Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
ITC pushes digital‑first strategy with AI‑driven engine and $8.8B revenue push
ITC, the Rs 73,000 crore (≈ $8.8 bn) conglomerate, is accelerating its digital‑first agenda across its FMCG arm, which now generates roughly Rs 22,000 crore (≈ $2.6 bn) in revenue. The company relies on an internal AI engine called “Sixth Sense” to shape product portfolios, pricing and media plans, blending content‑commerce at scale.
Also developing:
By the numbers: DOJO AI raises $6M Seed round
Not Sure What to Write on Notes? This One Template Gets Me New Subscribers Every Time I Use It.
A Substack writer discovered that the most effective Notes are not polished tips but honest admissions of past mistakes. By analyzing 900+ Notes, he found that stories where he admitted errors consistently drove new subscribers, while advice‑heavy posts garnered only likes. He codified the insight into a three‑blank template—"I spent ___ doing ___ before I realized ___"—which has repeatedly added 50+ subscribers per Note and helped him grow to over 17,000 followers. He now sells a "10+ Subscribers a Day" workshop that claims 600+ new subscribers in a single month using this method.
Cutting Ad Budgets Gives Short‑Term Spike, Long‑Term Drop
This happens because you had a full funnel that you paid for and then when you reduced the budget Meta went after the lowest hanging fruit. Therefore performance was great and maybe for 2-3 days will be solid. Then your sales...
Six New Production-Ready AI Marketing Tools Open‑Source
We just open-sourced 6 more production AI marketing skills to our big AI business skills repo (1.9k stars) Total count: 17 skill categories, 32K lines of code, all MIT licensed. New additions: → Video Clip Pipeline: 60-min episode to 5 clips in 15...
FTC Withdraws Demand For Information From NewsGuard
The Federal Trade Commission has withdrawn its civil investigative demand (CID) for information from news‑rating service NewsGuard after reaching settlements with major ad‑holding firms Dentsu, Publicis and WPP. The agreements bar the holding companies from considering a publisher’s political or...
257K Views Per Clip
TBPN's 257K views per clip turned their ad business from $5M to $30M in a single year. I dive into what I call "The Clip Economy" in my latest newsletter: bit.ly/ClipEconomy
How Mobile Data Can Replace Third-Party Cookies
Third‑party cookies are being phased out, prompting advertisers to seek deterministic alternatives. Telecom‑based identification leverages mobile network data to match users, achieving 70% coverage of a 300,000‑user dataset within three days and delivering roughly 50% audience reach versus under 20%...
Anthropic Mocks up Claude Design to Draft Fancy New Pink Slips for Marketing Teams
Anthropic unveiled Claude Design, a research‑preview AI service that generates visual assets from text prompts, extending its Claude Opus 4.7 model to Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise users. The announcement sent Figma’s stock down about 7%, signaling competitive pressure on existing design...
US Visibility Shifts Reveal March 2026 Core Update Trends
Google March 2026 Core Update Visibility Shifts & Patterns In the US - International SEO Consultant, Author & Speaker | Aleyda Solis https://buff.ly/zC9McSD
Boards of Canada Teased for Return After 13‑Year Hiatus with Mysterious Posters
Warp Records posted a series of cryptic posters that reference Boards of Canada’s iconic imagery, sparking speculation that the Scottish duo may end their 13‑year silence. The campaign, unveiled on the label’s social channels, includes Easter eggs tied to the...
New Study Shows Streamers Are Fed Up With Ads — and Still Paying To Avoid Them
A March 2026 All About Cookies survey of 1,000 U.S. adults shows streaming ads are ubiquitous but largely ignored. Only 24% of viewers actually watch ads, while 74% multitask or mute during breaks. Most major platforms now rely on ad‑supported...
Dropshipping Exposé Reveals $800 Loss and 90% Failure Rate Among New Shopify Stores
An investigative piece by Joan Westenberg uncovers how the passive‑income narrative drives dropshipping scams, citing a case where a seller lost $800 after spending $50 daily on Facebook ads. Between 2019 and 2021, 700,000 Shopify stores launched, yet 90% failed...
LinkedIn Isn't Social Media—AI Drives New Strategy
Next Friday — I'm honored to be keynoting NSU Florida's Digital Marketing Summit. Topic: Stop Treating LinkedIn Like Social Media. (Title says it all.) Part of a bigger shift I've been making — reimagining all of my work with AI as an...
Analytics Reveal Audience Gaps, Guide Dual-Format Strategy
Here's how keeping an eye on your analytics, can help you shape your strategy 👇 I was reviewing one of my client's social media performance from their recent launch and we noticed... → Their carousel posts are primarily (we're talking like...
Why YouTube Is the Most Important Platform for Travel Brands
YouTube commands 2.7 billion active monthly users, dwarfing Netflix and other streaming services, and serves as the world’s second‑largest search engine. Travel brands that ignore the platform miss out on high‑intent audiences actively researching destinations. Long‑form videos of eight to fifteen...
