Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Ad tech vendors pivot to cloud‑hardware ownership to cut latency and costs
Vendors are splitting between owning their own cloud infrastructure and renting from public clouds such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. SSPs PubMatic and Index Exchange introduced containerized solutions—Decision Fabric and Index Cloud—that let DSPs run models on‑premise, lowering latency and data‑transfer expenses. The shift balances cost savings against control of the stack.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Accenture Song acquires influencer marketing agency Whalar
PubMatic & Amnet Launch the First Agentic Advertising Campaign in France Using the Claude LLM
PubMatic and trading desk Amnet have launched France’s first Agentic advertising campaign, built on PubMatic’s AgenticOS and the Claude large‑language model, for client Interbev. The video‑focused effort targets cooking enthusiasts and consumers of responsibly sourced French meat, aiming for high video completion rates. By converting a natural‑language brief into a fully configured programmatic buy, the platform cut campaign setup time by roughly 80 %. The activation follows a similar rollout in the Netherlands, marking a rapid EMEA expansion for AI‑driven ad tech.
Instagram Tests a Feature to Let You See Your Ex's Stories without a Trace — and It's Going to Cost...
Instagram is piloting a paid subscription that lets users watch Stories anonymously, extending the feature set with audience lists beyond Close Friends and a 24‑hour story extension. The test is live in Mexico, Japan and the Philippines and costs roughly...
EXCLUSIVE: Spotify Debuts Carousel Ads and Branded Playlist Takeovers
Spotify is introducing interactive carousel ads that let brands display up to six swipeable product cards within the Now Playing screen, with Priceline and GNC among early testers. The service also launches branded playlist takeovers on high‑traffic lists such as...
CIMM Is Out To Prove That All Media Isn’t Equal
The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) is releasing a paper that challenges the industry’s assumption that all media is interchangeable, especially in the fast‑growing CTV space. It argues that media quality can be objectively measured using probabilistic signals such...
Beauty Briefing: How Fragrance Is Winning on TikTok Shop
Fragrance brand Snif saw explosive sales on TikTok Shop after influencer Mikayla Nogueira livestreamed a product demo, highlighting the platform’s power for scent categories. The surge underscores how live video and creator seeding can turn traditionally tactile products into impulse...
The 10 Hashtags Driving the Most Beauty Sales on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop’s beauty category generated more than $670 million in sales over the past year, driven primarily by hashtag‑centric video content. The #skincare hashtag alone accounted for roughly $142 million, making it the top revenue generator. K‑beauty tags such as #Koreanskincare and...
The In-Store Unlock: Retail Media's Next Stage | Behind the Numbers Special Edition
In this special edition of the eMarketer podcast, analyst Sarah Marzano explains why U.S. retail media has been built for e‑commerce rather than physical stores, despite stores accounting for over 80% of sales. She highlights the massive $70 billion retail‑media spend...
The Trade Desk Shakes up Identity Alliance Payouts, with a New Focus on Incrementality
The Trade Desk is revamping its Identity Alliance compensation, moving from a volume‑based payout to an incrementality‑focused model that rewards unique identity signals. The change, slated for early 2026, includes a temporary revenue guarantee and new APIs to help partners...
Time Pitches GEO Insights Into a New Brand Offering
Time is launching a new GEO product that audits how AI search engines portray brands and sells tailored branded content to correct mismatches. The service leverages tools from TollBit, ScalePost and Mobian to analyze up to 100 prompts across ChatGPT,...
Malibu Taps Creator Sabrina Brier for ‘Get Ready With Me’ Campaign to Promote New Pink Spirit
Malibu has introduced Malibu Pink, a rum‑based spirit flavored with guava, coconut and pineapple, and is launching it through a "Get Ready With Malibu Pink" campaign. The brand partnered with comedian‑creator Sabrina Brier to produce #GRWM videos and a stop‑motion...
Elevate Production Quality to Attract High‑Value Whale Clients
If your goal is to attract whale clients, cheap-looking content is probably working against you. Here’s how I raise the production bar to make sure I’m attracting the right leads:
USPS $9 B Loss Triggers Postage Hike Threat, Raising Costs for Direct‑Mail Marketers
The United States Postal Service posted a $9 billion net loss for fiscal 2025, and Postmaster General David Steiner warned Congress that without new funding or pricing authority, postage rates could climb above $1. The potential hike threatens the cost structure...
What Are the Key Digital Marketing Trends for Estate Agents in 2026?
Estate agents must adapt to AI‑driven digital marketing in 2026, with AI Optimisation (AIO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) becoming essential for visibility in AI‑powered search. Advanced video generators such as Higgsfield, Sora 2 and Nano Banana 2 enable rapid production of high‑quality...
Same Video, Millions Elsewhere, Barely a Handful on X
I create content for X, IG, YouTube, TikTok, and email. The video below will do 1-3 million views on IG, YouTube and TikTok but will perform horribly on X (maybe 20-50k views). The video also has a longer total life...
