Mira Marketing Attends SEM Stories in Edinburgh

On the 14th May 2026, our very own Adam Hunter and Riley Slater headed north of the border to Edinburgh and attended SEM Stories 2026, the premier Search Engine Marketing event in Scotland hosted by Teodore Yordanov.

The one-day event offered a full day of speakers and talks on a huge range of topics, including the impact of AI Overview on PPC, being prepared for the Agentic web, CRO and the importance of post-click optimisation, funnels as multitouch rather than linear, and capitalising on viral trends.

All of the talks and panels provided invaluable information, but two of the talks that grabbed the attention of our team in attendance were Nils Roojman’s talk on AI Agents and how you can create, teach, and optimise them to better budget time and increase value for clients, and Liam Wade’s discussion of signal quality and the importance of attribution.

The Changing AI Search Landscape

Search is rapidly evolving, and the SEM Stories event was quick to point out just how much it is, with one of the key stats being that 60% of searches now end WITHOUT a click. This could be due in large part to conversational search shifting how users are finding information online, with 37% of search journeys beginning within LLMs and AI tools.

AI was a huge point of interest and conversation within the event, particularly with AI overviews showing at the top of the SERP 20% of the time now. AI actively displacing ads translates to rethinking how we approach ad strategy, as previously we could rely on paid ads appearing at the top, AI overviews are becoming more common and displacing them. To counteract the estimated 70% of web changes negatively impacting Conversion Rate, we’ll likely see SEO and PPC departments work closer together to deliver ‘Total Search’.

The Team’s Takeaways

The event also included catering throughout the day, with barista hot and cold drinks for all attendees, as well as drinks and live music to spur on the networking. On the train back, Adam and Riley had a chance to decompress and reflect on just how much the digital marketing industry is shifting. Agencies that win will be adapting quickly while still understanding people behind the data, especially considering AI is a non-negotiable rather than a gimmick.

Adam Hunter, Head of Operations at Mira Marketing, said:

“It was fantastic to be at the event and getting such a rich depth of knowledge from some of the industry’s leading voices on important topics that affects all the entire marketing industry. Special shout out to Nathan Ifill for taking home the best speaker of the day award too. His talk on breaking the ROAS cycle was really engaging!”

Riley Slater, Mira Marketing’s PPC Lead, sang the praises of the event:

"SEM Stories this year was extremely valuable to our team. The event has given us a lot to discuss and develop in the coming year until we do it all again next year! Teodore really has something special there."

The SEM Stories event was so impactful for our duo, they’re already accounting for when the event will be hosted next year. In the meantime, applying the thoughts and learnings from the day to our clients is exactly what sets us apart at Mira. Action and reaction to deliver our client partners the best service across PPC and all of our channels.

Want to find out more about Mira Marketing and our services? Book in a free call and get in touch with us today to have a chat about how we can help you grow your business.