Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Accenture Song Acquires Whalar to Bolster Influencer Marketing
Accenture Song announced the acquisition of Whalar, adding a 170‑person global creator agency and keeping co‑CEOs Emma Harman and Jo Cronk in place. The deal also includes a three‑year strategic partnership that gives Accenture access to Whalar’s talent‑management, technology and venture assets, integrating the creator network with Accenture’s data and AI capabilities.
Bing With Asian Owned Labels On Microsoft Ads
Microsoft Advertising introduced Asian‑owned labels for search ads on Bing, mirroring a similar feature on Google. A recent X post by Khushal Bherwani captured an ad for Amazon displaying the Asian‑owned badge, which appears to be a labeling error. The label does not appear consistently across ads, suggesting a possible platform bug. The incident has sparked discussion among marketers about label accuracy and brand perception.
Google Local Service Ads Won't Credit Calls For Existing Clients (Not Lead)
Google Local Service Ads (LSA) charged a $400 fee for a call that originated from an existing client, not a new lead. Despite confirming the call’s source, Google refused to refund the charge, highlighting a flaw in the platform’s auto‑credit...
How Affina Partners Promotes Benchmarks for Premium Growth
Affina Partners has positioned itself as a premium‑focused affiliate program, leveraging immersive storytelling and high‑end animation to elevate brands like iGaming newcomer Millioner. The network operates on a semi‑closed registration model that favors quality traffic, offering affiliates personal managers and...
What Are Secondary Keywords? (And How to Use Them)
Secondary keywords are related search terms that support a page’s primary keyword, allowing a single article to rank for dozens or hundreds of variations. The guide explains how these terms differ from long‑tail and LSI keywords and why the average...
AI Max Brand Controls Expand, VRC Non-Skip Ads Go Global – PPC Pulse via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Google has broadened its AI Max text‑guidelines beta to all advertisers worldwide, letting brands set natural‑language guardrails for AI‑generated search and Performance Max copy. At the same time, Video Reach Campaign non‑skippable ads are now generally available globally, offering automated delivery of...
Google Says Disavow Links If You’re Conflicted And Need To Be Sure via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google’s John Mueller told SEJ that using the Disavow Tool is acceptable when SEOs feel uneasy about questionable links. He explained that many spam redirects use tracking URLs, JavaScript rewrites, or link wrappers, which often result in no actual backlink...
John Lewis Enlists Daisy May Cooper to Highlight What Mums Want for Mother’s Day
John Lewis has teamed up with actress Daisy May Cooper for its Mother’s Day social campaign, developed by Saatchi & Saatchi. The initiative spotlights what mums truly want, moving beyond conventional gift tropes. Launched across digital channels, the content aims...
SHEIN’s U.S. Influencer Marketing Director on the Secret to Partnerships
SHEIN’s U.S. influencer marketing director Jennifer Brown explains that rapid agility, authentic creator collaboration, and aligning cultural moments with brand purpose turn influencer partnerships into measurable business results. She cites successful campaigns with Cardi B, Normani’s debut fashion line, and a...
That’s What Studies Are For
The article argues that the right question when proposing a study is not whether it will work, but whether the problem merits solving, the cost is justified, and the risk is manageable. It outlines four practical criteria—problem relevance, reasonable expense,...
Aspire Launches Updated Creator Portal to Improve Brand–Creator Matching
Aspire has unveiled a redesigned Creator Portal that adds a structured profile system, multi‑profile management, and agency‑friendly controls. The update surfaces creators' rate expectations, preferred campaign formats, and collaboration history, letting brands assess fit earlier. New authentication options such as...
WHOOP Selects Viant as Strategic Ad Platform
Viant Technology announced a multi‑year strategic partnership to serve as the DSP of record for WHOOP’s connected‑TV advertising. The collaboration will enable household‑level CTV activation, linking media exposure directly to measurable business outcomes. Viant’s AI‑powered, transparent programmatic platform will provide...
