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.
FMG Acquires Testimonial iQ to Add Another Piece to Its Offering
FMG announced the acquisition of Testimonial iQ, a client‑testimonial platform launched in 2023, and will rebrand it as FMG Testimonials. The tool will be sold both as a standalone product and as part of FMG’s broader digital‑marketing suite, which already spans website design, SEO, email, social media, and client‑event management. Adoption of testimonials among financial advisors remains low—only 7% use them according to Kitces Research—largely due to compliance complexities under the SEC Marketing Rule. FMG’s purchase aims to fill the last gap in its end‑to‑end marketing funnel and leverage its existing client base to drive usage.
I Was a Broke American Living in New Zealand. A Viral TikTok Turned My Taco Stand Into 3 Restaurants.
American expatriate Sean Yarbrough turned a TikTok‑fueled taco stand into three New Zealand restaurants within three years. After quitting a burger‑flipping job, he launched Broke Boy Taco with a three‑item menu and leveraged a revenue‑share kitchen partnership. A viral TikTok...
Creators Prefer Long-Term Sponsor Partnerships Over One-Off Deals
some theme of sponsors having more permanent placements in podcasts/newsletter/creator world not what i expected tbh but think it actually seems reasonable especially on content churned quickly i’d love to just have a set few sponsors who make up tools that i use...
Quit Algorithm Chasing, Reclaim Your Creative Labor
This year, I stopped optimizing my content for algorithms. Social media was built to commodify your attention and sell it to advertisers. Every hour I spend chasing perfect posting times, or perfecting every element of a post, is me exploiting my own...
How Your Product Margins Should Dictate Your Ad Budget
Shopify dropshippers often set ad spend arbitrarily, ignoring the decisive role of product margin. By calculating break‑even ROAS—selling price divided by profit per unit—stores can determine the minimum return needed to avoid losing money. Analysis of 211 products shows most...
LinkedIn Pulse Lost 89% of Its Google Traffic.
LinkedIn’s long‑form Pulse articles have seen a dramatic drop in Google visibility, falling from a peak of 33 million monthly visits in March 2024 to just 3.6 million in March 2026 – an 89 % decline. In contrast, the platform’s shorter Posts have surged, climbing...
E‑commerce Ad Spend Loses Cash‑back as Platforms Ditch Credit
Devastating news - the ecommerce points game is over. Amazon was the last ad platform taking credit cards. Meta moved everyone to invoicing last month. Google did it last year. Millions of $ of monthly ad spend that was earning 2% cash...
Flipboard’s New ‘Social Websites’ Help Publishers and Creators Tap Into the Open Social Web
Flipboard unveiled "social websites," a new product that lets publishers and individual creators bundle content from decentralized platforms such as Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, podcasts and newsletters into a single, controllable web destination. The service builds on Flipboard’s Surf reader,...
Grokipedia Loses Visibility Across Google and AI Platforms
Grokipedia drops in search (and more with the March 2026 core update) and then Grokipedia drops in AIOs, AI Mode, and yes, ChatGPT. Again, drop in Google and you can drop in AI Search (across surfaces and platforms). First screenshot...
Align Your Marketing Systems, Turn $250k Yearly Into $250k Monthly
My client went from $250k a year to $250k in a single month. Same offer. Same audience. She didn’t add anything new. She aligned the marketing systems she already had. If you’re a female founder earning $150k–$500k, I want to teach you...
Singular ROI Index 2026 Introduces First-Ever Multi-Touch Attribution Leaderboards
Singular released its 2026 ROI Index, the most extensive mobile‑marketing benchmark built on trillions of impressions, billions of clicks and installs. The report adds the first multi‑touch attribution (MTA) leaderboards, revealing that Meta delivers up to 50% higher ROAS and...
We Analyzed 12,154 Pages. The Most Popular B2B Content Format Has a 44.8% Fail Rate.
A new analysis of 12,154 pages across 24 B2B brands finds that thought leadership accounts for 37% of all content but only generates 27.5% of referring domains, resulting in a 44.8% fail rate. The format’s efficiency score of 0.74× places...
