IAB Polska’s SEMbook 2026 maps new rules for search marketing in the age of AI

IAB Polska launched SEMbook 2026 on April 9, 2026, a virtually 150-page information produced by the group’s search engine optimization and PPC Working Group that maps the structural adjustments reshaping search advertising and marketing in Poland and past. The publication covers AI brokers in advertising and marketing, new CPC value dynamics, the redefinition of the PPC specialist function, native promoting, e-commerce automation, and a spread of search engine optimization subjects together with Content material Authority, the OneSearch framework, and the way to keep visibility in AI-generated search outcomes.

The announcement was printed on the IAB Polska web site with a date of April 9, 2026. In line with the announcement, the information is accessible as a free obtain and represents the most recent version of an annual collection developed by the search engine optimization&PPC Working Group.

“SEMbook is for our group one thing greater than a one-time publication – it’s a everlasting component of labor that we now have been growing and refining for years, describing the true challenges of our business,” in accordance with Szymon Rydelski, Product Supervisor at WeNet Group and head of the search engine optimization&PPC IAB Polska Working Group.

The quantity is split into 4 essential sections: greatest practices in PPC, PPC case research, greatest practices in search engine optimization, and search engine optimization case research. Marketing campaign analyses within the publication cowl manufacturers together with BRW, Intimissimi, AdMed Medical Associate, mAuto, and Prezent Marzeń.

AI brokers and Mannequin Context Protocol

One of many extra technically dense chapters addresses AI brokers and their software in day-to-day advertising and marketing work. Krzysztof Radzikowski, an R&D SEM specialist, examines instruments like Claude Code and Gemini CLI – each of which have been designed initially for software program builders however are more and more utilized by advertising and marketing groups. The chapter focuses on the Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP), an open customary created by Anthropic that allows AI functions to connect with exterior knowledge sources and instruments.

In line with the publication, MCP permits brokers to connect with databases, combine with APIs of exterior providers, retrieve knowledge from advertising and marketing instruments, and execute actions in exterior techniques. Accessible MCP servers described within the chapter embrace integrations for Google Drive, Slack, Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Search Console, CRM techniques, Asana, Notion, Salesforce, and WordPress.

The chapter describes sensible advertising and marketing functions throughout six areas: content material advertising and marketing and search engine optimization automation, multi-source knowledge reporting, marketing campaign preparation, repetitive job automation, business analysis, and personalised content material technology at scale. In line with the publication, a single agent instruction can set off a sequence masking knowledge retrieval from a number of platforms, pattern evaluation, and report creation in a standardised Excel format with charts and suggestions.

The publication additionally references the Agentic AI Basis initiative (accessible at aaif.io) and the Agent Abilities customary (agentskills.io) as a part of an rising standardisation layer for AI agent ecosystems. A listing of over 30,000 ready-made expertise is catalogued at skillsmp.com, in accordance with the doc.

Challenges listed embrace a studying curve for non-technical entrepreneurs, API prices that rise with MCP server utilization, knowledge safety administration when integrating a number of instruments, and the necessity for human verification of all AI-generated output earlier than publication.

CPC prices rose greater than 100% 12 months on 12 months in some industries

A chapter by Oleksandra Klyha, Senior SEM Specialist at iProspect (dentsu Polska), paperwork a CPC surge that affected a big share of PPC professionals in 2025. In line with the publication, in lots of industries the will increase weren’t minor share corrections however jumps exceeding 100% 12 months on 12 months.

The publication identifies two major causes. First, Google launched adjustments to its algorithm for evaluating touchdown web page consumer expertise from the start of 2025, with navigation, content material readability and construction, and web page loading velocity turning into actual elements influencing public sale place. In line with the doc, a poor touchdown web page leads to decrease High quality Rating, worse advert place, and the necessity to increase CPC bids to take care of visibility. Second, the enlargement of AI Overview into search outcomes accelerated zero-click search behaviour, lowering the pool of accessible clicks and intensifying competitors for the remaining paid site visitors.

The doc attracts a direct connection between touchdown web page high quality and public sale value: “CPC has change into an indicator of the well being of the complete ecosystem: advertisements, touchdown pages, and consumer experiences.” The publication notes that till 2024, a single-product touchdown web page typically sufficed for non-e-commerce sectors, however from 2025 onward multi-product websites with expanded content material, simple navigation, and extra consumer pathways carry out higher.

