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.
Google Ads Adds Gemini-Powered Dashboards for Real-Time Insights
Google is integrating its Gemini large‑language model into Google Ads Dashboards, letting advertisers generate and modify visual reports with natural‑language prompts. The new feature updates charts, tables and graphs in real time as users ask questions about metrics such as impressions, clicks, video views and spend. By turning reporting into a conversational experience, Google aims to cut the time needed for manual data extraction and make insights more accessible. The rollout will be highlighted at Google Marketing Live in May.
Summer Stall? Media’s Ad Trends Against Continued Headwinds
Media advertising revenue is showing a seasonal slowdown this summer, compounded by broader macro‑economic uncertainty. Industry analysts cited in the RBR+TVBR Summer 2026 issue warn that headwinds such as tepid consumer spending and fragmented digital competition will keep ad trends volatile....
YouTube’s Brandcast Puts Creator Partnerships Front and Center
At Brandcast, Google’s Sean Downey positioned YouTube as the future of media, emphasizing its evolution beyond traditional TV to a multi‑screen ecosystem anchored by Shorts and creator‑driven content. He highlighted the launch of YouTube Creator Partnerships, a matchmaking platform that...
Viant Sees A Growth Wave Coming, But First Marketers Must Really Ditch Walled Garden Ad Tech
Viant reported Q1 2026 DSP revenue up 18% to $50.3 million and narrowed its net loss to $2.2 million, while claiming an adjusted profit of $5.5 million. Executives argued that advertisers are increasingly rejecting the opaque, self‑attributing tactics of walled‑garden platforms like Google...
Viant Sees A Growth Wave Coming, But First Marketers Must Really Ditch Walled Garden Ad Tech
Viant posted Q1 2026 DSP revenue of $50.3 million, up 18%, while its net loss narrowed to $2.2 million and an adjusted profit of $5.5 million was reported. The company’s COO warned that advertisers are abandoning walled‑garden DSPs such as Amazon, Google and Yahoo...
Google AI Overviews Now Ignore Self‑promotional Listicles
I believe Google recently changed how it answers some "best" queries in AI Overviews. Previously, using a listicle that ranked your own company as #1 was often sufficient to get recommended in the answer. Now, it looks like Google may be using...
Google Discover Performance Reporting Bug in Search Console
Google confirmed a data‑logging bug in the Discover report of Google Search Console that affected metrics for May 7‑8, 2026. The error caused an artificial drop in reported clicks and impressions, though actual Discover rankings remained unchanged. Google clarified the issue was...
Gen Z Influencer Walter Hits $1 Million Milestone on TikTok Shop Selling Top Beauty Brands
Walter, a 21‑year‑old TikTok creator, leveraged TikTok Shop to sell Medicube, Neutrogena and other beauty products, earning over $1 million in two years and $20,000‑plus per month. His rise underscores the power of influencer‑driven e‑commerce for brands targeting Gen Z shoppers.
Short‑Form Video Clippers Turn $2,500 Start‑up Into $40,000‑Strong Freelance Network
Emrah Bayraktar, a 25‑year‑old from Belgium, grew a $2,500 two‑week side hustle into a network of 40,000 freelance “clippers” who monetize bite‑size video snippets. Brands now pay anywhere from $0.50 to $25 per 1,000 views, turning short‑form clips into a...
Amazon Launches Dynamic TV Creative to Power AI‑Driven CTV Ad Optimization
Amazon Ads unveiled Dynamic TV Creative, an AI‑powered add‑on to its Interactive CTV suite that tailors interactive elements based on shopper data. The feature is live for U.S. advertisers now and will expand to live‑sports inventory in Q3, promising higher...
SEO ROI Dwindles: Time to Shift Investment
My organic Google traffic is down 90% over 2-3 years. Friends who out-disciplined me on content publishing are seeing the same thing. I've been hit by overnight 80% Google penalties before and rebuilt. This is different. It's systemic. When SEO agencies are rebranding away...
Run Entire Email Campaigns Using Only ChatGPT & Claude
I literally cannot wait to build emails and run my entire email channel all from within ChatGPT and Claude. Right now, my email creation process is: - Write/edit my emails inside Claude - Create images for my emails inside ChatGPT - Take the copy...
Omnisend Launches MCP to Bring Ecommerce Marketing Into ChatGPT
Omnisend introduced Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing ecommerce marketers to access its email and SMS platform inside ChatGPT. The feature lets users ask plain‑language questions about revenue, campaign performance, and root‑cause analysis without leaving the AI chat. MCP also generates...
AI Citation Patterns Reveal Sub‑Vertical SEO Strategies
💰 Ecommerce AI Search Optimization: What Citation Patterns Across 5 Subverticals Tell Us About Optimizing Beyond PDPs and PLPs 👇 My latest analysis. For this research, I reviewed AI citation-source and cited-page data for 25 leading ecommerce sites across five...
Advertisers Crave Broader Agentic Tools, Will Boost Spend
Performance advertisers are seeing results with Agentic advertising, but they want more. Advertisers want more agentic options outside of search and social, and they would invest a lot more if the right agentic tech existed. Great insight from a new study...
