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.
Predictive Analysis And Performance Go Hand In Hand
At the POSSIBLE conference, Nielsen introduced Predictive Sales Lift, an outcomes‑based tool that forecasts sales lift and incremental revenue for video ad campaigns on its Nielsen One Ads platform. The solution, initially available in the U.S. next month for connected TV, mobile and desktop, aims to give marketers, especially smaller brands, a lower‑cost alternative to traditional lift studies that can cost $25,000‑$50,000 per campaign. By leveraging data from hundreds of past campaigns, the tool lets advertisers flag underperforming media early and reallocate spend, improving accountability and reducing waste. Early test results suggest grocery categories generate higher lift than fast‑food and that excessive ad frequency may diminish effectiveness.
Metricool’s Free Social Media School Bets That Strategy Beats Trial and Error
Metricool has relaunched its free Social Media School, a six‑module, self‑paced curriculum that has already attracted more than 10,000 learners. The redesign embeds all instructions within the course, eliminating disruptive external links, and culminates in a downloadable strategy template. Modules...
TikTok Tests Hotel Metasearch Cards That Redirect Users to Expedia, Booking.com
TikTok is beta‑testing hotel metasearch cards that appear in users' For You feeds and link directly to major online travel agencies such as Expedia, Booking.com and Trip.com. The cards display a property photo, name and real‑time rate options, with a...
YouTube Adds Side-by-Side Ads for Live Streams on Mobile, Muting Stream Audio During Breaks
YouTube is rolling out a new side‑by‑side ad format for mobile livestreams, placing ads next to the video feed instead of replacing it. During the ad break the video stays visible but the stream’s audio is muted in favor of...
Spend $1,500, Earn $20M: Email Playbook Free
In 2021, I was terrified of spending $1,500 on a single email marketing course. Thought it'd be a complete money bonfire. But that 1 investment helped me: • Sell to 10,000+ customers • Generate over $20,000,000 in revenue • Build a digital business so...
IAS LAUNCHES IAS TOTAL TV SOLUTIONS GIVING MARKETERS ‘LINEAR-LIKE’ TRANSPARENCY FOR CONNECTED TV
Integral Ad Science (IAS) unveiled IAS Total TV, a suite that brings linear‑TV‑style transparency to the fragmented Connected TV (CTV) ecosystem. The platform delivers real‑time, show‑level insights across major streaming services such as Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Prime Video, while...
43 Backlinks Every Founder Should Chase Before AI Overviews Eat Their Traffic
In May 2024 Google launched AI Overviews, a feature that now dominates organic search results and has precipitated a structural collapse of traffic for content publishers and SaaS firms. NP Digital’s 2026 study of 200 companies attributes 92% of the...
Townsquare and Columbus’ NABCO Ignite Digital Ad Partnership
Townsquare Media’s Ignite division announced a digital‑advertising partnership with North American Broadcasting Company (NABCO) in Columbus, Ohio, marking its latest addition to the Ignite Media Partnerships program launched in 2024. The deal grants NABCO white‑label access to Townsquare’s proprietary programmatic...
Microsoft Adds Contextual Offer Highlights to Copilot Ads
Offer Highlights in Copilot -> Microsoft Merchant Center Now Supports 'Highlights for Copilot' From Microsoft Ads: "We’re introducing Offer Highlights, new ad experiences that enable brands to promote key product differentiators within the context of Copilot conversations. More than showing traditional...
Warehouse-Native CDPs vs Standalone Platforms Explained
The article compares warehouse‑native CDPs, which run on Snowflake or BigQuery, with traditional standalone platforms such as Tealium and BlueConic. It highlights how native solutions centralize data, lower duplication, and enable deep customization, while standalone tools offer pre‑built activation features...
The Upfront Has Mutated. And Most of the Market Missed It.
The traditional TV Upfront has fundamentally shifted from selling premium inventory to selling proven business outcomes. By 2026, media buyers demand closed‑loop measurement, with retail media becoming the yardstick for performance across linear, streaming, and digital channels. Programmatic platforms now...
