This Week in M&A Issue #249
August 10, 2026
Hey hey!
Today’s trend of the week is “travel”. ✈️
Around 307 million tourists traveled internationally in the first quarter of 2026, about 6 million more than the same period in 2025. With the travel industry projected to surpass $1 trillion in 2026, demand is growing across everything from booking platforms and travel gear to accessories and experiences.
Consumer interest is also showing up in search behavior. Google searches for “luggage” reached a massive 11 million last month, up 52% compared to last year. Searches for “travel tips” reached 936,000, up 685%, while “travel accessories” climbed to 171,000 searches, growing 381%.
For online business owners, this means there’s growing demand from people looking for help before they even step on a plane. From useful travel guides and packing resources to products that make trips easier, there are plenty of ways to build businesses around the things travelers need.
Today we have for you:
- Google finally adds AI search reports to Search Console
- Search advertising hits $100M monthly spend as businesses keep investing
And:
- How a side hustle grew into a $100M business
- Amazon is opening Sponsored Products Ads to creators
- What separates FBA businesses that sell from those that struggle
Alright, let’s dive in.
Image Source: Giphy (Tony Babel)
Google Search Console Finally Shows Your AI Search Performance
Google has finally given website owners a way to see how their content performs in AI search.
The new Search Generative AI performance reports in Google Search Console give publishers dedicated visibility into impressions from AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI-powered features in Discover. Previously, this data was bundled into overall Search performance, making it almost impossible to separate AI visibility from traditional search traffic.
The new reports show how often your pages appeared in Google’s AI experiences, which URLs were surfaced, the countries where they appeared, the devices people were using, and performance trends over time with hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly reporting.
There is one major limitation. The reports currently track impressions only. They don’t include clicks, click-through rates, average position, or the search queries that triggered an AI result. You can see that your content appeared in AI search, but not whether it generated traffic or what users actually asked.
The real value comes from tracking trends rather than individual numbers. Which pages consistently appear in AI results? Which topics generate the most visibility? Are certain countries or devices driving more impressions? If AI impressions rise or fall after publishing new content or updating your site, those changes could reveal how Google is surfacing your content.
The reports are rolling out gradually, with Google making them available to a limited number of websites while it gathers feedback. More metrics are expected in future updates.
For now, the new report is best viewed as a baseline. It won’t tell you everything about your AI search performance, but it does provide the first official way to measure whether your content is appearing in Google’s AI experiences. That alone makes it worth monitoring as AI search continues to grow.
The Opportunity podcast
.png)
How to Build a $100M Business Without Becoming a Slave to It
Most entrepreneurs dream of building a business that gives them more freedom. The reality? Many end up creating a business that steals their time and can’t function without them.
In this week’s episode of The Opportunity Podcast, Greg sits down with entrepreneur and investor Steve Rolle, whose businesses have generated more than $100 million in combined sales, to unpack what it really takes to build a business that scales without founder dependence.
Steve shares how he turned a side hustle into a thriving eCommerce business by focusing on customer problems instead of product ideas, using his day job as an apprenticeship, and building systems that allowed the business to grow beyond the founder.
Whether you’re launching your first online business, trying to scale an existing one, or thinking about buying a business, this episode is packed with practical lessons you can apply immediately.
Paid Ads
Where Businesses Are Spending Their Ad Budgets in 2026
Businesses are continuing to invest money into search advertising, with US search ad spend reaching around $100 million per month, according to data from Funnel shared with PPC Land. That’s a 122% increase from the previous period.
The data, which looked at more than 5,000 companies over two years, shows that predictions of search advertising disappearing because of AI answer engines have not matched what businesses are actually doing with their budgets.
In fact, search remained the largest advertising channel in every region included in the report. In the US, the biggest platforms by spend in April 2026 were Google Search at $82 million per month, Facebook at $46 million, and Search Ads 360 at $15 million.
Search spending has grown significantly over the past two years. In January 2024, US businesses were spending around $45 million per month on search ads. By April 2026, that figure had reached $100 million.
