Move Beyond the Click: Scaling Lead Gen with LinkedIn and Zapier
LinkedIn’s Conversions API (CAPI) paired with Zapier lets B2B marketers send downstream funnel events—such as demos booked or deals created—directly to LinkedIn without relying on browser pixels. MarketerHire reported a 30% drop in cost per qualified lead and a 35% lift in appointment‑to‑buyer conversion after wiring HubSpot to CAPI via Zapier. The server‑to‑server connection closes the “signal gap” that has long distorted attribution, forced manual data reconciliation, and limited algorithm learning. As privacy regulations erode pixel reliability, CAPI‑driven automation is becoming a core growth‑marketing infrastructure.
The Hidden Tax of Broken Ad Attribution on LinkedIn
LinkedIn marketers often discover that reported clicks and cost‑per‑lead don’t match actual CRM conversions, leaving many leads tagged as "unknown" or "direct." The discrepancy forces teams to spend hours each week reconciling data, slowing strategy and eroding confidence in dashboards....
The Direct Supply Myth: Why CTV Inventory Looks Better Coming From A Streamer Than Directly From A Publisher
Industry advocates have promoted “direct supply” in CTV as a shortcut to transparency and efficiency. In practice, most impressions travel through OEM and streamer distribution agreements that grant those partners control over ad decisioning, signal access, and pod composition. This...
How Brands Are Advertising AI
The advertising sector is grappling with how to market AI amid a flood of hype, misinformation, and growing consumer fatigue. Agencies are shifting focus from sheer visibility to building credibility, emphasizing proof over promises. Industry leaders warn that AI discussions...
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What I Learned in My Three Glorious Months as a Product Marketer
Jimmy Daly reflects on a three‑month product‑marketing role, distilling practical lessons that span workflow organization, cross‑team alignment, and audience ownership. He highlights using Todoist to run a transparent content calendar and cites Stewart Hillhouse’s owned‑audience framework as a strategic north...
FTC Settles Lawsuit over Alleged X Ad Boycott
The Federal Trade Commission settled its lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of alleging a coordinated ad boycott against X. A federal judge ruled the FTC’s civil investigative demand violated the First Amendment, leading to the case’s dismissal and a settlement notice....
Contento Technologies Launches Content-Driven Digital Growth Platform to Help Brands Scale Visibility and Engagement
Contento Technologies unveiled an expanded version of its GoContento platform, a content‑driven marketing suite that blends SEO, editorial publishing, and brand promotion. The service promises to boost brand visibility, authority, and measurable engagement by distributing content across a global network...
POSSIBLE 2026: Industry Experts Dish On AI – And Other Trends To Watch
At the POSSIBLE 2026 conference in Miami, ad industry leaders debated the practical impact of agentic AI on advertising workflows. While hype persists, experts highlighted AI’s role in accelerating measurement, optimizing campaigns, and streamlining agency‑advertiser collaboration. They also flagged ongoing challenges...
POSSIBLE 2026: Industry Experts Dish On AI – And Other Trends To Watch
At POSSIBLE 2026 in Miami, ad‑tech leaders acknowledged that AI is shifting from hype to practical workflow integration. Executives highlighted how generative and agentic AI are accelerating campaign measurement and optimization while also adding new media‑buying complexities. The dialogue also focused...
What Does the TikTok Sale Mean for Advertisers?
On January 22, 2026 TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC—backed by Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX—acquired majority control of TikTok’s U.S. operations, while ByteDance retained a 20% stake. The platform’s ad infrastructure, auction mechanics and creator ecosystem remain active for its...
The Moment Is the Medium
Retail media must adapt to an AI‑driven, fragmented path to purchase, focusing on influencing shoppers at the exact moment they decide to buy. While large‑language models shift intent signals outside retailer ecosystems, the actual transaction still often occurs within a...
Google Expands UCP Checkout to Main Search Shopping Results
Google has extended its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) checkout from the AI‑Mode interface to the main Google Search results, adding a “Buy” button directly in product overlays such as Wayfair’s listings. UCP creates a shared language between AI agents and...
