Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Updated 2h agoSpeed-to-Culture: Brands Win by Activating Creators in Hours
Brands that can activate creators within hours outpace competitors, relying on speed rather than larger spend. The article outlines a speed‑to‑culture framework built on pre‑vetted creator rosters, master contracts, and a single decision owner, which can be established in 30 days to enable real‑time engagement.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Levitate raises $16M in growth-stage funding
News•Jan 26, 2026
ADWEEK to Debut the Super Bowl AI Influence Index
ADWEEK is partnering with AI‑search startup Emberos to debut the first Real‑Time AI Influence Index on Super Bowl 60 day, displaying the top seven advertisers based on their visibility in generative search engines. The index, embedded on ADWEEK.com’s sidebar, updates live as AI queries mention ads, measuring frequency, accuracy, cross‑engine consistency, and discourse momentum. After the game, ADWEEK will publish a top‑20 brand ranking and detailed analysis of how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Grok responded to the commercials. The effort aims to give marketers a new, AI‑centric gauge of ad impact during a cultural megaproject.
By Adweek AI
News•Jan 26, 2026
From Cringe to Fandom: Social Media Reigns Supreme
We Are Social’s "Think Forward 2026" study finds 95% of marketers view social media as essential for brand building, with 63% already leveraging social selling and another 17% planning to start. AI‑generated content is flooding feeds, prompting a pivot toward...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Jan 26, 2026
Researchers Uncover “Haxor” SEO Poisoning Marketplace
Security researchers uncovered the HaxorSEO (HxSEO) marketplace, a Telegram and WhatsApp‑based service that sells over 1,000 malicious backlinks from compromised, decades‑old domains. Each listing includes trust scores such as domain authority and is priced at $6, allowing threat actors to...
By Infosecurity Magazine
News•Jan 26, 2026
You No Longer Have to Choose Between Insight and Impact
The article argues that the traditional split between qualitative insight and quantitative impact is becoming obsolete thanks to AI and advanced analytics. By applying generative LLMs and Bayesian methods, marketers can now achieve deep, nuanced understanding at massive scale. The...
By MarTech
News•Jan 26, 2026
Loyalty Didn’t Disappear. Brands Traded It Away.
Loyalty has not vanished; brands have diluted it by swapping genuine value for gimmicks and mistaking engagement for commitment. Traditional points and gamified programs generated activity metrics but failed to deliver incremental, margin‑adjusted revenue. As discount‑driven schemes compress profits, the...
By MarTech
News•Jan 26, 2026
How to Write Promotional Emails that Actually Convert
The MarTech article dissects why many webinar invitation emails fall flat, citing vague messaging, information overload, generic copy, weak subject lines, and poor timing. It then presents three proven copy frameworks—AIDA, PAS, and the 4Ps—to structure persuasive content. Best‑practice recommendations...
By MarTech
Podcast•Jan 26, 2026•39 min
$240,000/Year In-Office Job or the $120,000/Year Fully Remote Job?
In this episode of Tea with GaryVee, Gary discusses the trade‑off between a high‑paying $240k in‑office role and a lower‑paying $120k fully remote position, emphasizing that compensation is just one factor in career decisions. He argues that execution, adaptability, and...
By The GaryVee Audio Experience
News•Jan 26, 2026
Google Ads New Billing Report
Google Ads is introducing a new billing report that provides a line‑by‑line view of invoices, displaying account, campaign, usage, and payment details. The interface lets users select custom date ranges, view data by account ID and type, and reconcile spend...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Jan 26, 2026
Google Ads Gambling & Games Certification Eligibility: Good Health
Google will update its Ads gambling and games policy on March 23, 2026, requiring advertisers to demonstrate good policy health before obtaining certification. The rule mandates a clean account history with few violations, and manager accounts with a significant number...
By Search Engine Roundtable
Blog•Jan 26, 2026
What Is a Website Integration? How Integrations Expand Functionality
The episode explains website integrations as connections between a site and external apps or services that enable data exchange and expanded functionality. It outlines four main categories—ecommerce data, marketing, analytics, and chatbot integrations—highlighting how each can streamline operations, personalize experiences,...
