Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Publicis resumes recommending The Trade Desk after fee dispute
Publicis has reinstated The Trade Desk in its client recommendations, ending a months‑long clash sparked by an audit that alleged hidden, contract‑unbacked fees. The dispute had driven The Trade Desk’s shares down about 13% and led to the departure of its chief marketing officer.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Plot raises $10M in new funding round
New Propellic Research Suggest Travel Operators Overpay for Customer Acquisition During Peak Booking
Propellic’s Travel Industry Paid Media Benchmark Report, based on more than $250 million in ad spend across 120+ brands, shows travel operators overpay for customer acquisition during peak booking periods. ROAS falls to 2.6× in peak season versus 6.3× in shoulder months, even though traveler spend is similar across seasons. The inefficiency is most acute in multi‑day travel, where clicks can cost $11 in July versus $3 in February. The report also uncovers attribution gaps that mask the true value of non‑brand search.
How Can You Implement Entity Optimization Without Relying On Schema Markup? – Ask An SEO via @Sejournal, @HelenPollitt1
Entity optimization goes beyond schema markup, focusing on building a coherent knowledge graph that tells search engines and LLMs exactly what a brand, product, or person is. The article explains that consistent identifiers, taxonomy, internal linking, and entity homes create...
Why Attribution Fixation Is Getting in the Way of Growth
The article argues that the marketing industry’s obsession with attribution modelling creates a false sense of certainty and diverts attention from true commercial value. While dashboards can detail which touchpoints drove conversions, boards and CFOs care about revenue growth, margin...
DuexMedia Combines Digital Rewards, Advertising, and Event Ticketing in a Unified Platform
DuexMedia, launched on March 11, introduces a unified platform that blends digital rewards, advertising, referrals, bill payments, and event ticketing for African users. The service lets participants earn cash by completing tasks such as watching videos, paying utility bills, or promoting...
Entity SEO Determines AI Brand Citations
Entity-based SEO is the layer most teams haven't built yet, and it's the layer that decides AI citations. Google's Knowledge Graph and the equivalent inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude recognize brands as entities with relationships, expertise, authority. When an AI engine answers...
Connected Conversions: Optimize LinkedIn From Ad to Deal
Most B2B marketers have wired LinkedIn’s Conversions API (CAPI) but treat it as a set‑and‑forget project. In practice, incomplete, delayed, or inconsistent data streams cause LinkedIn’s algorithm to optimize on partial signals, inflating ad spend. The article outlines a three‑pronged...
EXCLUSIVE: Criteo Cuts ChatGPT Ad Minimums, Offers Incentives to Woo Retailer Brands
Criteo has slashed the minimum spend for advertising on ChatGPT from $50,000 to $10,000 and introduced media‑match incentive deals to attract retail brands. The platform now offers a direct product‑feed integration that lets agencies push inventory into OpenAI’s ad‑buying system...
Inside Chewy’s Push to Build a Pet-Focused Retail Media Network
Chewy’s retail‑media arm, Chewy Ads, has rapidly scaled since its May 2023 launch, doubling the number of advertisers and campaigns between fiscal 2025 and 2026. The platform boasts a one‑in‑three click‑to‑sale conversion rate and reports that advertisers generate roughly $7 in...
Equifax & The Trade Desk Join Forces To Give Advertisers ‘Sophisticated’ Audience Insights
Equifax Australia and The Trade Desk have teamed up to feed finance‑based audience segments directly into The Trade Desk’s demand‑side platform. The data pool covers more than 15 million consumers and 8.7 million households across Australia, offering granular geodemographic and financial insights....
Consumers With Control Options Respond Better To Online Advertising
A Harvard Business Review study finds that giving consumers control over ad content or timing increases their attention to ads by 9‑15% and cuts annoyance by 8‑17% compared with a no‑choice experience. Overall, 70% of digital‑ad viewers feel annoyed, 18%...
HIPAA-Compliant Digital Marketing Strategies for ABA Therapy Practices
ABA therapy providers must align every digital touchpoint with HIPAA rules, from website forms to paid ads. A privacy‑first website limits data collection, uses secure forms, and avoids publicizing identifiable success stories. Email, review replies, and testimonials require written consent...
