A new benchmark from Ghostd challenges the idea that larger companies automatically have an advantage as customers increasingly turn to AI-powered search. An analysis of 180 small and mid-sized businesses across 10 U.S. cities found almost no relationship between company size and technical AI readiness. Instead, a small number of website-level factors—including structured data, crawler…

Creator selection is becoming a more consequential media-buying decision as brands move larger budgets into influencer campaigns. EngageCheck is responding with Creator Intelligence, a new automated research service that identifies and evaluates creators before agencies and brands commit campaign budget. The service combines creator discovery, audience-quality analysis and documented recommendations into a client-ready report rather…

Artificial intelligence has become nearly universal among U.S. marketing organizations, but adoption is entering a more cautious phase. A new Censuswide survey of 500 U.S. CMOs and 1,000 consumers found that 99% of marketing leaders now use AI in some form, while generative AI adoption has declined across several common marketing applications and consumer comfort…

AngelAi is taking a different route to build visibility in the increasingly crowded financial AI market: a persistent television sponsorship tied directly to CNBC’s Real-Time Ticker. The agreement puts AngelAi branding beneath CNBC’s running market data during weekday programming, giving the financial technology company a high-frequency brand presence in a media environment built around stocks,…

An internal audit of Amazon advertising accounts by Sellers Umbrella found that 34% of audited ad spend between January and May 2026 went toward keywords that generated no sales, highlighting a persistent weakness in how sellers manage automated campaigns, search-term data and negative keywords. The audit covered accounts across 11 Amazon marketplaces, although Sellers Umbrella…