Digital Marketing
October 15, 2026
Whether you were in Atlanta or following along from your desk, here's how to make yours stick.
Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes
Picture it. You're back at your desk with a notebook full of ideas and an inbox full of Thursday.
Your VP stops by with a coffee and a casual voice. "Quick question. All the AI we're paying for. What's it doing for us?"
You have an answer. The copy gets written faster. The brainstorms are better. The team is happier. All of it is true.
You also hear how it sounds. It's helping. It's definitely helping. You just can't put a number next to it.
That moment has a name in AdPipe's Pulse Report 2026. We surveyed marketing, creative, and agency leaders this summer, and not one said they're sitting AI out. Then we asked what it has delivered. 78% couldn't point to clear, measurable results.
Belief isn't the missing piece. Everyone already believes. What's missing is an answer to your VP's question.
They didn't find a better tool. They did something less glamorous.
They went deeper. In our survey, not one team running only one or two AI use cases could prove results. Among teams running seven or more, 43% could. Depth was the dividing line.
And they pointed AI at a number they were already judged on. Not "saving time," which nobody can audit. Revenue, pipeline, cost per result. The scorecard was already there. They just aimed the work at it.
That's the whole secret. The teams that could answer the question had decided, ahead of time, what the answer would be measured in.
Want the full picture? Get the Pulse Report.
Here's the part of the Pulse worth carrying out of the week.
Most of us use AI to make things. 83% use it for copy, and 83% for brainstorming. Only 12% use it to understand why their creative performs, the least-adopted use case on the list.
Think about what that means. Most of us use AI to make more. Very few use it to understand what we already made. Every new ad risks starting from the same blind spot.
When we asked what people want AI to do reliably next, about half the wish list sounded the same. Tell me why this creative performed. Show me what to change. Connect it to revenue.
What people want is an explanation.
Back at your desk. Instead of starting a new brief, you do something small. You pull last quarter's five best ads and five worst, and you list what's inside each one. The hook. The first frame. The pacing. The offer.
Maybe the winners all open on the product. Maybe the losers take their time getting there. Maybe it's the music. You won't know until you look, and that's the point. You're no longer guessing which part of the ad mattered. You're reading it.
By the end of the day, you have a short list of what your best work has in common. Two days ago you had a notebook full of ideas. Now you have one you can test.
Your VP stops by again. Same coffee, same question.
This time you have a real answer. Here's what our best ads share. Here's what we're briefing differently. Here's the number we'll check next month.
That's the difference between an idea and a decision you can defend.
The notes from last week are still in your bag. Pick the one you'd be willing to stand behind with a number. Then go look at what's already inside your ads.
See what's inside your own top and bottom performers. Get your free creative insights
August 26, 2026