#ClicksnTricks: What the End of the Click Means for Brands
Google’s AI Mode, announced at I/O 2026, turns search into a largely clickless experience by surfacing answers inside the platform. Semrush data indicate 92‑94% of AI Mode sessions end without a click, eroding the traffic‑driven model that has powered SEO...
Former Clems, DDB + TBWA Executive Launches AI Platform Tackling Marketing’s Briefing Problem
Richie Taaffe, a veteran of DDB, Clemenger BBDO and TBWA, has launched Deece, an AI‑driven marketing platform aimed at fixing the chronic briefing problem. Australian ADMA data shows only 43% of marketers meet brief‑writing competency expectations, while Deece users report...
How to Buy Website Traffic in 2026
Buying website traffic in 2026 emphasizes quality over cheap clicks, focusing on users who complete high‑value actions such as app installs, registrations, or deposits. Self‑serve ad platforms give advertisers instant campaign launch, granular targeting, and real‑time optimization without manual negotiations....
Most Followers Miss Your Posts—Repurpose to Maximize Reach
Only 10% of your audience sees what you post... on a GOOD day. Stop stressing about creating something new every day when most people haven't even seen Monday's post. Learn to repurpose your content.
Salesforce Acquires Contentful, Rolls Out New AI Agents for Marketers
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Contentful, the composable content platform used by over 4,800 brands, and will embed its headless CMS into the Customer 360 suite. The transaction, slated to close in the third quarter of fiscal 2027,...
Google May 2026 Core Update Analysis: Intent, Market Fit and Source Type Drove the Biggest Visibility Shifts
The May 2026 Google Core Update re‑oriented visibility toward the source type that best matches query intent, market and expected result format. Canonical reference brands surged while pronunciation tools, language Q&A sites and dictionary aggregators fell sharply. In the UK, local‑market...
More AI Agents Won’t Fix Advertising
AI agents are generating excitement in advertising, but their impact is limited by fragmented ad‑tech ecosystems. Without a unified infrastructure, agents operate in silos, creating noise rather than coordinated performance gains. Clinch demonstrates that a single operational layer can connect...
Salesforce Launches AI Marketing Agents
Salesforce unveiled its Agentforce suite at the June 3 Connections event, introducing AI‑driven Marketing Agents that assist marketers in building pipelines, generating omnichannel content, and running campaigns. The Content Agent can create emails, SMS, RCS and localized assets from a simple...
Google's Gemini AI Search Overhauls Ads, Sends Advertisers Scrambling
Google announced that its Gemini AI‑powered search will embed "conversational discovery ads" directly in AI answers, sidelining traditional sponsored links. The move, billed as the biggest shift in search advertising in more than 25 years, has left digital marketers uncertain...
Wurl: Data Backs Advertising on Streaming News Channels
Wurl’s May 2026 CTV Trends Report reveals that news programming accounts for roughly 8.6% of all free‑ad‑supported streaming TV (FAST) viewing hours, with a tiny 6.4% of devices driving more than 80% of that consumption. The study shows that scene‑level...
How Google Display Exclusions Guide AI-Driven Optimization
Google’s Display Network placement exclusions have evolved from simple brand‑safety checklists into strategic tools that shape AI‑driven Smart Bidding. By pruning low‑quality sites and mobile apps, advertisers prevent the algorithm from chasing high‑click, zero‑conversion inventory that can drain budgets in...
Seedtag & xpln.ai Expand Strategic Partnership to Advance Attention-Based Advertising Performance
Seedtag and xpln.ai have renewed and expanded their multiyear partnership to deepen attention‑based advertising measurement. Since 2023 the collaboration has spanned 11 markets and examined more than 1.5 billion ad impressions across auto, entertainment and finance verticals. Early data show a...
Automate Your Social Strategy with AI-Powered Content System
I built a skill that creates social content strategy — platform selection, content pillars, format library, repurposing workflows, and publishing cadence across X, LinkedIn, Threads, and more. You describe your brand and goals, and it designs the content mix: what to...
