Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Consumer journeys go non‑linear, MiQ study finds
MiQ’s ‘From Funnel to Flexibility’ study, analyzing data from 53 million households and 700 trillion signals, shows 87 % of shoppers change digital activities at least hourly and 42 % describe their purchase path as random. The research, based on surveys of over 4,000 consumers and 600 marketers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, challenges the traditional linear marketing funnel.
Also developing:
By the numbers: DOJO AI raises $6M Seed round
Reddit Launches New Public Beta Integration with HubSpot
Reddit has launched a public‑beta integration with HubSpot that lets marketers create, schedule, and monitor Reddit campaigns from HubSpot’s Social tool. The integration adds post publishing, sentiment‑based mention tracking, and performance analytics within HubSpot’s dashboard. By bringing Reddit’s high‑signal conversations into a familiar CRM environment, the partnership aims to help brands capture audience insights and drive ROI. The beta is available to all HubSpot customers as of April 14, 2026.
Google Is About to Punish Websites for That Annoying Browser Back Button Trick
Google announced that, beginning June 15, 2026, it will treat back‑button hijacking as a spam violation. The practice—where sites block or manipulate the browser’s back button—will trigger manual or algorithmic penalties for offending pages. Site owners have a two‑month window to...
Winning Down-Ballot in 2026: Where Political Ad Dollars Are Moving Next
Political advertising is shifting toward earlier, fragmented spending with a strong focus on down‑ballot races. State and local campaigns now represent nearly half of total ad spend and over half of ad volume, driving a $5.5 billion boom. MediaRadar positions itself...
Snapchat Highlights Opportunities for Insurance Brands
Snapchat and Ipsos released a study of 1,513 U.S. social‑media users showing that 80% of Snapchat users already own at least one insurance policy, making them 1.4 times more likely than non‑users to be policyholders. The research also found that 82%...
Meta Updates Threads API with More Third-Party App Integration
Meta announced a major overhaul of the Threads API, adding new post‑type support, deeper analytics, and real‑time controls. The updates let third‑party social‑media‑management tools schedule ghost posts, GIFs, and Instagram Story shares, embed public Threads without tokens, and filter content...
DangleAds Names Nidhi Dua Dhingra Chief Business Officer to Drive Global Revenue
DangleAds Technologies announced the elevation of Nidhi Dua Dhingra to Chief Business Officer. The New Delhi‑based ad‑tech firm says she will steer revenue growth, client acquisition and global partnership strategy as it expands its programmatic, CTV and AI‑led solutions.
InMobi Partners with Salesforce to Accelerate AI‑First Advertising Platform
InMobi announced a deeper partnership with Salesforce to embed AI‑driven sales, service and data tools across its advertising business, aiming to speed up automation, forecasting and cross‑functional collaboration. The deal expands use of Salesforce’s Agentforce, Slack Enterprise Grid and Tableau,...
YouTube Will Now Pause Livestream Ads when Chat Engagement Peaks
YouTube introduced real‑time ad suppression that pauses automatic ads when chat activity spikes, and it adds personal ad‑free windows for viewers who send Super Chats or gifts. The update arrives alongside dual‑format streaming—vertical and horizontal—plus virtual gifting now available in...
Gmail Is Now Letting Users Change Their Email Addresses: What It Means for Senders
Google now lets U.S. Gmail users change the part before @gmail.com once a year, up to three times total. The original address remains active, so mail sent to either address lands in the same inbox. For marketers, the change is...
How AI Is Democratizing Content and Creating Today’s ‘Access Era’
Higgsfield AI, described as an AI studio built by creators for creators, is democratizing multimedia content creation with a drag‑and‑drop platform that handles images, audio and video. Co‑founder Mahi de Silva highlighted a case where Eight Sleep reduced a three‑week, $30,000...
Full‑stack Meta Strategy Drives Scalable Brand Growth
Meta strategy Meta strategy + offer that converts at current CPMs Meta strategy + offer + creative that doesn't fatigue the same audience Meta strategy + offer + creative + not generic thank-you page Meta strategy + offer + creative + not generic...
Create a Full AI Marketing System in 2 Hours
i'm running a live claude cowork workshop for non-technical people on april 22 by the end of the 2 hours, you'll have a fully set up marketing system on your computer that: > produces a full week of content in one sitting,...
Gen Z Grows Up, Keeps Scrolling, Still Doesn't Trust You
Morning Consult’s "The State of Gen Z" report finds that as the cohort reaches adulthood, their purchasing power and family responsibilities have grown, yet their wariness of brands remains entrenched. TikTok leads as the preferred platform for 32.8% of Gen Z, followed by...
Unlock Affiliate Growth: SEO Strategies to Break Plateaus
How To Break Through An Affiliate Site Plateau & Find New Growth - Ask An SEO https://buff.ly/PL974zp
YouTube Livestreams Will Now Hold Back Ads During Peak Engagement to Protect the Vibe
Google’s YouTube announced it will automatically hold back ads on livestreams when chat engagement spikes, aiming to preserve the “vibe” of high‑energy streams. The ad pause applies to all viewers, while Super Chat, Super Stickers, or gift purchases still trigger an immediate,...