Consistency Converts; Virality Only Attracts Strangers
Nobody buys from the person they just discovered. They buy from the person they've been quietly watching. Going viral gets you strangers. Showing up consistently gets you buyers. Tracked where every client came from over 12 months. Not one came from a post that went...
AI Avatars Turn Static Landing Pages Into Real Conversations
Most brands spend weeks perfecting their email copy, only to send every click to a page that does all the talking and none of the listening. I see it constantly in the accounts we manage at Structured. Good pages, strong...
Beyond the Feed: Why Your Strategy Needs a Cross-Channel Reality Check
Criteo argues that modern shoppers move across dozens of touchpoints, making channel‑centric ad buying obsolete. Its Commerce Growth platform uses AI trained on over $1 trillion of transaction data and a 4.5 billion‑SKU catalog to predict who to engage, where, how much...
AI‑spun Scraped Content Will Soon Hit Google Penalties
This digital marketing agency has been scraping original content and publishing their own versions, using AI to scale up the amount of information in the articles (while saying nothing new 😅) I was wondering how long it would take Google to...
ChatGPT Ad Costs Halve, Minimum Spend Slashed to $50K
ChatGPT ads are getting cheaper -> Ad buyers say ad rates for ChatGPT are falling from $60 CPM to as low as $25 and the minimum spend to advertise is down to $50K from $250K at launch "One ad exec said...
Advertisers Are Testing ChatGPT Ads — but Uncertainty Remains High
OpenAI launched a paid advertising channel inside ChatGPT two months ago, prompting brands to run early‑stage campaigns. Advertisers report high CPMs and six‑figure minimum spends, but measurement is limited to impressions with no clear performance benchmarks. Sentiment is mixed: optimism...
Google Ads API to Require Multi-Factor Authentication
Google is rolling out mandatory multi‑factor authentication (MFA) for new OAuth 2.0 refresh tokens generated through the Google Ads API, starting April 21, 2026. Existing tokens will keep working, but any new authentication will require a second verification step such as a...
Hightouch Launches Ad Studio
Hightouch unveiled Ad Studio, an AI‑powered module of its Agentic Marketing Platform designed to automate the creation of on‑brand ads at scale. The tool leverages a proprietary Brand Context Layer that taps into digital asset management systems, past campaign data, and...
Klaviyo Strengthens Canva Partnership
Klaviyo has deepened its integration with design platform Canva, enabling marketers to import full Canva layouts directly into Klaviyo campaigns. The upgraded connection lets users personalize those assets with segmentation, automation, and customer data, streamlining the workflow between creative and...
25 Claude Skills that Give Your Startup a Marketing Team It Cannot Afford Yet
Early‑stage startups often stall because each marketing campaign requires rebuilding workflows from scratch, draining limited resources. The post proposes "Claude Skills"—reusable markdown prompt files that encode brand voice, positioning, and process logic, allowing a single hire to produce output equivalent...
Brands on Fire: Hyundai Motor America CMO Talks Data, Experiential, AI and Ecommerce
Hyundai Motor America launched its global "Next Starts Now" campaign at the New York International Auto Show, tying the brand to the upcoming FIFA World Cup and showcasing robotics like Boston Dynamics' Spot and its own Atlas humanoid. CMO Sean...
Agentic Web Arrives: 5 Key AI Search Shifts
The Agentic Web is Here: 5 AI Shifts I'm Discussing with Clients about AI Search - Marie Haynes https://buff.ly/VRW47KT
Organic Social Media Marketing Best Practices for Hotels in 2026
In 2026 hotels must treat organic social media as a strategic asset, focusing on consistent posting, deep audience insight, and high‑quality content. The article recommends three to five weekly posts, a monthly content calendar, and regular polls to refine messaging....
Balance Brand Identity with Performance-Driven Creative Testing
Brand Creative /= Performance Creative This is one of the biggest hurdles when working with brands looking to scale is they want things "on brand" but "on brand" typically doesn't convert as well as performance driven creative. You have to be willing...
AI Virtual Assistant Texted 1.1M Wisconsin Voters, Logging 21K Campaign Conversations
Defend Our Courts and startup Convos rolled out an AI‑powered virtual assistant that texted more than 1.1 million Wisconsin voters in the April 7 Supreme Court race. The bot recorded 21,316 substantive conversations while the group spent roughly $84,000, highlighting a...
OpenAP Selected As A Weigel Partner
Weigel Broadcasting announced a partnership with advertising technology firm OpenAP. The deal will bring OpenAP's data‑driven audience measurement and targeting tools to Weigel's suite of digital multicast networks, including the popular classic‑TV channel MeTV. By integrating advanced analytics, the collaboration...
How to Optimize Your Website for Both Human and AI Visitors
Seer Interactive has launched a Human + Machine Design Testing framework that unites conversion rate optimization (CRO), user experience (UX), SEO, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) into a single six‑week sprint. The approach tracks both human behavior and AI citation metrics, using...
