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.
Mars Gum, BBDO Target Young Demos, Chew On 'Overthink'
Mars’ OEFY gum portfolio—including Orbit, Extra, Freedent and Yida—has launched a youth‑focused campaign called “Total Overthink of The Heart.” The BBDO Chicago creative remixes Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and runs across memes, social, digital and OOH under the “Chew Good” platform. Additional elements from adam&eve TBWA feature an OOH “Chew Ratings” scoring system and a TikTok “Channel Your Inner Goat” experience where users feed worries to live goats. Mars executives say the effort is designed to embed the gum brands in contemporary culture and drive growth among younger demographics.
Meta's AI Ad Stack Drives 3% Conversion Boost
RecSys, ad ranking, and the AI advertising opportunity Certainly, Meta seems to be investing resources into advanced architectures for ad retrieval, ad ranking, and RecSys more generally. And the results are impressive: a 3% increase in conversions might be interpreted as...
How Home Depot Is Harnessing Weather Data To Drive Local Retail Sales
Home Depot is leveraging hyper‑local, predictive weather intelligence from The Weather Company to align marketing and inventory with shifting consumer demand. The partnership aims to convert weather‑driven buying signals into actionable campaigns, a strategy that previously delivered a six‑fold lift...
Don't Kill Winners: Wait 5+ Days Before Cutting
You've probably killed at least one winning ad this year… And the data would've told you not to. Both relearn and fatigue produce identical surface symptoms: → CPM rises → CTR drops → ROAS declines The difference is what's happening underneath. The "premature execution...
‘The Era of Link in Bio Is Finally over’: Meta
Meta is piloting product tagging on Instagram Reels in five markets, allowing creators to embed up to 30 catalog items or affiliate links directly in videos. The feature targets creators with public accounts, at least 1,000 followers and age 18+,...
Go Figure: 3 Big Marketing Numbers From March
In March, forecast data showed Instagram’s ad revenue growth could fall from 27% YoY in 2026 to just 15.5% by 2027, a drop of over ten percentage points, while Facebook faces sub‑10% growth. Papa John’s announced a $22 million investment in...
Mayeen Rahman’s Discipline‑Driven Rise Redefines Gen‑Z Motivation
Mayeen Rahman, a Bangladeshi digital creator, has turned a self‑education routine into a high‑impact motivational brand. His transparent approach to discipline and failure resonates with younger audiences tired of polished hustle narratives, positioning him as a new kind of role...
Build a System for Consistent 2‑3X ROAS
If your ROAS fluctuates every week, you don’t have a system yet. Predictable brands operate at 2X–3X stable returns. Consistency comes from testing + structured funnels. Control the system, control the scale.
Retention, Not Ads, Drives Sustainable Profit Growth
Scaling ads without fixing retention is risky. The best brands generate 30–60% revenue from repeat buyers. Email + WhatsApp automations = hidden goldmine. Profit is made after the first sale.
Weekend Reading: AI’s Analysis of Soda and Alcohol Marketing on Social Media
Vital Strategies' Canary platform used AI to analyze soda and alcohol marketing on social media. It found Coca‑Cola appeared in 795 posts during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, generating about 6 billion impressions, while digital alcohol ads posted nearly 4,000...
How MLB Is Leveraging Automation and Data to Enhance Fan Messaging
Major League Baseball has deepened its partnership with Adobe to automate fan‑engagement marketing across all 30 clubs. The expanded deal adds Adobe's GenStudio performance‑marketing platform, Firefly Services creative tools, and an LLM Optimizer for AI‑driven search visibility. Teams will use...
I Let Claude Make AND Post My Instagram Carousel. Here's What Happened.
A creator tested whether Claude, an AI language model, could not only write a 10‑slide Instagram carousel but also publish it automatically via PRISM’s MCP integration. The prompt produced a narrative‑driven carousel in the creator’s voice, and PRISM posted it...
