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.
Media Quality and Measurement: The Gap Between Seeing, and Knowing | Behind the Numbers (Video)
In a recent eMarketer podcast, host Marcus Johnson and guests Arielle Feger and David Simon dissect the shortcomings of current media measurement, especially the over‑reliance on simple reach numbers. They argue that traditional metrics fail to capture the true quality of inventory and propose a shift toward high‑fidelity signals that reflect engagement and brand safety. Simon highlights Verve’s omnichannel platform as a solution that aggregates cross‑channel data to identify genuinely valuable ad placements. The discussion underscores a growing industry push to replace vanity metrics with outcome‑driven measurement.
Mediavine and Index Exchange Link 18,000 Publishers' Data to Index Marketplaces
Mediavine announced an expanded partnership with Index Exchange, enabling audience segments from its network of more than 18,000 independent publishers to be accessed through Index Marketplaces. The deal makes Index Exchange the first SSP to offer Mediavine’s curated data via...
Inside the Creator-Led Media Economy: Coachella
Influencer marketing now commands 20‑30% of media budgets, with Australian creator spend hitting $830 M AUD (≈$550 M USD) in 2025 and projected to reach $1 B AUD by 2030. The Coachella festival has become a high‑velocity content factory, where brands like Revolve, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode, and...
Google Blocked and Removed More than 8.3 Billion Ads in 2025
Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report shows the company blocked or removed more than 8.3 billion ads, with over 99 % stopped before they reached users. The crackdown included suspending 24.9 million advertiser accounts—four million linked to scams—and deleting 602 million scam‑related ads. Enforcement also...
Weigel Broadcasting Taps OpenAP for Advanced Advertising Tools
Weigel Broadcasting announced a partnership with OpenAP to roll out advanced advertising tools ahead of the 2026 Upfront season. The collaboration lets advertisers access richer audience data and purchase inventory across Weigel’s nine niche TV networks, including MeTV and Heroes...
Agentic Advertising Needs Interoperability, Standardisation, and Adoption to Thrive
The IAB Tech Lab has introduced the Agentic Advertising Management Protocols (AAMP), a standards‑driven suite designed to make advertising agents interoperable, transparent, and production‑ready. AAMP adds new protocols—Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent‑to‑Agent (A2A)—and an open Agent Registry that mirrors...
Amazon Pauses Controversial Ad Payment Change After Seller Backlash
Amazon announced it will pause the rollout of a new advertising payment option that would force sellers to use account balances or Pay‑by‑Invoice, deferring the change to Aug. 1, 2026 after coordinated pushback. The move underscores growing tension between the marketplace’s ad...
VTEX Unveils AI‑Native Commerce Suite, Redefining Digital Retail
VTEX announced an AI‑native commerce suite at its VTEX Day event, positioning the platform to automate operations, personalize customer experiences and expand ad monetization. The launch, part of VTEX Vision 2026, targets the 2,200 B2C and B2B brands already using...
AARON Awards Crown Inaugural Winners Spotlighting Rise of AI-Native Creative
The inaugural AARON Awards announced their first global winners, drawing entries from 45 countries and positioning AI as a standalone creative discipline in advertising. Judges praised projects that treated AI as a medium requiring direction and restraint, rather than a...
From Audit to Execution: Your First 7 Days of a Clean Social Strategy
The article presents a step‑by‑step, seven‑day social‑media strategy reset that begins with a 60‑90‑minute audit and ends with a week‑two content plan. It stresses platform‑specific audits, profile optimization, a single‑session content batch, and early engagement before scaling volume. The workflow...
HubSpot Introduces AI‑Powered Answer Engine Optimization Features
.@HubSpot adds Answer Engine Optimization, contextual updates to platform https://t.co/c0cINkMnAW HubSpot launched features for AI visibility, progressing deals and a bevy of AI agents. https://t.co/z3W1Hu7Up7
Static Sites Beat WordPress for Speed, Cost in Local Business Marketing
Local marketers are opting for static site generators over traditional or headless WordPress to cut load times and keep development budgets between $2,000 and $10,000. The shift reflects data that sites slower than three seconds lose 53% of visitors, prompting...