Arc XP Connect London 2026
Arc XP Connect 2026 is an invitation‑only executive forum held on June 10 in London for senior media leaders. The one‑day event will explore monetization tactics, audience‑engagement strategies, and AI‑driven organizational transformation. Participants will hear case studies from The Washington...
Google’s Preferred Sources Are Officially Live: The Marketing Impact
Google has rolled out Preferred Sources worldwide, letting users star the publications they trust so those outlets appear more often in Top Stories and a new "From your sources" carousel. The feature adds a user‑driven layer to search personalization, moving...
Will OpenAI’s New Measurement Tools And Ads Manager Prove Its Worth As An Ad Channel?
OpenAI unveiled a self‑serve ads manager and a conversion API (CAPI) alongside a cost‑per‑click (CPC) bidding model, shifting from its earlier high‑minimum, CPM‑only approach. The new platform eliminates the $200,000 minimum spend—now fully removed after a recent $50,000 reduction—making ChatGPT...
Will OpenAI’s New Measurement Tools And Ads Manager Prove Its Worth As An Ad Channel?
OpenAI has unveiled a self‑serve ads manager and a conversion API (CAPI) alongside a cost‑per‑click (CPC) bidding option for ChatGPT ads. The new platform eliminates the previous $200,000 minimum spend, later reduced to $50,000, allowing smaller advertisers to buy directly...
Search Is Alive: Traditional Engines, Especially Google, Persist Despite Flattening
The Datos "State of Search Q1 2026" report shows traditional desktop search remains dominated by Google, which reclaimed a 94.3% U.S. market share in March, up from 92.1% in December 2025. Overall search activity is flat to slightly declining, yet user...
Why Your Brand Needs to Start Using Real Photos, Not Generic Imagery
Businesses are shifting from generic stock imagery to custom photo and video shoots to create authentic brand experiences. Tailored visual assets showcase real people, products, and operations, enhancing website design, social media performance, and print collateral. Original content drives higher...
Just The FACs, Ma'am: ANA Unveils Its Own New Ad Tax
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) unveiled a new "Fractional Advertising Contribution" (FAC) fee tied to its Aquila cross‑media measurement platform. The fee is set at 0.075% of media‑buy spend with a hard cap of $750,000, effectively limiting the charge...
Magellan AI: Podcast Advertisers Are Buying Blind In 2026
Magellan AI’s new guide, produced with True Native Media, reveals that most podcast advertisers are still planning campaigns without reliable audience data or attribution. Analysis of over 60,000 podcasts shows that 86.5% of podcast households are unique to the platform,...
Sprinklr CX Connect New York 2026
Sprinklr CX Connect 2026 convenes senior marketing, customer experience and service leaders on June 4 in New York’s Convene 237 Park. The half‑day event focuses on AI‑driven innovation, digital ecosystem transformation, and emerging business models reshaping brand‑consumer interactions. Attendees will engage in peer networking,...
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The Complete Website Migration Checklist [SEO-Friendly]
The article delivers a step‑by‑step website migration checklist that spans pre‑migration planning, build‑and‑test, URL mapping, the actual migration, and post‑migration monitoring. It emphasizes establishing baseline analytics, creating a detailed redirect map, and using a staging environment to catch crawl or...
Townsquare Ignite Lights Up Broadway With Latest Digital Pact
Townsquare Media’s Ignite division has signed a digital‑advertising partnership with Broadway Media, a Salt Lake City operator of seven radio stations and an outdoor network. The deal adds Broadway to Ignite’s Media Partnerships white‑label service, which already includes recent agreements...
Digital Video Ad Spend To Climb 11% To $82B In 2026: IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau projects U.S. digital video ad spending to reach $81.9 billion in 2026, an 11% year‑over‑year increase that outpaces the overall advertising market by 20%. Social‑media video is set to grow 13% to $31.9 billion, overtaking connected TV (CTV)...