2030 Forecast: Ad-Supported Video Soars 75% To $540B
Omdia projects that advertising‑supported video will surge 75 % to $540 billion by 2030, propelled by social‑media and connected‑TV platforms. Online video is set to capture 54 % of global video revenue, up from 40 % in 2025. In contrast, linear TV’s ad‑supported revenue...
Health, Government Entities Advertised On Sites That Promoted Misinformation
A Yale University study, conducted with NewsGuard, found that health and government agencies spent more than $35.7 million on advertising across 11 websites that promote health misinformation between 2021 and 2024, accounting for over 10 % of those sites' ad revenue. The...
ChatGPT Ads: New Acquisition Channel Or Just Another Brand Tax? Via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
OpenAI is set to roll out a self‑serve ChatGPT Ads platform in April, expanding the pilot beyond the U.S. to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The initial limited test generated an annualized $100 million revenue run‑rate and attracted roughly 600 advertisers, but...
Algorithms Penalize Authentic Content when You Stop SEO
I know how to make my posts go viral... But twitter gurus always say you should talk about your interests, daily life, etc. Thing is, the moment I stop yapping about SEO, the algo throws me out completely and visibility stops. I...
Trim the Fluff: Only Essential Sentences Remain
Want your writing to actually be read? Try the inverted highlighter method: 1. Highlight what readers would likely skip 2. Ask: Can I justify why someone would read this? If yes → make it essential If no → delete it Every sentence should fight...
#510 - The Amazon Ads Mistake Costing Sellers Growth
In this episode, hosts Shivali Patel and Keri Miller interview Destiny Wishon, CMO of Better AMS, and Carrie Miller, a seven‑figure Helium 10 seller, about common Amazon advertising pitfalls. They explain how focusing solely on low ACoS can stifle growth, why...
KitKat Turns Heist News Into Interactive PR Stunt
🏆 Best April's Fools PR Campaign? The KitKat Heist Tracker 👇 Spotted by Finchling via its PR campaigns tracker functionality: "KitKat published an online tracker where consumers can enter the 8‑digit batch code on a pack to check whether it was...
Krolog Expands Amazon Consulting Suite to Boost Brand PPC and SEO Performance
Krolog, a Toronto‑based Amazon consulting agency, announced an expanded service portfolio that bundles pay‑per‑click, SEO and full account management into a single growth engine. The move targets brands seeking to cut ad costs, improve organic rankings and scale revenue on...
NordVPN's Free "My Location" Tool Threatens Ad Targeting by Revealing Real and Virtual Location Data
NordVPN rolled out a free browser‑based "My Location" tool that instantly displays a user's real GPS‑derived location alongside the IP‑derived virtual location visible to websites. The move spotlights how much location data fuels digital advertising and could force marketers to...
Google Answers Why Some SEOs Split Their Sitemap Into Multiple Files via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google’s John Mueller explained why SEOs sometimes split XML sitemaps into several files instead of using a single document. He noted that large sites often hit the 50,000‑URL or 50 MB limit, prompting proactive division. Additional reasons include grouping URLs by...
Belgian Shopping Center Is Embracing ‘Livestream Commerce’ on TikTok
Waasland Shopping in Saint‑Nicolas, Belgium, has launched a monthly livestream commerce series on TikTok, featuring influencer Jaël Ost and guest creators. The inaugural broadcast on April 2 attracted roughly 12,500 live viewers and generated an equal number of likes, while shoppers...
Playable Ads Trends in Mobile Games & Apps - February 2026
The February 2026 playable‑ads roundup highlights a surge in high‑budget campaigns, with the royalty‑themed Kingdom‑Match3 titles dominating the market. Increased investment from major networks like Applovin has amplified spend on SDK‑driven playables across multiple genres. Creators are leaning heavily into...
The Stack: AI Surges While Social Platforms Face Scrutiny
OpenAI secured a $122 billion funding round, lifting its valuation to about $852 billion and hinting at a future public listing. The company also extended its advertising pilot to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, giving brands more time to test AI‑assistant ads. In...
