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.
Celebrity-Backed Supplements Spark $338B Market Battle
Vogue’s latest feature highlights a fierce competition among dietary supplement categories, driven by celebrity launches, TikTok‑fueled stacks and soaring consumer spend. The global supplements market is valued at $338 billion in 2025, with UK beauty‑supplement sales up 163% year‑to‑date.
ThinkNow Launches ThinkNow Media, a Curated Programmatic Platform Powered by Nexxen
ThinkNow announced the launch of ThinkNow Media, a new programmatic department that pairs its zero‑party multicultural audience data with Nexxen's Curated Marketplace. The service, aimed at political and public‑affairs advertisers, promises tighter quality control, cultural relevance and privacy‑forward reporting across...
REFUNNEL Fixed What We Couldn't in 7 Days
In this episode, Jordan West of Social Commerce Club explains how his agency solves the TikTok Shop bottleneck for creators by using ReFunnel’s automated operations platform. He highlights four key pillars: custom landing pages and Shopify integration for seamless order...
My Proven Ad Strategies Vs. Time‑Wasting Tactics
Ad insights… what works for me and what I find to be a waste as a full time author
How Native CTV Is Solving the Channel’s Attention Problem
The NewFronts highlighted a shift in connected‑TV advertising toward performance, with native CTV emerging as a key format. By embedding ads into the smart‑TV home screen, brands reach viewers during the 10.5‑minute browsing window before content selection, turning attention into...
Batch and Schedule Posts with Trending Audio—Options Exist
You can still batch and scheudle your content that requires trending audio or music... you do have options
TripleLift Unveils TL Spark, AI‑Driven Layer for Outcome‑Based Ads
TripleLift announced TL Spark, an intelligence layer that stitches together supply, creative, audience data and measurement to power outcome‑driven programmatic buying. The launch arrives as AI‑powered ad spend is projected to hit $57 billion this year, and two‑thirds of buyers say...
IPL 2026 Ad Race Sees Digital-First Categories Dominate CTV
The IPL 2026 advertising landscape shows a stark split between Connected TV (CTV) and Linear TV. Digital‑first categories such as e‑commerce media, entertainment and social platforms captured 35% of CTV ad volume, while traditional mouth fresheners led Linear TV with...
Stepherson Inc., Superlo Foods Expands Loyalty, Digital Engagement With RSA America
Stepherson Inc. has rolled out RSA America’s loyalty and digital engagement platform across all 11 Superlo Foods stores in Memphis and Mississippi. The multi‑year agreement adds a unified rewards program, digital coupons and a branded mobile app designed to lift...
‘The Creative Is Coming Out of the Internet’: What This Year’s Webby Winners Say About Advertising
The 2026 Webby Awards highlighted a shift in advertising where creative originates on the internet rather than being imposed on it. Winners showcased AI‑enhanced campaigns, from a Dr Pepper jingle generated online to the “death of Duo” stunt, and blended digital...
Stop Comparing Content to Performance; Value Your Role
In my first marketing job, I gaslit myself into thinking that if my content marketing results weren’t keeping up with the performance team’s, my job was worthless.
Shift B2B Marketing From Features to Trust‑Building Content
Thank you Sean Callahan for inviting me to join my friends Andy Crestodina , Mimi Turner , Jane Bartel and Jillian Ryan in the latest feature in the ANA "B2B Marketers Face a Crossroads." My POV: Most B2B marketing is...
New Programmatic 'Transparency' Initiative Excludes Advertisers
The IAB Tech Lab announced a new Programmatic Governance Council aimed at boosting transparency in the roughly $200 billion U.S. programmatic advertising market. The council brings together agencies, publishers and platforms such as Dentsu, Omnicom, Disney, Amazon Ads and The Trade...
Google Ads Makes Call Recording Default For AI Lead Calls via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google Ads now enables call recording by default for AI‑qualified lead calls in the United States and Canada. The AI reviews recordings to identify high‑intent signals—such as scheduling a consultation or expressing purchase intent—and counts only those calls as conversions,...
GEOGrow.ai Unveils Next-Level AI Visibility Platform at LEADSCON Las Vegas
GEOGrow.ai unveiled its AI Visibility Platform at LEADSCON in Las Vegas, offering brands, marketers and growth experts a suite of tools to secure and grow presence in AI‑driven search. The platform introduces Brand DNA Monitoring, AI Memory Audits, Agentic Content...
Stat Roundups Generate Far More Backlinks than Thought Leadership
What's the best type of content to get links? It's not thought leadership content. It's a round up of a series of stats and facts associated with niches relevant to your category & customers. A lot of people hate on stat...
IAB Tech Lab Launches Programmatic Governance Council
IAB Tech Lab announced the creation of a Programmatic Governance Council, bringing together leading agencies, publishers, and ad‑tech platforms such as Dentsu, Disney, Amazon Ads, and The Trade Desk. The council targets the roughly $200 billion U.S. programmatic advertising market, which...