Kriti Sanon Turns ‘SPF Police’ in Hyphen’s New Ad
Hyphen launched a new campaign featuring actress‑entrepreneur Kriti Sanon as the whimsical “SPF Police,” reinforcing sunscreen as a daily habit. The short film shows Sanon stopping a gym‑goer from leaving without sunscreen, while Blinkit appears to deliver the product instantly...
TikTok Campaign Shows How Brands Turn Reach Into Real Traffic
A TikTok campaign for pet‑care franchise Camp Bow Wow, run with Scorpion, proved that native, lo‑fi creative paired with interest‑based targeting can drive measurable traffic at scale. The effort generated 23,000 landing‑page views at $2.01 each, over 50,000 clicks at...
AI Max Generates Custom Ad Copy Using Existing Text
Interesting, AI labels for AI-generated ads? I'm assuming this is tied to AI Max campaigns... but maybe someone on the ads side could provide more info. From the AI Max Google documentation: "Text customization: This uses text from your existing ads,...
Even PayPal Ads Has Its Own ID Now
PayPal announced the PayPal Ads ID, an omnichannel identifier built on its and Venmo’s credit‑card‑linked customer base. Unlike cookie‑based graphs, the ID is free for any data or ad‑tech vendor that maintains a commercial relationship with PayPal Ads and can...
Albertsons Media Collective Brings Retail Signals to YouTube with Google’s Commerce Media Suite.
Google’s Commerce Media Suite now integrates Albertsons Media Collective’s first‑party shopper data into YouTube and Display & Video 360. The partnership lets brands reach high‑intent Albertsons customers across YouTube and premium publisher inventory while receiving SKU‑level sales attribution. Early adopters such as Keurig Dr Pepper...
AI Overviews Boost Google Organic Click-Through Rates
Google click through rates for organic results with AI Overviews improving, shows new report https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ctr-improving-aui-overviews-41222.html
China Blocks Meta's Manus Deal, Creating Messy Unwind
China block’s Meta’s months-old acquisition of Manus. Unwinding the acquisition at this stage would be messy. And Meta has already substantially integrated Meta’s agents into its advertising manager suite.
Stagwell Builds TV Ad Platform with FreeWheel
Stagwell has teamed with Comcast-owned FreeWheel to create a unified TV advertising infrastructure that spans connected TV, linear broadcast and live sports. The deal integrates FreeWheel’s Curation Hub and Buyer Cloud into Stagwell’s media acquisition layer, powering the new Stagwell...
SEO Should Reassure, Differentiate, Not Convince Problem‑Aware Users
Users are problem-aware and solution-seeking, which typically converts far better than social discovery or cold outreach. Your SEO job is not to convince them. It is to differentiate, reassure, and reduce friction to action.
Google Ads Demand Gen Image Approvals Facing Delays
Google @adsliaison confirms delays with Google Ads Demand Gen Image ads approvals https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-demand-gen-image-ads-approval-delays-41216.html via Matthew Skelton #googleads #ppc #google
One Year Ago, Unilever CEO Swore to Hire ‘20x More Influencers.’ Did It Deliver on That Promise?
A year after CEO Fernando Fernandez pledged to hire 20 times more influencers, Unilever has expanded its creator network from roughly 10,000 to 300,000, exceeding the target by a factor of 30. The company now works with 17,000 influencers in India...
Bing Experiments with Fewer Clickable Links in Copilot
Bing is testing less clickable links in the Copilot search results https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-less-clickable-links-41208.html #bing #microsoft #copilot #ai
Fully Automated AI UGC Ads Delivered in Eight Minutes
Everyone preaching “AI UGC ads” is straight-up lying. They call it automated… But they’re still: • Writing the scripts • Hunting for clips • Fixing the voiceovers • Manually stitching the final video That’s not automation. That’s just faster manual work. I built the real thing: One custom system powered...
The New AI Search Rules for Your Career Site
In this episode, employer‑brand expert James Ellison explains how career sites must evolve for the era of AI‑driven search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. He argues that traditional SEO tactics are outdated and that companies should treat their career...