Inside Life360’s Plan To Build An Ad Platform On Top Of Nativo
Life360 has accelerated its entry into advertising by acquiring Fantix’s AI‑driven ad unit and the native‑ad platform Nativo for $120 million. Nativo generated $63 million in revenue in 2023, and its white‑label ad server now powers Life360’s family‑focused ad stack. The combined...
Simple Patient Videos Build Trust, Fill Empty Slots
🧵 One doctor had empty OPD slots. Meet one of my mentee, Dr. Swatendra. He also had doubts. No idea about video making. But he just started. Simple videos. Answering common patient questions. Started with just 1 Video... then 2, then 3... kept on going. Slowly...
Google LSA Won’t Credit Existing Customer Calls as Leads
Google Local Service Ads won't credit advertiser for an existing customer call, which was not a lead https://t.co/tQs1kiXrYl via @AnthonyHigman https://t.co/ahAoxVvwju
One in Five Australians Have Bought a Big-Ticket Item on Social Media
A Finder survey of 1,003 Australians reveals that one in five have purchased a big‑ticket item—such as cars, holidays, artwork or even a house—through social platforms like TikTok, Instagram or Facebook Marketplace. The study estimates roughly 4.4 million people were influenced...
Authentic Low‑budget Video Beats Pricey Corporate Ads
Dollar Shave Club spent $4,500 on one launch video. The founder starred in it himself. It went viral and got 12,000 customers in 48 hours. Meanwhile you're spending $10k on polished corporate ads nobody watches. That's the gap.
American Top 40
The post revives the classic American Top 40 radio format as a template for modern email marketing. It proposes a weekly “Top 40” list of best‑selling products, ranked by combined sales, units, and conversion metrics, and suggests distributing the list across email,...
Digital Growth Architecture: Creating a Scalable Online Presence that Delivers Revenue
Bloom Agency outlines a digital growth architecture that unites SEO, technical optimization, content, paid media, conversion tactics, and analytics into a scalable revenue engine. The framework stresses search visibility, site performance, authority‑building content, ROI‑focused advertising, and continuous data‑driven refinement. By...
Urbanrise Launches “Welcome to the Celebrity Life” Campaign for Whispers of Sky
Urbanrise, a leading South Indian developer, unveiled the “Welcome to the Celebrity Life” advertising campaign for its new luxury project Whispers of Sky in Chennai. The campaign, created by Dentsu Creative, stars designer Gauri Khan in two films directed by...
PregaNews Film Encourages Conversations Around Postpartum Depression This Women’s Day
India’s leading pregnancy detection brand PregaNews has launched a digital film ahead of International Women’s Day to spark open conversations about postpartum depression. The short film highlights how many new mothers silently endure emotional and physical strain, normalising these challenges...
Retail and Grocery Brands Dominate ChatGPT Ads
OpenAI’s ChatGPT has entered its fourth week of serving contextual ads, with Sensor Tower reporting that retail and grocery promotions dominate the ad inventory. Over a two‑week sample, more than 100 distinct brand ads appeared, outpacing other categories such as...
Inside ‘AutoBait’: DoubleVerify Exposes AI Slop Factory Sucking Ad Budgets
DoubleVerify’s Fraud Lab has uncovered AutoBait, a coordinated network of more than 200 AI‑generated lifestyle sites that churn out clickbait articles and hyper‑realistic images to harvest advertising revenue. The operation delivers tens of millions of ad impressions each month, with...
Customers.AI Review 2026: The Identity Resolution Tool That Helps Shopify Brands Capture More Revenue From the Traffic They Already Have
Customers.AI is an identity‑resolution and deliverability platform built for Shopify brands that run Klaviyo. Its X‑Ray pixel lifts visitor identification from roughly 15‑20% to 60‑70%, feeding anonymous shoppers into Klaviyo profiles. The Alfred AI agent scores these visitors daily, enabling...
TikTok Ad Campaigns Drive Movie Ticket Purchases
TikTok released data, in partnership with measurement firm Samba, linking ad exposure to real‑world movie ticket purchases across 38 U.S. campaigns from early 2023 to mid‑2025. The analysis shows a median 172% lift in purchase rates for exposed audiences, with...
