Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Consumer journeys go non‑linear, MiQ study finds
MiQ’s ‘From Funnel to Flexibility’ study, analyzing data from 53 million households and 700 trillion signals, shows 87 % of shoppers change digital activities at least hourly and 42 % describe their purchase path as random. The research, based on surveys of over 4,000 consumers and 600 marketers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, challenges the traditional linear marketing funnel.
Also developing:
By the numbers: DOJO AI raises $6M Seed round
$250b in Ad Budget AI Reallocation: Bad News for Media.
The global advertising market is set to expand from about $1.25 trillion in 2026 to $1.5 trillion by 2030, adding $250 billion of new spend. Analysts predict AI‑native platforms could capture $200‑$300 billion of that growth, effectively reallocating most of the incremental budget. This shift moves value from traditional media channels to AI‑driven decision interfaces, reshaping how brands reach consumers. The post warns that without strategic adaptation, media companies will lose pricing power and revenue share.
Content Marketing Jobs Are Splitting in Two: Semrush
Semrush’s analysis of 8,000 U.S. content marketing job listings reveals a clear bifurcation of the role spectrum. Execution‑focused creator positions now account for about one‑third of openings, while senior leadership titles such as Head of Content have surged by more...
Groas Introduces a Fully Autonomous Approach to Google Ads Management by Groas
Groas unveiled a fully autonomous AI‑driven platform that handles every step of Google Ads management, from campaign creation to dynamic landing‑page testing, without human intervention. The system relies on a distributed network of specialized agents that process over 100,000 data...
Nike Pulls "Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated" Ad After Runner Backlash
Nike withdrew a Boston Marathon window sign that read "Runners welcome. Walkers tolerated" after a wave of criticism from the running community. The incident highlights a misstep in a segment that has driven a 20% revenue rise but comes as...
AI Is The New Ad Space
Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights, argues that AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and retail assistants constitute a new media environment rather than just efficiency enhancers. She calls this “AI media,” where users can...
AI Is The New Ad Space
Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights, will keynote AdExchanger’s Programmatic AI conference in Las Vegas (May 18‑20). She argues that AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and retail assistants constitute a new media environment—“AI media”—that can guide consumers from query to...
Google Adds New Tasked-Based Search Features via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google rolled out three travel‑focused tools that push Search toward a task‑based model. Users can now toggle hotel price tracking to receive email alerts when rates fall, while AI Mode can launch an agent that calls nearby stores for real‑time...
12 Features Powering Affiliate Success with Affilka’s Affiliate Tracking Solutions
Affilka unveils a twelve‑feature affiliate tracking suite tailored for the iGaming sector, aiming to streamline partner management, payments, reporting and scalability. The platform integrates payment processors such as Skrill, Neteller, crypto and bank transfers, while offering flexible commission constructors for...
Signals in the Noise 2
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) released a new whitepaper, Signals in the Noise 2: Doing the Right Things, co‑authored by Work Research Partner Tony Regan and Barb CEO Justin Sampson. The paper warns that advertisers and agencies are increasingly dependent...
AI Enhances SEO, Yet Human Expertise Remains Crucial
I created an AI tool to improve internal linking and enhance meta titles and meta descriptions. After a few weeks, I can tell it's working nicely (we started where you see the dip in the graph around mid-march) But you have to...
Axis Achieves Google Authorised Buyer Status, Expanding Premium Inventory Access for Partners
Axis, a multi‑product ad tech firm, has been granted Google Authorized Buyer status (Buyer ID 8045927652), giving it direct access to Google’s Ad Exchange. The accreditation confirms Axis meets Google’s strict standards for platform quality, financial health, and compliance. With this...
Weak Product Pages, Not Meta, Kill D2C Conversions
Low ROAS ≠ Meta Ads India Problem Many D2C India founders blame the platform first. But often the leak starts after the click. Weak product pages kill conversion faster than bad ads.
