Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Accenture Song acquires creator agency Whalar to boost influencer capabilities
Accenture Song announced the acquisition of Whalar, adding a 170‑person global creator and social team while keeping co‑CEOs Emma Harman and Jo Cronk in place. The deal 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 tools.
Local SEO Tips: 7 Tactics To Rank Higher (2026)
The 2026 guide outlines seven actionable local SEO tactics for retailers, emphasizing the pivotal role of an optimized Google Business Profile, precise NAP consistency, and localized content. It details how schema markup, local keyword integration, and strategic backlink building enhance visibility in Google’s local pack and organic results. The article also highlights Shopify‑specific integrations that streamline product syncing and review management. By following these steps, merchants can capture location‑based search intent and drive foot traffic and online conversions.
500M AI Searches Later: How To Actually Improve AI Search Visibility & Citations via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
Heather Campbell’s Search Engine Journal webinar reveals how to close AI citation gaps after analyzing over 500 million AI conversations. The session outlines which content types, sources, and placements earn citations in platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. It also demonstrates...
Google Ads API V20 Sunset Set for June 10
Google announced that the Google Ads API version 20 will sunset on June 10, 2026, ending all support for that version. After the deadline, any request to v20 will return an error, forcing developers to migrate to a newer API...
Missing Reddit: Hidden Driver of Lost Enterprise Deals
The enterprise deal you just lost? There’s a good chance the decision was shaped in a Reddit thread 6 months ago. Not in Salesforce. Not in HubSpot. Not in your attribution model. Reddit is now the 3rd most visible site in Google Search. If you’re not...
Amazon Rolls Out AI‑generated Product Podcasts, Faces Backlash over Authenticity
Amazon introduced AI‑generated, podcast‑style audio segments that discuss individual products, but early users and commentators criticize the feature as disingenuous and poorly executed. The rollout highlights tensions between AI‑driven marketing efficiency and consumer trust.
X (Formerly Twitter) Rolls Out Rebuilt AI‑powered Ad Platform to Win Back Advertisers
Elon Musk’s X began a phased rollout of a rebuilt, AI‑powered advertising platform on Thursday, promising more precise targeting and continuous feature upgrades. The move targets a rebound to $2.46 bn in ad revenue by 2026, according to eMarketer, as the...
How AI Agents Are Transforming Modern Marketing Strategy
Stefano Puntoni, a Wharton marketing professor, explains that generative‑AI search and autonomous agents are reshaping how brands reach consumers. These tools move beyond keyword matching to infer intent, delivering hyper‑personalized recommendations and even completing purchases without human clicks. The shift...
AI Is Bringing Retail Media Closer to the Sale
Retail media is becoming more complex as brands juggle multiple channels and an explosion of shopper signals. At an ADWEEK House Possible panel, CVS Media Exchange (CMX) and Kenvue highlighted how artificial intelligence is being used to personalize offers, streamline...
For Creator-Led Campaigns, Authenticity Starts Before the Shoot
Intuit QuickBooks, together with agency Collectively, has expanded its creator‑led "Outdo It" campaign from a $200,000 pilot to a budget exceeding $40 million. The program insists on casting real small‑business owners who actually use QuickBooks, boosting authenticity. The latest spot features...
Why Audio Is a Trusted Anchor in a Digital World
During an ADWEEK House Possible panel, executives from iHeartMedia, GroundTruth and ADWEEK discussed how audio is re‑emerging as a trust‑centric medium in a world saturated with AI‑generated content. They highlighted that 93% of consumers want news from a human and...
AI Answer Engines Pose Challenges and Opportunities for Brands
AI answer engines such as ChatGPT are reshaping a fragmented customer journey, with overall search activity rising 26% year‑on‑year. Marketers must view AI as a new stakeholder that consumes reviews, social chatter and platform content to generate citations. Platforms like...