Yahoo DSP Taps Guardian in Push for Cleaner Programmatic Supply
Yahoo DSP has partnered with The Guardian to create a direct‑to‑publisher pathway that lets advertisers buy the newspaper’s premium digital inventory through Yahoo Backstage. The integration simplifies campaign discovery, activation and optimisation, reducing the complexity of programmatic buying. The Guardian...
Nexxen Launches Enhancements to ‘nexAI DSP Assistant’ to Amplify ‘Full-Funnel’ Campaign Outcomes
Advertising technology firm Nexxen unveiled major upgrades to its AI‑driven demand‑side platform, the nexAI DSP Assistant. The enhancements expand the assistant’s role to pre‑campaign quality assurance, real‑time mid‑flight optimization, and post‑campaign analytics, while a new user interface simplifies workflow and...
How to Build a Signature Content Series that Grows Your Audience
The article provides a step‑by‑step guide to creating a signature content series that accelerates audience growth, highlighting a five‑step framework that starts with planning six episodes before launch. It distinguishes episodic, serialized, and hybrid formats, stressing the importance of a...
Coachella 2026 Wasn’t Just a Music Festival; It Was a Brand Universe
Coachella 2026 transcended a music event, becoming a sprawling brand universe where beauty, spirits, AI and hospitality brands built immersive experiences. Hailey Bieber’s Rhode launch, Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila outpost, and Red Bull’s 20,000‑sq‑ft Mirage turned product drops into cultural...
Google Details AI Push Against Harmful Ads
Google announced that its Gemini‑powered AI models are now filtering harmful ads more effectively, removing 438.6 million ads and suspending 594,000 advertiser accounts in Australia during 2025. The same technology blocked over 8.3 billion ads worldwide and shut down 24.9 million accounts, including...
Messy Authenticity Beats Polished Brand Storytelling
Brand content does not have to be perfect stories. Share opinions. Share the real experiences. Share the messy ones. That's what earns attention because everyone else is polishing.
BCM Group Launches Search Works, to Unify Owned, Earned and Paid in an AI Era
Queensland‑based BCM Group has launched Search Works, a data‑driven brand visibility platform that replaces traditional SEO with an adaptive SEO/GEO model tailored for AI‑powered search. The service, led by Managing Director Lukas Temple, already secured new clients Youi Insurance and...
Pinterest's Plea: 'Put Down Your Phones'
Pinterest is rolling out a "How did they do it" ad campaign that tells users to put down their phones and live offline, debuting on May 1 across TV, cinema, out‑of‑home and digital channels. The company frames its platform as engineered...
The Content Cultures That Last Have One Thing in Common
Content programs often lose momentum after about 18 months, with only 22% of B2B marketers rating their efforts as highly successful. Research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that 62% of the winners have a documented content strategy aligned to...
Facebook Wants to Scan Users’ Camera Rolls for Content
Meta has begun testing an opt‑in camera‑roll suggestion feature for Facebook users in the United Kingdom. The tool scans a device’s photo library, identifies standout moments and proposes ready‑made collages, videos or story drafts that can be posted to Feed,...
Instagram Expands Your Algorithm Tool to Explore
Instagram is extending its "Your Algorithm" content‑recommendation tool from Reels to the Explore feed, allowing users to fine‑tune the topics they see across both surfaces. The feature, first tested on Reels in October, now appears for English‑language users in Explore,...
How to Use AI Brand Monitoring for Always-On Brand Health
AI‑driven brand monitoring is shifting from a niche advantage to a baseline requirement as the internet’s content volume explodes. Large‑language models synthesize mentions across social, news, forums and emerging AI chatbots, turning raw volume into thematic insights and nuanced sentiment....
