A test confirmed that ChatGPT relies on Google Search result snippets for its answers. A newly published webpage, not submitted to search engines, couldn't be located by ChatGPT even with web search enabled. Gemini, in contrast, fetched the live content directly. Once the page was indexed in Google but not yet visible in search results, ChatGPT still failed to access it. Only after the page appeared in Google SERPs did ChatGPT provide a partial response, clearly drawn from the Google snippet rather than the actual page. This shows ChatGPT's dependence on Google's indexed summaries, not direct page access.
Customers are 23.7% less likely to continue using a service when it is provided by AI instead of a human if warmth is important. The drop in preference is stronger when the service is associated with fun or pleasure, with a 29.8% decrease in usage intention, compared to 17.5% when the focus is on efficiency. AI is perceived as 19.5% less warm than human staff, but using informal language helps reduce this effect. Companies like Henn na Hotel and McDonald's abandoned full AI setups due to poor customer response, while hybrid models like Starbucks' app chatbot have been more successful.
Slack used a buy-over-build strategy to quickly match the features of Microsoft and Google by acquiring six companies between 2014 and 2020. These acquisitions helped it add tools like screen sharing, document collaboration, and email integration, allowing it to scale to 12 million daily active users by the end of 2020. Its 2018 deal with Atlassian eliminated competitors HipChat and Stride and led to over 11 joint integrations. By acquiring technologies that reduced context-switching, Slack positioned itself as a unified work hub and ultimately attracted Salesforce, which acquired it in 2020.
The introduction of AI Overviews has changed the search funnel by addressing early research queries without requiring user clicks. As a result, fewer users proceed to external sites, but those who do are more likely to convert and are being monetized at higher rates, with CPCs rising nearly 13%. This model has enabled Google to grow search revenue significantly despite reduced traffic to third-party websites.
This strategy includes setting 3 goals, buyer profiles, pillars, distribution channels, and KPIs.
The use of “link in bio” in your IG captions and content does not decrease reach.
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Delve ran 4 ads across 2 TLDR newsletters and brought in 66 leads, with a meaningful chunk from enterprise. The result: $1M in attributed pipeline and a 52x ROI.
Consumer software is shifting from mass-market, ad-supported models to high-priced, hyper-focused products known as Narrow Startups. These apps serve specific user groups such as engineers, developers, or creatives through premium $200 per month tiers that exist within broader platforms. Instead of scaling to millions, these startups thrive with small, dedicated user bases by delivering deep value for niche needs.
Retail and delivery ad revenues now exceed 10 billion dollars annually and are growing near 20%. Platforms such as DoorDash and Instacart are using first-party data and AI to offer more targeted advertising to thousands of brands and merchants. Profit contributions from media are helping major players offset costs and stay competitive.
House of Worktops increased sales by 13% and revenue by 24% by changing how it presented its delivery checker on product pages. The original form sat above the main call-to-action and caused distraction during a key decision moment. Replacing the form with a simple clickable link reduced cognitive load while keeping the feature accessible. The change made the page cleaner and helped more users move forward without unnecessary friction.
Email marketing delivers strong ROI, with 35% of companies earning $10 to $36 for every $1 spent and 30% earning between $36 and $50. Customer engagement emails, promotional emails, and newsletters generate the highest returns depending on the industry. Retail sees the highest ROI at 45:1, followed by marketing agencies at 42:1 and tech at 36:1. Companies measure email impact using metrics like customer engagement (59%), conversion rates or MQLs (44%), and direct revenue attribution (41%). To improve ROI, marketers should run A/B tests, use personalized and interactive content, and leverage analytics tools and pre-send testing.
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Unicorn Studio lets users build interactive web experiences using WebGL technology. It offers over 60 customizable effects to add motion and interactivity to images, videos, and text without coding. Lightweight and performance-optimized, users can export creations as images, videos, or code snippets and easily embed them into platforms like Framer, Webflow, and Wix.
Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) is an information retrieval method that combines scores from multiple related searches into a final ranking. It rewards pages that consistently rank across many queries, showing that topical authority and comprehensive coverage outperform narrow keyword targeting. Analysis of ChatGPT's code confirms it uses RRF, explaining how AI evaluates relevance across variations of user intent. This shows why SEO remains essential and why building topic clusters matters. Consistent visibility across related topics will outperform isolated top rankings.
