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Goodbye Clicks! 👋 Boosting Reach And Performance With Google Display Ads 📢 Transforming The Future Of Audience Engagement 💍

Also: Prompt Engineering Is Complicated And Contingent

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🗞 Marketing News

Goodbye Clicks: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing [4 min read]

The rise of AI search engines and generative summaries has created "zero-click" experiences where users get answers directly on search result pages, with about 80% of consumers relying on these summaries for at least 40% of their searches and reducing organic web traffic by 15-25%. This transformation is causing a decline in traditional search traffic, as approximately 60% of searches now end without users visiting another site, significantly impacting brands' visibility and reach through conventional search engine optimization. To succeed in this changing landscape, marketers must adapt by optimizing for AI crawlability, diversifying content formats beyond text, and redefining metrics to focus on search impressions and AI reach rather than clickthrough rates.

Boosting Your Reach And Performance With Google Display Ads [3 min read]

Google Display Ads are expanding their reach with new inventory across platforms like news, sports, and Connected TV while offering more flexible buying options through various campaign types. Creative capabilities have been enhanced with the advanced Imagen 3 AI model, a dedicated preview gallery for better collaboration, and brand-friendly templates for maintaining visual standards. Google has simultaneously strengthened quality control measures by implementing rigorous publisher reviews, fraud protection systems, and sophisticated algorithms to ensure advertisers connect with audiences in brand-safe environments.

Transforming The Future Of Audience Engagement [9 min read]

Microsoft Advertising is transforming digital experiences through conversational AI interfaces that seamlessly connect searching, shopping, and entertainment via natural language interactions. To support this vision, they're introducing innovative ad formats including immersive Showroom ads, interactive Dynamic filters, and personalized Dynamic ad generation. These enhancements are complemented by new productivity tools for advertisers and publishers, such as AI-powered Ads Studio, Copilot asset creation via API, and an upgraded Microsoft Monetize platform, all designed to deliver better relevance, reach, and results.

🤖 AI

Prompt Engineering Is Complicated And Contingent [20 min read]

New research on prompt engineering reveals that AI benchmark performance heavily depends on chosen standards, with different thresholds (100%, 90%, or 51% correct) yielding dramatically different results. This Wharton study run by Ethan Mollick and team found that specific prompting techniques like politeness or commanding language have inconsistent effects, helping with certain questions while harming performance on others, ultimately canceling out in aggregate measurements. Perhaps most importantly, format constraints consistently improved model performance across tests, suggesting that while many prompting "tricks" lack universal effectiveness, clear formatting instructions represent one of the few reliable methods for enhancing AI accuracy.

Sesame's AI Voices Are So Realistic, They're Freaking People Out [2 min read]

Sesame's system is focused on emotional intelligence, conversational dynamics, contextual awareness, and consistent personality. The company plans to integrate this voice technology with lightweight AI glasses to create an always-present AI companion that can observe the world alongside users. This advancement represents a significant leap in the competitive voice AI industry, with endorsements from notable figures like Shopify's CEO Tobi Lutke and potential applications extending beyond consumer products to areas like call centers, as Sesame plans to open-source key components and expand language support to over 20 languages.

73% Of Marketing Teams Use AI, Top Performers Lead Adoption [4 min read]

Most marketers are using AI primarily for creative development, strategy work, and campaign evaluation, with 97% believing AI enables mass personalization despite challenges like campaign performance issues. Consumer acceptance of AI-created content is high, with three in four consumers stating that knowing content was AI-produced either improves or doesn't impact their likelihood of engaging with it, and many are willing to share personal data for better AI-driven experiences.

🧠 Hacks & Tactics

SEO May Be Your Best Defense [6 min read]

SEO serves as a critical defense against the natural 10-20% annual decline in organic traffic that occurs without ongoing optimization efforts. Technical SEO elements like proper site maintenance, error detection, and migration support act as preventative measures that protect visibility rather than directly driving growth. As challenges like AI-driven search, zero-click results, and branded traffic declines continue to impact organic visibility, SEO helps websites maintain their position even when traditional growth metrics become increasingly difficult to achieve.