Sensible suggestions cowl heading hierarchy (H1-H3), compressed and lazy-loaded photos, minified CSS and JavaScript, full cell responsiveness, structured knowledge to assist AI perceive web page content material, and web site accessibility by way of readable fonts and applicable distinction. In line with the authors, enhancements to touchdown pages can take roughly a month to feed by way of into High quality Rating and CPC adjustments.

PPC Land has tracked the broader shift toward value-based bidding and Performance Max transparency developments as context for these rising value pressures.

The PPC specialist as decide, strategist, and architect

A chapter by Monika Mlodawska, Senior Professional at WPP Media, argues that the function of a PPC specialist is just not disappearing however remodeling. The doc frames the shift round 4 tendencies in automation: the transfer towards Broad Match and Sensible Bidding combos beneath a “keywordless” strategy, the dominance of Efficiency Max campaigns throughout all Google placements, AI-generated advert belongings by way of options like AI Max’s Asset Optimization, and aggregated video codecs in new YouTube marketing campaign sorts that consolidate In-stream, In-feed, and Shorts into single targets.

In line with the publication, the specialist function has shifted from working a machine to controlling and engineering it. The doc states that “value-based bidding is non-negotiable” and that the specialist’s worth lies in strategic administration of automation, analytical evaluation of its effectiveness, understanding of the built-in search ecosystem, and technical consciousness.

The publication describes three new core competencies. First, defining and translating enterprise targets into language algorithms can act on – together with selections about which conversion actions to trace and the way to construction omnichannel goals. Second, fast adaptation to platform adjustments, together with the continuing monitoring of recent options, A/B experiment design utilizing Google’s native templates and carry measurement research (Model Carry, Search Carry, Conversion Carry). Third, cross-channel understanding that accounts for the way YouTube or TikTok campaigns have an effect on branded search quantity on Google, how market queries are captured by Amazon or Allegro, and the way search engine optimization and AI Overviews presence interacts with paid search efficiency.

The doc additionally addresses the technical layer: Enhanced Conversions, Consent Mode, Google Tag Gateway, Server-Aspect GTM, and first-party knowledge methods together with Buyer Match lists and viewers segmentation by consumer worth.

ROAS alone is not adequate

A chapter by Katarzyna Jarosz, SEM Excellence and Innovation Senior Professional at WPP Media, units out the case for supplementing ROAS with three extra metrics: LTV (Buyer Lifetime Worth), CAC (Buyer Acquisition Price), and mROAS (Marginal ROAS).

In line with the publication, the universally accepted optimum ratio of LTV to CAC is no less than 3:1. A ratio under 1:1 means the enterprise loses cash on every new buyer. A ratio above 5:1 or 10:1 might point out underinvestment in acquisition. The doc gives labored examples: if a enterprise spends 100 PLN to amass a buyer (CAC) and that buyer generates 300 PLN over their relationship with the model (LTV), the ratio is 3:1. If LTV is barely 80 PLN, the ratio falls to 0.8:1 and every new buyer represents a loss.

The mROAS system – outlined because the ratio of incremental income to incremental value – solutions whether or not extra funds nonetheless generates optimistic returns. In line with the publication, if including 100 PLN to a marketing campaign produces 400 PLN in extra income, mROAS equals 4. As soon as mROAS falls under 1, extra spend produces lower than 1 PLN of income per 1 PLN spent.

The doc warns towards frequent calculation errors: LTV is continuously overstated as a result of companies base common relationship size on their greatest prospects slightly than the median, and CAC is unassuming by omitting oblique prices corresponding to customer support, tooling, and company commissions.

Sensible Bidding in Google Adverts and Automated Bidding in Microsoft Adverts are described within the publication as utilizing conversion worth knowledge dynamically. The system, in accordance with the doc, learns from historic alerts (location, system, time of day, consumer sort) to determine high-LTV consumer patterns and raises bids in auctions the place conversion likelihood for these customers is best. Configuration steps embrace Conversion Worth Guidelines or conversion tag API setup in Google Adverts, Common Occasion Monitoring (UET) tag in Microsoft Promoting with transaction values or projected LTV, Offline Conversion Import from CRM techniques, Enhanced Conversions or UET precision mapping, and Buyer Match segmentation by worth tier.