ODAIA Marketing Intelligence Brings Real-Time, Individualized Campaign Orchestration to Pharma HCP Engagement
ODAIA launched Marketing Intelligence, an AI‑powered solution that orchestrates real‑time, individualized campaigns for pharmaceutical brands targeting healthcare professionals. The platform ingests prescribing data, CRM records, and engagement signals to score each HCP at the NPI level and recommend the optimal...
SEO Expands Beyond Google: Leverage Reddit, Podcasts, YouTube, PR
Everyone says "GEO" and "AEO" are the same as what we've been doing... But LOTS of SEOs slept on these ideas for years: 1) Reddit as a growth channel 2) Podcast optimization 3) PR & review sites 4) YouTube for SEO 5) News releases 6)...
fullthrottle.ai® Announces Strategic Audio Partnership With TuneIn to Power Outcome-Driven Campaigns
Fullthrottle.ai has integrated TuneIn’s live and on‑demand audio inventory into its ad‑tech operating system, letting advertisers plan, activate, and optimize audio alongside CTV, video, display and direct‑mail campaigns. The partnership gives marketers a single workflow to reach listeners on mobile,...
☕🤖Tutorial: Turn ChatGPT Into Your AI SEO Specialist (Get Ranked on AI Platforms)
The post introduces an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) framework that turns ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity into a brand’s AI SEO specialist. It walks marketers through a six‑stage engine—audit, mine, map, plan, brief and score—to audit current AI visibility, identify high‑intent...
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 12, 2026
Google announced that its Merchant Center for Agencies, previously limited to the US and Canada, is now live worldwide, giving e‑commerce partners a unified platform to manage product feeds across all markets. At the same time, Google is testing enhancements...
The TV Ad Market Is Being Taken Over by Streaming Platforms
Advertising dollars are rapidly moving from linear TV to streaming platforms. Madison and Wall estimate U.S. streaming ad spend will reach roughly $20 billion by 2029, closing the gap with traditional TV, which is projected to stay around $38 billion. The shift...
Nextdoor and Freshpaint Partner to Give Healthcare Advertisers Compliant, Measurable Local Performance
Nextdoor and Freshpaint announced an integration that lets healthcare advertisers tie hyperlocal ad placements on Nextdoor to concrete patient outcomes such as booked appointments and new patient volume. The partnership combines Nextdoor’s network of 110 million verified neighbors with Freshpaint’s privacy‑first...
Content Pillars Aren’t Topics, They’re Strategic Outcomes
Content pillars are not things like education, motivation, or inspiration. Those are end goals for your content... they are not what your content is actually about.
IHeartMedia Q1 Revenue Jumps 9.6% on Podcast Boom, Yet EBITDA Falls 11%
iHeartMedia posted $884 million in first‑quarter revenue, up 9.6% year‑over‑year, as podcast earnings surged 27%. However, adjusted EBITDA fell 11.4% to $93 million because advertising demand softened and marketing expenses accelerated.
Global Ad Tech Player GumGum Expands Into France with Its Innovative Mindset Graph™ Technology
GumGum, a California‑based global SSP, is opening a Paris office to deepen its presence in France. The expansion is anchored by its proprietary Mindset Graph™ technology, an AI‑driven platform that gauges a user’s real‑time mindset to serve more relevant ads...
20‑Email Sequence Generates $20M in Sales
Over the last 5 years, my little business has generated $20,000,000. The secret? Email. For all our digital product launches, we use a specific 20-email sequence. And now I want to share it with you. So you can sell your own digital products with email And...
Email Is the Overlooked Powerhouse Marketing Channel
The most misunderstood marketing channel: (It's not paid ads) It's email. Every year: • People tell me email doesn't work • Newsletters are too saturated • Customers don't read emails It's all wrong. Anyone can build an email list that powers their entire business. Here's how to write your...
Cocie AI Launches CTV Autopilot, The First Agentic Contextual Intelligence Platform Built for Programmatic CTV
Cocie AI unveiled CTV Autopilot, an agentic contextual intelligence platform that transforms a single buyer brief into a live, show‑level targeted CTV campaign within minutes. The system ingests billions of bid‑stream and programming signals, enriches them with granular context, and...
AI Generates Behavior‑Based Email Sequences Automatically
I built a skill that designs email sequences — welcome, onboarding, nurture, upgrade, re-engagement, and winback flows with timing, copy, and personalization. You describe your product and goals, and it builds complete sequences: subject lines, preview text, body copy, CTAs, and...
Verify Real Publish Dates with Wayback Machine Extension
I used to use Chrome extensions to pull in the Schema for "date published," but now that so many sites are faking date published/date modified, I am also using the Wayback Machine Chrome extension to see when the page was...
TikTok to Launch Paid, Ad-Free Tier in UK
TikTok announced it will roll out a paid, ad‑free subscription tier in the United Kingdom, letting users browse without targeted ads. The service will charge a monthly fee (price not disclosed) while the platform’s free, ad‑supported version continues. Creators can...
Google Confirms Discover Data Logging Glitch, Clicks Down
Heads-up if Discover is important for your site. Confirmed by Google (for 5/7 - 5/8). "You may notice a decrease in clicks and impressions in the Discover performance report. This issue affects data logging only."