Higher Ad Spend Won’t Fix Funnel, Drops ROAS
More Meta Ads Spend ≠ More Sales Many Indian D2C brands raise budget during festivals. Then blame ads when ROAS drops. Spend scales systems. Not broken funnels.
Retail Media Finds a New Signal: The Shopper’s State of Mind
Retail media is shifting from pure intent data to interpreting shoppers' cognitive and emotional states. Mental‑health experts highlight grocery trips as high‑stress decision points where fatigue, overload, and anxiety shape buying behavior. Platforms that can read in‑session signals—such as lingering,...
Index Exchange Welcomes DSPs Into New Cloud Infra, Bringing Bidders Closer to Ad Inventory
Index Exchange has launched Index Cloud, a neutral, containerized compute environment that lets demand‑side platforms (DSPs) run bidding logic directly within the supply‑side platform. The move aims to cut latency in programmatic auctions and lower operational costs. Bedrock Platform, an...
The Real Problem with Marketing Intelligence Isn’t Insight, It’s Execution. How Can AI Help?
The NinjaCat and UserEvidence report reveals that marketing intelligence is hampered more by execution bottlenecks than by lack of data. Marketers spend an average $26.2 million annually and juggle eight martech platforms plus three performance tools, yet only 37% have a...
Why Those Engagement Ring Ads Keep Finding You Ft. Hope Bellair
In this episode of In The Loop, host Michael Burpo and Punchmark Digital Marketing Manager Hope Bellair break down retargeting for jewelry retailers, explaining how it works across platforms like Meta and Google and how it can be automated using...
The Deliverability Tax: Why Your Messages Are Disappearing
Marketers are seeing engagement drop not because of creative flaws but due to a growing "deliverability tax" that limits message visibility. MoEngage’s analysis of 40 billion messages shows behavior‑based pushes achieve 93% delivery versus 81% for generic broadcasts, with conversion rates...
Advanced TV Study 2026: Connected TV Becomes Primary Viewing Environment
The Advanced TV Study 2026, conducted by Azerion Austria and Goldvertise Media, finds that Connected TV (CTV) has become a core part of media consumption in Germany and Austria. Ninety‑four percent of German TV households own an internet‑enabled TV and...
Project Agora Brings Realize to North Africa, Expands Access to AI-Driven Performance Advertising
Project Agora has launched the AI‑driven performance platform Realize across North Africa, covering Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The service taps a network of more than 11,000 premium publishers and offers format‑agnostic ad placements, AI‑optimized bidding and predictive audience models....
Who Is Manufacturing the Faces We Trust?
Indian advertisers and brands are rapidly adopting AI‑generated digital spokespersons that can speak regional languages, adjust facial features, and deliver consistent messages without fatigue. Mankind Pharma announced a partnership to embed these generative systems across its marketing and multilingual communications,...
Marketing’s Ability to Game the System Is Diminishing: Anoop Manohar, Axis Bank
Axis Bank’s chief marketing officer Anoop Manohar argues that the era of blanket impressions is over, urging marketers to prioritize real engagement. He describes how the bank leverages AI‑driven real‑time signals to deliver personalized offers at key life milestones, while...
VML Singapore, Scoot and Singapore Tourism Board Turn Merlion Into Gen Z Travel Guide
VML Singapore, low‑cost carrier Scoot and the Singapore Tourism Board launched #MerlionMadeMeDoIt, a TikTok‑centric campaign that reimagines the Merlion as an 80s glam‑rock star to steer Gen Z travelers toward lesser‑known city spots. The initiative ran a five‑market contest—Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia,...
Why 94% of Marketing AI Fails?
The marketing technology landscape in 2026 shows a stark paradox: while 90.3% of companies claim to use AI, only 6.3% have fully integrated it into governed marketing stacks and just 23.3% have moved AI tools into production. Integration friction reaches...
