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Newsletter · The Marketing Mixtape

February 2026 · Issue #66

This month in digital marketing.

Tech & Innovation

LinkedIn's AI Search Is Keeping Users Close and Traffic Closer

LinkedIn has gone full "if you love them, let them never leave your platform." Their new AI-powered search is delivering such relevant results internally that external websites are seeing a noticeable dip in referral traffic. Great for LinkedIn's engagement metrics. Less great for anyone who was relying on the platform to send visitors their way. It's the digital equivalent of your favourite bar installing a kitchen so nobody ever has to leave. Content creators, time to rethink where your traffic is actually coming from. Read More // DIGITAL ADVERTISING

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Digital Advertising

Pinterest Launches Media Planner: Finally, a Budget Tool That Doesn't Require a PhD

Pinterest just dropped Media Planner, a centralised tool for campaign planning, budgeting, and real-time performance tracking. Think of it as the spreadsheet you always wanted but were too busy pinning home decor to build. Advertisers can now set goals, allocate budgets, and monitor results without toggling between six tabs and a prayer. Data-driven decisions on a platform known for mood boards? We love character development. Read More // DIGITAL ADVERTISING

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Digital Advertising

Google Ads Pivots From Keywords to Intent (And Your Strategy Should Too)

Google is officially telling advertisers to stop obsessing over exact keywords and start thinking about what users actually want. The platform is leaning hard into user intent, contextual signals, and audience targeting over rigid keyword matching. Translation: Smart Bidding and responsive search ads are your new power couple. Keywords aren't dead, but they've been asked to take a supporting role. Think less "exact match" and more "what were they really looking for?" It's couples therapy for your campaign structure. Read More //

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#meme of the month
The Marketing Mixtape meme of the month, February 2026
Tech & Innovation

"Ads in Clay" Is the Most Hands-On Ad Feature We've Seen

Everett Berry introduced "Ads in Clay," a new feature that lets advertisers mold and shape campaigns with unprecedented flexibility. It's being hailed as one of the most exciting developments in digital advertising, blending creativity with tech in a way that makes your standard carousel ad feel like a cave painting. The promise? More tactile, more engaging, more personal. Whether this lives up to the hype or becomes another feature we forget about by Q3 remains to be seen. But for now, consider us intrigued. Read More // DATA & ANALYTICS

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Data & Analytics

Google Ads January Rollout: Looker Studio Integration and More

Google Ads kicked off the year with a feature rollout headlined by a Looker Studio integration. Advertisers can now create more detailed, customisable reports directly from their Google Ads data without the usual export-import-cry-repeat workflow. New creative optimisation tools and targeting options also made the cut. It's the kind of update that makes data nerds slightly emotional - at least for us it did. Reporting that doesn't require a side quest. Read More // SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

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Social Media Marketing

Facebook Ad Templates: A Cheat Sheet for the Rest of Us

Search Engine Land dropped a comprehensive guide to Facebook ad templates, covering carousel ads, single image ads, video ads, and everything in between. It's basically a cookbook for advertisers who know what they want to serve but keep burning the presentation. Key takeaway: align your designs with your brand, optimise for mobile (because everyone's scrolling on their phone), and for the love of CTR, write a compelling call-to-action. Sounds simple. Somehow, we all still need reminding. Read More // DIGITAL ADVERTISING

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Digital Advertising

Google Launches "Ads Decoded" Podcast for Advertisers

Google recently launched a podcast called "Ads Decoded," hosted by industry experts and featuring guests from Google's own advertising team. Topics range from ad optimisation to emerging trends, and it's aimed at both beginners and seasoned pros. A podcast that explains Google Ads without making you feel like you need a second degree. Shut up and take our money. Subscribe, listen on your commute, and pretend you've been doing this all along. Read More // From LinkedIn keeping all the love to itself to Google finally making reporting feel less like punishment, February is off to a strong start. Pinterest is growing up, intent is the new keyword, and Google apparently thinks we need a podcast now. Spoiler: we probably do. We'll be back next month - same time, same place, different updates. Valentine's Day may be over, but our love for well-optimised campaigns is forever. Until next time, m

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Until next time, may your CTRs be high, your bounce rates be low.

Florian
Founder, Managing Director
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