BeReal Launches Creator Program to Lure Influencers and Advertisers
BeReal has begun a proactive outreach to U.S. influencers, offering verification and brand‑partner tools as part of a creator‑focused program. The move follows earlier pilots in France and Japan and comes as the app’s downloads fell 41% year‑over‑year in 2025.
How to Create AI Agents for Social Media Marketing
Social media teams are overwhelmed by the volume of platforms and messages, prompting a shift toward AI agents that can autonomously generate content, monitor trends, and handle customer interactions. The guide outlines how to build such agents—from selecting LLMs and...
Threads Expands Social Media Management Functionality
Meta’s Threads platform is rolling out a suite of API enhancements that let brands cross‑share to Instagram Stories, schedule posts up to 10,000 characters, embed content without tokens, and receive real‑time notifications. The changes also lower the follower threshold for...
DIGI Search Launches Full-Service Dental Web Platform Tied to NextGen TV Ads
DIGI Search announced a new full-service dental web management platform that integrates its proprietary NextGen TV advertising suite. The initiative aims to move dental practices away from fragmented social‑media ads toward high‑impact, household‑level TV placements, promising higher‑value case acquisition.
YouTube Lets Users Remove Shorts From Its Home Feed Via Timer Setting
YouTube has expanded its time‑management settings to let any user set the Shorts feed limit to zero minutes, effectively removing Shorts from the home feed. The option, first introduced in October 2025 with a 15‑minute minimum and later limited to parental...
3D DOOH Goes Local: How Brands Are Driving Store Visits Faster
Big Happy’s 3D digital‑out‑of‑home (DOOH) platform is shifting from pure brand awareness to a measurable performance channel by slashing production cycles to under a month and integrating mobile retargeting. Recent campaigns, including a retail activation during a peak shopping period,...
Google’s Gemini AI Cuts Scammers, Blocks 8.3B Ads
Google's 2025 Ads Safety Report: With Gemini's help, Google blocked a record 8.3B ads, up 63% YoY, but suspended 36% fewer advertisers, attributing the disparity to its use of AI "Google said the rise in blocked ads also reflects the...
Podcasting’s Audio Primes, YouTube Limits Livestream Ads, & More
The Sounds Profitable report introduces "Audio Primes," listeners who consume at least 75% of podcasts as pure audio and show lower enthusiasm for AI‑generated voices than video‑first audiences. YouTube rolled out two livestream features that pause ads when viewers send...
Introducing the Newest Edition to Your Team: The Marketing Engineer | Vol 288
Profound announced a new Marketing Engineer role that blends marketing strategy with technical execution, offering a free certification through Profound University. The position is designed to build AI‑driven agents, automations, and end‑to‑end workflows that accelerate existing processes and create capabilities...
PR Roundup: Creators Get Certified, Bieb-Chella Buzz and Philanthropy’s Trust Problem
The Institute for Responsible Influence unveiled a Responsible Influence Certification Program, giving creators a seal that proves they understand FTC disclosure rules and truth‑in‑advertising standards. Justin Bieber dominated Coachella’s social conversation, accounting for roughly 30% of posts and generating 340 million...
Fibr AI Launches Ads-to-Web and LLM-to-Web Personalization to Convert Paid and AI-Referred Traffic
Fibr AI unveiled Ads‑to‑Web and LLM‑to‑Web personalization, technologies that carry the intent expressed in paid ads or AI‑generated queries through to the landing page. The platform can spin up to 1,500 tailored page variants in under two weeks, delivering 35‑50%...
Citation Dominance Boosts Brand Preference in Search
One realization I am coming to regarding LLM citations for middle of funnel content. If no other competitors are optimizing for query fan-outs, and you are the only brand doing it, that means your brand is likely to dominate the...
Moloco Launches AI-Powered Performance CTV for App Marketers
Moloco has introduced Moloco Ads for Performance CTV, extending its AI‑driven advertising technology to connected‑TV inventory. The platform optimizes each impression in real time, targeting specific marketing outcomes while leveraging advertisers' chosen mobile measurement partners for attribution. It promises premium,...