StackAdapt Leaks ChatGPT Ad Playbook, Offers $15‑$60 CPM Pilot
StackAdapt disclosed a pilot program to run ads inside ChatGPT, pricing cost‑per‑thousand impressions (CPM) between $15 and $60 and requiring a $50,000 minimum spend. The leak, shared on March 27, shows the DSP courting advertisers with discounted fees and a...
Meta Launches Ad‑performance Tools to Ease Entry for Small‑business Advertisers
Meta announced new ad‑performance tools that simplify measurement and reduce entry hurdles for small‑business advertisers, according to eMarketer. While the company said the updates will make campaign reporting more transparent, specific feature details and pricing thresholds were not disclosed.
Super League Urges Shareholder Vote on Misfits Ads Division Deal to Expand Esports Ad Reach
Super League (Nasdaq: SLE) has sent a letter urging shareholders to approve its acquisition of the Misfits Ads Division. The deal promises immediate EBITDA accretion, programmatic ad capabilities and a preferred partnership that taps over 100 million monthly Roblox users, positioning...
Analysts Question CDP Dominance as AI and Zero‑Copy Integration Rise
Analysts and marketers are reevaluating the supremacy of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) amid AI‑driven orchestration, zero‑copy data activation and tighter privacy rules. Zeta Global’s CTO warns static CDP software may be replaced by generative, composable interfaces by 2026, signaling a...
Google Uses Gemini AI to Block 8.3 Billion Harmful Ads, 99% Stopped Before Running
Google announced that its Gemini‑powered AI system blocked more than 8.3 billion harmful ads in 2025, stopping 99% before they reached users. The sweep also suspended 24.9 million advertiser accounts and removed 191.9 million ads in Indonesia, setting a new benchmark for AI‑driven...
More Brands Employing Affiliate and Partnership Marketing: IAB State of Nation Report
The IAB Australia released its 2026 Affiliate and Partnership Marketing State of the Nation Report, showing that affiliate programs are delivering strong commercial results for brands and agencies. Forty‑two percent of advertisers increased their affiliate spend over the past year,...
When AI Writes the Answer, Can Your Brand Still Earn Trust?
Marketers once relied on high search rankings to drive clicks and growth, but AI‑driven discovery platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity are shifting the focus to being cited within synthesized answers. In this new model, brand authority hinges...
Google’s Jan 20 Update Cracked AI‑Heavy SaaS Blogs
The Jan 20 Google update was the most interesting update of the year for me so far (I’m still working on March Core analysis btw 🥵) Still finding new examples that all match the same patterns. A few things seemed to...
Creative Testing Beats Secret Algorithms for Scaling Success
I've hired 20+ media buyers. Here's the pattern: The ones who talked about 'secret algorithms' and 'growth hacks' were useless. The ones who talked about 'creative testing' and 'offer construction' scaled accounts. Your guru's secret sauce is a myth. Fundamentals...
Latina Poets Turn Instagram Into Publishing Powerhouse
Instagram poet Yesika Salgado, with 170,000 followers, leveraged social media to land a bestseller debut and spark a wave of Latino voices online. Scholars say the shift is redefining how poetry reaches young readers and diversifying the publishing pipeline.
Scale to 20 AI‑driven Articles for Traffic
Watching your organic traffic drop 40% after the latest Google update because you're still doing SEO like it's 2019 while everyone else adapted their AI workflows months ago What you need to do? Compete on volume Forget about 4 articles a month Go...
Complex SEO Lets Ineffective Tactics Still Succeed
Google's @johnmu says since SEO is so complex, you can still do a lot of SEO that does not work and still do okay https://t.co/GdDY0OVDPW https://t.co/yqJnuS4xN3
Adobe Unveils CX Enterprise, an AI‑Driven Platform to Orchestrate Customer‑Experience Workflows
Adobe announced CX Enterprise at its Summit conference, a new end‑to‑end AI platform that coordinates agents across the entire customer lifecycle. The suite, built on Adobe Experience Platform’s trillion‑experience data layer, promises sales and marketing teams a single governance layer...
