Do They Know About You? I'm watching something interesting happen right now across our client base. The businesses that are already running optimized campaigns are seeing strong conversion rates. The ones that are still "planning" or waiting for Black Friday to flip the switch? They're already losing ground. Here's the reality: North American consumers are entering this holiday season with their wallets open and their research complete. We're seeing data that shows 40% of sho

Look, I've been watching Google's AI rollout with the same healthy skepticism I bring to every "this changes everything" announcement in our industry. But when Google's VP of Product for Search, Robby Stein, starts confirming things I've been quietly seeing in client data for months? That's when I pay attention. Here's what he just said that should make every CMO and marketing leader rethink their 2025 budget allocation: The "old school" tactic of getting press mentions and t

I had a VP of Marketing ask me last week if they should "pivot away from evergreen content" because of what's happening with AI search. I asked her three questions: How much of your traffic comes from informational search queries? Could someone get the same answer from five different sources? Does Google distribution drive conversions, or just vanity metrics? She paused. "I... don't actually know those numbers." That's the problem. Everyone's panicking about publishers losing

Are You Still Optimizing For 2023? The Invisibility Problem Here's what's driving marketers crazy right now: your SEO metrics look great on paper. Position 3 for a high-volume keyword. Rankings holding steady. CTR... wait, what happened to CTR? Oh right. The searcher got their answer in an AI-generated box before they ever scrolled down to where your listing lives. Your content might be informing that AI Overview. Your site might be the source. But if the user gets their answ

The pace right now is honestly wild Google's rolling out major updates every other week. AI features are shipping mid-campaign season. Your competitors are testing new automation tools while you're still reading the release notes from last month's changes. If you don't have a team that lives and breathes this stuff—that catches these updates the day they drop and knows how to adapt your campaigns before your competition does—you're already falling behind. Which brings me to w

I got a call last week from a contractor who'd been in business for 15 years. Great reputation. Solid work. Loyal customers who referred him constantly. But his phone wasn't ringing like it used to. "I don't get it," he said. "Our reviews are great. Everyone says we do excellent work. Why aren't we getting calls?" So I did what I always do. I pulled out my phone and searched "eco-friendly contractor [his city]." His business? Nowhere. Not in the map pack. Not on page one. Not

Let me be blunt: if you think SEO is still simple and easy, you're living in 2010. The search landscape has fundamentally transformed into something far more complex and challenging than most marketers realize. Gone are the days when ranking in first position guaranteed the most traffic. Today's search engine results pages (SERPs) are complex ecosystems featuring over 40 different elements competing for user attention—and now, AI-powered answer engines are reshaping how peopl

We're drowning in AI hype. Every week brings another "revolutionary" tool, another consultant promising transformation, another board meeting asking why we're not moving faster. But here's the dirty secret: most marketing organizations are running in circles. They launch pilots that go nowhere. They test tools that never scale. They waste money proving concepts that never touch actual customers. I've written before about why CMOs are getting sidelined  and how AI is redefinin

I got three panicked calls this morning. All from CMOs. All asking the same question: "Did you see what Google just did?" Yes. Yes, I did. As of October 13th, Google rolled out the biggest change to Search ads in years. The familiar "Ad" tag? Gone. Replaced with a "Sponsored" label. And here's the kicker—for the first time ever, users can now hide your ads with a single click. One button. That's all it takes to make your ad budget disappear. If you're not already thinking abo

I need to tell you about something that should make every CEO's blood run cold. A Fortune 500 company—household name—had their customer...