Social advertising also saw strong growth, increasing from $26 million per month to $65 million during the same period. However, while social is catching up, it still hasn’t closed the gap with search. Display advertising remained a much smaller channel, reaching around $28 million per month in the US.
This has made search advertising one of the most valuable channels for businesses trying to generate predictable traffic. But it has also become more expensive.
The average cost per click on Google Ads reached $5.42 in 2026, more than double the $2.32 average from a decade earlier.
The good news is that businesses are also getting better at turning those clicks into customers. According to WordStream’s 2026 Google Ads benchmarks, the average Google Ads conversion rate reached 8.18% across industries, with conversion rates improving for 87% of industries year over year.
So, while AI is causing significant changes to the search industry, it doesn’t look like businesses will abandon paid search anytime soon.
Read All About It!
🧠 Turn ChatGPT into your CFO: 20 copy-paste prompts to build your own CFO
🔎 The State of Search Q2 2026 report: behaviors & trends across the US & EU
📄 Ahrefs free LLMs.txt generator: help LLMs understand your content
🔗 18 best eCommerce APIs: friction-free integration
Events
.jpg)
On August 13, our Director of Marketing, Greg Elfrink, is joining Jon Tilley, Founder and CEO of ZonGuru, for a fireside conversation about what separates the FBA businesses that sell well.
We’ll get into:
- The biggest misconception sellers have about valuation
- Why 24 months before an exit is not too early to start preparing
- A monthly financial self-audit that can increase profit and valuation
- SDE versus EBITDA multiples and how they affect an exit
- How to use your first exit as the launchpad for acquiring more brands
Whether you are considering an exit soon or still several years away, the decisions affecting what buyers will pay are already being made.
📅 August 13 at 9:00 AM PDT
Amazon
Amazon Sponsored Products Are Moving Beyond Search and Into Creator Content
Amazon sellers are about to get a new way to put their products in front of shoppers.
Starting August 10, Sponsored Products ads will begin appearing through creators in the Amazon Influencer Program, including inside product recommendations, reviews, and shopping content.
For years, Sponsored Products have mostly been about capturing shoppers who already know what they want. Someone searches for “wireless earbuds” or “dog supplements,” and Amazon shows relevant ads based on keywords, targeting, and placement.
Now, Amazon is moving further into product discovery. Instead of waiting for shoppers to search, sellers can reach customers while they are watching creator content and discovering new products.
Amazon has historically lagged behind platforms like TikTok and Instagram when it comes to social commerce. While some creator initiatives have struggled to gain traction, this rollout suggests Amazon is continuing to invest in creators as a new distribution channel.
For now, the change is relatively simple. There are no major creator partnerships required, and sellers don’t need to create new campaigns. Amazon appears to be testing a lightweight approach where creators with engaged audiences can feature products through the existing advertising system.
Your existing Sponsored Products campaigns could become eligible for these creator placements, allowing the same products, budgets, and campaigns to reach shoppers beyond traditional search results.
However, sellers should pay attention to what happens next. This could open the door to more creator-focused opportunities, especially as Amazon continues building out its social commerce strategy. The brands that start developing relationships with creators now may have an advantage if Amazon expands these tools further.
In the meantime, strong product listings will matter more than ever. Creator traffic can introduce your product to new shoppers, but your images, reviews, pricing, and listing quality will determine whether that attention turns into sales.
Money Nomad
Looking for a side hustle?
Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.
Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:
Listing #10133 – $40,000.00
Agency, ecommerce | business
Ecom Launch is a proven Amazon business management service with 150+ clients and 6 years of operation. Generating $33.5K monthly revenue with $4.2K profit, this turnkey service handles everything from supplier sourcing to fulfillment for eCommerce entrepreneurs. Established systems and recurring revenue model create a scalable opportunity. Learn More
Subscribe to the This Week in M&A Newsletter
to Get Content like This in Your Inbox Every Friday