How Generative AI Will Impact Marketers and Consumers
InMobi exec Singhal predicts that by 2026 generative AI will power interactive ad formats that act like personal shopping agents, letting consumers outsource research while retaining final purchase decisions. He highlighted Glance, InMobi’s agentic commerce platform, which creates AI‑generated visual...
OpenAI Starts Laying Foundations for ChatGPT Ads in EU
OpenAI is preparing to launch advertising on ChatGPT in the European Union by updating its conversion‑tracking pixel with a consent‑management system and a country field. The change aligns the product with GDPR’s opt‑in requirements, a step not needed for U.S....
The Trade Desk Is Selling Onsite Retail Media Ads for Dollar General
The Trade Desk has launched a new retail‑media offering that lets advertisers purchase onsite display ads on Dollar General’s website through the same demand‑side platform used for off‑site campaigns. The partnership, built with retail‑tech provider Kevel, merges upper‑funnel inventory such...
Why Clinical Digital Out-of-Home Displays Are Healthcare’s Most Untapped Advertising Opportunity
Clinical digital out‑of‑home (DOOH) screens sit in waiting rooms where patients are fully attentive to a health concern, yet they are priced at the same CPM as mass‑media channels that cannot guarantee an audience. Studies show point‑of‑care ads generate 84%...
OpenAI To 'Promote' Own Products Via Your Browser Cookies
OpenAI announced that it will use browser cookies to promote its products and services on other sites, marking a shift from pure organic growth to a commercial advertising model. The updated privacy policy explains that cookies will personalize ads for...
How Do You Turn Creator Commerce Into a Performance Channel?
The PI LIVE Europe Influencer & Commerce Summit will examine how creator‑driven affiliate marketing can evolve into a performance‑focused channel. Influencer spend reached $32 bn last year, a 35% jump, while research shows a 46% lift in affiliate sales when creators...
What If You Could Target Mindset, Not Just Location?
Seedtag unveiled NeuroX, an AI‑driven Neuro‑Contextual Exchange that layers mindset signals onto traditional zip‑code targeting. The platform claims up to a 35% lift in click‑through rates and conversions by identifying buying intent in real time. NeuroX addresses the loss of...
Jennifer Lopez Uses Fake LinkedIn Jobs to Boost Netflix’s ‘Office Romance’
Jennifer Lopez updated her LinkedIn résumé with made‑up film‑role titles to promote Netflix’s new rom‑com “Office Romance”. The stunt, announced via an Instagram video, extends Netflix’s growing LinkedIn playbook that has previously featured campaigns for “Squid Game” and “Emily in...
Google AI Mode In Chrome Isn’t Killing SEO; It’s Exposing Weak SEO via @Sejournal, @Gregjarboe
Google announced AI Mode in Chrome, letting users stay in an AI‑driven interface while viewing publisher pages side‑by‑side. The change turns search from a simple list of links into a guided experience, meaning clicks are no longer the start of...
LinkedIn Scans 6,278 Browser Extensions, Sparking Privacy Concerns for Marketers
LinkedIn has expanded its browser‑extension scanning to 6,278 entries as of April 2026, encrypting the inventory into each web request. The move, uncovered by a privacy‑focused blog, could let marketers infer job‑search activity and personal interests from users who haven’t consented,...
Avoid Over‑Splitting Budgets; Tiny Campaigns Waste Data
Just audited an ad account spending around 300k/month and they currently have 107 active campaigns with budgets as low as $20/day. Don't do this.... ever please. I'm all for unique strategies when running an account etc... but when you split your account...
Pinterest Ad Shows Girls Going From Doom-Scrolling to Dancing
Pinterest unveiled its latest Spot ad, the second installment of the "How did they do it?" campaign, featuring teenage girls shifting from doom‑scrolling on their phones to dancing. The creative visual underscores Pinterest’s push to position the platform as a...
The Art of Doing More with Less: The New Marketing Operations Stack
At the May 6 MarTech Conference, a panel titled “The art of doing more with less: The new marketing operations stack” examined how MOps teams can shift from maintenance‑heavy roles to strategic enablers. Moderated by Mike Rizzo, the discussion featured Fergus...
