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.

First DMs, Now Replies: Instagram Lets You Edit Pesky Typos Out of Your Comments
Instagram is adding a comment‑editing button that lets users modify their remarks within 15 minutes of posting. The edit option appears directly beneath a comment and adds an “Edited” label once the change is saved. This mirrors the edit functionality introduced for direct messages two years ago. The rollout begins later this week, initially on iOS devices, with Android expected shortly after.

Conversational Site Search Unlocks Massive Revenue Gains
Internal site search is the most ignored revenue leak in the enterprise digital stack. I was reading a post by Jessica Hawk at @danayaazure about how @AlaskaAir transformed their travel planning experience, and it highlighted a massive shift in the market....
Hostinger Rolls Out $7‑Month AI Agent Suite for SMBs
Hostinger has introduced Hostinger Agents, a subscription service that bundles seven AI‑driven specialists for $6.99 a month. The suite promises to cut small‑business consulting costs by delivering strategy, SEO, marketing, legal and sales support on demand.

Leverage Ahrefs to Secure LinkedIn Backlinks Quickly
Easiest SEO hack in the world (with LinkedIn) > Open ahrefs > Site explorer = linkedin dot com > Filter by "keyword contains phrase (put your Keyword)" > Check top results > Ask the owner to add your link / promote / affiliate / etc. 2nd Easiest:...
Which Backlink Indexing Tool Is Best for SEO?
Backlink indexing tools ensure search engines recognize and credit inbound links, a critical factor for SEO performance. The article reviews the top solutions for 2025, comparing free and paid options such as BacklinkIndexingTool.com, Indexceptional, GigaIndexer, Rapid URL Indexer, and others....

Unilever Builds 300,000-Strong Influencer Network From 10,000 in Just 2 Years
Unilever has expanded its creator‑led marketing engine from roughly 10,000 influencers to almost 300,000 in just two years, a move the company says will drive peer‑driven brand advocacy. CEO Fernando Fernandez highlighted the rapid growth during a Barclays fireside chat,...
How Content Characteristics Foster Audience Engagement on Instagram
The study investigates how Instagram content traits affect audience engagement for Oman’s nation branding. Quantitative metrics and qualitative themes reveal that self‑created posts outperform collaborative or reposted material, confirming the power of authenticity. Visually refined images—strong composition, vivid colour, creative...
Delay Cookie Consent Until Interaction to Boost Conversions
Full-Screen Cookie Banner are the biggest conversion killer. You know that you can delay consent (and tracking) until the visitor interacted (e.g. scrolled a bit) with you page? So that user get a chance to understand if your offering is...

Crocs India Ropes in Rakesh Bedi for Quirky New Digital Campaign
JioHotstar has introduced Tadka, a vertical micro‑drama vertical delivering 60‑ to 120‑second episodes designed for mobile thumbs. The service launches with more than 100 original titles and aims to exceed 1,000 by year‑end, coinciding with the Indian Premier League to...

Elon Musk's X Is Finally Cracking Down on Engagement Farming with Big Overhaul to Its Monetization Program
X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, announced a revamp of its revenue‑sharing program to prioritize original, high‑quality posts and de‑rank low‑quality engagement‑farming content. Product head Nikita Bier said new tools will identify original authors and allocate a portion of...
Sweetwater Labs Grows Skincare Brand Solely on Word‑of‑Mouth, Skipping Paid Ads
Sweetwater Labs, a New York‑based natural skincare label, has built its customer base almost entirely through personal referrals, avoiding influencer deals and paid digital campaigns. Founder Nadia Doh says the brand’s product performance fuels the growth, offering a rare ad‑free...
Test 100+ Variants Before Any Real User Visits
Most companies are still A/B testing with live traffic like it's 2019. You can score 100+ variants before a single person hits the page. Here's how:
Don’t Blame Ads—Optimize Post‑click Funnel Performance
Way too common for brands to ignore issues with their funnel (poor ATC, high bounce rate etc…) Easy to pump more creatives or blame the ad account for bad performance. It’s super important what they do after the click as well.
Podean Acquires Amerge, Expands European Marketplace Services in $4B Deal
Amazon‑affiliated agency Podean announced the acquisition of London‑based Amerge, its third purchase in six months. The deal, financed by Mountaingate Capital, adds European marketshare, $500 million of retail‑media spend and technology that will be folded into Podean’s Purvey.AI platform, strengthening its...
Bobby Pulido Turns Quinceañeras Into a Music‑Promotion Power Play
Tejano singer and first‑time congressional candidate Bobby Pulido launched an open‑call campaign to perform at quinceañeras across Texas’ 15th District, receiving over 1,000 requests in the first day and more than 2,700 overall. The strategy blends live cultural events with...
TechRadar Pro Unveils 'Perspectives' Contributor Platform to Boost Premium Tech Content
TechRadar Pro has launched Perspectives, a contributor platform for premium tech analysis, requiring 800‑1,000‑word, AI‑free, non‑promotional submissions. The move aims to deepen expert‑driven content and influence SEO tactics for tech publishers.