Attention is becoming the most valuable and limited resource in the digital economy. Platforms like TikTok now dominate consumer behavior, with Gen Z spending 108 minutes per day on the app, contributing to declining interest in traditional media like The Late Show. As AI-generated video and real-time tools like Mirage flood the internet with content, attention spans shrink, and the cost of capturing attention rises. To adapt, companies are expanding into new attention-friendly mediums like voice and using new business models such as subscriptions and microtransactions to extract more value per user.
Effective poster design follows two simple rules: use distinctive brand elements that light and non-brand buyers recognize, and make those brand signals large enough to be seen, especially by viewers passing quickly. Many praised minimalist outdoor ads succeed only because they get these basics right, while others fail by making branding unclear or too small. Research shows strong brand presence greatly improves recall. Simple, clear branding wins in limited attention environments, proving fundamentals matter more than complex creativity.
A 7-layer messaging hierarchy to create performance-ready ads.
55% of campaigns went over budget and 54% missed deadlines, reflecting a widespread gap between creative ambition and execution.
BMO's “Appfluencer” features comedian Lisa Gilroy as the bank's first app-focused influencer to promote its mobile banking tools.
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Gen Alpha are shaping culture early through strong influence on family purchases and a growing sense of autonomy. They are spending more time offline, favoring real-world activities and physical toys, and showing greater interest in collaborative and creative gaming like Roblox, which has doubled in use since 2021. Girls are aiming higher in careers like law and medicine, but fewer boys believe they can do anything, revealing a growing confidence gap. Social media use is increasingly passive, with kids scrolling more and posting less, while influencer marketing is overtaking traditional advertising, even for food choices. Despite not holding the purse strings, many Gen Alpha kids, especially 8-11-year-olds, have decision-making power and are already active consumers, especially in ecommerce and virtual spending.
AI companions on platforms like Character.AI, Replika, and CHAI have created new digital social spaces where 72% of teens have tried them for chatting, emotional support, role-playing, entertainment, and advice. Teens use AI companions because they find them entertaining, are curious about the technology, value their constant availability, and appreciate the nonjudgmental interaction that lets them share things they wouldn't tell friends or family. Many platforms allow easy access for users as young as 13. However, one-third of teens report feeling uncomfortable with AI responses.
The Gorgias team used 5 social tactics tailored for B2B to drive a 200% boost in engagement during launch week. They spotlighted the people behind the product to humanize AI content, diversified post formats with carousels, videos, and text to appeal to different preferences, and created ready-to-use assets for employees to amplify reach. They also lightly referenced trending content without relying on it, and enforced a one-week, no-links-on-LinkedIn policy to prioritize reach over immediate conversion.
Due to a growing hunger for truth and confidence, consumers are turning to brands that can offer credible guidance and emotional support in a time of deep uncertainty. Traditional networks of trust, like family, community, and journalism, have weakened, creating space for AI to act as a surrogate source of authority, offering recommendations that often sound empathetic and informed. This shift raises the importance of consistent brand messaging across digital environments, where large language models are shaping public narratives based on the content they find.
Skool is a community and course platform similar to Facebook Groups but built for creators and coaches who want a focused, ad-free space. It combines discussion forums, course hosting, progress tracking, and payments in one place, without relying on third-party tools. Members can interact, learn, and engage without the distractions of social media, making it ideal for those building paid or private communities.
AI Overviews surged from 3.93% to 27.43% visibility between January and June, while Featured snippets dropped from 15.41% to 5.53%. Sitelinks saw the largest gain, rising from 8.44% to 84.95%, likely due to changes in how Google displays Scroll-to Sitelinks. Other features that declined sharply include Shopping, Paid results, and Paid Sitelinks, all dropping more than 50%. Knowledge Cards, AI Overview Sitelinks, and Question SERP features also increased in visibility, though less dramatically.
Instagram is testing a feature that shows like counts for each individual frame in a carousel post. The likes are tied to the frame visible when the user taps the like button, offering more detailed engagement insights, though not guaranteed to reflect frame-specific intent. This update follows Instagram's ongoing focus on carousels, which tend to outperform single-image posts due to higher interaction and resurfacing by the algorithm.
Movie fandom influences buying behavior by creating emotional connections that last beyond the initial viewing. Amazon Ads and Crowd DNA identified 5 stages of engagement, from pre-release excitement to long-term community involvement, giving brands multiple points to connect with fans. Theatergoers seek immersive experiences, while at-home viewers value comfort and nostalgia, often pairing movies with food and related products.
