There's a New Playbook for Partnering with Creators on Marketing Campaigns.
Google has rolled out YouTube Creator Partnerships within Google Ads and Display & Video 360, allowing advertisers to discover, activate, and manage creator‑driven ads directly in performance campaigns. The new tools aim to lower the entry barrier for creator marketing, eliminating the need for massive budgets. By embedding creator workflows into existing ad platforms, brands can test influencer content at scale and measure results alongside other media. The announcement was highlighted on the Ads Decoded podcast recorded at YouTube NewFronts.
Real Results and an Attribution Void: Podscribe Benchmark Report
Podscribe released its Q1 Performance Benchmark Report, delivering the latest metrics on audio advertising across streaming, podcast, and video‑podcast formats. The data show streaming audio achieving higher conversion rates and lower costs than podcast‑only campaigns, while a larger U.S. YouTube...
Your Marketing Team Is Doing Everything Right — But the Results Aren’t Adding Up. Here’s Why.
B2B marketing teams are achieving individual channel metrics yet failing to translate activity into pipeline because they operate in silos. The article argues that consolidating PR, SEO, content, and AI optimization around a handful of high‑priority pages creates a unified...
Ad Spend on YouTube, Google Search, Amazon Sponsored Products Is Growing: Report
Tinuiti’s latest report, based on more than $4 billion in managed ad spend, shows double‑digit growth across most digital channels in Q1 2026. Meta’s Instagram Reels now generate a third of the platform’s ad impressions, lifting Instagram ad spend 28% year‑over‑year, while...
PubMatic Brings Custom Creative Formats to AgenticOS
PubMatic has embedded its Creative Innovation Suite into the AgenticOS platform, giving marketers a single workflow to create, launch and measure custom ad formats across premium connected TV, mobile apps and more. The suite draws on partners Celtra, Brightline and...
TriCoast Media Expands Its Unified SSP/DSP Platform
TriCoast Media has expanded its unified supply‑side and demand‑side platform to compress the connected TV (CTV) supply chain. By turning its content library into a flywheel, the company offers publishers higher revenue shares in exchange for preferred backfill access, now...
Braze Launches BrazeAI Operator,?BrazeAI Agent Console, and Braze Creative Studio
Braze unveiled three new AI-driven products—BrazeAI Operator, BrazeAI Agent Console, and Braze Creative Studio—designed to embed decisioning, content generation, and asset management directly into marketers’ workflows. The tools enable real‑time data activation, AI‑generated copy, and seamless movement of designs from...
Google May Expand Unsupported Robots.txt Rules List via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google is preparing to expand the list of unsupported robots.txt directives in its public documentation, drawing on real‑world data from HTTP Archive. The team built a custom BigQuery metric to capture robots.txt files, revealing that beyond the four supported fields,...
Google’s Liz Reid on AI Search Changes, Query Shifts, and AI Slop
Google’s VP of Search, Liz Reid, told Bloomberg that AI isn’t killing search but reshaping how users interact with it. AI Overviews filter low‑value clicks, prompting more total searches while still directing users to deeper web content. She highlighted a...
OpenAI’s Crawler Docs Now List OAI-AdsBot For ChatGPT Ads via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
OpenAI has added OAI‑AdsBot to its public crawler documentation, joining OAI‑SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT‑User. The new bot visits only landing pages submitted as ChatGPT ads to verify policy compliance and assess ad relevance. OpenAI emphasizes that data collected by OAI‑AdsBot...
Google Expands Demand Gen Tools to Drive Faster YouTube Conversions
Google has integrated its Demand Gen offering into the Commerce Media Suite, allowing advertisers to tap retailers’ first‑party catalog and conversion data across YouTube, Discover and Gmail. The rollout also introduces view‑through conversion (VTC) optimization, which shifts bidding focus to conversions...
5 Lessons From Delivering Bad SEO News to Executives
Organic traffic is falling across most SEO clients, with a 61% CTR drop for queries featuring AI Overviews. The article shares five hard‑earned lessons for SEO consultants on how to deliver bad news to C‑level executives, emphasizing early transparency, thorough...
Convert Faster on YouTube with April’s Demand Gen Drop.