Brianna Doe on the One Thing CMOs Should Change About Creator Marketing Right Now
Brianna Doe, founder of Verbatim, argues that CMOs must stop treating influencer marketing as a siloed paid‑media tactic and instead embed creators within broader brand programs. She highlights the creator economy’s rapid growth, the flood of AI‑generated content, and the...
Trust Is the Real Innovation in Agentic Advertising
PubMatic argues that trust, not technology, is the key to scaling agentic advertising. Early adopters report 87% faster campaign setup, 70% quicker issue resolution, and sub‑millisecond response times that beat manual optimization. The company’s AgenticOS builds on its Activate platform,...
What Does Declining Traffic Mean for the Future of Search?
The article warns that AI‑driven, zero‑click searches are reshaping how brands are discovered, turning traffic declines into signs of content authority rather than failure. Large language models now pull answers directly from authoritative guides, leaving no click trace in analytics....
B2B Influencer Marketing: What Practitioners Are Actually Doing in 2026
B2B influencer marketing has moved from a niche experiment to a multi‑million‑dollar channel, with enterprise software firms paying creators five‑ to six‑figure fees for LinkedIn posts. Buyers now start their purchase journeys by trusting individual voices rather than reading analyst...
U.S. Digital Video Ad Spend to Surpass $80B in 2026; Growing 20% Faster Than the Total Ad Market, According to...
The Interactive Advertising Bureau projects U.S. digital video ad spend to top $80 billion in 2026, an 11% year‑over‑year increase that outpaces the broader ad market by roughly 20%. Digital video—encompassing CTV, online and social video—will claim more than 60% of...
How To Test A New Bid Strategy In Google Ads
Google’s AI‑driven Smart Bidding continues to dominate paid‑search, but even top‑performing campaigns eventually hit a plateau. The article outlines a data‑driven framework for deciding when to test a new bid strategy, choosing between native experiments and manual sequential tests, and...
Social Video Ad Spending Is Set to Outpace CTV in Growth Rate This Year
The IAB projects social video ad spend to grow 13% year‑over‑year in 2026, surpassing CTV’s 11% growth. Total U.S. digital video investment is expected to reach $80 billion, with platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Reddit capturing a larger share of...
AI Made Marketing Faster. It Also Made It Harder to Control.
Generative AI is slashing creative production cycles, letting midsize teams launch campaigns in days instead of weeks. However, the flood of AI‑generated assets erodes brand consistency and makes performance attribution opaque. The article argues that speed alone is insufficient; marketers...
Digest: OpenAI Lays Groundwork For ChatGPT Ads in EU; Blackstone, H&F, Goldman Back AI Venture; Musk Settles Twitter Lawsuit Paying...
OpenAI is preparing to launch ChatGPT advertising in the European Union by adding a consent‑management pixel and updating its privacy policy to permit sharing purchase data with advertisers. Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs are backing a new Anthropic‑led...
Do You Really Need 100,000 Influencers, Or Just the Right Few?
The article argues that brands achieve higher ROI by partnering with a curated group of influencers rather than casting a wide net of 100,000 creators. It highlights the growing role of influencer talent agencies that negotiate deals, manage contracts, and...
Google Business Profile Suspensions Spike Over User Account Restrictions
Google Business Profiles are experiencing a sudden surge in suspensions linked to user account restrictions, according to several local‑SEO professionals. Within a 24‑hour window, some experts reported up to eight accounts being blocked, despite no evidence of spam or policy...
Google Says A New Wave Of AI Users Is Transforming Search via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google’s search leaders Martin Splitt and Nikola Todorovic say a new wave of users is leveraging AI‑driven search for increasingly complex, multimodal queries. By moving AI from the background to the front of the experience, average query length and detail...
Google Ads Data Retention Policy Updated
Google announced that its Ads performance reporting data will have extended retention periods. Hourly, daily and weekly metrics will be kept for 37 months, while monthly, quarterly and annual data will be stored for 11 years. The change, communicated via...
Watch It. Love It. Want It. How TikTok Is Blending Discovery, Connection and Commerce
TikTok unveiled its new global positioning, “Watch it. Love it. Want it.”, at the OMR Festival, emphasizing the seamless blend of discovery, connection, and commerce on the platform. Research from Ipsos shows TikTok is the most influential channel during the...