Most Users Remain Clueless About Platform Mechanics and Metrics
A lot of people continue to get on here and reveal they have absolutely zero understanding of how online media platforms work or how metrics are calculated online. It’s illuminating
Virgin Australia Moves to Build Retail Media Network
Virgin Australia has appointed former McKinsey and VML executive Scott Moore as head of a new Travel Media Network, signaling the airline’s move into retail media. The initiative will leverage Virgin’s digital properties and Velocity’s 80 commercial partners and 300...
Centralize Client Brand Assets with BrandChek
I built a web product called BrandChek to solve a very specific marketing problem- which client is on what platform, what’s their font, brand colors, and point of contact? BrandChek keeps all of that in one place…not scattered across emails,...
Measure Content by Relationship Depth, Not Speed
So - I'm wrapping up my March series on Content Marketing Measurement with a wider lens look at how we design a measurement framework to begin with... Most content marketing measurement today is like evaluating a symphony orchestra based on...
How Google Ads Quality Scores Work: Boost Your Quality Score
Google Ads Quality Score, a 1‑to‑10 metric, gauges keyword, ad and landing‑page relevance and directly influences ad rank and cost‑per‑click. A high score can elevate ads to premium positions while reducing fees, whereas a low score may prevent ads from...
Automated Social Reporting That Saves Hours
Manual social media reporting forces teams to export data, clean spreadsheets, and rebuild slide decks each week, turning strategy into admin work. Fragmented sources like Meta Business Suite, TikTok Business Center, and Pinterest Analytics require tedious stitching, leading to errors...
Episode 143 - Chasing Shiny Objects
Superpath has rolled out an upgraded partner program designed to reach roughly 18,000 content marketers, promising better revenue sharing and co‑marketing resources. The initiative follows the podcast episode "Chasing Shiny Objects" and highlights the platform’s push to expand its ecosystem....
Data + AI Brings The Next-Generation CDP Into View
Customer data platforms have solidified as a core martech component, with the vendor landscape consolidating into a clear top tier and a unified definition emerging. Marketers are demanding more reliable, AI‑enhanced solutions that respect privacy and deliver measurable ROI. The...
3 Things AI Has Changed About Content Marketing That Aren't Going Back
Artificial intelligence is reshaping content marketing by enabling hyper‑personalized experiences, automating large‑scale content creation, and delivering real‑time performance analytics. Marketers now rely on AI‑driven tools to generate copy, optimize SEO, and predict audience engagement, reducing production cycles from weeks to...
Secure AI Visibility: Access, Usefulness, Recognition Drive Brand Presence
🤖 How AI Systems Surface Your Brand: From Inputs to Outcomes 👇 Before a brand can perform well in AI answers, AI systems need three things from it: 1. Access: They need to be able to reach and process your content. 2. Usefulness: They...
The Compliance Tightrope
Pharma marketers are rapidly adopting AI content‑generation tools that can produce polished promotional assets in minutes, promising faster go‑to‑market and richer personalization. However, the speed and volume of AI output heighten compliance risk, as FDA, FTC and emerging state or...
EBay’s Social Sharing Tool Goes Down for over 24 Hours, Leaving Sellers without a Key Listing Promotion Feature
eBay's Social Sharing tool, which lets sellers post listings directly to Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram from the Seller Hub, has been down for over 24 hours, displaying an error page. Launched in 2023, the feature has already faced setbacks, including...
Researchers Break Down the Digital Habits of Science Influencers
A recent study published in Computers in Human Behavior examined 1,200 videos from 60 science influencers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to identify the communication styles that drive engagement. The analysis found that TikTok rewards short, highly objective clips with...
How Marketing Leaders at Clinique and ScottsMiracle-Gro Are Meeting Consumers Where They Are Online—And in AI
Marketing heads at ScottsMiracle‑Gro and Clinique are shifting from product‑centric promotion to digital education, using AI‑driven tools to meet consumers where they research online. Scotts’ senior vice president John Sass highlighted the use of agentic AI to deliver hyper‑local gardening...
IAB Recognizes Future Video Outcomes From Agentic
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released a whitepaper titled “AI‑Powered Video Outcomes: Agentic AI,” outlining how autonomous AI systems will reshape video planning, optimization, measurement, and creation. The report notes that 69% of analytics teams are scaling AI and 44%...
Advertisers Battling Meta Over Metrics Blast '11th-Hour' Arbitration Bid
Advertisers who sued Meta in 2018 over allegedly inflated ad‑reach metrics are now challenging the platform's last‑minute bid to force most class members into arbitration. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals must decide whether Meta waived its arbitration clause by...
Turn Social Posts Into Leads with a Simple System
Most founders waste hours on social media and have nothing to show for it. No leads. No pipeline. Just "engagement." I've been doing this for 10+ years and here's what I've learned: Posting more content is not the answer. The...
Informa TechTarget Launches Two New Content Solutions
Informa TechTarget announced two AI‑focused content solutions—the AI Visibility Audit and the GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) Topic Planner—to help B2B marketers improve brand discoverability in an AI‑driven search environment. The AI Visibility Audit evaluates how audiences encounter a brand through...