Google announced two Demand Gen enhancements aimed at accelerating customer acquisition on YouTube. The Commerce Media Suite now includes Demand Gen inventory in Google Ads, allowing retailers to use first‑party catalog and conversion data across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. Additionally,...
Cannes, Captured: AdExchanger and Equativ Partner to Scale the Industry’s Biggest Moments
AdExchanger announced a strategic partnership with Equativ to turn Cannes Lions 2026 into a real‑time content engine. The collaboration will deliver executive video interviews, rapid‑response conversations, daily editorial coverage, and short‑form social content directly from the festival. By leveraging Equativ’s...
Clinch Brings AI-Driven Creative Personalisation to Pause Ads Through OpenGlass Partnership
Clinch and OpenGlass have certified Clinch’s ad‑serving tags for pause‑ad formats across major CTV publishers such as Paramount, Tubi, and Plex, enabling AI‑driven creative personalization in real time. The integration collapses the historically fragmented, publisher‑by‑publisher workflow into a single tag...
Google Tests “App Labs” Hub for Early Ad Features
Google is piloting an “App Labs” hub inside Google Ads, offering app advertisers a dedicated tab to trial experimental campaign features before they roll out broadly. The beta environment lets marketers run limited‑time tests, submit feedback, and explore tools still...
Firefly Expands Programmatic Capabilities Through Integration with VIOOH
Firefly, the world’s largest mobile out‑of‑home network, announced an integration with VIOOH, a leading DOOH supply‑side platform. The partnership lets advertisers access Firefly’s 60,000 moving screens through major demand‑side platforms, enabling real‑time, data‑driven buying of mobility‑based inventory. By embedding moving...
Amazon Ads & Global Announce Integration Bringing the UK’s Biggest Commercial Audio Brands to Amazon DSP
Amazon Ads and Global have launched a programmatic integration that connects Amazon’s demand‑side platform (DSP) with Global’s DAX exchange, giving advertisers direct access to the UK’s leading commercial audio brands such as Heart, Capital and Smooth. The partnership blends Amazon’s...
The Best SEO Reporting Software of 2026: Expert Tested and Reviewed
The 2026 roundup identifies Semrush as the premier SEO reporting platform, boasting a 25 billion‑keyword database and extensive automated reporting features. Ahrefs follows with the industry’s largest backlink index, while SE Ranking adds AI‑driven search‑tracking across generative AI engines. AgencyAnalytics and...
Aerie Ups Commitment to Authenticity with Enhanced Creator Program
Aerie has launched the Realmakers Community, a creator program that invites U.S. influencers with at least 1,500 followers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Pinterest to earn commissions, receive product seeding, and attend brand‑led events. The initiative, built with the Duel...
Thrad Launches Managed Service for ChatGPT Ads
Thrad, an advertising infrastructure firm for AI, has launched a managed service that lets brands place ads inside ChatGPT. The platform reaches more than 900 million weekly users, many of whom now turn to the chatbot for product recommendations and brand...
BrandStar Digital Joins Semrush Enterprise Partner Program, Bringing Two Decades of Search Authority Into the AI Era
BrandStar Digital, a Deerfield Beach agency, was invited to join Semrush’s Enterprise Partner Program before its public launch. The partnership authorizes BrandStar to sell and scale Semrush’s full suite, including AI Search Optimization (AIO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Leveraging...
Google Search Console Job Data Logging Issue
Google Search Console has a logging bug affecting performance reports for the “Job listing” and “Job details” search‑appearance filters. The issue began on April 16 2026, causing the reports to show zero clicks and impressions for these job types. Google confirmed the...
How to Build an Enterprise SEO Strategy that Actually Gets Buy-In
Enterprise SEO plans often stall in slide decks because leaders treat SEO like paid search or isolate it in technical silos. The article argues that success hinges on framing SEO as a business narrative tied to company‑wide OKRs, using competitor...
Measurement Provider DoubleVerify Earns MRC Accreditation For TikTok Video Viewability Reporting
DoubleVerify has become the first measurement provider to receive Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for TikTok video viewability reporting. The accreditation validates the company’s direct measurement of impressions, viewable impressions and sophisticated invalid traffic filtration on TikTok’s mobile app. These...