Research: When Consumers Have More Control Over Ads, They Respond Better
A new working paper finds that giving streaming viewers control over ad timing performs as well as letting them pick ad content. Across three studies with 1,300+ participants, both timing and content choice increased visual attention by 9‑15% and cut...
Chronicle Raises $12 M to Launch AI‑Powered Growth Teams for Brands and Creators
Chronicle, the AI startup founded in 2025, closed a $12 million funding round and rolled out an AI‑powered growth‑team service that predicts audience intent and automates content distribution. The move targets brands and creators seeking measurable, scalable attention in a trillion‑dollar...
Google Introduces Search Generative AI Performance Reports to Search Console
Google announced Search Generative AI performance reports inside Search Console, giving site owners a dedicated view of how their URLs appear in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover’s generative features. The reports surface impressions, pages, countries, devices and granular date...
Stop Paying for Reach—Start Paying for Trust. The Creator Strategy Brands Are Missing
Brands are moving away from traditional influencer metrics like audience size and CPM, focusing instead on knowledge creators who command trust through expertise. These creators attract high‑intent audiences seeking guidance, delivering more convertible engagement. Companies such as ClassDojo and Febreze...
‘It’s Not Just About Scale, It’s About How You Build It,’ Says French Ad Alliance Chief
366, France’s first national digital sales company, now represents 55 news publishers across print and digital, reaching 80% of French adults monthly. Managing director Line Gasparini highlighted the alliance’s low‑commission model and investment capacity as key to generating strong national‑sales...
AI-Driven Advertising Spend Set to Reach £18bn by 2030
The IAB UK study projects AI‑driven advertising spend in the United Kingdom to reach £18 billion (about $23 billion) by 2030, accounting for roughly 32% of total digital spend. More than half of IAB members (58%) are already experimenting with agentic AI,...
InMobi, Scope3 Debut Sell-Side Agent for Autonomous Media Buying
InMobi and ad‑tech platform Scope3 have unveiled a sell‑side AI agent that automates the purchase of Glance’s premium lock‑screen, app and TV inventory. The agent leverages the open Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) to connect brands directly with Glance’s 300 million active...
How American Home Shield Revamped Its Targeting Strategy Amid Data Fragmentation
American Home Shield (AHS) overhauled its targeting approach after Experian’s 2024 acquisition of data‑activation platform Audigent, giving the home‑warranty provider access to richer first‑party and purchase‑behavior data. By linking traits such as DIY projects or recent moving‑related purchases to home‑warranty...
Fix Your Meta Structure, Stop Budget Leaks
Your D2C brand is spending on Meta Ads every day — but sales are not growing. The real problem is your Meta account structure is broken — and a broken structure doesn't need more budget. It needs a fix. Here...
AI Turns Content Into a Revenue‑Generating Machine
Here's how @businessbarista “Content Machine” drives millions of impressions and 9-figure enterprise leads. He spent 50 hours building it. Here's how you can steal it: The result? One post helped drive: • 1.5M impressions • 10K new followers • A real...
Amazon Rolls Out Smart Bid V2, Upending Sponsored Products PPC Strategies
Amazon has deployed its upgraded Sponsored Products bid automation engine, Smart Bid v2, across all U.S. Seller Central accounts. The AI‑driven system adjusts bids per auction using demand forecasts, driving CPC spikes of up to 14% while delivering ROAS gains...
NY Mandates AI‑person Disclosures in Ads by June 2026
1/New York just became the first US state to require advertisers to disclose AI-generated people in ads. It takes effect June 9, 2026. If you run paid media, you have days, not months. Here's what it actually means for your brand or...
SEO’s Five Pillars Form the SCORE Framework
SEO has 5 pillars: → Site optimization → Content production → Outside signals → Rank enhancement → Evaluation It's the SCORE framework.
