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
Puck Rolls Out Influencer‑Centric Newsletter Platform to Disrupt Digital Media
Puck has launched a subscription‑based newsletter platform that pairs top journalists with equity stakes, blending the creator economy with legacy journalism. CEO Sarah Personette says the move is designed to capture paying audiences while rewarding writers as influencers.
FINNY Launches AI Tool Hunter for Financial Advisors
FINNY AI unveiled Hunter, an autonomous marketing engine that handles strategy, content creation, and campaign execution for financial advisors. The tool builds on FINNY’s recent $17 million Series A round, turning the platform from a user‑operated system into an AI partner that...
Show Me Your Stack
Show Me Your Stack is a weekly, free‑to‑watch video series where GTM engineers dissect their production stacks in 20‑30‑minute episodes. Each episode follows a three‑card format—Problem, Build, Results—showcasing quantified bottlenecks, live screen‑shares of multi‑tool workflows, and before‑after metrics such as...
Reddit Statistics: What 80+ Data Points Tell Us About the World’s Most Influential Community Platform
Reddit now draws more than 450 million weekly active users and accounts for 3.8 billion monthly visits, with roughly two‑thirds of its traffic coming from organic search. The platform ranks for 84 million keywords, generating about 1.1 billion organic visits and $440 million in traffic...
Dentsu Revamps Its AI Platform for an Agentic Future
Dentsu has overhauled its flagship AI platform, Dentsu.Connect, to support an "agentic" future where marketing workflows are largely automated by AI agents. The revamp unites the holdco’s data and tech groups under a shared data layer and incorporates both custom...
Digest: Ad Companies in Boycott Settlement Talks with FTC; Court Orders Meta to Face Youth Addiction Suit; YouTube Raises Premium...
The FTC is in settlement talks with major ad agencies over a probe into coordinated boycotts of platforms like X, proposing rules that would prevent steering spend based on political content. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has allowed a...
Rewriting the Rules of Ad Tech: Intent-Driven Discovery, Meaningful Human Connections, and Transparency
Ad‑tech in 2026 is pivoting from cookie‑based, destination browsing to intent‑driven discovery powered by AI agents and conversational interfaces. The rise of agentic AI is automating media buying, slashing execution workload by up to 80%, while privacy regulations force a...
What the Ad Industry’s AI Disclosure Problem Means for Affiliates
A 2025 NYU Stern‑Emory study found fully AI‑generated ads boost click‑through rates by up to 19%, but labeling them as AI‑generated cuts CTR by roughly 31.5%. The paradox puts affiliates in a bind because their revenue hinges on clicks, unlike...
Hero FinCorp Rolls Out AI-Led Lending Campaign During IPL 2026
Hero FinCorp launched its third‑year IPL 2026 title‑partner campaign, "Nariyal Phodo, Sar Kyun?". The ad pivots from its previous "Shubh Kaam Mein Deri Kyun" platform to spotlight AI‑led lending that promises faster, frictionless loan approvals. It showcases humor‑driven scenes of traditional...
Amazon’s New Ad Payment Policy Sparks Seller Revolt
Effective April 15, Amazon will automatically deduct advertising fees from sellers' account balances, ending the ability to pay with credit cards and the 60‑day cash‑flow buffer. The change removes cashback rewards and forces sellers to keep larger cash reserves, prompting...
The Rise and Rise of Icky IVF Ads
UK fertility clinics are flooding public spaces and digital platforms with ads, with a regulator counting 9,340 paid placements on Google and Meta between September 2024 and October 2025. The surge reflects a falling birth rate, NHS austerity that has cut publicly...
Flipkart and Leo India Turn Billy Bowden’s Iconic Signals Into Real-Time Shopping Moments
Flipkart has teamed with Leo India to turn umpire Billy Bowden’s iconic cricket gestures into real‑time shopping triggers on its platform. Viewers snap a photo of a signal during a live match, send it to a WhatsApp bot, and receive...
