’s algorithm designed to improve the overall quality and relevance of search results, meaning they don’t target specific issues but rather reevaluate how content is assessed across the web. The process of the rollout itself typically takes a couple of weeks to complete, during which time site owners can expect to see their rankings and organic traffic metrics shift.

The Gurus’ take

The rollout of a core update signals that businesses need to be prepared for temporary turbulence in their organic search performance as the year draws to a close. It’s a moment to focus on the long-term health of your digital presence rather than reacting to short-term changes. 

While some sites may see an immediate drop in rankings, the main priority should be an internal audit to confirm that all content aligns with best practices for search engine optimisation and user experience.

Your action plan 

• Monitor volatility: Closely track all key performance indicators (KPIs) in Google Search Console and Analytics to identify any significant ranking or traffic shifts.
• Prioritise content quality: Review your content strategy to ensure every piece of information is accurate, in-depth and genuinely helpful to your target audience.
• Avoid overreacting: Refrain from making dramatic, site-wide changes immediately following a ranking fluctuation, as the full effects of the core update take time to stabilise.
• Focus on user experience: Assess technical SEO health, site speed and mobile responsiveness, as these factors contribute to overall site quality, which is crucial during core updates.

Google Expands Preferred Sources for Trusted Content

Google is significantly expanding its concept of Preferred Sources and deepening its AI partnerships to ensure more trusted content is surfaced across both traditional Search and its new AI experiences. The goal is to strengthen connections between users and credible publishers, giving high-authority sites better visibility. 

This initiative involves globally expanding features that allow users to customise their Top Stories feed, leading to a much higher click-through rate to those preferred sites. It also includes new features that highlight links from a user’s news subscriptions, giving priority placement to content from outlets the user already trusts.

The Gurus’ take

The expansion of Preferred Sources means that brands with high credibility and a strong publishing history now have a major advantage in 2026. As search becomes more AI-driven, Google is actively looking for signals of trustworthiness to feed its models. For your brand, this emphasises the non-negotiable importance of high-quality SEO copywriting and being recognised as an authority in your industry.

Brands that invest in building strong domain authority, acquiring subscriptions and maintaining editorial excellence are better positioned to appear as a “preferred source” in the new AI-powered search environment. 

Your action plan

• Enhance attribution: Make sure all content, especially any syndicated or repurposed information, has clear, visible authorship and dates to maximise its perceived trustworthiness and credibility.
• Build authority: Implement a content strategy focused on becoming the definitive authority on your topic by publishing original research, data or expert insights.
• Optimise for citation: Ensure all your content is easily citable by clearly formatting key data points, facts and expert quotes for AI models to pull from and attribute.
• Review content gaps: Conduct a thorough content audit to identify any gaps in your topic coverage where you are not yet a dominant voice and prioritise filling them with authoritative, new content.

Google Adds AI Summaries to Merchant Center Store Quality

Google Merchant Center has introduced a new feature that provides AI-generated summaries of a merchant’s Store Quality performance. This summary appears at the very top of the Store Quality page, offering merchants a concise, plain-language overview of their account status. 

Crucially, it highlights key issues, flags sudden performance changes and provides immediate, actionable items based on the data. The tool also analyses various factors that contribute to a store’s overall quality score, which impacts its visibility in Google Shopping results and supports better engagement in related Google Ads placements.

The Gurus’ take

For e-commerce brands, this new feature significantly cuts down the time spent on account maintenance and troubleshooting. When an issue arises, the eCommerce SEO team no longer needs to hunt through reports; the AI pinpoints the problem right away. 

This rapid diagnosis capability is especially valuable during high-stakes periods like the holidays, where minutes matter in fixing an issue that could affect conversions and sales.

Your action plan

• Review daily: Incorporate the AI Store Quality summary into the daily account monitoring process for your Google Merchant Center.
• Immediate response: Treat any issues flagged by the AI summary as top-priority action items that require immediate resolution to prevent further negative impact on performance.
• Inform teams: Share the clear, concise summaries from the tool with the relevant teams, such as logistics or customer support, to quickly address operational weaknesses.
• Proactive improvement: Use the insights to proactively refine operational areas that the AI frequently flags, turning reactive fixes into long-term systemic improvements.

YouTube Shorts Expands Ads Just in Time for Holiday Spending

YouTube Shorts is expanding its ad features, strategically timed to coincide with the peak holiday shopping season. These new capabilities are designed to give brands more tools to run highly effective short-form video marketing campaigns and maximise their holiday budgets. 

The updates include enabling comments on Shorts ads, which encourages direct audience engagement and feedback, making the ads feel more organic. Furthermore, creators can now link directly from branded content within Shorts to the brand’s website, eliminating unnecessary steps in the path to purchase.

The Gurus’ take

This ad expansion provides a massive opportunity for brands to capture attention and drive sales during the most critical shopping period of the year. The ability to link directly from a compelling short-form video minimises friction for the shopper, turning impulsive views into immediate conversions. This makes a clear, direct call-to-action essential to your social media strategy.

Your action plan

• Prioritise direct links: Ensure all holiday Shorts ads utilise the new direct linking feature to minimise the steps between the viewer seeing the product and landing on the purchase page.
• Develop native creative: Create short-form video ads that are designed specifically for the Shorts format, focusing on quick cuts, trending audio and clear, engaging visuals.
• Allocate budget: Reallocate a portion of your holiday social media advertising budget to take advantage of the expanded ad placements on mobile web and capitalise on the high purchase intent of Shorts viewers.
• Highlight urgency: Create Shorts content that clearly highlights holiday-specific deals, limited-time offers or shipping deadlines to drive immediate purchase behaviour.