AI Teammates Amplify Digital Influence at Scale
The Conversational Scale: Deploying AI Teammates for Digital Influence https://t.co/1rUhF9JADI via @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #Tech #TechNews #AgenticAI #AIAgents #Agentic #AI #FutureOfWork #Strategy #Sales #Marketing https://t.co/aZmO7MJcHW
AI‑Driven SEO and Shopping Agents Promise Fully Automated Product Discovery and Content Creation
Two AI-powered solutions unveiled in the past 24 hours aim to overhaul demand generation. Md Ismail Sojal introduced an end‑to‑end SEO and content production system that claims to run with minimal human input, while Search Engine Journal highlighted AI shopping agents that...
Treasure AI Launches Agentic Marketing Platform to Cut Costs up to 50% for E‑Commerce Brands
Treasure AI announced an agentic experience platform that automates customer engagement for digital commerce brands. The solution claims to lower marketing costs by as much as 50% and deliver ten‑fold ROI in ten minutes, positioning AI as the primary interface...
DoubleVerify Unveils DV AI SlopStopper™ for Social to Fight AI‑Generated Ad Fraud
DoubleVerify announced the launch of DV AI SlopStopper™ for Social, extending its DV AI Verification suite to detect AI‑generated low‑quality content on social and video platforms. The service aims to safeguard brand safety and improve ad‑spend efficiency amid a surge...
Nielsen Gets More Heat
At the NAB Show, Nielsen was lampooned with a punching‑bag display as the ratings firm faces mounting criticism over its streaming measurement methods. Dan Rayburn, chair of the Streaming Summit, argued that the industry would be better off without Nielsen,...
AI Traffic: From Worst Customer to Top Performer
A Year Ago AI Traffic Was Your Worst Customer. Now It Is Your Best. https://t.co/xQGflQOMl2
Scape Turns Student-Inspired Stories Into National Campaign via Jane Doe Creation
Jane Doe Creation launched “You Had To Be There,” an integrated campaign for Scape that turns student‑inspired moments into national brand storytelling across YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Meta, Reddit and out‑of‑home. The mixed‑media films showcase everyday campus connections, from hallway greetings to shared...
Unified Hub Links Agents to SMB Ad & Analytics Tools
What is the best platform for connecting agents to the everyday systems needed by SMBs? Eg support for Google and Meta ads and analytics
Adobe CX Enterprise: The Core of Digital Experience
MyPOV: it all comes down to this? @adobe #adobesummit @adobesummit The entire Adobe CX Enterprise from @achakravarthy12 https://t.co/1slo7e0QHd
6 Months Into Substack: What's Working, What We're Changing, and Where We're Headed
Six months after launching the Substack publication *The Sacred Art of Selling*, the author saw explosive growth despite starting with virtually no strategy. By repurposing a decade’s worth of intellectual property and applying a low‑effort "Miracle Hour" approach, the newsletter...
From Testing to Scaling: Building a Sustainable TikTok Ads Strategy for Ecommerce
The article outlines a repeatable framework for ecommerce brands to move from isolated TikTok test wins to sustainable, high‑volume scaling. It stresses that creative fatigue, account instability, and poor campaign architecture cause performance plateaus once spend reaches $5K‑$20K per month....
Semrush Launches a Framework for Measuring Brand Visibility in AI Search as the Old SEO Playbook Breaks Down
Semrush unveiled a Brand Visibility Framework at Adobe Summit, introducing “Agentic Search Optimisation” to measure brand presence across AI‑generated answers, traditional search, and autonomous agents. The model draws on more than 213 million LLM prompts and highlights that organic click‑through rates...
Treat Budget as Daily Variable, Performance as Constant
Another nail in idea of daily budget controlling spend. Budget should always be a daily variable While performance is the constant That is how you want the machine to model your spend allocation. https://t.co/M5Qsc5I5sh