Adobe Acquiring Semrush For $1.9B 💸 YouTube Is Testing Direct Messaging 🗣️ How Gen Z Is Reshaping Holiday Marketing 🎊

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Adobe Acquiring Semrush For $1.9B [2 min read]

Adobe announced a $1.9 billion all-cash acquisition of Semrush, expected to close in the first half of 2026, combining Adobe's digital experience tools with Semrush's SEO and paid media optimization capabilities. The deal addresses how generative AI and large language models are reshaping brand visibility, with Adobe aiming to help marketers optimize for both traditional search engines and AI-powered platforms through generative engine optimization (GEO). The strategic value lies in Semrush's proven expertise in improving brand visibility across LLMs and AI platforms, having tripled their own LLM visibility in just one month, which is increasingly critical as AI-powered shopping and search traffic has surged 1,200% year-over-year for U.S. retail sites.

YouTube Is Testing Direct Messaging [2 min read]

YouTube is testing direct messaging features in Ireland and Poland, responding to a "top feature request" by allowing users over 18 to share videos and have conversations directly through the mobile app, marking a return to DMs after abandoning them in 2019. The move reflects broader tech industry trends, with YouTube following companies like Instagram in prioritizing direct messaging features, driven by the importance of text-based content in an AI and search-driven landscape where platforms like Reddit are gaining prominence for their comment threads. YouTube is embracing its identity as a social media platform despite regulatory scrutiny, though this brings significant moderation challenges since DMs can be exploited by predators and scammers, as evidenced by platforms like Roblox now requiring age verification for chat features.

How Gen Z Is Reshaping Holiday Marketing [14 min read]

Economic pressure is driving Gen Z to cut holiday spending by 34%, prompting brands to shift from flashy campaigns to value-focused marketing that emphasizes emotional connection and real experiences. Despite this spending decline, Gen Z remains critical due to their expected $12 trillion spending power by 2030, leading brands to target them through social media, influencer partnerships, and in-person events where the cohort discovers products. Also, Gen Z shows increasing comfort with newer technologies, with 61% accepting sponsored retail media ads and 43% using AI for product inspiration, presenting brands with evolving opportunities to reach younger consumers.

You Can’t Dismiss AI Ads As Slop When They’re Winning In Testing [8 min read]

AI-assisted ads are outperforming traditionally-made ads in testing, scoring an average of 3.4 stars versus 2.3 for conventional ads in a database of 123,000 video advertisements. Contrary to concerns about authenticity and the "uncanny valley" effect, consumers respond emotionally to AI-generated content and often cannot distinguish it from professionally produced work, with ads recognized as AI actually performing better on average. Perhaps most significantly, AI technology is democratizing access to high production values, enabling smaller brands with limited budgets to create spectacular, cinematic advertisements that evoke powerful emotions previously only achievable by major brands.

Is No One Clicking On ChatGPT Links? [2 min read]

Leaked data from OpenAI reveals that ChatGPT generates extremely low click-through rates for publishers, with one top-performing page receiving over 610,000 link impressions but only 4,238 clicks, resulting in a dismal 0.69% CTR. While link placement affects performance—with sidebar and citation placements achieving 6-10% CTR compared to tiny rates for main response links—all CTRs remain remarkably low overall, with most pages registering between 0.01% and 0.1%. This data demonstrates that AI-driven traffic from ChatGPT remains only a sliver of overall traffic and is unlikely to ever replace the lost Google organic search traffic that publishers are hoping to recover.

Where To Start When You Want To Optimize An Email Automation [6 min read]

When optimizing email automations, resist the temptation to rewrite or start from scratch until you've completed a thorough audit of what's actually working based on data. Begin by mapping the entire automation flow with all its triggers, cadence, and segmentation, then document key performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and revenue attributed to each email. Use a color-coded system to identify high-performing elements worth protecting (green), critical problems requiring immediate fixes (red), and areas needing attention (yellow), which creates a clear roadmap for your optimization work.