By eCommerce Fastlane
News•Jan 26, 2026
Google Ads Campaign Mix Experiments In Beta
Google Ads introduced Campaign Mix Experiments, a beta tool that lets advertisers run a single experiment across multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings. Users can assign existing campaigns to up to five experiment arms, enabling tests of account structures, consolidation,...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Jan 26, 2026
Google Ads Product Campaign View Report Is Useful
Google Ads introduced a Product Campaign View report that consolidates performance metrics for individual products across all active campaigns. Advertisers can click a product title to see conversions, spend, and other key indicators broken down by each campaign, including Standard...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Jan 26, 2026
EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Overtakes Reddit as Go-To Citation Source on AI Search
Recent analysis shows YouTube has become the most cited social platform in AI-generated answers, surpassing Reddit. Over the past six months, large language models referenced YouTube in 16% of responses versus 10% for Reddit. The shift stems from YouTube’s rich...
By Adweek AI
News•Jan 26, 2026
NCA Hires Creatives Behind Just Eat and Moonpig Ads
New Commercial Arts (NCA) has added four senior creatives—Adam Taylor‑Smith, Steve Yeates, Rose Power and Niamh McBride—to its team. Taylor‑Smith and Yeates bring experience from McCann London, including the viral Just Eat ads, while Power and McBride have shaped brand...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Jan 26, 2026
Google’s New User Intent Extraction Method via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google researchers unveiled a two‑stage, on‑device method for extracting user intent from UI interactions. The first stage generates per‑interaction summaries on the device, while a second, fine‑tuned model aggregates these summaries into a comprehensive intent description. This approach outperforms larger...
By Search Engine Journal
News•Jan 26, 2026
How Children with Cancer UK Is Getting a Fundraising Boost with Salesforce
Children with Cancer UK, which has raised over £300 million and helped lift childhood cancer survival from 67 % to 85 % since 1990, embarked on a digital transformation using Salesforce. The charity migrated to Salesforce CRM, Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud, creating...
By Diginomica
Blog•Jan 26, 2026
What Is Bulk SMS? A Complete Guide To Mass Texting
In this episode, Simonas Svegzda explains what bulk SMS is and how it differs from automated messaging, outlining the steps to run a mass texting campaign—from choosing a platform like Omnisend and importing a compliant contact list to crafting concise...
By eCommerce Fastlane
News•Jan 26, 2026
The Analytics Blind Spot: Why 70% of Marketers Can’t Prove Social Media ROI (and How to Fix It)
Only 30% of marketers can prove social media’s business impact, leaving 70% stuck with vanity metrics. The root cause is fragmented data and simplistic attribution that obscure ROI. Experts recommend consolidating analytics, tailoring ROI definitions, and building multi‑touch attribution while...
By Social Media Today
News•Jan 26, 2026
Why Your ESP Alone Won’t Carry You Into 2026
Retail marketers still rely heavily on email and SMS, but traditional ESPs only reach customers they already know. With up to 95% of website traffic remaining anonymous, the gap between known and unknown shoppers is widening and eroding engagement. Adding...
By Retail Dive
News•Jan 26, 2026
Conversation with… People in Retail Awards Judge Giles Smith
Former Selfridges digital head Giles Smith discusses his return as a judge for the People in Retail Awards. He emphasizes the importance of celebrating frontline employees and unsung innovators rather than solely focusing on commercial metrics. Smith, now a technology...
By The Retail Bulletin
Social•Jan 26, 2026
Data Beats Confidence: Test Everything, Scale Fast
I've run 300+ ad campaigns. Here's the pattern: Campaigns I thought would 'crush' died day 2. Campaigns I 'threw together' scaled to 6 figures. Your confidence doesn't matter. The data does. Test everything. Trust nothing.
By Kamil Sattar
News•Jan 26, 2026
SportsShoes.com to Open Flagship Experiential Store in Shoreditch
SportsShoes.com will launch its flagship experiential store, House of SportsShoes, on Shoreditch High Street in early March. The 5,000‑square‑foot venue blends digital‑first retail with a “no bags, no hassle” model, allowing shoppers to try over 100 running shoes and complete...
By The Retail Bulletin
Blog•Jan 26, 2026
How To Develop and Market Your Product Range
The episode explains what a product range is and how small e‑commerce businesses can strategically develop and market it. It outlines steps for aligning a range with brand goals, audience needs, and operational capacity, while weighing the pros and cons...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Social•Jan 26, 2026
TikTok's Woes May Spark Rise of New Rival
Between this and the new privacy policy, sounds like TikTok is going to need a new competitor soon.