3 Strategy Shifts That Take You From 0 to 5k Followers
The post outlines three strategic pivots creators need to break the 0‑to‑5,000 follower barrier in 2026. It argues the old consistency‑trend‑viral playbook is obsolete, urging a shift toward retention‑focused growth content that aligns with a niche, delivers real value, and...
Viral Posts Follow a Predictable Five‑step Structure
Viral content often looks random only if you don’t study structure. Behind a lot of strong posts and videos there’s a pattern: - a hook family - a framing choice - a pacing decision - a CTA - a distribution fit
LiveRamp Extends Partnership with Unity
LiveRamp has broadened its collaboration with Unity, integrating its RampID identity solution into Unity Exchange. The move gives marketers access to Unity’s mobile ecosystem of 2.9 billion monthly active devices globally and 256 million in the United States. By leveraging first‑party data,...
Reddit Partners with Anonym
Reddit has teamed up with Mozilla’s Anonym platform to offer encrypted, privacy‑first advertising measurement. Anonym’s confidential computation layer lets advertisers gauge incremental lift without sharing raw first‑party data. The integration expands Reddit’s ad toolkit for brands operating under strict data‑governance...
ChatGPT Ads Prioritize Clarity Over Creative Hype
Interested in ChatGPT Ads? -> Data shows ChatGPT ads favor clarity over creativity (Adthena analysis) *The average headline clocks in at just 30 characters and around 5 words. *Body copy averages 116 characters and roughly 19 words. "The overall tone across these ads...
MMA POSSIBLE Miami Beach 2026
The MMA POSSIBLE 2026 marketing conference will run April 27‑29, 2026 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Organized by MMA and Hyve, the three‑day event gathers senior leaders from brands, agencies, media, and technology to shape future marketing strategies. Attendees...
Inbound Content Attracts Brands, Cold Pitches Fail
Cold pitching brands is a losing strategy. Response rates sit in the low single digits, and brands ignore generic emails. Inbound flips the script by making you discoverable through SEO, problem-solving content, and organic brand mentions. Warm inbound leads close at higher rates...
Nielsen Renews Multi‑year Deal with TelevisaUnivision to Broaden Hispanic Audience Measurement
Nielsen has signed a new multi‑year measurement and data agreement with TelevisaUnivision, extending its analytics across the Spanish‑language broadcaster’s TV, cable, streaming and radio assets. The deal adds Nielsen’s Advanced Audiences, streaming ratings and out‑of‑home tools, promising marketers deeper insight...
TikTok's 'Girl Math' Trend Fuels Gender‑Focused Marketing on Prediction Platforms
TikTok influencers are using the viral ‘Girl Math’ meme to promote prediction‑market apps, prompting brands like Kalshi to double their female user base to 26% and igniting a debate over how the trend reshapes consumer perception and platform revenue.
Fix Post‑click Funnels, Turn $1 Into $4
Most businesses think scaling = increasing ad budget. But in reality, 80% of growth comes from fixing what happens after the click. We’ve seen brands turn $1 into $4 just by improving funnels + follow-ups. Traffic gets attention, but systems...
Marketers Can Now Access Premium TV with Social‑Style Targeting
2026 is the year TV becomes a lot more accessible to marketers spending $50k to $500k/month on Meta. Meta CPMs are up 30%+ YoY. The average social session is 8 minutes. The average CTV session is 99 min, yet most DTC...
Stagwell Names AI Chief
Stagwell announced the creation of a senior vice‑president, enterprise AI solutions role, appointing Michael Twedell to lead it. Twedell will drive the go‑to‑market strategy for the firm’s AI‑driven offerings, including The Machine, the industry’s first agentic operating system, and the...
Strategy Decisions Must Be Rooted in Real Data
One thing I’m relentless about in strategy work 👉 Nothing gets recommended unless it’s grounded in data or market research. Brand decisions. Messaging direction. Funnel structure. Channel mix. All of it ties back to real inputs: → Stakeholder and customer research → Peer and competitor analysis → Patterns...