Acxiom Deepens Amazon Ads Partnership, Making 10,000+ Audiences Available for Immediate Activation in Amazon DSP
Acxiom has expanded its long‑standing partnership with Amazon Ads by making more than 10,000 of its Real ID‑based audiences directly accessible in Amazon DSP’s Audience Hub. The integration, live since March 16, lets advertisers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany activate...
Corsa Digital Expands Into CTV, Appoints Carlo Robles to Lead Programmatic Growth
Corsa Digital announced it is extending its programmatic audio marketplace into connected TV, video, and display, creating a unified omnichannel offering. The move is anchored by the hiring of Carlo Robles as Account Director to spearhead CTV and video growth. Corsa...
How a Tiny Change in a Facebook Ad Doubled Donations
A Canadian Bible distribution agency ran a Facebook‑ad A/B test that swapped the call‑to‑action from "Click to Learn More" to "Click to Give Bibles." The change left traffic unchanged but boosted the donation conversion rate by 117.6%, cutting the cost...
Home Depot Helps Advertisers Reach DIY Audiences on Reddit and Pinterest
Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media (OAM) network is expanding its retail‑media capabilities with two off‑site partnerships. An industry‑first integration will feed OAM’s first‑party shopper data into Reddit’s ad inventory, allowing brands to launch campaigns through the Orange Access portal. A...
The Real Reason Your SEO Team Hasn’t Made The AI Transition Yet via @Sejournal, @DuaneForrester
The article argues that most SEO teams’ AI transition stalls because of people‑centric change‑management issues, not technology deficits. Only about 30% of enterprise SEO groups have restructured roles, while 82% remain stuck in pilot mode and 61% use AI only...
What Marketers Need to Know as Branded Films Return to Screens
Branded films are making a strong comeback in 2024, with major marketers such as Heineken, e.l.f., L’Oréal, Tecovas and Texas Pete allocating sizable budgets to long‑form documentaries, mock‑documentaries and western‑style shorts that debut at festivals and on digital platforms. These productions...
What’s the Key to Unlocking Retail Media?
PI LIVE Europe is expanding its agenda with a new Retail Media & Commerce Summit, aimed at helping brands and agencies integrate retail media with affiliate and performance marketing. The retail media channel is projected to reach $300 billion by 2030,...
When Search Growth Stalls: How to Diagnose What’s Really Holding You Back
Search campaigns often enjoy rapid early gains, but performance eventually plateaus, becomes volatile, or sees rising costs. The article argues that these slowdowns are not failures but signals of underlying constraints such as limited demand, targeting gaps, conversion bottlenecks, paid‑search...
ChatGPT Ads Have Begun Showing Up For Logged-Out Users
OpenAI has begun serving ads to ChatGPT users who are not logged in, expanding the platform's ad inventory. The move follows advertiser complaints about limited ad frequency and a high spend minimum, which was recently reduced from $200,000 to $50,000....
ChatGPT Ads Have Begun Showing Up For Logged-Out Users
OpenAI has begun serving ads to ChatGPT users who are not logged in, expanding inventory beyond the pilot’s logged‑in audience. The move follows advertiser complaints that the $200,000 spend minimum (now reduced to $50,000) left too little inventory to exhaust...
Braze Launches Agentic AI Tools and Creative Studio, Adds EU Hosting for Decisioning Studio
Braze Inc. unveiled two new agentic AI products—BrazeAI Operator and BrazeAI Agent Console—alongside a Creative Studio that pulls designs from Figma and Canva directly into live campaigns. The AI suite lets marketers build, test and deploy content‑generating agents without heavy...
XR Extreme Reach Expands Celebrity Payments To Support Ai Performers In Advertising
XR Extreme Reach unveiled a pioneering payment solution that aligns AI‑generated advertising talent with SAG‑AFTRA’s Commercials Contract. The platform now supports two new performer categories—Digital Replicas, which are AI‑enhanced versions of real celebrities, and Synthetic Performers, wholly AI‑created characters. Payments...