Customers Want Personalized Marketing. Why Can’t Most Brands Deliver? By Adobe
Adobe’s 2025‑2026 AI and Digital Trends reports reveal a gap: while 71% of consumers expect personalized, seamless experiences, fewer than half of brands consistently deliver. The root cause is fragmented customer data that hinders real‑time insight sharing across channels. Adobe...
Cult Beauty Pulls Adverts From GB News Following Social Media Pressure
Cult Beauty, the THG‑owned online beauty retailer, has removed its advertising from the UK news channel GB News after a social‑media backlash driven by activist group Stop Funding Hate. The campaign urged the retailer to stop funding a channel described as...
TikTok Unveils UK's First #BookTok Bestseller List, Female Authors Sweep Top 20
TikTok has launched the United Kingdom's first official #BookTok Bestseller List, a monthly chart that blends retail sales with in‑app engagement. The inaugural top 20 is composed entirely of female authors, underscoring the platform's role in a £86 million ($109 million) publishing...
McKinsey Forecasts Agentic AI Could Power Two‑thirds of Marketing Tasks and Lift Revenue 10‑30%
McKinsey's new research projects that agentic AI could automate roughly 60% of marketing work, delivering 10‑30% revenue uplift for early adopters. The firm argues the shift will require unified data, API‑first platforms and a re‑imagined human‑agent workflow.
Brands Can Now Deploy Their Own Agents Inside Publisher Chatbots
Dappier unveiled Sponsored Conversations, a new ad format that inserts brand‑specific AI agents into publisher chatbots. The agents engage users in real time, pulling from the site’s own content and, for brands like Miku, driving qualified leads with roughly 50 %...
When Social Listening Becomes Social Surveillance: The Question the Marketing Industry Doesn’t Want to Ask
The piece reveals that AI‑driven social listening platforms sold to marketers are also being sold to U.S. law‑enforcement agencies, citing a $2.8 million Department of Homeland Security contract and a $95,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement pilot. It argues this dual‑use creates...
SaaS AI Search Optimization: The 8-Step Playbook
Buyers now start SaaS research in AI search, asking multi‑part questions about pricing, integrations, and compliance. If a SaaS brand is missing or mis‑represented in AI answers, it loses early visibility. The guide offers an eight‑step playbook—auditing AI citations, structuring...
Cumulus’ Bob Walker Releases AI Media Planning Guide for Radio
Cumulus Media Operations President Bob Walker released an AI media‑planning guide aimed at local advertisers and radio sales teams. The playbook outlines five best‑practice prompts for large language models such as ChatGPT, emphasizing precise questioning, source verification, and platform awareness....
The End Of SEO? How AI Is Reshaping Brand Discovery On The Web
AI-powered generative search engines are displacing traditional SEO, ushering in a new discipline dubbed Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) or Answer Engine Optimisation. Brands now compete to be recalled by large language models rather than ranked on keyword lists, as AI...
Guide to eBay Video Ads Promoted Listings
eBay has launched video ads for Promoted Listings using its priority strategy, currently in beta. Sellers can attach a 5‑60 second video that autoplays in eligible placements, with no change to cost‑per‑click pricing. The new format adds video‑specific metrics such...
Why LinkedIn Content Fails (and How to Fix It)
Lawyers often struggle on LinkedIn not because their expertise is lacking, but because their content execution is flawed. Host Karin Conroy and data‑visualization expert Bill Shander explain that overloaded charts, unclear messaging, and misaligned stakeholder targeting cause posts to fall...
Goodway Group and Optable Partner to Feed AI Agents Cleaner Data
Optable has partnered with Goodway Group to layer Anthropic Claude‑powered AI agents on its data clean‑room platform, unifying first‑party, third‑party and campaign data. The rollout currently reaches about 70 of Goodway’s 350 employees, primarily in media planning and analytics, to...