How To Calculate Your Marketing Budget And Make Sure It's Efficient [18 min read]

Marketing efficiency metrics (CAC Ratio, Payback Period, and LTV:CAC) are essential for ensuring sustainable and effective marketing spend, with each metric providing unique insights into the health of customer acquisition investments. Effective budget planning requires both top-down and bottom-up forecasting approaches, where top-down starts with revenue targets and works backward while bottom-up begins with marketing activities and predicts possible revenue. Marketing budgets should be broken down into key categories with headcount as the largest expense, while maintaining flexibility for monthly tracking and adjustments throughout the year based on performance metrics.

The 13 Funniest Marketing Ideas Of All Time [4 min read]

Successful marketing often thrives on unconventional strategies, as demonstrated by memorable campaigns like KFC's chicken-scented Crocs and Calm's deliberately silent TV ads during election night. Creative marketers can find powerful opportunities in unexpected places, from Twitter usernames to app store release notes, proving that traditional advertising spaces aren't the only path to reaching audiences. Perhaps most importantly, the perfect timing and creative execution of a marketing campaign often matter more than its budget, as shown by Reddit's viral 5-second Super Bowl ad and Nike's rapid response to viral sports moments.

5 B2B Marketing Tactics For 2025 [6 min read]

Focus on creating content across multiple platforms including YouTube videos, short-form content, LinkedIn posts, newsletters, and targeted social selling. Strategic content repurposing and cross-platform integration is essential, with specific methods for transforming content between formats like converting long YouTube videos into shorts or adapting newsletter content for blog posts. Tracking and leveraging user engagement is important, with systems that prioritize outreach to engaged prospects over cold leads and effectively capture both passive and active buyers in the market.

🔮 The Future

More AI For Google Search [2 min read]

Google is expanding its AI Overviews feature to more search queries globally while also testing a new AI Mode that brings a search-centric chatbot experience to premium subscribers. Despite previous issues with their AI models, Google is demonstrating increased confidence in AI-generated content by integrating it more deeply into its core search experience. The company claims that rather than reducing traffic to websites, these AI features actually lead to more meaningful engagement as users click through with better context about what they're searching for.

Survey: 42% Of People Say Google Search Is Becoming Less Useful [2 min read]

Google Search is less useful according to 42% of users surveyed by Vox Media, with many reporting deteriorating information quality and difficulty finding reliable sources amid an increase in sponsored results. Alternative information sources are rapidly gaining popularity, with over half of respondents now relying more on their communities, AI chatbots, or platforms like TikTok instead of traditional search engines. This shift is particularly pronounced among younger generations, with 61% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennials leading the migration away from Google, signaling what Vox Media describes as a "massive shift" in online information discovery.

The Future Of The Internet Is Likely Smaller Communities, With A Focus On Curated Experiences [2 min read]

Traditional internet platforms are losing trust and relevance, with 42% of consumers finding search engines less useful and 60% viewing social media negatively, signaling a shift toward AI chatbots, niche communities, and platforms like TikTok. Users are increasingly seeking more genuine, meaningful connections online, as existing digital spaces have created division and echo chambers, leading to a growing desire for authentic engagement rather than algorithmic experiences. The future of the internet appears to be moving toward smaller, more intimate, purpose-driven communities where trust and shared values flourish, with nearly half of consumers preferring communities that don't allow AI-generated content, indicating a desire for human-driven engagement.

👩‍🏫 Vocab

Social Media Marketing: The use of social media platforms to connect with your audience, build your brand, and drive business growth. It involves creating and sharing content that engages followers across different social networks. Effective social media marketing builds relationships while promoting products or services.

Example: A fitness brand shares workout tips on Instagram, success stories on Facebook, and quick exercise videos on TikTok.

Influencer Marketing: A collaboration between brands and popular social media personalities to promote products or services to their followers. It leverages the trust and relationship influencers have built with their audience. Influencer marketing combines social proof with authentic content creation.

Example: A skincare brand partners with a beauty YouTuber who creates an honest review of their new face cream for their 500,000 subscribers.

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🥞 Stack

Tools we use to keep our business running.

Discord - find community with text, voice, and video chat. Join us!
Beehiiv - engage newsletter audiences and grow subscribers
Clickup - project management and team collaboration
WordPress - build websites and blogs
Elementor - drag-and-drop builder for WordPress
Buffer - streamline social media scheduling and analytics
ElevenLabs - convert text into realistic voiceover
Riverside - record high-quality audio and video remotely
Transistor - all-in-one podcast hosting platform
Zapier - automate tasks by connecting web apps
Claude - AI language model focused on safe and ethical text processing
Midjourney - generate images from text prompts using AI

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