5 Ways to Implement Social Intelligence at Your Organization
The article outlines a five‑step framework for turning raw social data into a strategic asset, urging firms to move from reactive listening to proactive social intelligence. It highlights the "practitioner paradox" where insights stay siloed, and cites that 64% of...
The Morning After: Instagram Will Try to Penalize 'Unoriginal' Posts
Meta is expanding its 2024 algorithm tweaks to penalize unoriginal photo and carousel posts on Instagram, joining the earlier restrictions on recycled Reels. The change will throttle reach for accounts that simply reshare content without material edits. Meanwhile, Samsung is...
Day 11: The Self-Monetizing Lead Magnet That 8x’d Growth
Terry Rice transformed a traditional lead magnet into a self‑monetizing tool that showcases his weekly workflow and the apps he uses. By feeding audience conversations into a sentiment‑analysis engine, he identified demand for a transparent productivity system and built it...
A Blueprint for Semantic Programmatic SEO
Programmatic SEO is shifting from mass‑produced, template‑driven pages to a semantic, AI‑powered model that tailors content to specific search intents. The new blueprint emphasizes starting with data—using Google Search Console authority maps—to identify topics where a domain already has ranking...
Influencer Marketing in Saudi Arabia: A Complete 2026 Guide for Brands
Influencer marketing in Saudi Arabia has become a high‑engagement, culturally specific channel as social‑media penetration hits 94%—about 35 million active users—and platforms like TikTok and Snapchat dominate usage. Arabic‑first content consistently outperforms translated English by 35‑50%, while the General Authority for...
April & May 2026 Google Webmaster Report
Google wrapped up its March 2026 spam update and the March core update, which finished rolling out in April, amid heightened ranking volatility. The company introduced a new spam penalty targeting back‑button hijacking and began issuing warning notices to affected...
How to Drive Your Marketing Cloud Engagement Use Case to Its Destination
Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE) promises powerful automation, but success hinges on disciplined use‑case planning. The article walks firms through defining a business goal, starting with a modest pilot, and assembling a cross‑functional team. It then outlines nine concrete steps—naming...
Walmart and Costco Outperform as Retail Titans Show Resilience
Walmart and Costco posted strong earnings and stock performance as consumer spending patterns shift, with Walmart’s advertising business expanding 37% and Costco’s membership fees rising 13.6% in Q2 FY2026. Both firms are navigating tariff refunds and operational tweaks while maintaining...
“The Fragmentation of Media Is Clear”: Adland Reacts to AA/Warc Expenditure Report
The latest AA/Warc expenditure report shows advertising spend becoming increasingly fragmented across a growing array of media channels. Digital continues to dominate, now representing roughly 58% of total spend, while traditional TV and print see their shares shrink to historic...
GenOptima Launches AEO‑as‑a‑Service, Guaranteeing AI Assistant Citations
GenOptima announced AEO‑as‑a‑Service (AEOaaS), a new performance‑driven category that promises verified brand citations in AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. The model ties fees to actual answer‑engine placement rather than traditional activity metrics, marking a shift in how...
Inside the Stream: YouTube’s Record Q1, Roku’s Howdy Hits 1 Million Subscribers
YouTube reported a record Q1, with ad revenue edging close to $10 billion—an 11% increase year‑over‑year and about 25% versus two years ago. Both direct‑response and brand ads performed strongly, but the fastest‑growing segment was subscriptions, led by Premium and Music....
How to Repurpose Existing Content for Multiple Channels
Azad Yakatally, social media lead at Spring Health, urged marketers to stop chasing brand‑new ideas and instead recycle existing assets across channels. At a Ragan conference he demonstrated how a single webinar, white paper or testimonial can be split into...