How to Create Content AI Can’t Replicate
Kate Rourke warns that marketers risk disappearing into a sea of AI‑generated sameness unless they prioritize authentic, human‑centric briefs. She notes that most briefs now explicitly request real people and raw, unfiltered moments, because audiences crave unpredictable emotion. By anchoring...
News UK Turns The Times’ First-Party Data Into Synthetic Audiences for Advertisers
News UK has launched "Times ExplorAItion," a synthetic‑audience tool that converts The Times' first‑party subscriber data into AI‑generated audience models for advertisers. Powered by Electric Twin, the platform creates privacy‑safe, persona‑level segments that can be surveyed and tested in seconds,...
Media Buying Briefing: Agencies Turn Creators Into Test Labs for Campaigns and Product Innovation
Agencies such as Horizon Media are turning creators into live test labs, using them to pressure‑test and even shape campaign concepts and product features. SharkNinja’s partnership with Blue Hour Studios exemplifies this approach, where creator feedback informs launch strategy and...
Marketers Join OpenAI’s Ad Pilot, Nudged by FOMO
OpenAI launched a paid‑ads pilot inside ChatGPT in early February, attracting brands such as Williams‑Sonoma, Target, The Knot Worldwide, DSW and BEHR. Within six weeks the program generated an estimated $100 million annualized revenue, while ad prices fell from $60 to...
Consumer Brands Take the Leap Into Influencer Marketing
Consumer brands are moving influencer marketing from a side project to a core media channel. Vaseline’s "Vaseline Verified" effort teamed with 450 creators, racking up hundreds of millions of views and a sales lift, while the Dettol #HandWashChallenge in India...
Streaming Services Give TV Adverts a New Lease of Life
Streaming giants Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have introduced ad‑supported subscription tiers, reviving TV‑style advertising on their platforms. While linear TV remains pressured, TV ads still account for 85% of video ad viewership, and ad‑supported streaming revenue is accelerating,...
Marketers Tackle Risks and Opportunities on Social Media
Social media remains essential for advertisers, but recent moderation rollbacks at Meta and X have heightened brand‑safety risks. Marketers are feeling pressure from geopolitical instability and inflation to prove return on ad spend, prompting a shift toward tighter campaign execution....
Creator‑run Ads Slash CPA and Boost CTR
Partnership Ads are quietly becoming one of the highest-leverage easy changes in our clients' accounts. Same creative. Same offer. Same landing page. The only difference: running from the creator's handle instead of the brand's. The results across our book: > 19-30% lower CPAs (on...
Let Meta’s Algorithm Choose, Stop Manual Ad Forcing
“Still forcing Meta to spend on your ‘favorite’ ads? Yeah… that’s probably the problem.” This episode breaks down why the best media buyers in 2026 are doing the opposite and letting the algorithm lead. Take a listen: https://t.co/EujE658OFq
How Do Digital Marketing Agencies Help Home Maintenance Businesses Generate Leads and Increase Bookings?
Home maintenance firms—plumbers, electricians, handymen—are missing leads because they lack a robust online presence. Digital marketing agencies fill that gap by deploying local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, paid search, and social media tactics that drive measurable enquiries and bookings....
SiriusXM Prepares Q1 2026 Earnings Amid Analyst Optimism From 2024 YouTube Deal
SiriusXM is set to release its first‑quarter 2026 earnings, a test of expectations that were raised in 2024 when Guggenheim and Rosenblatt upgraded the stock after the company secured an exclusive U.S. audio‑advertising role for YouTube. Analysts had lifted price...
Commerce Media Awards Spotlight Growth, Fragmentation and Trust Challenges
The Drum’s first live Commerce Media Awards in Miami brought industry leaders together to flag growth as the sector’s toughest test. Executives warned that rapid expansion is creating fragmentation, while a lack of uniform measurement erodes trust and hampers accountability.
Hershey Deploys Real-Time AI Marketing Mix Model to Optimize Media Spend
Hershey announced that its AI-enabled marketing mix model will go live in May, giving the company real‑time visibility into sales and media performance. The system replaces a three‑times‑yearly planning cycle with monthly updates, ingesting hundreds of thousands of data points...