By Lily Ray
News•Jan 26, 2026
Gen Z Fuels Resurgence of Physical Music in Canada as Vinyl and K-Pop Sales Surge
Physical music sales in Canada have rebounded, with overall record sales rising 19.1% YoY and physical‑media purchases climbing 34% between 2021 and 2023. The surge is driven largely by Gen Z, who value tangible collectibles such as limited‑edition vinyl and...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Jan 26, 2026
Gentle Fawn Leans on Longevity over Trends as Vancouver Fashion Brand Marks More than Two Decades
Gentle Fawn, a Vancouver‑based fashion label founded in 2003, has shifted its focus from wholesale‑only to a balanced omnichannel model, with its e‑commerce site now the largest sales channel. The brand serves roughly 600 retail partners across Canada and the...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Jan 26, 2026
The $42.8B Retail Media Playbook
Retail media generated $42.8 billion for Amazon in Q1 2025, driven by a server‑side ad serving architecture that delivers native ads without latency or privacy trade‑offs. The eBook outlines a modern retail media stack featuring sponsored products, zero‑impact loading, full reach, built‑in...
By The Retail Bulletin
![What Is Human-First Marketing? [Infographic]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/thumbnails/592552693bf02122ca5bee9dec752a93.webp)
News•Jan 26, 2026
What Is Human-First Marketing? [Infographic]
Human‑first marketing shifts focus from product features to the personal benefits a brand delivers, emphasizing empathy and storytelling. The article warns that AI‑generated content can dilute authentic connections, making audience‑centric messaging essential for performance. Giraffe Social Media’s infographic offers practical...
By Social Media Today
News•Jan 25, 2026
Pinterest Adds Media Planner to Help You Manage Your Ad Campaigns
Pinterest has launched a native Media Planner within its Ads Manager, giving marketers a single dashboard to design, estimate, and model upper‑funnel campaigns. The tool lets advertisers explore high‑value audience segments, forecast impressions, reach, CPM and CPC by country, and...
By Social Media Today
Social•Jan 25, 2026
Free Weekly Newsletter Curates Top PR Campaigns and Hooks
📣 Announcing The "Trending Campaigns" Newsletter: Receive the most effective PR campaigns and coverage opportunities with the Trending Campaigns Newsletter. Trending Campaigns is a free weekly newsletter curating standout PR campaigns and timely news hooks you can use, sent every...
By Aleyda Solis
News•Jan 25, 2026
Top Crypto SEO & AI Search Agencies for Web3 Projects
The article outlines the shift in crypto SEO from traditional rankings to AI‑driven visibility, highlighting agencies that specialize in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and LLM‑friendly content. It profiles eight firms, with Victoria Olsina’s consultancy leading in...
By TechBullion
Blog•Jan 25, 2026
How Health and Wellness DTC Brands Are Navigating the GLP-1 Medication Boom
The episode explores how direct‑to‑consumer health and wellness brands can thrive amid the rapid adoption of GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs. It advises brands to shift from competing on weight‑loss results to addressing medication‑specific pain points such as protein shortfalls, dehydration, and...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Blog•Jan 25, 2026
The Hidden Cost of Website Downtime That’s Quietly Crushing Shopify Stores
The episode reveals how even brief Shopify downtime can devastate revenue, with shoppers three times more likely to defect to competitors and conversion rates dropping 10‑20% after an outage. It breaks down the hidden costs—lost sales, wasted ad spend, ineffective...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Social•Jan 25, 2026
Creative Mastery Replaces Media Buyers in Modern Ecom
Hiring technical media buyers is completely outdated now. The ecom world has moved on from having that as a dedicated role. When you're hiring for paid acquisition, you should only focus on the following: - Creative management - Understanding why something...
By Davie Fogarty
Social•Jan 25, 2026
Stop Excuses, Start Authentic Storytelling for Your Brand
You are the interesting “part” stop 🛑 with the excuses of equipment or lighting ot all the other stuff u come up with that’s an excuse to authenticity & consistency .. Start telling your story Start telling your company’s story Start making...
By GaryVee
Blog•Jan 25, 2026
Boundless Creativity And Design Mastery With David “Shingy” Shing – This Week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel Conversation
In this episode Mitch Joel talks with David “Shingy” Shing about the intersection of culture, data, and human behavior in modern branding. Shingy stresses that the most valuable insights come from the quiet signals in a data‑saturated world and urges...
