Digital Marketing Update February 2026

Welcome to The Marketing Den’s digital marketing update for February 2026.

It’s time to take a look at the most important updates in digital marketing over the past month – I’ve done the research so you don’t have to. You’re welcome!

Social Media Updates from February 2026

Tik Tok links to fundraisers

Tik Tok now allow users to link to fundraisers in their videos. This enables users to raise money for registered non profits without leaving the app. Creators can add a “Support Nonprofit” sticker to their videos and LIVE videos.

When tapped, viewers can donate via a third-party provider. Anyone who clicks the sticker can see the total amount raised by that video (and the names of non anonymised donors). Only non profits approved by Tik Tok can be linked in videos and profiles. To use the donation sticker during a LIVE stream, creators need to have more than 1000 followers.

Users can also add clickable link stickers to their Tik Tok stories to direct traffic to external fundraising sites like GoFundMe.

Threads has overtaken X in terms of daily active users

I’m not sure whether this is a reflection of Threads doing well or just a reflection of X doing badly.

Instagram has replaced ‘follower’ counts with ‘friend’ counts

What does this mean? I thought it was just a change in terminology. But I believe Instagram ‘Friends’ are actually mutual followers – so people who we follow who follow us back.

YouTube is testing photo carousels in ‘Shorts’

This allows creators to display up to 10 swipeable still images directly alongside short-form videos.

Tik Tok establishes US based ownership

This follows long-standing National security concerns in the US. Designed to avoid a US ban, a new entity Tik Tok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established. This means Tik Tok will live on in the US. 80.1% control will be held by US investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, with ByteDance retaining a 19.9% minority stake. Oracle hosts data on localised servers and will manage, secure and update the algorithm using US server data.

Note, this is US Specific. In the UK, the Tik Tok app is banned on Government devices but the UK Government has not forced a sale of the platform. ByteDance still maintains its majority ownership of Tik Tok in the UK and elsewhere. In fact, ByteDance has expanded its presence in the UK, opening a new office in London and expanding its local workforce to around 3,000 employees. 

Advertising Updates from February 2026

ChatGPT tests ads

Chat GPT tests premium ads on Free and Go tiers. The test began on 9 Feb in the US. (Sensitive topics and minors are excluded). Ads are being sold at $60 CPM (per thousand impressions), with a $200,000 minimum commitment. Unsurprisingly, initial advertising partners include major brands like Ford, Adobe and Expedia.

Manus AI integrated into Meta Ads Manager

Mata introduces Manus AI to supercharge ad campaigns. The idea is that Meta advertisers find new ways to streamline their advertising processes using Manus. For example, it can schedule recurring tasks and generate reports with deep performance analysis. Meta advertisers can access Manus within the ‘tools’ section on Ads manager.

Threads rolls out global advertising

Ads will appear directly in the feed, supporting image, video, carousel and app formats using Meta Ads Manager. This means that brands can extend campaigns from Facebook and Instagram into Threads.

Search Updates from February 2026

Google’s core update

Google released a core update focussed only on Discover. Google Discover is the content feed users see on mobile devices.

The update only applies to the US for now. But it’s interesting because Google is now clearly separating discover performance from search performance. The update aims to improve content in the Discover feed. It prioritises more in-depth and original timely content and deprioritises clickbait content.

The same update will likely be rolled out to the UK soon. As always the advice is to publish useful, relevant and timely articles, building clear topical expertise.

Gemini introduce Personal Intelligence

This is a way to connect Gemini to other Google apps for more personalised suggestions.

Google and Apple partnership

Gemini’s usage is up. Could it overtake ChatGPT as the most used AI LLM? Possibly. Apple and Google have announced a multi-year partnership, where Google will power the next generation of Apple’s AI services. This includes a redesigned Siri using Gemini AI.

View From The Den February 2026

We’re not talking about AI in isolation anymore. It’s about how AI is merging – with ads, search, social, commerce and measurement. AI is reshaping the marketing landscape. And soon it will be so well integrated that we’ll no longer be referring to AI anymore. It will just be a natural part of how we work.

That’s it for your digital marketing update February 2026. If you missed last month’s roundup of what happened in Digital Marketing in January, you can check it out here.

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Here’s to getting to Spring and hopefully some sunnier days.