Most Miss How Social Media Marketing Operates
Wild to see how many people didn’t know how social media-based marketing works. The point of that Geese expose is in the last paragraph when the artist who “exposed” the marketing plan said she’d do it too. Fair to not...
New Video Frontiers 2026: What to Expect
VideoWeek’s New Video Frontiers 2026 conference kicks off tomorrow in London, gathering broadcasters, agencies, platforms and brands for two days of CTV, AI and ad‑tech discussions. Day 1 features a fireside on brand‑marketer pressures, Omdia’s CTV forecasts, AI‑powered ad‑trading infrastructure, and...
HubSport Launches Spring 2026 Release
HubSpot announced its Spring 2026 release, adding over 100 new and updated products aimed at AI‑enhanced go‑to‑market operations. The flagship HubSpot AEO tool extends SEO into answer‑engine optimization for platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. New assistants—including Breeze Assistant, Prospecting Agent,...
Tekmetric Launches Digital Ads and Tekmetric Phones
Tekmetric announced at its Tektonic 2026 conference the launch of two new services: Tekmetric Digital Ads, a self‑serve platform that boosts auto‑repair shops’ visibility on Google Maps and Yelp, and Tekmetric Phones, an integrated calling solution that surfaces customer history, vehicle...
Khoros Launches Iris AI
Khoros unveiled Iris AI, an AI‑native platform that merges social listening, publishing, engagement and analytics into a single system. The tool processes billions of posts in 187 languages, offering real‑time moderation, sentiment analysis and automated routing of interactions to the right...
Google Ads Advertisers Report Wave of Unexplained Ad Disapprovals
Google Ads advertisers are facing a wave of sudden ad disapprovals tied to DNS lookup failures and HTTP 500 server errors, even though their landing pages appear functional for users. In some cases, more than 1,500 ads were rejected within minutes,...
BMW Digital Founder Urges Brands to Trade Moments for Commitments
NeAndre Broussard, chief executive of BMW Digital and founder of the Black Menswear movement, told ADWEEK’s Social Media Week that brands should abandon fleeting viral moments in favor of lasting community commitments. Drawing on six years of building a culturally resonant Black‑men’s fashion...
Free Custom Video Ads Skyrocket Cold Outreach Responses
A 19-year-old freelancer scraped 5,000 Shopify stores from his bedroom. No degree. No portfolio. No LinkedIn with 10k followers. Just a spreadsheet, Apollo for contacts, and one weird idea that he tested on a loaf of bread Bakers don't hand out menus. They...
We Found the Fix for the Biggest Problem in Affiliate Marketing
In this episode, host Siobhan and guest Yash, founder of Sorrel, discuss the fundamental flaws in current affiliate marketing—namely the "last‑click" credit model and coupon code leakage—that obscure true influencer impact. Yash unveils Sati, a new cookie‑less affiliate platform that...
Top 10 Metasearch Marketing Agencies for Independent Hotels
The article ranks the ten leading metasearch marketing agencies that help independent hotels capture direct bookings, featuring firms such as TravelBoom, Bookassist and Mirai. It explains how metasearch platforms—Google Hotel Ads, Trivago and Kayak—let hotels bypass costly OTA commissions that...
The Measurement Maturity Playbook: What CMOs Need at Every Stage of Growth
CMOs must align their measurement approach with the company’s growth stage, from basic CAC tracking at seed level to sophisticated, real‑time forecasting post‑IPO. Early‑stage firms rely on GA4 and channel‑level CPA to prove growth potential, while mid‑stage companies shift to...
Social Media Powers Online’s Ad Market Dominance, and Meta Eats 70 Percent of That Pie
Online advertising is set to surpass $1.6 trillion by 2030, with social media driving the bulk of growth. Omdia projects online ad spend will reach $1.5 trillion, up from $935 billion in 2025, and grow 13% in 2026 alone. Social ads are forecast...
Accounts in Transit: Praytell PIcks Up Sustainable Brand If You Care
PR and branding agencies announced new agency‑of‑record contracts with three distinct brands. Praytell will serve as the integrated communications partner for sustainable household‑products label If You Care, taking over paid media, influencer and crisis support. Scout Lab has been hired...
Analytic Edge Gains TikTok Measurement Partner Badge, Expands MMM Capabilities
Analytic Edge, an AI‑driven marketing analytics firm, secured official TikTok Measurement Partner status, allowing it to feed granular TikTok campaign data into its Demand Drivers™ Media Mix Modeling platform. The move gives advertisers real‑time insight into short‑form video performance and...
More Isn’t Better; Smarter Data‑driven Decisions Drive Growth
The general advice in the business space is to add more. More channels, more content, more campaigns. That's usually the first instinct when growth slows down. But after 15 years doing this, what I keep seeing is that more rarely fixes...
Demandbase AI Now Available for Modern GTM Teams
Demandbase unveiled Demandbase AI at its April 14 conference, positioning it as the first AI‑first platform built for modern go‑to‑market (GTM) teams. The solution leverages proprietary Context Intelligence to filter noisy signals and align account data with pipeline objectives. New...