One AI Character, Endless Content Across Media
Most creators still rebuild content from scratch. New prompt. New image. New workflow. But what if you could create one AI character once and generate content with it forever? Images. Videos. Campaigns. All from a single conversation. I explored this new model using @Picsart Aura. This changes how...
How I Passively Collected 500 Email Subscribers in 90 Days
The author reports that by focusing on Substack, they passively amassed roughly 500 email subscribers in just 90 days, a stark contrast to the labor‑intensive lead‑generation tactics previously used on X. A single Substack post, created with the WriteStack scheduler,...
'Always On' Isn't Broken -- The Way We Use It Is
The article argues that today’s “always on” advertising has devolved into a blanket, budget‑draining approach that treats every audience as constantly receptive. It calls for a shift from a channel‑centric mindset to a behavior‑centric one, activating each medium only when...
StackAdapt Brings Campaign Intelligence Into Claude with MCP Server Launch
StackAdapt announced the general availability of its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, which injects the platform’s campaign intelligence directly into AI tools such as Claude. The server lets advertisers query performance, creative status, and audience results in natural language without...
Google Rolls Out New AI Safety Features in Ads Advisor
Google is upgrading Ads Advisor, its AI assistant in Google Ads, with three new agentic safety features. The enhancements include proactive policy assistance, continuous security monitoring, and instant certification capabilities powered by Gemini. By scanning accounts and websites automatically, the...
3 New Ways Ads Advisor Is Making Google Ads Safer and Faster
Google Ads is rolling out three AI‑driven safety upgrades in its Ads Advisor tool. The platform will now proactively flag complex policy violations and guide advertisers through fixes, monitor accounts 24/7 with personalized security recommendations, and automate certification processes using...
OpenAI Turns on Cost-per-Click Ads Inside ChatGPT
OpenAI has activated cost‑per‑click (CPC) advertising inside ChatGPT, allowing marketers to bid $3‑$5 per click. The move follows a rapid decline in CPM rates, which fell from $60 to $25 per thousand impressions within ten weeks. By shifting to a...
Why Your Marketing Keeps Falling Off a Cliff (and What to Do About It)
Accounting firms struggle to keep marketing consistent amid client work, tax season and staff turnover. Generic AI writing tools often produce robotic, jargon‑filled copy that feels disconnected from a firm’s voice. Plot AI, launched for bookkeepers and accountants, uses a...
Hire Social Strategists Who Prioritize the WHY Over Trends
What do I look for in a social media STRATEGIST? Not trends, or ~culture~, or even content. I look for social media professionals that can explain the WHY behind their ideas. Social Media Strategy is all about coming up with strategic...
Prioritize Profit per Ad over Exhaustive Data Testing
Also think that most people are over-complicating "testing" by trying to buy data. You either are focused on performance and growth or you're focused on buying data & information. What's important to you, is it maximizing your profit and CM per ad...
Brands Want To Know How Well Their Affiliate Content Is Performing In The AI Age
Adobe and other brands are struggling to attribute performance in AI‑driven search results. Partnerize’s VantagePoint, a generative‑AI attribution platform launched in 2025, promises to identify which affiliate content drives traffic and conversions. The new Influence Compensation Lighthouse Program ties the...
Brands Want To Know How Well Their Affiliate Content Is Performing In The AI Age
Adobe is turning to Partnerize’s VantagePoint generative‑AI attribution platform to solve the attribution blind spot created by AI‑driven search. The solution, now enhanced with the Influence Compensation Lighthouse Program, assigns influence scores (HaloIndex) beyond last‑click and automates publisher payouts. Brands...
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 21, 2026
The Search Engine Roundtable highlighted several Google updates, including the insertion of shopping ads into the free‑listing grid and a bug in Search Console that blanks job‑listing metrics. Google’s John Mueller reiterated that SEO remains a moving target where imperfect...
WWO: Guidelines for Using AI to Build Your Media Plans
Westwood One’s Audio Active Group released guidelines for local advertisers on leveraging artificial intelligence in media planning. Cumulus Media president of operations Bob Walker emphasizes that AI can be useful but must be used with precise prompts, reputable sources, and...
OpenAI Launches AdsBot to Vet Ad Landing Pages
We've got a new OpenAI crawler and it makes total sense. Meet OAI-Adsbot: From OpenAI: OAI-AdsBot is used to validate the safety of web pages submitted as ads on ChatGPT. When you submit an ad, OpenAI may visit the landing page to...
Why IBM Says Every Brand Now Needs a GEO Playbook
IBM warns that AI‑driven agents will dominate search, estimating 75% of visibility shifting to machine answers within two years. To stay discoverable, brands must adopt a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) playbook, a 12‑component system covering content, technical foundations, citation strategy,...
