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
Cimpress Q2 2025 Earnings Show Digital Ad Spend Spike and New U.S. Print Platform
Cimpress posted 2% revenue growth in Q2 2025 while adjusted EBITDA fell $34 million, driven by weaker U.S. sales and a near‑50% jump in digital advertising costs. The company also announced a new Pixartprinting facility in Pennsylvania to launch its Upload & Print model for high‑volume, design‑heavy customers, signaling a deeper push into digital customization services.
Scaling Paid Media Without Burning Cash: Smarter Testing Frameworks for Modern PPC
Scaling paid media often leads to rising CPAs when spend is increased without proper testing. Teams typically outpace their learning, causing efficiency drops as they move into broader audiences. The article advocates a disciplined testing framework that isolates variables, sets...
Rogue‑style Fan Pages Can Drive 100M Organic Views
i interviewed the agency making “fan pages” for brands. secondary accounts that feel more like a rogue employee took over than a strategy. the “arby’s boys” page generated over 100m organic views in the first six months.
From Clicks to Confidence: How Brands Validate PPC Performance Without Flawed Attribution
Brands are moving beyond flawed click‑through attribution to validate PPC performance with layered metrics. Cross‑device journeys and privacy‑driven data gaps make single‑model attribution unreliable, prompting marketers to blend CAC, new‑customer rates, LTV and payback periods. Incrementality tests, geo‑holdouts, and Marketing...
Google Adds Campaign-Level Filtering to Bulk Ad Review Appeals
Google Ads now offers a campaign‑level filter in its bulk ad‑review appeal tool, allowing advertisers to target only specific campaigns when requesting policy re‑reviews. The new "Select eligible campaigns" option prevents the need to resubmit all disapproved ads across an...
Meta Pixel Glitch Causes Missing Subscribe Events
Anyone experiencing Meta pixel issues in the last ~36 hours, what are you seeing/experiencing? For example, I'm seeing zero Subscribe events for a client showing in Events Manager, they're using LittleData + Segment, but we have other similarly setup events that...
How Boutique Hotels Stand Out with Creative Content Marketing
Boutique hotels leverage their unique personality to stand out in a market dominated by price‑driven chains. By deploying creative content marketing, they can showcase local experiences, historic charm, and staff stories that resonate with travelers. Effective content reduces reliance on...
Why Your Google Ads Aren’t Getting Clicks
Google Ads can fail to generate clicks for several avoidable reasons. Using overly broad or irrelevant keywords prevents ads from reaching the right audience, while generic ad copy offers no compelling reason to click. Low bids keep ads off prime...
Navigating the Agentic Frontier: The IAB Tech Lab 2026 Roadmap
IAB Tech Lab unveiled its 2026 roadmap, centering on agentic advertising frameworks, new privacy‑first standards, and CTV‑focused programmatic tools. The release includes open‑source Agentic Advertising Management Protocols (AAMP) 2.0, a live Agent Registry, and the LLM Content Monetization Protocol (CoMP)...
A Six-Figure Order and a Runway for Growth: How Thomas Helps OSE Optics Connect With the Right Customers
OSE Optics, a precision optics maker, partnered with the Thomas industrial marketplace to overhaul its brand and launch an SEO‑optimized website. The revamp lifted the company from a single website inquiry in five years to a steady stream of high‑quality...
AI Commoditizes Tweets; Brand Strategy Remains Premium
Great take. I think specifically, as AI evolves and expands, hyper-specific knowledge (and in that lies taste), is what clients will pay for, rather than just "tweets written for you" which used to work well before AI. Example: One of the things I...
Clone Your Voice, Automate Your Marketing: A Claude Tutorial
The post shows how small businesses, despite inflation‑driven cost pressures, are increasing marketing spend and can automate that effort with Claude AI. By using a Voice Extraction Protocol and a Framework Runner, owners can clone their own tone, apply proven...
Talon.One Releases Integration With Adobe Experience Platform to Power Real-Time Loyalty and Promotions for Enterprise Brands
Talon.One, the incentives platform behind more than 300 enterprise brands, has launched a native integration with Adobe Experience Platform (AEP). The connector links Talon.One to Adobe Real‑Time CDP and Journey Optimizer, allowing loyalty and promotion logic to run instantly across...
Your Homepage Matters Again for SEO — Here’s Why
The rise of AI assistants like Gemini and ChatGPT is steering users back to branded searches, making the homepage the primary entry point for many visitors. This reverses the early‑2000s SEO trend where deep‑link pages captured most traffic. Marketers must...
Why Is SEO Important for Multifamily Property Developers? 6 Reasons It Impacts Occupancy Rates
Multifamily developers are increasingly dependent on online visibility as renters begin their search on digital platforms. Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures properties appear early in organic results, shaping first impressions and attracting renters with genuine intent. By leveraging local SEO,...
DMWF Spotlight: The Full-Funnel Performance Marketing Strategy Every Brand Needs in 2026
In 2026 marketers are merging awareness and conversion into a single full‑funnel strategy, leveraging first‑party data and AI to replace the lost third‑party cookie ecosystem. Real‑time customer insights enable brands to craft coherent journeys that span social, search and email....