Inside The Trade Desk’s Programmatic Power Struggle
The Trade Desk, the world’s largest independent demand‑side platform, is under fire as major agencies Dentsu, WPP and Publicis pull spend from its OpenPath marketplace over transparency concerns. The DSP is also revising payment terms for identity data providers while...
Why Brands Can’t Stop Acting Like Reply Guys and Jumping Into Viral Comment Threads on Social Media
Brands are increasingly using comment threads on TikTok, Instagram and X to spark real‑time conversation and drive organic reach. Companies like Dude Wipes and Vita Coco treat replies as a core engagement tactic, inserting witty remarks into viral posts to attract...
Inside The Trade Desk's Programmatic Power Struggle
In this episode, Digiday’s Kamiko McCoy and Tim Peterson dissect the escalating power struggle between The Trade Desk and major ad agencies. They explore agencies’ pullback on spending via OpenPath, citing concerns over hidden fees and loss of control, while...
Can Nutella Keep Its Viral Cosmic Moment in Orbit?
Nutella’s jar briefly floated on a NASA livestream, sparking a viral surge that amassed millions of engagements across platforms. The unplanned, absurd juxtaposition of a familiar spread with a high‑tech space mission resonated as an authentic cultural signal rather than...
Vaseline Turns Viral Social Media Hacks Into Real Products
Vaseline’s new global campaign, "Vaseline originals (OGs)", turns viral TikTok beauty hacks into shelf‑ready products. Partnering with Ogilvy Singapore, the brand co‑creates two items—a brow tamer and an all‑in‑one primer/highlighter jelly—directly inspired by early creators Jen Chae and Lauren Luke. The products...
Netflix Builds $3 Billion Advertising Engine to Lift Margins
Netflix is channeling $3 billion into an advertising‑focused growth engine, targeting $3 billion in ad revenue by 2026. The move follows the company's decision to walk away from a Warner Bros. acquisition, preserving balance‑sheet strength as it heads into its Q1 earnings...
Airship Unveils New Campaigns AI Agent, Expands Fleet at Elevate ’26
Airship announced at its Elevate ’26 conference in Orlando that it is adding a Campaigns AI Agent to its enterprise‑grade AI Agent Fleet. The new agent lets sales and marketing teams set up campaigns via natural‑language chat, scale production and...
Australian Retirement Trust’s ‘Awaken Your Super’ Tops Cubery Hot List for Q1 2026
Australian Retirement Trust’s ‘Awaken Your Super’ campaign, created by M + C Saatchi, topped Cubell’s Q1 2026 Hot List, which ranks ads based on consumer recall. The ad outperformed Telstra’s ‘Wherever We Go’ (second) and Allianz’s ‘Flight of the Finch’ (third). Cubell also launched...
Meta Launches Muse Spark AI Model to Elevate Personalisation in Digital Marketing
Meta introduced the Muse Spark AI model, a multimodal system designed to boost content generation and personalisation across its core platforms. The rollout targets Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, giving marketers new tools for tailored creative and performance campaigns. The move...
CDP Market Projected to Hit $20 B by 2026 as AI and Privacy Drive Adoption
Analysts estimate the global customer data platform market will grow from about $9.7 B today to roughly $20 B by 2026. The surge is powered by AI‑enabled real‑time personalization, first‑party data strategies, and mounting privacy compliance pressures.
The Range Taps Mirakl to Power Its B2B Marketplace Amid 45% Sales Surge
The Range has signed a partnership with Mirakl to replace its in‑house marketplace platform with Mirakl’s AI‑enabled system. The upgrade comes as third‑party sellers account for 45% of the retailer’s online revenue and the site logged more than 200 million visits...
ACAM Warns Marketers as AI Drives Surge in Zero-Click Search
Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM) warns that AI‑generated answers are causing a surge in zero‑click searches, with more than 70% of Google queries in Australia yielding no click‑through by early 2026. When AI summaries appear, click‑through falls to...