Automate Budget Pacing to Stop Noon Spend Drain
Why does your PPC budget vanish by noon or barely spend at all? Most "solutions" are too theoretical to be useful. Episode 1 of our new series breaks down the real mechanics of budget pacing and how to automate the fixes. Watch...
From ‘Rank Me’ To ‘Trust Me’: How AI Is Rewriting The Rules Of Discovery
The rise of large language models is turning traditional web search into a zero‑click experience, delivering synthesized answers instead of blue‑link lists. Publishers now face a new visibility battle called Generative Engine Optimization, where inclusion inside AI‑generated responses matters more...
AI Marketing Tools List Keeps Growing with New Additions
The best list of #AI #marketing tools anywhere continues to expand: https://t.co/1MqMiJP4M3 New tools added recently include AiOpti, @gladly , @CurrentsOne , @usebland , @ZetaGlobal , @Shopify SimGym, @lift_ai_cro , @Optimove , and @Box Extract.
New Updates: Google Merchant for Agencies & YouTube Integration
It's New 5/12: Google Merchant Center for Agencies for all @gregfinn, @TheMarketingAnu links Google Ads and YouTube, Bing Webmaster Tools HTTP/S does not distinguish & @mordyoberstein sees no colors https://t.co/3oFzs2Gvhi
Google Discover Publisher Pages To Get Links & Featured Posts
Google is testing a redesign of its Discover publisher pages that adds custom link blocks, featured posts, larger header images, and sharper logos. Publishers will manage these changes by claiming their page, gaining the ability to reorder social media and...
Write for Humans and Machines—Or Lose Both
Two readers visit your site: A human looking for an answer. A machine looking for an authority. If you only write for one, you lose both.
X Rebrand Flops: No Global Recognition, No Marketing
If I say “Twitter,” every person in the whole world knows what I’m talking about. If I say “X,” only the people on this app are sure to know what I’m talking about. As a rebrand, X has categorically failed, and largely...
Creative License: How Adobe Helps Brands Stay Creative in the Age of AI
Adobe’s enterprise CMO Rachel Thornton explained how the company is turning fragmented customer data into real‑time, personalized experiences using AI. She highlighted Adobe’s strategy of building tools—Creative Cloud, Express, Firefly, and agentic AI—that let any employee create brand‑compliant content at...
Google Discover Adds Links and Featured Posts for Publishers
Google Discover publisher pages gain links, featured posts and more https://t.co/f4X5m1o5LT via @AndellDam and @1492_Vision https://t.co/9VSIakWFJv
Google Merchant Center For Agencies Now Available Globally
Google has taken its Merchant Center for Agencies product from a North American beta to a worldwide release, making the unified management hub available in every market. The platform gives agencies a single dashboard to oversee client onboarding, health alerts,...
Google Experiments with Dual‑tone URL Fonts in Snippets
Google testing URL in the search result snippet with dark and lighter font for the same URL https://t.co/EwR5efFhxi via @SERPalerts https://t.co/mXo1p42J2D
3 Actionable Ways Affiliate Managers & SEOs Can Keep Relevant – Ask An SEO via @Sejournal, @Rollerblader
The article advises affiliate managers and SEOs on staying relevant as AI reshapes search and content discovery. It stresses aligning brand messaging with AI‑driven personalization, modernizing affiliate payment structures, and converting existing backlink sources into paid affiliate relationships. It also...
Bing Webmaster
PSA, Bing Webmaster Tools does not distinguish between http and https https://t.co/7j8hixydGJ via @kmadhavan77 https://t.co/MCLDRvs3Rf
PSA: Bing Webmaster Tools Does Not Distinguish Between Http and Https
Bing Webmaster Tools now treats HTTP and HTTPS URLs as a single property, unlike Google Search Console which separates them. The change was confirmed by Bing’s Krishna Madhavan on LinkedIn, noting that the platform expects HTTPS but will fall back...
Social Media Updates and New Features to Know This Week
Meta announced a new AI incubator partnership with gener8tor, training over 100 small and rural businesses on AI tools, while also previewing advanced AI agents that can shop, research and act on users' behalf. The company introduced AI‑powered age‑verification that...
Fundamental SEO Basics: One Topic, Clear Structure, Original Data
How to make any page work for humans and machines: → One topic per page → Clean H1/H2 hierarchy → Descriptive internal links → Original data points Boring fundamentals that both audiences and Google reward.
TEDCO Names Direna Cousins VP of Marketing to Drive Enterprise Campaigns
TEDCO announced Direna Cousins as its new vice president of marketing, tasking her with expanding enterprise‑level campaigns across Maryland’s tech ecosystem. The hire follows a year in which the Development & Marketing team logged 28 articles, over 100 press releases,...
From Cannes to Commerce: How Authentic Studios Is Turning Fashion Brands Into Content
Authentic Studios, the content arm of Authentic Brands Group, was created in 2023 to shift the company from passive licensing to producing its own film, series and digital content. By leveraging heritage fashion and celebrity‑backed IP such as Elvis, Reebok,...