Reaching For More Reach
Multicultural media firms, traditionally serving niche audiences, are now bundling their first‑party data to sell audience segments across websites and CTV. This shift comes as they grapple with falling traffic, a hostile political environment, and waning brand commitments. Meanwhile, retail...
Reaching For More Reach
Multicultural media firms are repackaging their first‑party audience data to sell across platforms, a strategy born from shrinking RFP volumes and declining traffic. Publishers face political headwinds and weaker brand commitments, prompting innovative retargeting approaches. At the IAB Connected Commerce...
CTV's AI‑driven ID Graph Fuels Full‑funnel Growth
Wow, @vibedotco hitting $227M ARR with +264% YoY growth tells you exactly where advertising is heading. CTV has finally cracked the performance code. Advertisers are shifting 30%+ of their total marketing budget into one channel, that level of conviction drives serious...
OpenAI Begins Rolling Out Ads in Select Markets
OpenAI is rolling out advertisements to users on its Free and Go plans in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The ad placement is limited to these lower‑tier subscriptions, while Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans stay ad‑free. This marks the company's...
Google Ads Tests Direct Google Tag Manager Integration for Conversion Setup
Google Ads is piloting a new "Set up in Google Tag Manager" option that pushes conversion‑tracking tags directly into GTM, bypassing manual copy‑paste of IDs and labels. The UI adds a button in the conversion‑setup flow, prompting users to select...
The $5 Photo Shoot: How a Small Austin Jewelry Brand Stopped Waiting and Started Producing
A husband‑and‑wife jewelry brand in Austin used the AI image generator Nano Banana to create lifestyle product photos in seconds, paying only five cents per image. In one afternoon they produced over 40 new assets that previously required costly photo...
Why Bottom-of-Funnel Content Is Winning in AI Search
Google’s AI Overviews are siphoning clicks from traditional top‑of‑funnel (TOFU) content, prompting SEO teams to reallocate effort toward bottom‑of‑funnel (BOFU) assets. Marketers are now dedicating 60‑80% of output to comparison guides and listicles that answer high‑intent purchase questions. While overall...
Peloton Wants To 'Push' Users To Move With Joy
Peloton has launched its "Find Your Push" campaign across the U.S. and Canada, partnering with Toronto creative shop Division and Denim. The ad, directed by Bethany Vargas and starring Hudson Williams, showcases the Peloton Tread+ and more than 15 workout modalities,...
AI Cuts B2B Site Build From 8 Weeks to Days
What typically used to take 8 weeks took me a few days in 2026. In a today’s live AI session at 10AM PT, I’m sharing how I built a full B2B marketing site in 3 days with AI for a new...
BetMGM’s Heavy Spend Inflates Sports Betting Acquisition Costs
"...driving up customer acquisition costs by “buying sports betting keywords as well as throwing money at any sports media property that will take it.”" BetMGM’s Adam Greenblatt: Prediction markets ‘throwing money at’ sports media properties https://t.co/vjfmR3CoKa
Rebuild Your Campaigns for Immediate Performance Boost
So spend yesterday rebuilding a lot of our campaigns and oddly today is popping. Some of the best numbers since last week. If you're still seeing bad performance today as you have all week I suggest trying this in your campaigns.
AI Accelerates Attention‑Span Collapse Beyond Social Media
I think AI is gonna kill attention spans wayyy more than social media supposedly has. It’s instant gratification within search. The idea of slow learning & patience are over.
Decade Reset: New Social Selling Rules for 2026
The Decade Reset: Why we Rewrote the Social Selling Rules for 2026 by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/aRvIFwO3qi @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #Marketing #Leadership #MarketingStrategy #MarketingSuccess https://t.co/gGMyaSde0i
Rediscover 1990s Search Engine Tips in Classic Guide
30 years ago, I published The Webmaster's Guide To Search Engines. I've dug up & dusted off my old HTML files to make the guide available again. Take a trip back to the '90s web & see tips for AltaVista,...
Jan 20 Google Update Cracked Down on SEO Spam
The unconfirmed Google update on ~Jan 20 this year was a bloodbath. I actually think Google did more to address common SEO/GEO spammy tactics on this date than they did with other recent core updates. This is a well-known brand website's...
Travel Publisher Shows Steady Site Improvements Since 2025
Love to see it - audit client from early 2025 that's been working hard ever since to improve their site. Publisher site in the travel/hospitality vertical. https://t.co/GweHaA7Bdi
Buzzy Creates Ten Ad Variations From a Single Draft
Most brands test one version. Because making more is expensive. Buzzy turns one ad into ten — like Photoshop for ad iteration. https://t.co/Q8z0GfVrGU
Paid Ads Can Scale to $50K MRR Fast
$0 to $50K MRR in 12 months. Team of 5. No content marketing. No complex funnels. Just PPC. Karel Papik says most founders dismiss paid ads too early. https://t.co/cYWDvmOcGB
Google Rolls Out Back‑button Penalty, Spam Reporting Overhaul, DSA Sunset
SEO Video recap: Google back button hijacking penalty, new spam reporting big change, Google Ads DSAs going away and much more https://t.co/V3NCVBwMVh