Maddie Lightening Speaks on Misreported ROAS, Account Structure Chaos & AI Mistakes
Maddie Lightening, Hallam’s head of paid media, recounted three pivotal errors that shaped her PPC career: a currency‑conversion mistake that halved reported ROAS, a legacy account structure that conflicted with AI‑driven bidding, and delayed restructuring that hurt peak‑season performance. She...

Google Ads Agencies Hit With Scam Client Leads
Google Ads agencies are facing a surge of phishing scams that masquerade as high‑value client inquiries. Scammers craft spoofed emails and newly registered domains to trick agencies into granting access to My Client Center (MCC) accounts. Google’s product liaison, Ginny...

Aggregates Guide Tests, Brand Data Drives Decisions
Some individual brand illustrations of the relationship between campaign level CPMr and iROAS. Important to always view aggregate data as generally useful and specifically useless. Use aggregates to help you decide which things to test first and then check the data...
Hostinger Rolls Out $7‑Month AI Team to Cut SMB Consulting Costs
Hostinger introduced Hostinger Agents, a subscription service that bundles seven discipline‑specific AI assistants for $6.99 a month. The suite aims to replace costly freelance consultants for small and medium‑size businesses, offering on‑demand strategy, SEO, legal, and sales guidance.

AMC Decides to Recreate Quibi, Release The Audacity Pilot in Three-Minute Clips on TikTok
AMC is launching the pilot of its tech‑drama "The Audacity" on TikTok, breaking the episode into 21 three‑minute vertical clips. The move revives the short‑form streaming playbook popularized by the now‑defunct Quibi. The series, starring Billy Magnussen, will also air...
AI-Generated Influencers Flood Feeds as Brands Bet on Synthetic Stars
AI‑generated influencers are now a mainstream marketing tool. Andreessen Horowitz invested in content‑automation startup Doublespeed in late 2025, while research from Graphite shows AI‑written articles surpassed human‑written pieces in November 2024. The shift is sparking a debate over authenticity, job...

Google Core Update Shifts Ecommerce Visibility to Specific, Value‑Rich Sites
🚨 After analyzing some of the ecommerce winners and losers from the Google March Core Update, the clearest pattern is that it redistributed visibility unevenly across query sets, with no single obvious explanation behind all shifts and a few late...
ChatGPT’s $100B Ad Goal Demands Precise Product Discipline
How can ChatGPT reach $100BN in advertising revenue? "If my reverse-engineered input assessments are anywhere near what OpenAI used in its model to project $100BN in annual advertising revenue, then the team faces a formidable challenge, albeit one that is surmountable...

B*tchwork My AI Did For Me, Part 6: Writes and Publishes My Substack From a Text on My iPhone
A creator used a single iPhone text to trigger an AI workflow that drafted, illustrated, formatted, and published a Substack article to 102,000 subscribers within minutes. The system automatically generated a cover image, created a paid post, and queued social...

Why Instagram’s Shoppable Reels May Be Too Little, Too Late
Instagram has finally rolled out shoppable Reels, letting creators tag products and earn affiliate commissions directly within the app. The feature arrives after rivals such as TikTok Shop, YouTube Shorts and dedicated influencer platforms have already built robust commerce ecosystems....

Merchant API Lands in Google Ads Scripts Ahead of Content API Sunset
Google Ads scripts will start supporting the Merchant API on April 22, 2026, as the legacy Content API for Shopping is slated for retirement on August 18, 2026. The Merchant API introduces a modular architecture that breaks functionality into sub‑APIs,...
ROAS Misleads When New Customer Rate Falls Below 80%
ROAS is the most deceptive metric in your ad account • ROAS looks healthy: your new customer rate is quietly declining • You push into cold audiences: ROAS drops so you pull back • You pull back: you recirculate warm demand through the...

5 Best Tools to Auto-Generate Ads in 10+ Languages for Social Media
Social media marketers now need to produce ads in multiple languages quickly, and AI‑powered platforms are filling that gap. The article lists five top tools—Lapis, Canva, AdCreative.ai, Smartly.io and Creatopy—that can auto‑generate creatives and copy in ten or more languages....

Stop AI Repurposing: Test Small, Grow Big
The biggest lie in content marketing is the "AI content machine" that automatically turns one big piece of content into ten small ones. Last year: ▪️ I got 9M+ impressions on my LinkedIn posts ▪️ Ahrefs Blog got 3M+ unique visitors ▪️ Ahrefs YouTube...

B2B AI Content Must Prioritize Human Engagement Over Bots
I think AI in the B2B space right now is rife with "stuff" written purely for LLMs. No human is ever going to read it, and if they do, they'll be bored to DEATH. If you're going to spend money on...

DerbySoft Case Study: Scaling Success with AI Max for Search
DerbySoft integrated Google’s AI Max for Search into campaigns for major Japanese hotel chains, delivering a 68% lift in clicks, 51% more conversions, and a 45% boost in conversion value between November 2025 and February 2026. AI Max consumed just 34% of the total...
How Fake People Became Real Influencers
The New York Times reports that AI‑generated influencers—synthetic avatars that look human—are flooding social feeds to market supplements and other products. A Graphite study shows AI‑written articles have outpaced human writers since November 2024, and venture‑backed firms like Doublespeed are offering bulk...