AI Generates Weekly Social Calendar for Consistent Growth
I built a skill for Claude Code that plans and writes your social media content — LinkedIn, X, Instagram, TikTok, and more. You tell it your product and audience, and it builds a weekly content calendar with specific post types, topics,...
Restacking Is the Most Underrated Growth Tool on Substack. Here’s What It Actually Signals to the Algorithm.
Restacking on Substack is presented as an underused growth lever that sends the platform’s algorithm a clear audience‑overlap signal. By deliberately restacking complementary writers and one’s own high‑performing posts, creators can surface content to new readers and accelerate subscriber acquisition...
Launching My First SEO Bootcamp: Join the Journey
I've been running SEO workshops for a couple of years, and it's been a lot of fun. So I'm doubling down on this path, and having so much fun putting my first BOOTCAMP together. This is just one of many one we'll...
Reddit Expands Reminder Ads Globally
Reddit has rolled out its Reminder Ads feature to every advertiser on the platform, allowing brands worldwide to add a “Remind Me” button to their campaigns. When users tap the CTA, they receive two push notifications—one day before and one...
Unifying MMM & Last Touch for a Modern Marketer’s Edge
Kochava has integrated its Always‑On Incremental Measurement (AIM) marketing mix modeling solution with its core last‑touch and multi‑touch attribution platform, creating a single measurement suite. The migration opens to AIM customers on April 16, with the legacy AIM login available until...
Tesco Teams with Adobe to Launch AI‑driven Personalised Marketing Platform
Tesco has joined forces with Adobe to roll out an AI‑driven personalised marketing platform that will tap the retailer’s Clubcard data covering more than 24 million UK households. The partnership is designed to sharpen customer engagement and lift sales across Tesco’s...
SuperStuff.ai Appoints Sonia Khurana as COO and Partner to Accelerate Growth
SuperStuff.ai announced that Sonia Khurana, former COO of Digitas India, will join as Chief Operating Officer and partner. The move is intended to strengthen the company’s growth engine, deepen agency relationships and expand its AI‑driven marketing platform across India and...
Playable Ads Trends in Mobile Games & Apps - March 2026
In March 2026, playable ads moved firmly beyond gaming, with six of AppLovin's top‑10 creatives originating from non‑gaming categories. The shift reflects broader adoption of interactive ad formats across finance, health, and e‑commerce apps. Marketers highlighted two primary use cases—product...
AI Could Shift Weeks of Tweets in Seconds
Just had to push my currently scheduled content ahead until after 22nd April (when we launch Stanley for 𝕏). That's 3x tweets a day (30x total tweets). Manually had to move all of them. Took me a good 30 min. Imagine if I could've...
Affiliate Marketing Buffet Unveils ClickCampaigns.ai, Cutting Agency Costs 90% for Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing Buffet introduced ClickCampaigns.ai, an AI‑driven platform that uses more than 20 specialized agents to create full‑funnel campaigns in under an hour. Priced at $149 per month, the service promises to reduce outsourced marketing labor costs by roughly 90...
Most Followers Miss Your Posts, Stop Over‑Repeating
90% of your audience isn't seeing your content the first time. Most people don't see your posts, and you're stressing about "looking too repetitive."
Twitch Adds Advertiser Data‑sharing Clause to Streamer Agreement
Twitch has updated the Monetized Streamer Agreement to include new language on how it shares user data with Advertisers.
![[Guest Post] Oh My Influencer! Italian Rules on Influencer Marketing](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbukFTTXZ_lirnKeLQfYtdXLaQZwhq_ApfkRJlwRPzhvz75qNO61xIradk9HnPM2b9JLlvzzBGVScNdmC9KikjhE8zW_bXySI092agCrhiE1pOTyNmXq90sjPZ9zhL6iPwCg5pwjL60VdcBhmazaYo1NZZyzwkAE1koRxcdp3d6jbGwnXZX8JCg/s72-c/Screenshot%202026-04-13%20at%2021.27.09.png)
[Guest Post] Oh My Influencer! Italian Rules on Influencer Marketing
Italy has formalized influencer marketing under a multi‑layered legal regime. Effective July 24 2025, AGCOM’s Regulation No. 197/25/CONS classifies qualifying influencers as audiovisual media services, invoking the TUSMA framework. The rules demand explicit commercial disclosures, protection of minors, and strict respect for trademark...