Madison Logic Launches New Dashboard to Help Marketers Engineer Faster, Predictable Growth
Madison Logic introduced its Pipeline Insights Dashboard, a tool that ties content syndication, programmatic and social engagement signals directly to stage‑by‑stage pipeline movement in real time. The platform shifts reporting from raw engagement metrics to actionable pipeline intelligence, giving B2B...
How Mobile Became The Foundation Of Omnichannel Identity
Marketers are shifting identity strategies from third‑party cookies to mobile‑driven signals. Mobile devices, especially app environments, deliver deterministic identifiers and contextual data that serve as a reliable anchor across channels such as CTV, web, and emerging platforms. By integrating these...
Pixalate Releases Q1 2026 Mobile SDKs Market Share Report
Pixalate released its Q1 2026 Global Mobile App Ad SDK Market Share Report, analyzing roughly 1,100 Android and iOS apps and about 19 billion programmatic ad impressions. The study finds Meta Audience Network, Vungle (Liftoff) and AppLovin dominate both Google Play and...
The Facts About Google Click Signals, Rankings, And SEO via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Recent DOJ antitrust filings confirm that Google treats clicks as raw signals rather than direct ranking factors. Click data, combined with query information and human‑rater scores, feed AI models such as RankEmbed and its successor RankEmbedBERT, which are trained on...
AI Agents Won’t Kill Shopping – but Agentic Commerce Could Make Most of It Redundant
Klaviyo’s co‑CEOs describe a shift from traditional e‑commerce to "agentic commerce," where AI agents handle product discovery, evaluation, and purchase on behalf of shoppers. During the 2025 holiday season, their customer‑agent pilots helped tens of thousands of consumers find gifts...
Google Ads API Version 24 Now Available
Google has launched version 24 of the Google Ads API, introducing dozens of enhancements across demand‑gen, travel feeds, conversions, shopping, reporting, and video ads. The release makes several video‑responsive ad fields mandatory, adds a read‑only travel_feed_data asset, and enables view‑through conversion...
RTIC Outdoors’ Journey to Sustained B2B Growth Powered by Anteriad
RTIC Outdoors partnered with Anteriad to launch the Growth Accelerator, a data‑driven, multi‑channel acquisition program aimed at scaling its nascent B2B custom‑shop. Within six months the pilot delivered $2.7 million in incremental revenue, an 11% lift in B2B sales and a...
The Best Measurement Strategies Never Stand Still: Do’s and Don’ts to Keep Yours Agile
DV Rockerbox warns marketers that static measurement strategies quickly become obsolete as goals and channel mixes evolve. It outlines five common mistakes—treating all channels alike, tackling every analytics tool at once, measuring without decision context, relying on a fixed roadmap, and...
Beehiiv Adds Even More Features to Go up Against Competitors and Win over Creators
Beehiiv is expanding beyond newsletters with AI‑driven podcast analytics, webinars, and metered paywalls to attract a broader creator base. The platform posted its strongest quarter ever in Q1 2026, adding $4.5 M in ARR and surpassing 50,000 active users. Early adopters who...
MiQ: Fragmentation Challenges Traditional Marketing Funnel
MiQ’s new "From Funnel to Flexibility" study, based on 53 million households, 700 trillion data signals and surveys of over 4,000 consumers and 600 marketers across the US, UK, Canada and Australia, reveals that consumer journeys are no longer linear. 87 percent of shoppers...
Your Brand Is Invisible to the AI That’s Choosing Your Competitor
Research from 6sense shows most B2B buyers now rely on large‑language models like ChatGPT as a primary research tool. These models blend training data with live web searches, favoring content from established, attributed sources over corporate blogs or gated PDFs....
Fox Just Gave Its Ad Portfolio a Massive AI Upgrade
Fox announced the launch of Fox AdStudio, an AI‑driven platform that provides advertisers with real‑time audience insights across the company’s entire media portfolio, including linear TV and streaming services like Tubi. The tool leverages machine‑learning to analyze content and viewer...
Birds Eye Appoints Agency for Influencer Marketing Brief
Birds Eye has appointed The Romans agency to run its influencer, consumer and corporate marketing brief, covering the core Birds Eye brand as well as Goodfella’s and Aunt Bessie’s under Nomad Foods. The agency will focus on driving purchase intent,...