Google Ads Simplifies Enhanced Conversions Into a Single Switch
Google Ads is consolidating its enhanced conversions tools into a single feature with an on/off toggle, eliminating the split between web and lead conversions. Starting June 2026, advertisers can feed user‑provided data through website tags, Data Manager, and API integrations...

LinkedIn Is A Sales Tool. Start Treating It Like One
LinkedIn is no longer just a networking platform; it has become a core sales engine for B2B firms. The article argues that executives should treat LinkedIn with the same rigor as traditional sales tools, leveraging data, targeted outreach, and content...
Hulken’s Wheeled Tote Bags Go Viral with Gen‑Z, Driving $29 M Sales Surge
Hulken’s boxy, fold‑up wheeled tote has become a must‑have accessory for Gen‑Z shoppers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, propelling the company’s revenue from $390,000 in 2020 to $29 million in 2024. The surge underscores how rapid social‑media trends can translate...
Fox Pivots to Creator‑driven Content, Betting on Tubi and Influencers
Fox announced a strategic shift toward creator‑driven programming, highlighted by a January deal with Dhar Mann Studios and Tubi’s recent profitability. The move aims to replace franchise reliance with influencer‑powered content, reshaping ad revenue and audience targeting.
EFF Leaves X, Raising Alarm for Digital Marketers Over Platform Viability
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced it is leaving X after two decades, noting a 97% drop in post impressions and dissatisfaction with Musk’s policy changes. The move signals a potential shift in X’s user base and ad ecosystem, prompting marketers...
Inside 5 Food and Beverage Influencer Campaigns that Delivered Measurable ROI
Food and beverage brands are turning to highly strategic influencer programs to cut through a crowded market. Campaigns by Habit Burger, Chobani, Tapatío Ramen, bibigo and Totino’s combined creator‑led activations, cultural‑moment ownership, and direct shoppable paths to generate measurable impressions,...
Pick Native Integrations for Intentional Funnel Success
Blog drop on funnel integrations & how they effect your client journey as a whole. (Plus to use the native integrations your platform has orrr just load up Zapier for everything... 🙃) Check ittt → https://projectgrowthmode.com/2026/04/10/choosing-the-right-integrations-for-a-more-intentional-funnel/
Follower Count Doesn't Determine Content Quality
The size of your followers has nothing to do with your ability to share quality content.

Mike King Explains SEO vs GEO/AEO at Raleigh Meetup
The Difference Between SEO and GEO/AEO. We’ve got the legendary Mike King (@iPullRank) in Raleigh to break it all down for you at the Triangle SEO Meetup. 📅 Tues, April 14 | 6-8 PM 📍 Pendo (downtown Raleigh) RSVP: https://t.co/ggwtBOYWCw https://t.co/7d7dl657PH

Consistency Drives LinkedIn Success for B2B LLM Content
Started leaning into @LinkedIn at the end of February with regular, thoughtful posts around my new topical focus (which is largely in-depth editorial-driven B2B content to boost LLM citation rate.) The algorithm there favors the consistent, my GOD https://t.co/CJLI37Swp0

Emojis Reveal Weekly Top Email Opener
I like Fandango's playful use of emojis in their subject lines. It's a hint at what the biggest opener is each week, which the preview text reveals. #emailmarketing #digitalmarketing https://t.co/im0LJaESVb
Google Challenges BBC Listicle Claims, Sparking AI Accuracy Debate
In this week’s NYT piece, Google’s said that the BBC article about self-promoting listicles used “unrealistic searches people wouldn’t actually do.” I have some thoughts about that, and about AIO accuracy overall. Check it out: https://t.co/F19vPuNkXO
The Real Challenge: Reaching the Right Audience, Not Better Content
Most agencies are solving the wrong problem. Everyone's obsessed with better content. Better creative. Better copy. But the problem was never the content. It was always getting it in front of the right people.
Friend Recommendations Outperform Brand Claims via UGC
Consumer psychology shows we trust recommendations from friends far more than brand claims. UGC amplifies this by adding names and handles, making it feel like a creator's endorsement, not just an ad. #MarketingTips #UGC https://t.co/RON1r2soLB

Structure Content for AI, Not Just Volume
Publishing more content won’t get you cited in ChatGPT. What does: • clear Q&A • direct, quotable answers • real insights from sales and demos Most of it already exists. It’s just not structured for AI. Teams showing up aren’t louder. They’re easier to quote. https://t.co/uStErEmEI7
OpenAI’s Ad Flop Reveals Widespread Misunderstanding of Advertising
It appears Openai is failing badly in ads. The key problem is everyone thinks they understand ads as we all deal with them constantly. As someone who has spent two decades in the space, I can confirm...

AI Teammates Amplify Digital Influence in Sales
The Conversational Scale: Deploying AI Teammates for Digital Influence https://t.co/dRtl1KKfe3 via @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #Tech #TechNews #AgenticAI #AIAgents #Agentic #AI #FutureOfWork #Strategy #Sales #Marketing https://t.co/2N950paVgz