Kraft Heinz stands out by hijacking cultural moments. It partners with figures like music producer Mustard, parodies events like the Indy 500 with hot dog cars, and generates billions of earned impressions. The company taps into brand, cultural, and consumer truths to fuel creative ideas, prioritizing organic engagement and fast, iterative collaboration. By listening to consumers and reacting quickly, such as with A1's meme or Jet-Puffed's egg carton packaging, it drives both conversation and product sellouts.
7 email deliverability myths.
AI-generated branding often produces safe and average outputs by relying on what is most common in large datasets, leading to predictable and repetitive designs.
Facebook video ads that are 30 seconds or shorter loop repeatedly for up to 90 seconds, increasing total plays.
The WNBA is seeing record growth, with national viewership up 9%, attendance up 26%, and merchandise sales up 40%. Much of the momentum is tied to Caitlin Clark, whose popularity has brought new fans and sponsorships, including a $28 million Nike deal. Critics argue the league is hesitating to spotlight her fully due to internal tensions and concerns about fairness among players, which may be limiting its ability to capitalize on her impact. While the league claims its marketing is balanced and intentional, it faces a critical decision on whether to prioritize star-driven promotion or collective visibility.
Douyin generated $490 billion in GMV last year while TikTok produced $33 billion across all non-China markets. Despite a 120% sales increase in the US this year, TikTok's eCommerce rollout is faltering in key regions like Indonesia due to higher fees and content format shifts. Western consumers continue to resist integrated shopping within social apps.
When a conversion test succeeds, it's worthwhile to keep testing. Optibac increased new subscriptions by 22% after testing a simplified version of its already successful subscription page. The revised page used shorter bullets with key benefits placed at the beginning, such as “15% off and free delivery.” This followed an earlier test that had already improved subscriptions by 39%. Together, the two tests delivered a total subscription increase of about 70% from the original baseline.
With a small internal team and agency support, Amtrak experiments with meme-worthy, “brain-rotty” content that feels unexpected for a travel brand (ie. anime-inspired conductors or monster truck-style train promos). This entertaining approach is balanced with informative posts about train travel aimed at making the brand both relatable and useful. This has resulted in viral success, follower growth, and rising engagement.
TikTok has introduced Bulletin Boards, a broadcast-only messaging tool that allows creators to share text, images, and videos directly in followers' inboxes. Early access has been given to major publishers, celebrities, and select creators. Posts bypass the algorithm and create a consistent communication channel that complements the For You Page. Bulletin Boards resemble Instagram's Broadcast Channels and reflect a broader shift toward private content streams across social platforms.
ChatGPT agent combines web interaction, deep research, and conversational intelligence to complete complex tasks autonomously using its own virtual computer. It can browse websites, log in securely, run code, analyze data, and deliver editable reports or presentations based on user instructions. Users stay in control by granting permissions and can interrupt or steer tasks anytime. The agent supports integration with apps like Gmail and GitHub, making workflows more efficient.
Over 105,000 comparison-based keywords now rank Reddit in the top three search results, replacing traditional review sites like G2, Capterra, and Wirecutter. Threads in subreddits such as r/smallbusiness, r/webhosting, and r/WordPress are shaping bottom-of-funnel decisions through detailed feedback on pricing, onboarding, support quality, and feature gaps. As generative AI tools increasingly reference these posts, marketers are losing visibility into high-intent traffic that no longer touches their owned content.
Traditional keyword research can introduce bias by assuming user intent, much like how leading questions distort survey results. An example includes a pizza shop mistakenly optimizing for keywords like “Domino's” or “pizza near me” without understanding the user's actual needs or preferences. Just as the best surveys ask neutral questions to uncover real sentiment, effective SEO should focus on customer problems rather than chasing high-volume terms.
Get better ideas from Claude by forming thinking partnerships rather than asking one-off questions.
Aligned's Head of Marketing shares 13 ways marketers stood out during hiring.
OpenAI plans to earn commissions from product sales completed directly within ChatGPT by integrating a checkout system into the platform. It partnered with Shopify in April and is testing ecommerce features that would let merchants fulfill orders inside ChatGPT, targeting revenue from free users. The move challenges Google's search and shopping dominance as users increasingly rely on chatbots for product discovery. Brands are also adapting with "AIO" strategies to influence product visibility in chatbot responses, raising concerns about AI-driven search preference and its impact on traditional advertising.
Many brands struggle to convert because their content and offers are misaligned. The ACOM framework solves this by connecting Audience, Content, Offer, and Moment. It helps you understand who you're speaking to, what they need to hear, what action you want them to take, and when they're most ready to take it. HubSpot uses this model to guide everything from blog posts to product launches, ensuring each piece of content drives toward a clear conversion goal.