This Week in M&A Issue #253
September 7, 2026
Ahoy there!
Today’s trend of the week is “toys”. 🧸
Toy Story 5 isn’t the only toy story making headlines this year.
U.S. toy sales jumped 17% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, giving the industry its strongest first-half growth in six years.
And it’s not just parents driving that growth. Toy sales among adults aged 18 and over jumped 25%, while adult-only households now account for 55% of toy sales. Sales to teens aged 12 to 17 grew even faster, increasing 33%.
Together, teens and adults were responsible for almost 60% of the industry’s dollar gains.
Toys are becoming more than something parents buy for their kids. They’re increasingly being bought as hobbies, collectibles and social experiences.
For entrepreneurs, that creates opportunities well beyond traditional children’s toys. Collectibles, trading cards, games, building sets and other fandom-focused products can all appeal to consumers who are buying for themselves, rather than their kids.
Today we have for you:
- The FTC sues Amazon for secretly overcharging advertisers
- Amazon products can now be tagged directly on YouTube
And:
- How to build a podcast that actually grows your business
- Semrush connects its SEO data directly to Claude
- ChatGPT Ads reach a $1 billion run rate in under 200 days
Alright, let’s dive in.
Amazon
Image Source: Giphy (Seinfeld)
FTC Says Amazon Secretly Inflated Ad Prices
The Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon, accusing the company of secretly increasing advertising costs for more than seven years.
The case focuses on Amazon’s ad auctions. Advertisers were told they were participating in a second-price auction, where the winning advertiser generally pays slightly more than the next-highest bid.
According to the FTC, Amazon introduced a hidden “soft reserve” in 2019. Regulators allege this acted like an additional competing bid, allowing Amazon to charge advertisers much closer to their maximum bid. The complaint says the practice appeared in about 80% of auctions by 2024, up from 30% to 40% in 2021.
The FTC estimates advertisers paid more than $20 billion in additional costs as a result.
The lawsuit covers Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and display ads, affecting more than 1 million brands and sellers, including over 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses. The FTC also alleges Amazon increased the surcharge during major shopping periods such as Prime Day and Black Friday.
Amazon strongly disputes the allegations. It says the FTC misunderstands how its auctions work and argues that soft reserves help determine the market value of ad placements. Amazon says average winning bids for Sponsored Products search ads fell 50% between 2019 and 2025, while conversion rates increased 24%. It estimates its auction model saved advertisers more than $8 billion between 2021 and 2025.
Amazon has a lot at stake. Its advertising business generated $68.6 billion in 2025, making it one of the largest digital advertising businesses globally.
The case will now move through federal court. For Amazon sellers, there is little to change right now. The case could take years to resolve, but businesses with significant historical ad spend should keep records of bids, CPCs, spending, and campaign performance. Those records could become useful as the case develops.
The Opportunity podcast
![How to Build a Podcast That Actually Helps Your Business With Jim Barton [Ep.221] (1)](https://1745913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/1745913/How%20to%20Build%20a%20Podcast%20That%20Actually%20Helps%20Your%20Business%20With%20Jim%20Barton%20%5BEp.221%5D%20(1).png)
The Real Business Value of Starting a Podcast
Podcasting can be a powerful marketing channel, but only if you know what you’re trying to get from it.
In the latest episode of The Opportunity Podcast, Greg sits down with Jim Barton, founder of Growth Podcasting, to break down what actually makes a business podcast valuable.
They discuss why your podcast doesn’t need a massive audience to drive business results, how to use it to build trust and generate leads, whether YouTube is worth pursuing, and what actually helps a podcast attract new listeners.
Jim also shares practical advice on starting a podcast without overcomplicating it, creating better episodes, and repurposing your content without simply posting the same clips everywhere.
If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, or wondering why your existing show isn’t getting the results you want, this episode will help you figure out what to focus on and where podcasting can actually fit into your marketing strategy.
Amazon
Amazon Gives YouTube Creators a New Way to Make Money
Amazon has officially joined the YouTube Shopping affiliate program, giving creators another way to monetize product recommendations and giving Amazon sellers access to a new sales channel.