AI Shopping Generates Unattributed Conversions, Skewing Attribution
AI shopping is sending buyers to your store but NONE of them show up in your attribution. 39% of consumers already use AI for product discovery, and 23% of Americans bought something via AI in the past month. These are the...
Why TikTok Is the New Battleground for FMCG Sales
TikTok Shop is emerging as a dedicated social‑commerce channel for fast‑moving consumer goods, leveraging its discovery‑led format to turn viral videos into purchases. Ninety‑three percent of users engage with the shop feature and 88 % discover new brands, while a two‑click...
Agentic Engine Optimization: Google AI Director Outlines New Content Playbook
Google Cloud AI director Addy Osmani introduced Agentic Engine Optimization (AEO), a framework for making web content consumable by autonomous AI agents. He argues that token limits, not clicks or dwell time, now drive content performance, urging creators to front‑load...
Chatbot Ads Need a New Model Beyond Search
Search is the wrong mental model for chatbot advertising "I think it’s a mistake to view the Search advertising model as the default for chatbots; both from a user expectation and a revenue standpoint. And in fact, I think that Search...
Meta Is Launching An Easy Button For CAPI
Meta announced a one‑click activation for its Conversions API (CAPI) within Events Manager, simplifying server‑side tracking for advertisers. The update also introduces an AI‑powered enrichment feature for the Meta pixel that automatically extracts product and business data from web pages....
Locality and Nielsen Announce Landmark Integration of Media Data Engine, Transforming Local TV Measurement
Locality and Nielsen announced the integration of Nielsen’s Media Data Engine (MDE) into Locality’s broadcast advertising platform. The partnership makes Locality the first broadcast sales organization to deploy Nielsen’s MDE at scale, delivering demographic audience data across all 210 U.S....
Forecasting Mobile Game Profitability: How Publishers Predict UA Performance
AppQuantum’s head of marketing analytics, Iaroslav Kobozev, outlines a profit‑forecasting system that projects annual ROAS from a single week of D7 performance. By updating coefficient models weekly and enforcing a minimum cohort of 300 installs or 10 payers, the framework...
The Web's Power: Shared Solutions Help Solve Problems
This has always been the power of the web. Someone out there has probably come across the same situation and problem you are experiencing. His site ran into the same exact situation my case study covered (and I posted that...
The Offer Stacking Framework That’s Generated $20M In Sales (And How To Execute It With AI)
The Write With AI team introduced an "Offer Stacking" framework that layers multiple, question‑driven assets onto a digital product to create a slippery‑slope buying experience. By pairing each buyer objection with a named bonus—such as a product‑idea framework or traffic...
Partner Perspectives: DIRECTV Advertising on Modernizing the TV Experience
DIRECTV Advertising is merging linear TV with streaming to give advertisers the reach of traditional broadcast and the precision of digital. Leveraging PubMatic’s programmatic infrastructure, the platform has boosted live‑sports impressions by roughly 40% through streaming versus satellite alone. New...
Amazon Ads Hands The IAB Tech Lab A Tool That Promises To Waste Fewer Bid Requests
Amazon Ads has donated its Dynamic Traffic Engine (DTE) to the IAB Tech Lab as open‑source software, enabling real‑time traffic shaping for programmatic advertising. The tool lets demand‑side platforms broadcast detailed inventory preferences to supply‑side platforms, which then filter bid...
American Eagle Rolls Out Summer Campaign with Sydney Sweeney, Stock Surges 22%
American Eagle Outfitters unveiled a new summer advertising push featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, prompting a 22% rise in the company’s share price and more than 55 billion media impressions. The campaign, overseen by CMO Craig Brommers, aims to translate the duality...
Snake River Strategies Launches Dedicated Microsite for Idaho Candidate Chad Christensen
Snake River Strategies, a Boise‑based digital strategy firm, launched ChadChristensen.org, a dedicated, SEO‑optimized microsite for Idaho legislative candidate Chad Christensen. The service marks the firm’s first rollout of a turnkey digital reputation product aimed at state‑level politicians.
TelevisaUnivision Joins The Streaming Self-Service Bandwagon
TelevisaUnivision has partnered with ad‑tech firm fullthrottle.ai to make its streaming inventory available through a self‑serve platform. The integration adds a dedicated ad bidder, clean‑room data matching and ZIP‑code level targeting for U.S. Hispanic audiences. Fullthrottle reports a 90% match‑rate...
Google Is Replacing Dynamic Search Ads With AI Max via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Google will retire Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) and migrate eligible campaigns to its AI Max platform starting in September 2026. The transition unfolds in two phases: a voluntary upgrade window now open, followed by an automatic migration of remaining DSA,...
How Zenni Optical Leveraged Mobile Gaming to Achieve 30-Percent Sales Growth in February | Exclusive
Zenni Optical partnered with Ghost Gaming and ad‑tech firm Digital Culture Group to run a mobile‑gaming ad campaign in February. The initiative leveraged AI‑driven inventory targeting and achieved a cost‑per‑unique‑user (CPUU) of just $0.02. As a result, Zenni recorded a...