Direct Digital Posts 28% YoY Buy‑Side Revenue Rise Amid Q4 Losses
Direct Digital Holdings announced Q4 2025 results on May 11, 2026, highlighting a 28% year‑over‑year increase in buy‑side revenue to $8.2 million, driven by new verticals. Total revenue slipped to $8.4 million and the company posted a $12.6 million net loss, while navigating...
Amazon Turns to Third‑Party Sellers to Boost Twitch Advertising
Amazon Ads is reportedly leaning on third-party companies to sell ads on Twitch. Marketers hesitate to advertise on Twitch due to brand-safety concerns and view it as too niche. Details: https://content-naf.emarketer.com/amazon-taps-third-parties-sell-twitch-alexa-ads (Article also covers Alexa, but who cares about that.)
Boost Meta Reach by Optimizing Ads for Daily Unique Impressions
Take your top best performing ads. Launch a sales campaign, but instead of optimizing for purchases, optimize for daily unique reach. Launch that campaign at like 5% of total spend. To me this has been the biggest contributor overall to...
Snowflake and Anthropic Double Down on AI to Power Data‑Driven Marketing
Snowflake and Anthropic announced an expanded partnership that embeds Claude models directly into Snowflake Cortex AI, giving marketers instant, governed access to AI on their data. The move, highlighted at Snowflake Summit 26, aims to shift AI from experimentation to...
In-Game Ads Outperform YouTube Pre-Rolls on Brand Recall, Study Finds
Gameloft for Brands released two parallel studies that used eye‑tracking and emotional‑response technology to compare in‑game video ads with YouTube pre‑rolls. The research showed in‑game ads achieved 18.1% higher sustained attention and captured viewers’ focus for 92.2% of their viewable...
Amazon Rolls Out Ads On Prime Music
Amazon India will begin inserting advertisements into its Prime Music service and discontinue offline download capability for Prime members starting July 2, 2026. The ad‑supported model still offers access to more than 100 million songs and 15 million podcasts, but users must stream online....
Did Ampersand, Fandango, and Kochava Just Make the Theater the Most Measurable Screen for Streaming?
Ampersand, Fandango, and Kochava announced a closed‑loop attribution partnership that ties addressable TV ads to actual ticket purchases, covering 62 million U.S. households and 72% of moviegoers. The deterministic engine from Kochava lets studios verify that a TV spot directly resulted...
Bloomreach Launches Loomi Marketing Agents
Bloomreach introduced the Loomi marketing agent, an AI‑powered tool that automates campaign creation and optimization. Leveraging the Loomi platform’s data‑driven intelligence, the agent builds personalized workflows from conversational inputs, generates brand‑aligned content, and orchestrates real‑time customer journeys. Built‑in security features...
Aggregated Tracker Simplifies Inconsistent Google Algorithm Data
Google Algo trackers are great, but wildly inconsistent with one another So callout to @rustybrick for making a tool that aggregates Google Algorithm volatility trackers 1st image = all, 2nd = aggregate Makes more sense of the data while respecting the trackers https://t.co/KKuIDUQ8lM
What Is a Good Domain Rating? (With Real Data)
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs’ logarithmic score that gauges the strength of a site’s backlink profile on a 0‑100 scale. Because the metric is relative, what counts as a “good” DR varies by industry, competitor set, and the specific keywords...
Meta’s AI‑Powered Advantage+ Catalog Ads Cut CPA by Up to 38%, Prompting Creative Overhaul
Meta’s new AI framework, anchored by Advantage+ Catalog Ads, is delivering 30‑38% lower cost‑per‑acquisition for top DTC brands. The shift compels advertisers to replace narrow audience stacks with broad targeting and diversified creative assets.
TikTok and Instagram Influencers Reach 39% of California Voters Ahead of Primaries
A new UC Berkeley poll of 8,578 California voters finds 39% rely on TikTok and Instagram for election information, while 47% still turn to the official voter guide. The data underscores the growing role of social‑media influencers in political advertising...
Why the Shelf Is the Missing Layer in Retail Media
Retail media excels at building awareness but loses influence at the point of purchase, which still happens on the physical shelf. Finn Wikander argues that the shelf edge should be treated as a dynamic, digital communication layer that directly connects...