UK Affiliate Industry Hits £21 Billion as APMA Calls Time on Last-Click Thinking
The UK affiliate and partner marketing channel surpassed £21 billion (≈ $27 billion) in revenue, growing 7.3%—five times faster than the broader economy’s 1.4% expansion. Retail accounts for over half of tracked spend, while health‑and‑beauty and travel sectors posted the strongest double‑digit gains,...
DMWF Spotlight: From Framework to Reality: Scaling Hyper-Personalisation with Greene King
The Digital Marketing World Forum highlighted how Bond’s Personalisation Maturity Framework helps companies move from fragmented, campaign‑centric tactics to true hyper‑personalisation. The framework evaluates four pillars—data, decisioning, content and orchestration—to pinpoint gaps and prescribe actionable steps. Greene King’s four‑year transformation, built...
Claude
Want to ideate a few programmatic pages for your site? This Claude prompt will help. (I recommend you don't go overboard. Just 10-20 pages will be a good starting point.) The prompt: "Based on my product [your url]) and my integrations/features: (name some...
Scale Growth Requires Both Creative Volume and Diversity
Creative Volume =/ Creative Diversity If you want to scale you need both though. Creative diversity at scale is how you truly grow.
Possible Has Us Wishing For Our Robot Overlords, Amazon Allegedly Going Full MAGA
The Possible conference in Miami gathered roughly 8,000 marketers and showcased a flood of AI‑driven ad‑tech startups, many of which struggle to differentiate their “process optimization” pitches. Observers warn that as generative AI matures, it could streamline buying and force...
SEO Volatility Rises as Google, Bing Unveil AI Updates
SEO Video Recap: More Google ranking volatility, Google back button hijacking notices, will AdSense trigger the penalty, Bing Webmaster Tools teases new AI reporting and Google and Microsoft earnings https://t.co/ZSaUOxsPHh
AI Is Redefining Corporate Communications and Earned Media
The New Earned Media: Why Corporate Comms Is Being Rewired for the AI Era https://t.co/tSk0Q1W5iZ
The Science of Ad Intelligence: How Data-Driven Brands Reverse-Engineer Winning Campaigns
The article argues that paid‑media success now hinges on ad intelligence rather than gut instinct. By reverse‑engineering creatives that demonstrate longevity and stable spend, brands can compress testing cycles, lower customer‑acquisition cost (CAC) and avoid creative fatigue. Automated tools—especially Instagram...
Pillar‑Cluster Architecture Beats Backlink Quantity Every Time
"Just buy more backlinks" is the worst SEO advice on the internet. One of my travel sites outranks competitors with 10x fewer backlinks. The cheat code: - Pillar pages for broad topics - Clusters for the specifics - Internal links wired between them It's very...
Well‑Funded Groups Manufacture Doomer Narrative Online
Doomerism *is* inorganic though. That’s why massively well funded groups are spending millions pushing doomer messaging on social media. Here’s a WaPo piece on some of this https://t.co/ImB0mFy7yk
Turn LinkedIn Posts Into Paid Course Opportunities
Your next LinkedIn post could lead to a PAID course deal with LinkedIn Learning. How do I know? Well... It happened to me... My LinkedIn courses have been watched by 96,000 people. Here's a break down on how I brought the...
Gaming Ads: Unlocking an Underused Advertising Powerhouse
Scott Ensign, Chief Strategy Officer at @ButlerTill, discusses why gaming is still one of the most misunderstood and underutilized channels in advertising and how brands can finally unlock its full potential. https://t.co/bgRersWIG8
Martech Inversion: From Cockpit to Engine Room
The Great Martech Inversion: When the Cockpit Becomes the Engine Room by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/o8VHexq82B @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #Marketing #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews #AI #CX #CRM #MarketingSuccess #MarketingStrategy #AIAgents https://t.co/SShWmRJUvC
Google Webmaster Report: April‑May Highlights Unveiled
A really massive Google Webmaster report (missed last month so April and May are together) - catch up here https://t.co/MCm57rHrrX https://t.co/zm7tIODJml