The BEST Times to Post on FACEBOOK (TO REACH USA AUDIENCE)
The post outlines optimal Facebook publishing times for U.S. audiences, highlighting a sweet spot of 9 am‑12 pm EST to capture both coasts. Data points show Wednesday at 2 pm EST delivers the highest weekly engagement, while the first hour after posting is...
Microsoft Lets Merchants Update Store Names and Domains in Merchant Center
Microsoft Advertising now lets e‑commerce merchants edit their Merchant Center store name and domain directly, removing the need for support tickets. Store‑name changes undergo editorial review while existing ads keep running, and domain updates require ownership verification before activation. The...
Retail Media’s Measurement Problem Is A Trust Problem – And Incrementality Is The Way Forward
Retail media spending is surging, yet marketers struggle to prove true performance because attribution models often credit sales that would have happened anyway. The industry’s fragmented measurement standards make cross‑platform comparison unreliable. Incrementality—measuring the causal lift of ads—offers a clearer...
Survive Q2: Validate Offer, Refresh Creative, Know Break‑Even ROAS
Operators enter Q2 with the same targets they exited Q1 with. CPMs are about to rise 20-35% Creative fatigue compounds faster And the brands that survive it answered these 3 questions before April 1: 1. Does your offer convert at current CPMs...
Reddit Pro Opens to All Publishers, Adds New Features in Public Beta
Reddit has opened its Pro publishing tools to all publishers, ending the waitlist and launching a free public beta. The platform now offers features such as AI‑powered community recommendations, RSS auto‑import, community snapshots, and profile flairs. Early testers reported a...
Google: Pages Are Getting Larger & It Still Matters via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google’s Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt discussed the rapid growth of page size on the Search Off the Record podcast, citing the 2025 Web Almanac which shows median mobile homepages have tripled from 845 KB in 2015 to about 2.36 MB today....
AAMP Two Months In: Progress Report
Two months after the IAB Tech Lab unveiled the Agentic Advertising Management Protocols (AAMP), the ecosystem is already seeing tangible adoption. The open‑source Buyer Agent SDK has been integrated into Kochava’s StationOne product, while the Seller Agent SDK now ships...
Google Ads Editor Bug Links Structured Snippet Languages Across Accounts
Google Ads Editor has a bug that unintentionally links structured snippet extensions when they are copied between accounts. Changing the language setting in one account automatically propagates to the linked snippet in another account, even though the extensions appear separate....
Introducing Curated Packages: Commerce Creative + Audiences
Criteo unveiled Curated Packages, pairing deterministic, SKU‑level Commerce Audiences with dynamic, placement‑optimized creative through a single deal ID. The solution leverages real shopper behavior—product views, price checks, and purchase intent—to replace broad demographic targeting. In tests, a gaming console brand...
Acquia Engage Denver 2026
Acquia Engage Denver 2026, the company’s North American flagship conference, will take place April 27‑28 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort. The two‑day event gathers digital leaders, marketers, and technical practitioners to explore AI‑driven digital strategies, platform innovations, and security‑focused ecosystems....
AI Articles Prematurely Report March 2026 Core Update
AI-generated articles already being published (and one even quotes me with a quote I never said) about the March 2026 Core Update 🫠🫠 lol, the update was announced Friday and has barely kicked in yet, let alone completed. There is no...
Reddit Posts Remain SEO Gold for Years
Reddit threads from 3 years ago are still ranking on Google today... Still getting cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity today. Still shaping buyer opinions today. The content you put on Reddit right now is a long game asset. Treat it like one.
If You Need Paid Ads to Explain, You're Wrong
If you have to do a paid ad campaign to clarify this, you’re doing something wrong—
In‑platform Numbers Reflect True Business Metrics, Not Decline
"As a result, your in-platform numbers should only be normalizing towards your true topline business metrics. This is not a true decline in ad performance."
Google Search Console Reports Spike on Merchant Filters
ICYMI: Google Search Console performance reports spiking for some filters, like merchant/product filters https://t.co/R8urwCAUnm https://t.co/uVdoDw9I5u
Amazon Aims to Win the Ad Game
Amazon is playing to win in advertising $AMZN The LightShed Podcast, Ep. 306. With @BrandoLightShed and @WaltLightShed https://t.co/Pzx5rhEa8x
Match Guest Post Style to Audience for Maximum Reach
RT @InspireToThrive Do they like personal stories, step-by-step advice, or opinion pieces? Read the full article: Writing Guest Posts for Blogging That Actually Grow Your Reach ▸ https://t.co/Fa7HOkHaR4
MCP AI Connectors See Single‑digit User Adoption Today
I wonder what percentage of users who have connected MCP integrations in the Claude/ChatGPT etc UI to query their own CRM/project/whatever data? Claude guesses it's in the single digits rn. PMs are releasing connectors but is anyone using them?