They Matter More Than the Usual Feature Dump Every January, ad platforms announce updates. Most are incremental. Some are marketing spin dressed up as innovation. But Microsoft's recent changes to their automated campaigns address something I've been pushing clients to think about for some time now. It's the tension between letting algorithms optimize and actually growing your business. The Real Problem With Automated Campaigns Here's what drives me crazy about most automati

Google and Apple announced a multiyear partnership this week that puts Google's Gemini AI at the core of Apple Intelligence, including a rebuilt Siri. Marketers need to understand what this means. The Deal Apple confirmed on January 12 that after evaluating its options, it determined Google's AI technology provides "the most capable foundation" for Apple Foundation Models. Reports suggest Apple will pay Google roughly $1 billion for access to Gemini technology. That's on top

The Say-Do Gap Every January, the prediction pieces roll in. CMOs, consultants, and academics tell us what matters for the year ahead. The 2026 consensus is clear: integrate brand and performance, build trust, stop working in silos. Solid advice. One problem: the data shows most marketing leaders aren't actually doing it. Here's where it gets interesting. McKinsey's State of Marketing Europe 2026 report ranked branding as the number one priority for marketing leaders. The in

Meanwhile, AI Search Results Are a Mess Google's Search team recently weighed in on the "GEO" conversation—that's Generative Engine Optimization, for those keeping score on marketing acronyms. Their advice? Stop chunking your content into bite-sized pieces for LLMs. Fair enough. But that guidance sidesteps a much bigger problem—and doesn't offer businesses much to work with. Here's the good news Unlike a year ago, you're not flying blind anymore. The tools to measure AI visib

Universal Commerce Protocol Google announced something at the National Retail Federation conference this weekend that deserves more attention than it's getting. They're calling it the Universal Commerce Protocol. It's an open-source standard designed to let AI agents handle shopping from start to finish; finding products, checking out, handling post-purchase questions, all within Google's ecosystem. Here's what that actually means and why it matters beyond retail. What Google

Only 8% Of Companies Are Aligned I've spent 25 years in performance marketing. For at least 20 of those years, I've been having the same conversation with clients about sales and marketing alignment. The conversation hasn't changed. The data hasn't changed. The advice hasn't changed. And somehow, only 8% of companies have actually fixed the problem. 92% are about to learn what that costs when the old playbooks stop working altogether That's not a trend piece. That's an indict

I'll say it again: we need to take a breath. Every few months, a new wave of articles warns that search has fundamentally changed and your entire strategy needs to pivot. This time it's "hyper-personalization"—the idea that no two users see the same results, so everything you know about visibility is obsolete. Google has used all of it since at least 2012 Except personalization has been baked into search for over a decade. Location, device, search history, language—Google has

Mid-Market Companies Can Play This Game Too Big tech is buying up AI sales agent companies. The acquisitions are making headlines, and the enterprise platforms are racing to build autonomous pipeline generation into everything they sell. If you're running marketing or sales at a mid-market company, you might assume this doesn't apply to you. Enterprise tech, enterprise budgets, enterprise problems. That's wrong. And waiting to find out could cost you. What's Actually Changing

Your martech stack is underperforming. Not because the tools are bad, but because nobody's connecting strategy to execution. You bought the platforms. You integrated them (mostly). You're paying the monthly fees. And yet the results don't match the sales demo that convinced you to sign. The solution everyone talks about is hiring specialists. Build out your team. Get dedicated experts for each discipline. The problem is most mid-market businesses can't afford to expand their

We're heading into Q1, which means budget conversations are happening right now. Before you finalize spend on campaigns, content programs, or that shiny new martech platform, get the foundation right first. Your website excellence, your SEO, and your PPC form the base of your entire online presence. Everything else—social, email, ABM, events—builds on top of that foundation. If the base is shaky, nothing you stack on it will perform the way it should. And 2026 needs to be the