How to Run an Instagram Account Performance Review that Actually Leads to Growth
Most Instagram monthly reports focus on vanity metrics like reach and follower count, which do not drive growth. The article proposes a five‑step performance review that centers on actionable signals such as saves‑to‑reach ratio, profile visits, and story completion. Using...
AI Fundraising Hit 1,750% ROI in a Kentucky Race
An AI‑driven email campaign in a down‑ballot Kentucky race generated a 1,750% return on investment, delivering $17.50 for every dollar spent. The initiative lifted revenue per staff minute from $8.33 to $56.47 and, in a separate San Francisco effort, saved 12...
AI Can Fix the Chaos of Scaling Creator Ops
Creator ops for any brand that is scaling are an absolute mess. If someone can solve all these problems using AI, it will make them richer than they could imagine. - Outreach volume. The bigger companies need to be contacting...
What SMEC’s Data Reveals About AI Max Performance via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Smarter Ecommerce (SMEC) examined over 250 e‑commerce Search campaigns that used Google’s AI Max feature. The study found a median 13% lift in conversion value but a 16% rise in cost per acquisition, indicating higher revenue at a higher price....
Konodrac Launches Smart TV Self-Promotion Platform
Spanish tech firm Konodrac has introduced Smart Self-Promotions, an automated platform that turns traditional TV self-promotion into data-driven campaigns for linear, HbbTV and OTT environments. The solution leverages census-level audience data to segment viewers, deliver interactive calls-to-action, and provide full-funnel...
Ex-Comscore Innovation Head Resurfaces At Tenetic
Tenetic, an AI‑powered insights platform for advertising buyers and sellers, announced the hiring of former Comscore innovation head David Algranati as Chief Research and Production Officer. Algranati is known for leading initiatives aimed at attracting Nielsen’s customers. The move is...
How Brands Are Measuring Value Across the Entire Customer Journey
Advertisers struggle to monetize brand‑building efforts, with only 53% confident in ROI measurement. Amazon Ads introduced Long‑Term Sales (LTS), a metric that assigns monetary value to shopper actions across the full journey using its authenticated identity graph. LTS combines short‑term...
Mistplay Launches Playtime Events to Deepen Engagement in Rewarded Ads
Mistplay has introduced Playtime Events, a hybrid reward system that blends time‑based incentives with event‑driven milestones to extend mobile gameplay sessions. Early testing in North America showed a 30% increase in average playtime and a 20% lift in D30 return...
OpenAI Holds Talks with The Trade Desk to Sell ChatGPT Ads and Hit $17B Revenue
OpenAI is in early talks with ad‑tech giant The Trade Desk to sell advertising on its ChatGPT platform, part of a broader push to generate $17 billion in consumer revenue this year. The company has already partnered with Criteo to launch...
Will The Trade Desk Right-Size Its Margins?
The Trade Desk faces criticism for a complex, opaque fee structure that includes platform, data, and bid‑shading charges. Consultant Sarah Caputo argues the DSP should lower its take rate and simplify fees, especially the double‑digit bid‑shading fee on savings. Recent...
Will The Trade Desk Right-Size Its Margins?
The episode dissects the Trade Desk’s ongoing tension over its OpenPath platform, agency relationships, and high margin model, especially in light of recent earnings and competition from Amazon DSP. Guest Sarah Caputo argues that the Trade Desk’s effective take rate...
Domino’s Redefines Celebrity Meals in Social-First Campaign
Domino’s is rolling out a social‑first campaign that showcases influencer‑crafted pizza combos ahead of March Madness, promoting its under‑$10 “Best Deal Ever.” The initiative pairs creators like Jesser, Trisha Paytas and Courtney Cook with college basketball players, and includes a partnership with...
The Next Phase of Search: AI SEO Playbook for 2026 and Beyond
Search is shifting from clicks to AI‑generated answers, with Google’s AI Overviews delivering roughly 49% more impressions while click‑through rates fall about 30%. Assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity cite only ~1% of listed sources, favoring high‑trust domains like...