Product SEO: 8 Strategies That Drive Demand for B2B & SaaS
Product SEO is a high‑leverage, often neglected tactic for B2B and SaaS firms, focusing on optimizing feature, integration, comparison, pricing, and documentation pages rather than generic top‑of‑funnel content. By aligning site architecture, keyword mapping, and structured data, companies can capture...
Why American Family Insurance Made a Reality Competition Series for Hulu
American Family Insurance partnered with Disney Advertising to launch “Designed To Last,” a four‑episode reality competition premiering May 5 on Hulu. The show pits architects, engineers and inventors against design challenges focused on home‑preparedness for threats like wind, fire and ice,...
Google: AI Makes Human Experience More Important For Content via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
In a recent Search Off The Record episode, Google Search engineers Martin Splitt and Nikola Todorovic warned that AI is making basic factual content less valuable. As large language models can instantly retrieve specs and data sheets, the competitive edge...
Stop Picking Sides: Let ‘Living Data’ Power Total TV
Matt Bryan of Samsung Ads argues that CTV success hinges on "living data"—a continuously refreshed blend of first‑party screen signals and third‑party intent data. Samsung smart‑TV analytics show Europe’s viewing split 55 % streaming, 45 % linear, underscoring audience fragmentation. Research indicates...
How Californian Grocer Stater Bros. Shines a Light on the Future of In-Store Retail Media Globally
Stater Bros., the largest privately owned grocery chain in Southern California, has partnered with In‑Store Marketplace (ISM) and Mood Media to launch a programmatic in‑store audio advertising platform, with digital screens slated for later rollout. The solution uses ISM’s centralised...
Flipkart’s Summer Sale Campaign Finds Its Match in Kodinhi — India’s Twin Town
Flipkart has launched the second edition of its flagship SASA LELE summer sale with a new creative titled “Kodinhi Code.” The campaign, developed by agency 22feet, uses the Kerala village of Kodinhi—famous for its high twin birth rate—as a metaphor...
Generative Engine Marketing: Retail Media’s Next Move
Generative Engine Marketing (GEM) is emerging as a new approach that positions brands to be discovered by AI models rather than just human shoppers. Jellyfish’s report highlights early successes, such as Gentle Monster’s 17% click‑through‑rate lift and MSC Industrial’s 45%...
The First-Party Data Advantage
Mike Ford, CEO of Skydeo, outlines a no‑fluff playbook for turning first‑party data into a growth engine as privacy rules tighten and third‑party cookies disappear. He defines first‑party data, explains its privacy‑friendly, accurate nature, and contrasts it with second‑ and...
Manscaped’s Whole‑Body Media Strategy
Manscaped’s CMO Marcelo Kertész is steering the brand from a niche ball‑trimmer into a whole‑body grooming platform, a shift summed up as “from ball to all.” The company invested a multimillion‑dollar Super Bowl spot featuring anthropomorphic hair balls to signal...
Maintaining Brand Safety and Integrity in the AI Slop Era
A recent AD Week House Possible panel, co‑hosted by Silverpush, highlighted the surge of low‑quality AI‑generated content—dubbed “AI slop”—and its threat to brand safety. Speakers from Silverpush, Best Friend Animal Society, and Crispin urged brands to create bespoke guardrails that define...
Using Agentic AI to Connect Across the Funnel
Top marketers gathered at Brandweek’s ADWEEK House Possible session, co‑hosted with Mutinex, to discuss how AI is moving from hype to daily workflow. Speakers from Hershey, PubMatic, Breeze Airways and Mutinex emphasized that a solid data infrastructure is the prerequisite...
Borrell: Local Digital Ad Growth Slows as Share Wars Begin
Borrell Associates’ 24th annual Local Digital Advertising report shows that growth in local digital ad revenue has slipped to low single‑digit percentages, the slowest pace since the Great Recession. Digital now accounts for 72% of local ad spend, totaling about...