Google’s 25-year shift toward AI-driven bidding and new customer value calculation tools tracked by PPC Land present wider context for these developments.

Native PPC and the AI-driven retailer go to mannequin

A chapter by Malgorzata Szulc, Biddable Platforms Excellence and Innovation Director at WPP Media, examines Efficiency Max for retailer targets – a marketing campaign sort that makes use of anonymised, aggregated location historical past knowledge from logged-in customers to estimate whether or not somebody who interacted with an advert subsequently visited a bodily location. The mannequin creates a statistical estimate from a pattern of customers’ location alerts slightly than monitoring people straight.

In line with the publication, AI Overviews and huge language fashions are already altering native promoting: LLMs can course of extra complicated, conversational queries, which requires advertisers to populate their Google Enterprise Profile attributes intimately – together with options corresponding to Wi-Fi availability and dietary choices – in order that AI-generated responses can match advert content material to consumer intent. The doc notes that advertisements inside AI Overviews aren’t but accessible in Poland (standing as of December 2025), however their eventual arrival is described as a “recreation changer” for native PPC technique.

The chapter additionally covers a Demand Gen marketing campaign choice that permits funds to focus completely on Google Maps placements – a comparatively latest functionality that provides to the usual toolkit of location extensions and Search-triggered map appearances.

search engine optimization part: Bing, OneSearch, Content material Authority, and AI Overviews

The search engine optimization half of SEMbook 2026 opens with an in depth examination of Bing’s market place. In line with Bartlomiej Matulewicz, Product Supervisor at WeNet Group, Bing has steadily expanded its desktop market share since 2020, and at one level Google’s share dropped under 80% of the desktop search market – a stage not beforehand seen in Statcounter knowledge going again to 2009.

The publication presents income knowledge from a number of Polish e-commerce websites. For a web site within the medical sector (B2B), Bing accounted for 7% of income. Its conversion fee exceeded 1% in comparison with 0.5% from Google, and common income per consumer from Bing was greater than 3 times increased than from Google. Common transaction worth was 25% increased from Bing than from Google. The chapter additionally paperwork Bing’s robust efficiency in Czech Republic, Germany, and Romania markets, whereas noting that Bing on cell “virtually doesn’t exist.”

Technical suggestions for Bing optimisation embrace implementing Bing Webmaster Instruments and IndexNow, nearer adherence to key phrase phrases in title tags, H1 headings, and meta descriptions, stronger use of meta tags, social alerts, and Bing Locations registration. The doc notes that Bing doesn’t but assist mobile-first indexing in the identical manner as Google, making desktop web page efficiency a related issue.

The OneSearch chapter repositions search from a channel to a client behaviour. In line with the publication, search now encompasses conventional internet search, social search on TikTok and Reddit, LLM-based search through ChatGPT and Gemini, and commerce search on platforms like Amazon and Allegro. The implication for entrepreneurs is {that a} Google Adverts or search engine optimization technique in isolation misses a big portion of the search behaviour related to a purchase order resolution.

Content material Authority – the SEMbook’s time period for topical depth and credibility alerts – is described as the brand new rating consider AI-driven environments. The doc argues that AI techniques assess not simply particular person pages however the total authority of a supply throughout a subject cluster, and that model popularity and third-party mentions now operate as rating inputs slightly than supplementary alerts.

The publication additionally accommodates a chapter on search engine optimization and PR integration, arguing that the period when search engine optimization and PR might ignore one another is over. As AI techniques more and more draw on editorial protection, skilled mentions, and structured entity knowledge to construct generative responses, incomes media protection and model references has direct search engine optimization penalties.

In line with the publication’s introduction, authored by Michal Herok, CEO of SEOgroup and coordinator of SEMbook’s editorial course of: “This publication not solely diagnoses our present actuality however units new instructions for growth.”

IAB Polska printed a 300-page AI Information 2.0 in January 2026, as covered by PPC Land, increasing the organisation’s library of sensible assets for Polish digital advertising and marketing professionals. SEMbook 2026 enhances that information with a spotlight particularly on search – each paid and natural – at a second when AI Overviews, massive language fashions, and automatic marketing campaign administration are restructuring the self-discipline from the bottom up.