Only 8% of Brands Use AI for Campaign Optimisation: The B2B SaaS Affiliate Opportunity This Creates
A Supermetrics study released March 24 reveals that while 70% of e‑commerce and B2B SaaS brands list marketing‑spend optimization as a top priority, only 8% currently use AI for campaign optimization. The shortfall stems from fragmented, siloed data rather than...
Best AEO Agencies in the USA: Leading Answer Engine Optimization Experts Driving AI Discovery
The article outlines the emergence of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) as a critical evolution beyond traditional SEO, driven by conversational AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. It profiles the five leading U.S. AEO agencies—AnswerManiac, NoGood, Avenue Z, iPullRank, and Siege...
Free SEO Audit Reveals 58/100 Average, Easy Fixes
I ran our free SEO audit on 20 sites this week. The average score? 58/100. Most common issues: 1. Missing H1 headings (72% of sites) 2. No internal content links — just nav/footer links (65%) 3. Duplicate meta descriptions across pages (48%) 4. Thin content under...
Boathouse’s New Chief Strategy Officer Says It’s Time For Agencies To Take The Reins Of Measurement
Boathouse appointed Sonia Chung as its first Chief Strategy Officer, tasking her with dismantling data silos that tie marketers to Big‑Tech platforms. Chung argues agencies should build their own measurement infrastructure, using AI to fuse structured and unstructured signals across paid,...
Ads of the Week: 12 Campaigns That Caught Our Eye, From KFC to Pringles
Weekly roundup spotlights 12 standout ad campaigns, from KFC’s animated Colonel Sanders to e.l.f.’s true‑crime parody and Verizon’s suspenseful “Look Behind You.” The piece highlights unconventional collaborations such as McDonald’s with K‑Pop Demon Hunters and Liquid Death teaming with real‑estate...
How Samsung Ads And Crumbl Got Their CTV Campaign To Perform Like Social
Samsung Ads partnered with Crumbl for a seven‑week CTV acquisition push in Q4, delivering over 16,000 app installs and five‑figure revenue while achieving a 23% conversion rate that outperformed the brand’s social campaigns. The integration with AppsFlyer gave Crumbl transparent,...
How Samsung Ads And Crumbl Got Their CTV Campaign To Perform Like Social
Crumbl partnered with Samsung Ads for a seven‑week CTV acquisition campaign in Q4, leveraging Samsung’s integration with AppsFlyer to track performance. The effort generated over 16,000 app installs and a 23% conversion rate, slightly higher than the brand’s typical social‑driven...
Transparency Brought Down The Trade Desk’s Publicis Deal but It May Not Be Enough to Win Its Other Clients
The Trade Desk’s relationship with Publicis collapsed after a leaked transparency audit, prompting rivals to tout their own openness. However, agency buyers largely dismissed transparency as a decisive factor, focusing instead on margin and control. Competitors such as Nexxen are...
TheWrap’s Creators X Hollywood Summit Unites Top Influencers and Studios to Redefine Marketing
TheWrap hosted its first‑ever Creators x Hollywood Summit in Los Angeles, gathering Issa Rae, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade, digital storyteller Dhar Mann and former NFL star Brandon Marshall. The event, backed by Whalar, The Lighthouse and major studios, unveiled a multiyear...
Great Content Fails without Compelling Title and Thumbnail
We posted a video that many people said was our best video in years, yet it was one of our worst performing videos in years. People who watch it love it. The problem is the title an/or thumbnail were not...
Media Fragmentation Empowers Startups Over Volume‑Driven Giants
Media fragmentation should benefit startups: the biggest companies have to play a volume game, whereas startups can afford to be super targeted. We just have to get over our addiction to engagement-maxxing. https://t.co/bI0yTX9ZW6
HYROX Surpasses CrossFit in Search Interest, Redefining Competitive Fitness
Google search data reveals HYROX climbing while CrossFit declines, signaling a shift in competitive fitness. The rise is driven by HYROX's standardized, low‑friction format, prompting major gym chains to adopt the model. Industry observers see the trend reshaping event calendars...