Attribution: From Credit Scoreboard to Coordination Engine
Attribution was supposed to tell us which channels deserve credit. It mostly told us which teams should fight about it. Frans Riemersma and I just published The State of Marketing Attribution 2026 (sponsored by CaliberMind), and the finding that hit hardest...
Where Should Retail Media Networks Make Their Pitch for Ad Dollars?
Retail media is transitioning from a lower‑funnel, conversion‑only model to a full‑funnel, brand‑building channel, prompting networks to showcase broader capabilities. Major players such as Albertsons Media Collective and Walmart‑Vizio used this year’s IAB NewFronts to demonstrate scale, data assets, and...
Bitly Introduces AI-Powered Features to Simplify and Accelerate Marketing Analytics
Bitly has launched two AI‑powered features—Bitly Assist, a conversational chat assistant, and Weekly Insights, an automated performance‑highlighting report—aimed at speeding up marketers' data‑to‑action workflow. Assist lets users query link and QR‑code metrics and create assets through natural language, delivering answers...
E.l.f. Promotes Affordable Beauty with True Crime-Inspired Mockumentary
E.l.f. Cosmetics launched a 10‑minute true‑crime mockumentary called “Vanity Vandals” to spotlight vanity clutter caused by its low‑priced products. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre with a live Twitch watch party and is supported by a Roblox experience,...
5 Questions That Drive 80% of Your Growth
In this episode of the eCommerce Playbook, host Richard Gaffin and CTC VP of e‑commerce strategy Luke Austin break down the five core questions that drive the majority of a direct‑to‑consumer brand’s growth work: forecasting targets, optimal channel spend allocation,...
AI OS Replaces Social Media Manager, Handles Everything
You no longer need a social media manager. Neon is an AI OS that handles your entire account from DMs to daily content, end-to-end. → DMs managed completely on your behalf → Fresh niche-based inspiration every single day → Replies...
Ads Aren’t Marketing: Stop Wasting Money
Running ads and doing marketing are not the same thing. A lot of you figured that out the hard way. Let me save the rest of you some money. 🧵
Wunderkind Launches New Braze Integration to Turn Identity Into Revenue-Driving, Orchestrated Customer Journeys
Wunderkind has launched a new integration with Braze that embeds its AI‑driven identity resolution and high‑intent behavioral signals directly into Braze Canvas. The connection lets marketers turn anonymous web visitors into addressable Braze profiles, grow email lists in real time,...
Build Your Own Channel Digest: The System I Use to Engage Intentionally on LinkedIn
The author created a personal "Channel Digest" to turn LinkedIn from a random scrolling habit into a purposeful relationship engine. By aggregating the right people, conversations, and market signals, the system lets users engage with intent rather than reaction. It...
How to Unify Customer Data From Mobile Apps and Websites
Modern buyers switch between mobile apps and websites, creating data silos that obscure the true customer journey. Unifying these fragmented signals into a single, persistent profile enables real‑time personalization, accurate attribution, and streamlined privacy compliance. The article outlines three core...
Microsoft Reportedly Shifts Global Media Mandate to New Agency
Microsoft has transferred its $700 million global media spend from Dentsu’s Carat unit to Publicis Groupe after an internal review. The shift gives Publicis a major foothold in tech advertising, while Dentsu retains the Xbox media mandate despite losing the broader account....
Cut the AI Slop: IAS Low-Quality GenAI Avoidance Is Now in Open Beta
Integral Ad Science (IAS) launched an open‑beta Low‑Quality GenAI Avoidance feature, integrated with its Context Control Avoidance suite, to block ads next to low‑quality AI‑generated content. The tool scores AI‑slop in near real time and works pre‑bid via a ready‑made...