Validate Ecom Demand Fast with Ugly Site Tests
If I lost everything and had to build a profitable ecom brand by summer, here's exactly what I'd do. 1. RUN THE UGLY WEBSITE TEST. Find a competitor with a horrible site, no real ads, and photos that look like they...
Google Simplifies Analytics and Ads Consent Rules
Google is overhauling how consent signals flow between Google Analytics and Google Ads, effective June 15. The new model drops the reliance on Google Signals and other Analytics settings, using only the `ad_storage` consent flag for Ads data collection. This...
Become the Answer, Not Just a Keyword Ranker
It’s no longer about ranking for keywords; it’s about being the answer. With AI-powered discovery engines becoming the default, brands need to shift from publishing more content to building predictive, authoritative content systems. At Marketing (re)Focus 2026, I’ll be discussing what this...
NAB 2026: Mediaproxy Adds AI Brand and Advertisement Tracking to LogServer
Mediaproxy unveiled an AI‑powered brand and advertisement tracking suite integrated into its LogServer compliance platform, with a live demo at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas. The solution leverages machine‑learning models to automatically spot logos and visual identifiers across broadcast, streaming...
Let Social, Not HR, Run Employee Advocacy
My hot take: the reason a lot of employee advocacy programs fall flat is because they're run by HR Employee advocacy — turning employees into brand ambassadors on social — should be run by the social team. Social people know what...
Netflix Ad Tier Set to Double Revenue, Price Target $700
Netflix's ad-supported tier is crushing it. Analysts now project its ad revenue will DOUBLE to ~$3B this year. Bullish outlook has one firm raising its price target to $700. 📈 Streaming
Overlay Ads and the Streaming Ad Tech State of Play
IAB Tech Lab’s VP of Product Jill Wittkopp outlined the current state of streaming ad‑tech, focusing on overlay formats such as L‑bars, squeezebacks and corner overlays. The lab applied an 80/20 rule to distill eight ad experiences down to six,...
Human‑First Social Strategy: Turn Content Into Clients
Starts April 14 - want to join us? 🚀 Brand-new live masterclass: The HUMAN-First Marketing Method. Turn Your Content Into Clients: A Human-First Facebook & Instagram Strategy That Works in Today’s AI-Driven World https://t.co/rc1HJyfQEF
Too Many Ads Hurt Performance and User Experience
There’s a fine line between personalization and overload. Rob Janes explains why too many ads don’t just hurt performance—they damage the user experience. See how leading teams are approaching it: https://t.co/eKmsXk6CsW @ad_butler #BrandTrust #hcmktg https://t.co/UqGG6MsvVe
MozCon New York 2026
Moz is hosting MozCon New York 2026, a single‑track, one‑day SEO and digital‑marketing conference on July 14 in Midtown Manhattan. The agenda covers SEO strategy, content marketing, data‑driven tactics, and AI’s impact on search, delivering actionable frameworks and networking sessions....
Fast‑track Content Strategy for Founders in Post‑SEO Era
Next up at MicroConf: Amanda Natividad (@amandanat ) on content-marketing in the post-SEO era. "A framework for founders who can't wait 12 months"
Turn Top UGC Ads Into Partnerships, Cut CPA 19%
Many operators have a best-performing UGC ad, and they've never run it as a Partnership Ad… …that's on average a 19% CPA reduction sitting in your ad library untouched. Even after you optimized the hook, the format, the creative. Run this test, and...
AI Back‑Button Tactics: Smart UX, Risky Geo Strategy
Published on the same day Google just announced a new manual action for hijacking the back button. Good timing @MediaWyse :) -> AI buttons: Smart UX play, risky GEO tactic, or both? https://t.co/lDNUuhP7Q2