Mobile Games Host Three Times More Malicious Ads than Other Apps Says AppHarbr
AppHarbr’s in‑app network quality index reveals that mobile games display malicious ads at a rate of 58 per 165 ads, nearly three times the frequency seen in non‑gaming apps. The report links weaker ad‑quality controls and formats such as rewarded...
Original Content on Social: Harder to Find, but More Important for Brands to Nail
A new Sprout Social report shows just 56% of social users think brands deliver truly original content. Meanwhile, about one‑third find trend‑jacking embarrassing and only 27% consider it effective if executed within 48 hours. Marketers are prioritizing AI‑generated assets, yet...
Vote for DR80+ Club T‑Shirt Design
We're bringing back the @Ahrefs DR80+ Club. 👑 ...and we need your vote for the best t-shirt design. *Why does DR80+ matter?* DR (Domain Rating) is Ahrefs' metric for a website's link popularity. Essentially, how many high-quality sites are linking to it. This metric...
12 Best Rank Tracker Tools I've Tested
Rank tracker tools monitor keyword positions across search engines, offering daily updates, SERP‑feature insights, and competitor analysis. The article reviews twelve leading solutions—from Surfer and Ahrefs to Nightwatch and AccuRanker—highlighting each platform’s unique capabilities such as local‑level tracking, AI‑driven overviews,...
Unlock AI Search Visibility with My New Video
If you found my latest blog post about AEO/GEO vs SEO interesting, you should check out the companion YouTube video I just published. I cover everything in detail and provide some additional context. My video covers all of the information...
How to Extract Actionable Insights From Ahrefs Brand Radar
920392843920 people have asked me how I get insights out of Ahrefs Brand Radar. Here's me actually going through and looking at insights for Ahrefs: https://t.co/T15xG2XAlk
The Verified Source Pack Agents Trust First via @Sejournal, @DuaneForrester
The article introduces the Verified Source Pack (VSP) as a new infrastructure layer that delivers machine‑readable, authoritative truth for AI agents. It outlines four core components—content, structure, provenance, and discoverability—and explains how VSPs complement existing pages and schema. The piece...
Daily AI Content Insights Drive Stunning Growth
Started posting daily on LinkedIn about what I'm learning around AI for content marketing and holy crap look at this beautiful graph https://t.co/p6bihegxGi
ChatGPT Carousels Align with 83% of Top Google Shopping Results
“Over 83% of ChatGPT carousel products were found as strong matches in Google’s top 40 organic shopping results.” Another article showing how ChatGPT uses Google’s results - this time for Google Shopping. Great new research by Tom Wells at @peec_ai https://t.co/ABBzFlGH55
Guideline Launches Media Plan Management MCP Server, Enabling Agentic AI Workflows Across Media Planning & Buying
Guideline launched its Media Plan Management MCP Server, allowing agencies and advertisers to link any MCP‑compatible AI agent—such as Claude or ChatGPT—to its media planning platform. Built on the open Model Context Protocol, the server provides a plug‑and‑play, read‑only connection...
OpenClaw Setup Boosted Views From 358 to 85K
Building Live: The OpenClaw Setup That Took My Articles from 358 to 85,000+ Views https://t.co/2AfO60Gvta
PulsePoint Scales HCP Omnichannel Offering with Reddit Integration
PulsePoint announced an integration that lets healthcare marketers activate its proprietary HCP audience segments directly on Reddit. The self‑serve capability joins PulsePoint’s broader omnichannel ecosystem, enabling coordinated campaigns across social, programmatic display, EHR, DOOH and more. Marketers gain NPI‑level measurement...
Gaming Marketing Consultancy Open World Acquires Influencer Platform Drope.me to Scale Creator Campaigns
Open World, the marketing consultancy division of Loaded Holdings, has acquired influencer platform Drope.me to add automation and performance‑tracking tools to its gaming creator campaigns. The acquisition enables Open World to scale activations from dozens to thousands of creators simultaneously....