Nordstrom Teams with Marks & Spencer to Relaunch U.S. Fashion Line After 25‑Year Hiatus
Nordstrom announced a partnership with Marks & Spencer to sell a curated women’s‑wear capsule in 30 U.S. stores and online, marking the British brand’s return after a 25‑year exit. The rollout leverages consumer‑insight data and an asset‑light wholesale model to...
Now Publicis Media Lands Global Microsoft
Publicis Media has won Microsoft’s global media business, a contract valued at over $1 billion, adding to its recent acquisition of Microsoft‑owned LinkedIn. Both accounts were taken from Dentsu, stripping the Japanese holding company of its strongest international media line‑up. The...
The Agentic Marketplace Is Here. Where Does That Leave DSPs and SSPs?
Swivel and CTV platform Olyzon have partnered to create an agentic marketplace that uses the open‑source AdCP protocol for buy‑side and sell‑side communication. The system lets AI‑driven agents handle trafficking, yield optimization, and seller functions, allowing advertisers to access inventory...
The Agentic Marketplace Is Here. Where Does That Leave DSPs and SSPs?
Swivel and CTV platform Olyzon have teamed up to create an agentic marketplace that lets buy‑side and sell‑side AI agents negotiate ad placements through the open‑source AdCP protocol. The partnership enables advertisers like Pierre Fabre to run U.S. CTV campaigns...
LiveRamp and Unity Announce Expanded Partnership | Exclusive
LiveRamp and Unity have expanded their partnership, integrating LiveRamp’s RampID identifier into Unity Exchange, the company’s programmatic advertising marketplace. RampID is an interoperable, portable user ID that works across platforms, allowing advertisers to recognize and target the same users inside...
Reddit Pro Boosts Engagement and Adds Verification Badges
Are you using Reddit Pro? -> Reddit says publishers using its Pro Tools have seen post views grow by 46%, comments by 48%, and profile views nearly double since the tool's September launch Verification checkmarks added -> "In addition to...
Advertiser ID: Weighing Personalized Ads vs Privacy Risks
The more you use your computer, the more personalized the ads become. Helpful, or big privacy problem? Here are the pros and cons of keeping "Advertiser ID" enabled for Windows and MacOS users: https://t.co/2Jztl0woVh #privacy #mac #windows #advertising https://t.co/craO1zPVWY
Dubai Media Gaming Powered by Livewire Reveals New Insights
Dubai Media, in partnership with Livewire, released a report showing the UAE’s gaming ecosystem now hosts about 7.5 million players, with women comprising over 30% and Emiratis only 12% of the audience. The study highlights that gamers in the region generate...
Virality Depends on Attention Structure, Not Just Creativity
#AD @nemovideoai Most people misunderstand why videos go viral. They frame virality as a creativity problem. In reality, it is a structural one. What matters is not just what a video says, but how attention is sequenced, sustained, and resolved. That is where NemoVideo becomes interesting.
Instagram Bots Inflate Likes, Kill Real Sales
I’m fairly confident Instagram is using bot traffic to compete for creators. How could a Soundcloud link get 77 like and lead to zero sales of a $7 book? https://t.co/OyE7ILI5XZ
How To Identify And Solve Click Fraud In Paid Media – Ask A PPC via @Sejournal, @Navahf
Click fraud can masquerade as normal performance issues, making it difficult for paid‑media managers to identify true waste. The article outlines a three‑step approach: audit placement and targeting settings, understand platform‑level fraud protections, and deploy mitigation tools when invalid clicks...
Live Google Ads Integration Enables Direct Agent Campaign Management
Google Ads integration is live. Connect your account and the agent can review campaign performance, suggest changes, and make updates directly. Ad copy, bid strategy, campaign structure — without switching tabs or exporting reports. Waitlist invite emails going out soon → https://t.co/8Qp1fP9HOb
Google Commands Nearly Three‑quarters of US Desktop Searches
Search captures demand. Public evidence creates it. “Across 41 major desktop sites in the US in Q4 2025, Google accounted for 73.7% of searches.” Brilliant piece from @amandanat https://t.co/SaLhMF6rwN