Undisclosed Promo Bots May Violate FTC and Copyright Law
As annoying as that probably was, this is quantifiably different. You know the Geffen rep works for geffen; you know the speaker has a strong financial interest in her success, you can use that information to analyze what they saying....
Spam Report Abuse Could Harm Innocent Users, Bad Move
The more I think about this, the more I think this is going to cause *many problems* for all parties involved. E.g. What would stop someone from filing a spam report (even if legit), but using someone else's name in...
The Modern SEO Center Of Excellence: Governance, Not Guidelines via @Sejournal, @Billhunt
Enterprise SEO Centers of Excellence often fail because they act only as advisory bodies without enforcement authority. Modern AI‑driven search demands consistent, machine‑readable structures, which requires a governing CoE that defines and audits templates, structured data, and content standards. By...
Vax Appoints UK Media Agency Following 7-Way Pitch
Vax, the long‑standing UK floor‑care brand, has appointed the7stars as its new media agency after a competitive seven‑way pitch that also featured incumbent McCann Birmingham. The agency will assume media planning and buying responsibilities for Vax’s vacuum, carpet‑washer and cleaning‑solution...
The New PPC Playbook: From Media Buyer to Profit Engineer
The article argues that paid‑search professionals must evolve from tactical media buyers to "profit engineers" as Google and Microsoft automate bidding, creative testing, and audience discovery. It outlines four steps: mapping campaigns directly to the profit‑and‑loss statement, engineering AI signals...
Google: We May Use Spam Report Submissions For Manual Actions
Google has updated its spam‑report policy to state that user submissions can be used to trigger manual actions against sites violating its spam guidelines. When a manual action is issued, Google will forward the exact text of the reporter’s submission...
Gupshup Launches Superagent
Gupshup unveiled Superagent, an autonomous AI agent that designs, launches, and optimizes customer conversations across major messaging and voice channels. The platform handles everything from campaign setup and journey orchestration to transaction processing and performance monitoring, all via simple prompts....
Google Ads Consolidating Enhanced Conversions With On/Off Switch
Google Ads is consolidating its Enhanced Conversions for web and for leads into a single, unified setting that can be toggled on or off. The change eliminates the need to choose between implementation methods such as the Google tag, Google...
Good SEO Builds Value; Spam SEO Clutters Google
SEO isn't spam. Lazy SEO is. actual SEO: build something useful then make it findable spam SEO: pump out 500 "best tools..." listicles and pray if your strategy is making google worse you're not a marketer you're just littering with a monthly retainer
Martech Inversion: Cockpits Turning Into Engine Rooms
The Great Martech Inversion: When the Cockpit Becomes the Engine Room by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/o8VHexq82B @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #Marketing #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews #AI #CX #CRM #MarketingSuccess #MarketingStrategy #AIAgents https://t.co/qUmZ5p90Rr
Why Your Search Data Doesn’t Agree (And What To Do About It) via @Sejournal, @Coreydmorris
Marketing teams routinely compare quarterly reports from GA4, Google Ads, Search Console and CRM, only to find the numbers diverge. The article explains that each platform tracks different user actions, uses distinct attribution models, and is affected by privacy‑driven data...
Personal Intelligence Rollout May Reshape Search Result Algorithms
Added the (near) global rollout of Personal Intelligence to my algo update list. This could significantly change how search results are presented. https://t.co/0KdmuSXKw2 https://t.co/QKbuYQWBNQ https://t.co/23VgzTcOCi
US LLC Google Ads Verification Fails From India
Anyone here who has setup and done advertiser verification for Google Ads account with US billing from India? We've a registered LLC in US but verification keep getting rejected.
Navigating the Future of AI Search: The DGR Interview with Branch’s Adam Landis
Branch’s AI Search and Discovery Enterprise Benchmark Report, based on 300 enterprise leaders, shows AI‑driven search delivers fewer visits but markedly higher‑intent users for B2B platforms. Marketers are urged to pivot from sheer traffic volume to funnel quality, emphasizing personalization...
Shift Focus: Influence AI Answers, Not Just Search Rankings
The content question has changed. It’s no longer “Did this rank?” It’s “Did this influence ChatGPT, Perplexity, or AI Overviews?” If your content is not showing up where buyers get answers, traffic wins are a distraction. https://t.co/KR59tuv2m0
SERP Lens Launches Major SEO Feature Upgrades
Epic new updates were just released to our new SEO browser, SERP Lens. Including updates to theme settings, placeholder animations, a new rules engine (with 17 instant checks), a robots.txt parser & more. Here's a preview of what each looks like for...
Snap's Cost Cuts First, Growth Now Powered by Subscriptions
⚡️ $SNAP Rightsizing Cost Structure is Important 1st Step, but What About Engagement and Specs? ⚡️ SNAP also disclosed Q1 revenue growth of 12%…However, the growth is coming from Snap+ subscriptions, with the core advertising business likely… https://t.co/1NDtoN6T2v
Google Search Console Emails Were Just a Bug
Those Google Search Console email notifications from yesterday were just a bug https://t.co/XG2t0D600l by @MordyOberstein https://t.co/PitB2k0rEJ