Repurpose TikTok Shop Content on Meta to Unlock Revenue
If you're pushing on TikTok / TikTok shop but not leveraging that content on Meta you're leaving millions in revenue on the table. Have 2 brands who are using TikTok shop as a content funnel for Meta and it's cruising. Let creators...
Albertsons Media Collective Offers New Measurement for Advertisers
Albertsons Media Collective launched an onsite incrementality measurement tool that isolates the causal impact of display ads on sales using test‑and‑control frameworks. The solution, dubbed iROAS, quantifies revenue generated solely by advertising, revealing up to a 6.5‑fold variance across campaigns....
The Team Behind Zohran Mamdani’s Viral Campaign Wants More Political Candidates to Get Candid on Social Media
At AD Week, Melted Solids—co‑founders Anthony DiMieri and Debbie Saslaw—and video director Donald Borenstein broke down the social‑video playbook that helped Zohran Mamdani win New York City’s mayoral race. Their strategy centered on authentic, on‑the‑fly footage that let Mamdani riff in...
Target Puts Creators at Forefront of Pokémon Anniversary Campaign
Target is launching a 100‑item Pokémon × Target collection to mark the franchise’s 30th anniversary, rolling out May 2‑June 6 in select stores and online. The campaign puts social creators such as Sydeon and SuperDuperDani front‑and‑center as “trainers,” extending the promotion across social, digital,...
Stop Wasting Hours Editing 60‑Second TikTok Videos
This one ended up on the videographer side of Threads, and they aren't too thrilled with me... this is for small business owners who waste time editing a 60-second video to put on TikTok. 😅
Lead Marketer Demonstrates Claude Code Setup and Workflows
Proud moment 🥲 Our lead marketer, completely unprompted, shared a video about how she set up Claude Code from scratch and showed a few workflows for client work. https://t.co/C0KlrVuHpA
IAB: Ad Revenue Reached $294.6B In 2025
The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that total internet advertising revenue hit a record $294.6 billion in 2025, a 13.9% year‑over‑year increase. Social‑media ads led the surge, generating $117.7 billion and accounting for 40% of the market, driven by the creator economy and...
Meta's Carousel Ads Are Surprisingly Rare in Feeds
In Meta's UI every ad is shown in a carousel. I rarely, if ever see carousel ads in my feeds. I have multiple Meta accounts with different preferences so you'd think I'd get them at some point. But it's so...
Avoid Creepy Personalization: Keep Healthcare Ads Trustworthy
“Creepy personalization” breaks trust. Rob Janes explains how healthcare ads can stay relevant without crossing the line. ▶️ Watch the interview: https://t.co/eKmsXk6CsW @ad_butler #BrandTrust #hcmktg
Issa Rae Says Hollywood’s Identity Crisis Is Driving Creators to Own Their Platforms
Issa Rae told TheWrap that Hollywood’s “identity crisis” and recent DEI rollbacks are forcing creators to bypass studios and launch content on creator‑owned platforms, exemplified by her new TikTok micro‑drama “Screen Time.” She warned that representation has slipped from 29.2%...
Seeking X Ads Expert: Recommendations Welcome
looking for a X ads guy. someone who understands how to run ads here. would love any recs @nikitabier
Shift From Cold Discounts to Prospecting‑Then‑Remarketing Wins
Snow sold out their entire inventory by spending 75% of their Q4 budget on prospecting ads, then flipping to 75% remarketing for the sale. Meanwhile you're running the exact same discount ad to cold traffic on Black Friday and wondering...
PayPal Adds Native Payment Links to Canva, Turning Designs Into Instant Checkout Pages
PayPal launched a native Payment Links integration inside Canva, allowing users to attach PayPal checkout URLs or QR codes to any design. The move taps Canva’s 265 million monthly users and PayPal’s 439 million accounts, aiming to capture a slice of the...