Your Marketing Needs More Than Data, It Needs Customer Success Stories [10 min read]

Customer success stories are more powerful than traditional marketing because they build trust through authentic narratives that trigger emotional responses and establish credibility, with 92% of consumers trusting peer recommendations over brand advertisements. Effective stories follow a three-act structure—The Challenge (the customer's problem), The Solution (how your product helped), and The Transformation (measurable results achieved)—and should include direct quotes, specific data, and visuals to enhance authenticity. These stories deliver significant ROI by boosting conversion rates 20-30%, accelerating the sales process, and strengthening customer retention, and should be strategically repurposed across multiple channels including websites, social media, email marketing, and sales pitches for maximum impact.

How To Get Feedback [4 min read]

As you become more senior in your career, people stop telling you the truth due to power distance, fear of consequences, or not understanding your role well enough to provide meaningful feedback. Leaders must actively create safety for honest feedback by changing the "permission structure" - asking specific questions, demonstrating you can handle constructive criticism, and making vulnerability a strength rather than a weakness. Feedback only works when it's built on trust and followed by action, serving as a mirror for growth rather than a weapon for criticism, which means the higher you rise, the more responsibility you have to actively seek out the truth.

5 Google Ads Tactics To Drop In 2026 [5 min read]

Traditional keyword match types and campaign structures need updating for automation-era Google Ads, as phrase match has become obsolete while standard shopping campaigns are outperforming Performance Max and shouldn't be skipped despite Google's automation push. Conversion tracking setup requires strategic adjustments, with GA4 no longer recommended as the primary conversion action due to delayed data processing that prevents real-time Smart Bidding optimization, favoring instead third-party tools or Google's native tag for better accuracy. Control should be maintained strategically rather than excessively by segmenting branded terms into dedicated campaigns to prevent Performance Max from inflating results with easy conversions, and by avoiding over-pinning responsive search ads in favor of fewer, high-quality assets rather than chasing ad strength scores that don't directly impact performance.

The Future Of Media Is Being Built On YouTube [7 min read]

YouTube is becoming the central platform for media entrepreneurship, with both legacy publishers like The Daily Beast and Complex, as well as new media entrepreneurs, increasingly centering their operations on the platform rather than traditional websites. Multiple factors are driving this dominance, including YouTube's superior monetization tools compared to competitors like TikTok, its effectiveness in both social media and TV/streaming spaces, lowered barriers to video production through AI tools, and better audience reach than text-based platforms. Live-streaming represents the next evolution of this trend, offering immediacy and protection against AI disruption, with more journalist-creators and media companies expected to adopt live-streaming capabilities in the coming months.

We’re In An LLM Bubble, Not An AI One [3 min read]

There may be a bubble in large language models that could burst soon, but this doesn't apply to AI as a whole, particularly applications in biology, chemistry, image, audio, and video, which are just beginning to develop. Too much attention and money is currently focused on building one massive general-purpose model to solve all problems, when the future will actually involve a multiplicity of specialized, customized models designed for specific needs. Despite concerns about an LLM bubble, investment in other AI applications like manufacturing and engineering is still in early stages, as evidenced by Jeff Bezos's new $6 billion AI startup, demonstrating that "AI" encompasses much more than just large language models.

Augmented Reality Marketing: The use of AR technology to create interactive experiences that blend digital content with the real world. It allows customers to visualize products in their own environment before buying. AR marketing creates immersive and memorable brand experiences.

Example: A furniture retailer's app lets shoppers see how a couch would look in their living room before making a purchase.

Virtual Shopping: A digital shopping experience that simulates the in-store experience online using technology. It combines interactive features with personalized assistance to recreate physical shopping digitally. Virtual shopping bridges the gap between online convenience and in-store experience.

Example: A beauty brand offers live video consultations where makeup artists demonstrate products and give personalized recommendations to online shoppers.

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