By Six Pixels of Separation
Blog•Jan 25, 2026
Guest Posts Strategy: 12 Tips For AI Overviews
In this episode Reuben Mattinson explains how guest‑posting has shifted from a link‑building tactic to a reputation‑focused strategy in the age of AI Overviews. He outlines twelve actionable tips, emphasizing the need for topical relevance, the end of the “first‑party...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Blog•Jan 25, 2026
What Is Order Placement? How It Works + Best Practices
The episode breaks down the six‑step order placement process—from cart finalization and checkout initiation through payment authorization, inventory verification, order confirmation, and fulfillment—explaining how each stage works behind the scenes. It highlights the key benefits of a smooth checkout, such...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Social•Jan 25, 2026
ChatGPT Drives Shopify Sales, Adds 4% Fee for Merchants
so chatgpt can help you with buying Shopify products, but the merchant will pay 4% more, which goes to openai (edited an earlier mistake) given current user base, Shopify merchants should be happy to get additional traffic combined w ads, kinda feels...
By Yohei Nakajima
Social•Jan 25, 2026
Glossier Grew on Community, Not Ad Spend
Glossier spent $0 on ads for their first 2 years. Just UGC and community. Meanwhile you're burning budget on cold traffic. That's the gap.
By Kamil Sattar
Blog•Jan 24, 2026
What Is A Website Crawler? 12 Bot Management Strategies
Ilya Grigorik explains that over half of web traffic now comes from bots, dividing them into good (search), grey (AI training/fetchers) and bad (malicious scrapers) and urging e‑commerce teams to treat this "post‑human" reality as a core business concern. He...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Social•Jan 25, 2026
Banks Should Use Personalization to Build Trust, Not Push Sales
Banks must rethink personalization as a relationship engine, not a sales trigger. Getting this wrong weakens trust over time. Read more here: https://t.co/bBd6Gks1RH https://t.co/N9sg2C4Ct5
By Jim Marous
Blog•Jan 24, 2026
How BigTime Built the Business Behind the Builds
The episode chronicles how former Donut Media creators Jeremiah Burton, Andy Paz, and Zach Jobe launched BigTime, a fast‑growing automotive YouTube channel, leveraging full creative control to produce bold builds and connect authentically with fans. Their partnership with Shopify enabled...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Blog•Jan 24, 2026
12 Hot Pay-Per-Post Collabs For Influencers Going Into 2026
Natalie Weber outlines twelve lucrative pay‑per‑post influencer collaborations poised for 2026, highlighting four examples: Inktoss, a mobile printing service offering $50‑$200 per demo post and free printing; ShipShared, a SaaS launch marketplace rewarding $20‑$225 per performance‑driven post plus click bonuses;...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Blog•Jan 24, 2026
Understanding High-Value Buying Behaviour in Ecommerce
The episode explains how high‑value ecommerce shoppers behave differently—taking longer, revisiting sites, and demanding extensive reassurance—so merchants should prioritize trust signals, clear policies, and detailed product information over flash discounts or urgency cues. Mapping the multi‑device buying journey and providing...
By eCommerce Fastlane
Social•Jan 24, 2026
Scale Visitor Tracking: Simple Monitoring Until $5M ARR
The way you use website visitor data changes at each revenue stage: $0-1M ARR: Just monitor your traffic $1-5M ARR: LinkedIn and email outreach $5M+ ARR: Lead scoring and workflows I’ve seen early-stage founders trying to build complex workflows when they don’t need to...
By Adam Robinson
Social•Jan 24, 2026
Cheap AI Stack Enables New Millionaires This Year
Claude + Nano Banana is going to make multiple millionaires this year. This is the same as when people figured out Facebook ads in 2016-2017. People were making millions with terrible websites and average products just because they figured out the traffic...
By Davie Fogarty
News•Jan 24, 2026
Get Ready for the AI Ad-Pocalypse
Generative AI is rapidly infiltrating advertising, with over half of brand marketers already using AI tools in 2025 and 90% planning AI‑driven video ads. Studies project AI‑generated content will power 40% of all ads by 2026, while human detection rates...
By The Verge AI
Social•Jan 24, 2026
Use Behavioral Science to Instantly Boost Marketing Engagement
Have you heard of behavioral science? But you’re not sure how best to apply it to your marketing? Here’s what you need to know to start automatically increasing engagement and response.
By Nancy Harhut
Social•Jan 24, 2026
Ecom Founders Work Weekends, Chasing Ad Scaling
Everyone on Friday: Thank God it's the weekend. Ecom founders on Friday: Which ads scaled this week? Different mindset. Different life.
By Kamil Sattar