AI Cuts SEO Troubleshooting From Hours to Minutes
Old SEO vs New SEO Old SEO: Spend 3 hours analyzing why your organic traffic dropped 40%. Find nothing. New SEO: Connect your Google Search Console to Claude, get a ranked list of issues and fixes in 12 minutes according to your...
Cut Facebook Ads, Build Sustainable Profitability
Blueland reached profitability and $300M in sales by *cutting* over $1M/month in Facebook ad spend to focus on a stronger business foundation. Meanwhile you're burning all your cash on Facebook ads to chase unprofitable growth instead of building a sustainable...
Meta’s AI Push Has Made Its Way Into Ad Creative. Not All Marketers Are Happy About It
Meta has been automatically applying AI‑generated tweaks to advertisers' creative assets, often without the brands’ knowledge. Snag Tights discovered altered ads that misrepresented its products, prompting the company to request a shutdown of Meta’s AI testing on its account. Other...
Higher ROAS Doesn’t Guarantee Profit: P&L Matters
Paid ads winners in the 2026 eComFuel report had 2.5x ROAS. Losers had 4x ROAS. The difference was the P&L! Survey has 300 stores, $3.5B revenue, and 6 years of data. Link in replies. https://t.co/5XjFgANzNn
17 Content Types That Thrive in Google’s Zero‑Click Era
New: 17 Content Types to Survive Google’s Zero-Click Future Google Zero is coming for many sites, but Google still sends billions of visits per day to the web What kind of content survives? Not generic blog posts. AI killed that strategy (1/2)...
Introducing Index Cloud: Bring Your Own Intelligence Inside the Exchange
Index Exchange unveiled Index Cloud, a neutral compute layer inside its global data centers that lets partners run custom models, data and applications directly within the real‑time auction. Using containerized workloads, partners can process impression‑level signals in under five milliseconds,...
AI Monitors Oncologist Chatter at ASCO 2025
AI-powered social media listening of oncologist conversations at ASCO 2025 - Ghosal @brunolarvol @mtmdphd Gramling @Larvol https://t.co/azRDBVYLGK #ASCO26 abstr 9045 Poster Bd # 512 #hemonc #Scicomm #ASCO25 @ASCO
Revive Top Posts: Reshare, Repackage, Reach New Fans
Underrated marketing move: Go back to your top 10 performing posts from the last year. Rewrite them. Reshare them. Repackage them. Your audience has grown. New people haven't seen them. The message still hits. Don't let your best work collect dust.
impact.com Expands Creator Management Capabilities with YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API
impact.com announced an expanded collaboration with YouTube as an early adopter of the Creator Partnerships API, letting brands discover creators, manage sponsorships, and pull performance insights. The integration offers end‑to‑end campaign management and access to verified audience and engagement data....
Consistent LinkedIn Posts Unlock $15K Partnership Deals
I have booked more than $15K in co-marketing and partnership content deals with AI/AEO companies since I started posting daily on LinkedIn and switched my newsletter to a weekly cadence. This was not on my bingo card for 2026, but...
AI Agents Replace Entire Marketing Teams—Build Yours Fast
One person running AI agents can now handle what used to take an entire marketing team. The question isn't whether this model wins. It's whether you build it before your competitors do.
Podcast Data Firm Bumper Unveils Audience Verification Metric to Boost Advertiser Confidence
Bumper, a podcast data and growth firm, launched the Bumper Score, a new audience verification metric that rates podcasts on a 0‑200 scale with 100 as the industry average. The score aggregates first‑party hosting data, verified listener information from major...
AI Marketing Tools List Keeps Growing with New Additions
The best list of #AI #marketing tools anywhere continues to expand: https://t.co/1MqMiJP4M3 New tools added recently include @Onlypult, @vidnoz_official, Rovo by @Atlassian , NoteGPT TTS, @buffer, Cora, @meetgranola, @eclincher, and @NaturalReaderAi.
Meta Drains Brand Budget Early with Terrible ROI
Love waking up to Meta spending 60% of a brands daily budget before 7am PT. Love that it spent almost 20% from midnight to 1am. Love that the CPA was 5x our goal and time on site metrics were basically...
Team Tackles SEO, GSC Bugs, and AI Ads
On It's New, @MordyOberstein covers @johnmu on SEO statements, I cover GSC bugs and read more best practices and @TheMarketingAnu covers the Microsoft Ads AI news - no smiling thanks to @gregfinn https://t.co/a66J6LjzNe
Google Turns Search Into Task‑Based Life Navigation Platform
Google announced new tools for Search that further transform it into a tasked-based platform for navigating modern life. https://t.co/6904wIVGxD via @martinibuster, @sejournal
First‑time Founders Spread Too Thin, Miss Traction
Most first-time founders go wide too early. They set up ads, post on social, maybe do some cold outreach - and then wonder why nothing is sticking.