Fake Campaigns Are Being Used to Boost Bands, Why Not Stocks Too?
Wired exposed Chaotic Good Projects' "trend simulation" campaign that manufactured viral buzz for Brooklyn rock band Geese by deploying thousands of TikTok and YouTube accounts. The firm’s playbook—seeding content to trigger platform algorithms—could be duplicated on financial social media to...
Roblox Is Turning Its Product Roadmap Into Advertising Inventory
Roblox introduced a new Makeup feature on March 31, letting creators sell avatar cosmetics that overlay players' faces. The launch was partnered with e.l.f. Beauty, which worked with Roblox’s Kestrel studio to create five branded looks and offered them in the...
AI Neutralizes SEO Tricks, only Deserving Brands Rank
The main difference between SEO vs GEO is that you can't really bulldoze your way into getting brand recommendations for something you don't deserve. For example, "best insider threat management" There is a company named Exabeam doing a self-promotional list page...
Google Antitrust Settlement Offers $10K+ Advertisers Cash Refund
The Google antitrust remedies are actually going to lead to advertisers getting cash back. If you spent more than $10k on Google ads, you can file for damages here. The lawyer is Ashley Keller, he's a super creative antitrust litigator....
Social Traffic Kinda Stinks for News Publishers Now, in 3 Charts
Chartbeat data shows global news publishers have lost 70% of Twitter referral traffic since Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition, while Facebook referrals have also fallen sharply. In addition, users who arrive via these social platforms now spend less time on publisher...
Likes Aren’t Customers: Trust Drives Real Sales
Most content gets likes from people who relate to you. Customers come from people who trust you can solve their problem. Most people never figure out the difference. I didn't for a long time.
Upskill Your Team or Lose SEO Agency Relevance
What happens to your SEO agency when clients realize they can get better results with an SEO consultant + AI and pay significantly less? Solution: re-skill/ up-skill all your employees so that you don't have to go through that.
Locala Unveils Planning Agents That Push Agentic Advertising Beyond Automation
Locala launched Planning Agents, an evolution of its Omni Planner platform that links advanced market insights directly to activation-ready strategies. The new agents combine proprietary signals, strategic reasoning, and activation readiness in a single workflow, enabling brands to execute granular,...
Structure Content for AI Agents with Addy’s Checklist
Is your content structured correctly for AI agents slurping up info? Or is key info getting truncated because pages are too chunky with the best material at the end? @addyosmani offers a checklist and deep advice for agentic engine optimization: https://t.co/D5wGWcAlb8...
Beyond Ads: Positioning Product when Creative Budget Dries
Most people think I create & run ads. Me: How to effing position this product now. The creative has spent $5mn & there is no more juice out of it.
HubSpot Launches AEO Tool to Help Brands Compete in AI Search
HubSpot unveiled an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) tool within its Marketing Hub, giving brands visibility into how often AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini cite them in generated answers. The feature delivers an AI visibility score, prompt‑level citation tracking, competitor...
Create Pro Video Ads in 90 Minutes – 70% Off
Seedance 2.0 just went live on Higgs for everyone. You can take one product image, write a few prompts, and have UGC, production-level, and lifestyle video ads ready in about 90 minutes. You can get up to 70% off right now with...
Google Rankings Use Chrome Visit Data, Not Just Links
Do you ever notice your rankings go up after a surge of unrelated traffic? Many reasons why this could happen, but in the Google antitrust trial, they found Popularity is based on both links + "Chrome visit data" Importantly, this data is...
How to Get Chosen by AI Platforms that Control Search
ChatGPT’s ascent to the fifth‑largest website marks the emergence of Web 4.0, where AI platforms act as the primary search interface, interpreting intent and delivering answers. Marketers must shift focus from human clicks to being chosen by these AI models, which...
Google’s New Changes May Finally Fix Impression Tracking
Could this be the start of Google correcting the impressions situation? These emails could just be a byproduct of the changes they are making (and maybe Google didn't realize these emails would be triggered). :)
Join Koah Labs as Founding Head of AI Ads Sales
Come lead the way for the future of AI ads. We're looking for a founding head of sales at @koahlabs ! https://t.co/CBLnBgueW6
Patrón Takes Shot at Sponsoring Prime Video’s NBA Nightcap Through the Playoffs
Amazon Prime Video is elevating its NBA playoff coverage by naming Patrón Tequila the presenting sponsor of the post‑game show, NBA Nightcap. The partnership will run throughout the postseason, delivering brand integrations across every playoff broadcast and custom content pieces....
From Consultant to Insider: Landing Major Clients Fast
So I started a social media consultancy. I haven't ~announced~ it yet, but pulled in two pretty cool / major clients right away, and man... I'm having the most fun. Writing & speaking about social are great, but I really missed being...
Vulnerable Content Builds Loyalty; Viral Content Draws New Eyes
Your best content and your most viral content are probably not the same post. The vulnerable stuff builds trust and deepens loyalty with the people already paying attention. The viral stuff attracts new eyeballs. You need both but they serve...