Eligible U.S. creators can now tag Amazon products in videos, livestreams, and Shorts. When viewers click through and buy, the creator earns an affiliate commission.
Getting started is relatively simple, but there are a few limitations worth knowing.
Creators need to be part of both the YouTube Partner Program and YouTube Shopping affiliate program, have an active Amazon Influencer or Amazon Associates account, and connect it to their YouTube channel. Each Amazon account can only be linked to one YouTube channel.
Products can be added manually through YouTube Studio, or creators can enable auto-tagging, which lets YouTube identify eligible Amazon products in recent and future content.
The biggest limitation is attribution. YouTube Studio reports aggregate clicks, sales, and estimated revenue, but it does not show which specific video or product generated a purchase. That makes it harder for creators to identify their best-performing content and decide where to focus their efforts.
Getting paid also takes time. Commissions are locked monthly, and earnings can take roughly two months to reach creators through AdSense. Returns can also reduce the balance or push it negative, with the deficit carried into the following month.
Conveniently, YouTube recently lowered the subscriber requirement for its Shopping affiliate program from 1,000 to 500, opening it up to many more creators.
Read All About It!
💰 He copied a successful app and now makes $80K/month: in less than a year
💡 10 industries ripe for disruption in 2026: massive opportunities
⚖️ Judge rules Google can keep its Ad business: new restrictions will follow
💻 How to build an E-E-A-T checker with Claude Code: create reports in minutes
SEO
Semrush Brings 28.8 Billion Keywords Into Claude
Semrush has launched an official connector for Claude, allowing you to access Semrush’s search and marketing data directly inside Claude conversations.
Announced on August 26, the integration is now available to Semrush One and SEO Classic subscribers. It uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that lets AI assistants connect directly to external data and software.
Semrush says the integration gives Claude access to 28.8 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks, and 317 million LLM prompts. The LLM prompt data is especially interesting because it shows what people are asking AI assistants, rather than only what they search for on Google.
Previously, if you wanted Claude to analyze Semrush data, you had to export reports, download the files, and upload them into Claude. The new connector removes that extra work by giving Claude access to live Semrush data directly within your conversation.
That can make everyday marketing tasks much faster. You can ask Claude to find keyword opportunities, analyze backlinks, research competitors, or explore market data without first building spreadsheets or reports.
For example, you can use a backlink analysis to identify potentially toxic links and create a disavow file and action plan. You can turn competitor research into content briefs or combine traffic, audience demographics, and market share data for market research.
You can also automate recurring tasks. Semrush says Claude can generate monthly client reports, send weekly toxic-link alerts, and monitor competitor rankings daily.
This isn’t Semrush’s first AI integration. The company has already integrated with platforms including ChatGPT and Lovable.
AI
OpenAI’s Ad Business Is Scaling Faster Than Google’s Did
OpenAI’s advertising business is growing much faster than many expected.
ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, according to OpenAI, with tens of thousands of advertisers now using the platform.
That doesn’t mean OpenAI has already generated $1 billion in ad revenue. The figure is based on its current monthly revenue multiplied by 12, showing where the business is tracking. Still, reaching that pace in less than 200 days is a significant milestone.
ChatGPT Ads is now available in more than 40 countries, and OpenAI is expanding self-service advertising through Ads Manager across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. That gives more businesses direct access to the platform without relying on OpenAI’s sales team.
For comparison, Google took roughly four years to reach the same $1 billion annualized advertising run rate.
Part of the appeal may be how ChatGPT understands purchase intent. Traditional search ads rely heavily on keywords and previous search behavior. ChatGPT can use the conversation itself to understand what someone wants, including their preferences, requirements, and budget.
That could give advertisers a way to reach consumers when they are already researching a purchase.
And it works. According to PYMNTS Intelligence, ChatGPT’s share of consumer product research has increased from 2% to 30% in two years.
As more people use AI to research products, compare options, and decide what to buy, advertising within those conversations could become an important customer acquisition channel.
OpenAI has reportedly set much larger advertising targets, including $2.5 billion in ad revenue for 2026. If it can continue growing at anything close to its current pace, advertising could become a much larger part of its overall business.
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