YouTube Adds More AI Tools for Faster Content Creation

YouTube has integrated more AI capabilities into its Create app, a dedicated video editing tool, with the primary goal of speeding up the content creation process. Specifically, the platform has added Google’s latest Veo 3 Fast model to the Android version of YouTube Create. 

This powerful AI can help creators generate vertical video clips, even for shots they didn’t capture during filming, while allowing them to control visual elements like lighting and style. The Studio Inspiration tab has also been updated with more customisable and personalised content ideas, including data-driven insights on audience interest and view prediction signals.

The Gurus’ take

For brands that rely on video, these AI tools represent a significant opportunity to scale up their YouTube advertising and content output with less time and resource investment. The ability to generate missing shots or instantly create a finished edit from raw footage allows teams to move faster from concept to publish, which is crucial for capitalising on trending topics or seasonal events.

Your action plan 

• Test AI editing: Experiment with the “Edit with AI” feature in YouTube Create to quickly generate rough cuts or variations of video ads and promotional content.
• Leverage Inspiration tab: Utilise the enhanced Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio to generate personalised, data-backed content ideas for both Shorts and long-form video.
• Integrate shopping data: Regularly review seller-level shopping performance data in YouTube Studio Analytics to connect video topics directly to sales outcomes.
• Scale verticals: Commit to increasing your output of vertical YouTube marketing content, knowing that AI tools are now available to minimise the production effort required for generating high-quality Shorts.

New Instagram Feature Lets Creators Test Reels First

Instagram is testing a new feature called Early Access Reels, which gives content creators a powerful way to test and optimise their content before a full public release. This feature allows creators to lock a new Reel for a specified period, making it exclusively viewable by their current followers.

Viewers who tap on the blurred cover of an Early Access Reel are met with a message encouraging them to follow the creator to unlock the content, along with a countdown timer for when the Reel will become publicly available.

The Gurus’ take

For your brand, Early Access Reels offers a low-risk environment for testing content variations and optimising your Instagram marketing strategy. Instead of launching a high-stakes campaign cold, you can use your most loyal followers as a sophisticated focus group to see which messages, visual hooks or calls-to-action resonate most effectively. This ensures that when the Reel goes wide, it is already performing at its peak.

Your action plan

• Segment content: Design specific content themes that are compelling enough to justify the “Early Access” tag, making followers feel rewarded for their loyalty.
• Test variables: Use the Early Access window to test different thumbnail images, opening lines or call-to-action placements before the global launch.
• Monitor follower growth: Track the direct correlation between the launch of an Early Access Reel and the rate of new followers gained during the testing window.
• Prepare for re-release: Based on the performance data from the Early Access period, be ready to make small, high-impact edits before the Reel becomes available to the wider public.

Facebook Marketplace Launches Holiday Shop for Gift Shoppers

Facebook Marketplace has launched its inaugural Holiday Shop, a curated experience designed to help gift shoppers easily find unique and affordable items. The new feature highlights curated collections from real sellers, focusing on high-demand categories like 

Gametime Gifts, Family Finds, Tech Collection and Vintage Gems. This initiative is a response to the observed increase in younger adults using Marketplace to search for holiday gifts.

The Gurus’ take

The launch of the Holiday Shop is a significant visibility booster for small businesses and individual sellers who are active on Facebook Marketplace. Without needing to spend heavily on Facebook advertising, these businesses can have their products featured in a prominent, high-traffic section dedicated to holiday shoppers. This provides a clear, organic path to discovery during the peak shopping season.

Your action plan

• Optimise listings: Review all relevant product listings to ensure they are fully optimised with detailed descriptions, high-quality images and accurate categorisation to qualify for inclusion in the curated shop collections.
• Check pricing: Ensure your holiday listings are competitively priced, aligning with the “affordable gifts” theme that the Holiday Shop is designed to promote.
• Monitor inventory: Closely monitor inventory levels and fulfilment capabilities, as the increased visibility from the Holiday Shop may lead to a sharp surge in order volume.
• Gather reviews: Actively encourage buyers from the Holiday Shop to leave positive seller ratings and reviews, which will further improve your visibility and trust signals within the Marketplace ecosystem.

Closing out the year and planning ahead with OMG

The sheer volume of major updates from Google, OpenAI and Meta confirms that the digital landscape is rapidly evolving, with AI and content quality driving the change. These new tools and features are not just nice-to-haves; they are essential for maintaining a competitive edge in search, social and eCommerce now and in the coming year. 

At Online Marketing Gurus, we specialise in navigating these complex shifts, from leveraging the new power of GPT-5.2 in your strategy to ensuring your visibility remains high through Google’s core updates and peak seasons.

If you’d like to get ahead and understand how these developments may impact your digital marketing for 2026, you’re welcome to book a free consultation with our team.

Wishing you a happy and safe holidays, and we’ll be back soon with our annual recap!

About the Author

Andrew Raso

Andrew Raso is the Founder & Global CEO of Online Marketing Gurus (OMG), one of Australia’s most successful independent digital agencies & a recognised leader in data-driven growth marketing. Featured by Commonwealth Bank for insights on AI in digital marketing. Since founding OMG in 2012 with just $500 & a vision to make world-class digital strategy accessible to every business, Andrew has scaled the company to a global team of more than 200 specialists operating across Australia, the U.S., Singapore and the UAE. Under his leadership, OMG has partnered with over 1,000 brands, including Vodafone, LG, Calvin Klein and Fujitsu, & earned 40+ industry awards for innovation & performance. A respected voice in digital transformation & modern entrepreneurship, Andrew is known for his straight-talking approach on Never Not Building podcast, about leadership, work ethic, a commitment to continuous learning, & an ability to turn insight into sustained commercial growth.