Public AI Content Case Studies May Trigger Traffic Drops
Answer: they’re all public case studies about scaling AI content. Usually the case study was written near the time of the peak. Not sure if cause of drop is the content, the case study, or both 😅😅😅
LLMs Can't Render JavaScript, Trust Their SEO Advice Cautiously
Friendly reminder to be very careful taking technical SEO advice from LLMs; they will confidently make statements about how sites operate that simply aren’t true in many cases, because most LLMs can’t render JavaScript. This includes Claude.
Macy's AI Chatbot Spurs 400% Sales Lift, Boosting Turnaround
Macy's rolled out its Gemini‑AI‑powered chatbot, Ask Macy's, and shoppers who used the tool spent roughly 4.75 times more than non‑users, a lift of about 400%. The surge in basket size is feeding the retailer’s dividend‑focused cash‑flow strategy and its...
Publish Research to Earn Backlinks From Journalists
If you want backlinks without begging... Here's a tip: Publish research. Journalists and creators need credible sources and research helps you earn the link. Give them one. More here: https://t.co/PNytCOQeuq
AI Citations Need Extraction‑friendly, Trustworthy, Machine‑readable Content
Getting cited in AI responses requires more than strong SEO. It demands content built for extraction, trust, and machine readability. https://t.co/uoxw3RU6ay via @slobodanmanic, @sejournal
Malaysia: Youth on Social Media Shaping the Digital Economy
Malaysian youth are turning social media platforms into engines of commerce, generating an estimated $4.7 billion in gross value added and supporting 147,000 jobs by 2025. The government highlighted this trend at the launch of a socioeconomic impact report, linking it...
Data Shows Social Selling Replaces SEO and GEO
Why the data shows that social selling is the new SEO / GEO by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/uVT5YMhhva @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #SalesEnablement #Marketing #Leadership #SEO #GEO #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews https://t.co/z1WsNxrqem
Email Frequency Drives Revenue—Don’t Fear Over‑Mailing
Skims emails their list 5 times a week with new drops and restocks, driving a multi-billion dollar valuation. Meanwhile you're afraid of "annoying" your list and only send one newsletter a month, leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
YouTube Experiments with TV-Style Channels for CTV Viewing
YouTube is piloting TV‑style channels with the launch of “Coachella TV,” a 24/7 streaming channel that will feature archival performances and highlights from the 2026 festival. The experiment follows earlier tests with roughly 40 musicians and is designed to let creators...
AI‑Generated Popups Capture 200+ Emails Monthly
I built a skill for Claude Code that designs high-converting popups — exit intent, scroll triggers, timed delays, slide-ins, and banners. You tell it what you want to capture and it builds the full popup spec: trigger rules, headline, offer, form...
Report Shows Document Posts on LinkedIn See More Engagement
Socialinsider’s 2026 LinkedIn Benchmarks, analyzing 1.3 million posts from 16,645 business pages (Jan 2024‑Dec 2025), reveal that native document posts—PDFs displayed in a carousel—generate the highest engagement on the platform. Video and image updates trail behind, a reversal of trends seen on most...
Instagram Allows Creators to Schedule Trial Reels
Instagram introduced a scheduling feature for Trial Reels on April 2, 2026, allowing creators to set future publish times for videos shown to non‑followers. Trial Reels, launched in December 2024, already boosted non‑follower reach by 80 % and prompted 40 % of users to increase...
AI Is Now Deciding Which Emails Get Seen. Here’s How to Stay in the Inbox in the Gemini Era
Google’s Gemini integration turns Gmail into an AI‑driven inbox assistant that decides which messages surface for users. The change means email volume alone no longer guarantees delivery; engagement signals now dictate placement. Marketers must prioritize segmentation, human‑like copy, and continuous...