For PPC professionals, the sensible strain is fast: CPC will increase of over 100% 12 months on 12 months in aggressive sectors drive a reassessment of what constitutes an appropriate value construction. The shift from ROAS to LTV-based optimisation requires CRM integration and new knowledge pipelines that many groups haven’t but constructed. Efficiency Max is now a default slightly than a take a look at, and understanding how its retailer go to attribution mannequin works – and what its limits are – is a core operational talent.

For search engine optimization professionals, the problem is completely different. AI Overviews cut back clicks even when content material ranks properly, as documented in research covered by PPC Land. The SEMbook’s framing of Content material Authority and model popularity as AI rating alerts displays an rising consensus that topical credibility and entity recognition matter as a lot as conventional on-page elements.

The OneSearch perspective connects each disciplines: as search behaviour fragments throughout Google, LLMs, social platforms, and marketplaces, the synthetic separation between paid search and natural search turns into more and more tough to justify as a planning construction.

Timeline

• September 18, 2025 – IAB Polska, SCMP, and Polska Organizacja Reklamodawców establish unified attention measurement standardisation group, with over 80% of business consultants figuring out measurement fragmentation as an issue.
• October 23, 2025 – Google Ads marks 25 years, documenting the complete development from handbook CPC administration to AI-driven Sensible Bidding and Efficiency Max.
• November 2025 – Google Adverts Editor 2.11 launched, adding Performance Max search term reports and Sensible Bidding Exploration as an opt-in function for Search campaigns.
• January 8, 2026 – IAB Polska releases AI Guide 2.0, a 300-page useful resource masking LLMs, retrieval-augmented technology, and efficiency advertising and marketing.
• January 15, 2026 – Google expands campaign total budgets to Search, Efficiency Max, and Procuring campaigns globally in open beta, enabling fastened 3-to-90-day funds home windows.
• February 13, 2026 – Google exams a ROAS-based new customer value calculation tool inside Google Adverts accounts utilizing new buyer acquisition targets.
• March 19, 2026 – IAB Polska publishes guide on nano and microinfluencer marketing, reporting that solely 30% of Polish social media customers belief influencer content material.
• April 3, 2026 – IAB Polska publishes “Praca w digitalu – klasa czy obciach?” report, discovering that Polish respondents aged 18-30 are largely neutral toward digital marketing as a career.
• April 9, 2026 – IAB Polska releases SEMbook 2026, a virtually 150-page information by the search engine optimization&PPC Working Group masking AI brokers, CPC dynamics, LTV-based bidding, Efficiency Max, Bing technique, OneSearch, Content material Authority, and AI Overviews optimisation.

Abstract

Who: IAB Polska’s search engine optimization&PPC Working Group, led editorially by Michal Herok (CEO of SEOgroup), with chapters from specialists at WPP Media, iProspect (dentsu Polska), WeNet Group, and different organisations.

What: SEMbook 2026 – a virtually 150-page annual information masking greatest practices and case research throughout PPC and search engine optimization, with new materials on AI brokers through Mannequin Context Protocol, CPC value will increase exceeding 100% 12 months on 12 months in some sectors, the shift from ROAS to LTV-CAC-mROAS measurement, Efficiency Max for retailer targets, Bing as a supplementary search engine optimization channel, OneSearch as a client behaviour framework, and Content material Authority in AI-generated search environments.

When: Revealed on April 9, 2026 and accessible as a free obtain by way of IAB Polska’s web site.

The place: Revealed by IAB Polska (ul. Pulawska 39/77, 02-508 Warsaw), concentrating on Polish-language advertising and marketing professionals together with search engine optimization and PPC specialists, digital entrepreneurs on the shopper facet, efficiency strategists, companies, and media homes.

Why: The information addresses a second when AI Overviews, LLMs, Efficiency Max automation, and rising CPC prices are forcing practitioners to reconstruct their measurement frameworks, technical expertise, and strategic planning. The convergence of search engine optimization, PPC, and PR beneath AI-driven discovery patterns makes cross-channel coordination a sensible operational requirement slightly than an aspirational purpose.