Happy Sunday, Everyone! We are t-minus 23 days until the end of 2024 – BFCM is over, the Holiday season is in full swing, and last-minute 2025 planning is (frantically) underway. While most marketers are dialed in on maximizing the next ~13 days until the holiday shipping cutoff, now is the time savvy marketers are thinking a bit further out - into Q5. If you’re not familiar with Q5, it’s the magical ~25 day period from the Holiday shipping cutoff (~December 21 this year) through the...
22 days ago • 10 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving (if you’re in the US or celebrate it - if not, I hope you enjoyed a slightly-more-peaceful Thursday). If you’re in eCommerce/retail, this newsletter is likely arriving on the heels of what I hope was a successful Black Friday, and in the midst of your final preparations for Cyber Monday. When Black Friday (as we know it) became a thing in the 1960s, it was said that this date was when retailer’s ledgers went from...
29 days ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I’ve spent much of the past week in sunny San Diego speaking at my final conference of 2024, HeroConf (yes, it’s back - but now under the BrightonSEO umbrella). While I was a bit skeptical on what to expect, the BrightonSEO/Rough Agenda team put together an exceptional event - a who’s who of fantastic speakers, a record-breaking crowd (2,800+ people) and an incredible environment. As you’re thinking about your 2025 conference plans, this is one I’d strongly consider....
about 1 month ago • 14 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the calm before the Thanksgiving/BFCM/Holiday/End-of-Year storm. As a marketer, this is one of my absolute favorite times of the year. While the pace is frantic, opportunities abound – brands are more willing to try new things, budgets are in flux and tech stacks are works-in-progress. In short: this is the ideal time to integrate a new piece of tech into your workflow. If you’ve been to any of my presentations or read many newsletters from...
about 1 month ago • 17 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all having a relaxing weekend before the BF/CM + holiday + end-of-year craziness enters full swing. Before diving into this week’s issue, I wanted to take a minute to say “thank you” to all of you – over the past year, this newsletter has grown from 1,000 subscribers to nearly 6,000 – and that’s due, in large part, to you all posting about it, sharing it and telling your friends/colleagues about it. I am always and forever appreciative of each of you who...
about 2 months ago • 26 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! After the last few issues, I received multiple notes from readers, all asking about YouTube and how I see brands taking advantage of it both now and looking into 2025. After looking back at every issue (all 87 of them, prior to this one), I realized that I’ve referenced YouTube quite a lot, but (until now), I had never actually written an issue squarely focused on it. The Case For YouTube As a user, YouTube is one of my two favorite social media platforms (the other...
about 2 months ago • 13 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! Over the past few weeks, I’ve had dozens of conversations with in-house and agency people – with a surprising number revolving around (of all things) performance max. In looking back at previous issues, I’ve realized that this happens to be one campaign type I haven’t discussed, so I’m going to change that this week. If you’re unfamiliar with Performance Max (“PMax”) it is (essentially) a Dr. Frankenstein’s monster of Google inventory, combining search, display,...
2 months ago • 11 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, enjoying the fall weather and getting ready to close the year out strong. This past week kicked off the conference season, with events in Las Vegas (SMASH) and Chicago (ShopTalk), then off to London tomorrow for the just-launched SMX London event. Across all of those travels, I found myself talking a lot - far more than I’m accustomed - about Meta Ads: what’s working, what’s not, and how to structure accounts for successful outcomes. #1:...
2 months ago • 12 min read
Happy Sunday, Everyone! BFCM is less than 8 weeks away – and many of the brands I’ve spoken to are still debating their offer for Black Friday / Cyber Monday. The reality is many of these brands will hem, haw and ultimately default back to a standard, tried-and-true discount. And while discounts come in many varieties ($ off, % off, stepped (i.e. X off first $100, then Y off next $500), conditional (spend $500 get $/% off), every one of these comes with the same three problems: They’re...
3 months ago • 24 min read