Y’all ready for this… week’s marketing extravaganza?

*commence playing the Space Jam theme by 2 Unlimited*

• A spoonful of Experience helps the AI content go down. 🎶 That’s how Mary Poppins would sing it if she were in search marketing. But, truly, Google’s 5 AI search linking enhancements emphasize the need for the uniquely human aspects of your content to get cited in AI search. SEO specialist, Lily Ray, posted about the potential to write content in first person to emphasize the “Experience” aspect of E-E-A-T. Our VP of Strategy, Marc Engelsman has an easily digestible summary of the enhancements to satiate your curiosity.

• 📰 Extra, extra read all about it! Google released its first guide on AI Optimization. TL;DR: its SEO best practices but the crawlers are smarter. Their mythbusting section was most interesting, but we have our own thoughts:
  • “LLMS.txt files and other “special” markup” – Google agrees that you don’t need these. (Again, AI is purdy smart.)
  • “Rewriting content just for AI systems” – While you don’t need to write in a specific way for AI, you do need to write content that answers the prompts people search in AI vs. traditional search engines. 
  • “Overfocusing on structured data” – You don’t need to focus on structured data for AIO, but you need it for SEO, soooo verdict is just keep implementing it.

• ChatGPT announced the launch of a self-service ads platform.. Here’s a dive into the platform directly. Look for the “Helpful resources” that will provide the basics about the ads formats and pricing structure. You can use the Cost-Per Click (CPC) model that Open AI suggests a starting Max bid of $3-$5 or the Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) model with a suggested $60 CPM. Traditional paid measurements include Conversions though there is no guidance on expected results in terms of Click-Through-Rate (CTR) or Conversion Rates.

• Get hyped for this article title: Google Analytics Adds AI Assistant As Default Channel Group. That’s right — Google Analytics now has an “AI Assistant” as a channel medium. We don’t know exactly which chatbots are in the list, but this is a good start toward tracking AI traffic!

• A recent CMO Council survey asked, “What skills should marketers prioritize in the next 3 years?” The top answers were Performance Measurement, Data Storytelling, and Emotional Intelligence. Surprisingly, AI Expertise and Coordinating AI and Human Workflows were further down the list of priorities. Surprisingly as there are growing use cases for leveraging AI to help with performance measurement and data storytelling. AI does not augment emotional intelligence so much (yet).

• Storing your data should be like organizing a pantry – everyone who needs to access it (your team), your pets can’t easily waltz in to steal your snacks (data security), and nothing is past its expiration (the data is clean). EMARKETER goes over the importance of data clean rooms that combine raw first-party data in a secure digital environment. Not only applicable to retail media, this strategy aids companies in making informed, cost-effective decisions. Stay in the loop on all the data clean room’s benefits here.

• “The best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline.” That’s a new line in Pinterest’s campaign to encourage people to get off their phones. No, no, Pinterest isn’t saying people shouldn’t use social media, but use it wisely. Success is viewed in clicks and conversions instead of time on the platform. I think it’s smart and different, but some will view it as disingenuous. Where do you stand?

The KinderSmile Foundation provides comprehensive dental care and dental hygiene education to underserved children and families, regardless of insurance status. With three locations in Bloomfield, Newark, and Trenton, they served over 8,800 patients across NJ in 2025 alone. Show them some appreciation and see what they do: KinderSmile Foundation.

Contempt.

It’s the #1 predictor of divorce, according to The Gottman Institute.

Contempt finds a way to poison perspectives, hiding the goodness from view. It allows us to attack another’s character and assumes moral superiority over others. Holding onto contempt makes people more likely to suffer from infectious disease.

The positive counterpart to this domineering emotion is building appreciation and gratitude. It’s appreciating the positive qualities — being grateful for the good. 

While we shouldn’t ignore emotions building up in any relationship type, an element of understanding goes a long way to helping everyone feel better long term.

Happy Odin’s Day… Wednesday!

Natalie

There are a few theories on how we got the names of the week. But one of my favorites is from Norse mythology. Today is the god of god’s day, Odin.

Howdy,

Hold onto your hats — we’ve got some digital marketing news for ya!

• Can a fake brand win at AI search? Apparently, it can and did… in the first month of an experiment done by SE Ranking. Granted, most citations were for branded queries that the fake website explicitly answers. Lots of interesting insights:
  • Perplexity started citing them first, but not always their brand pages.
  • Deep guides (5,000–6,000 words), Review articles, and Comparison (“vs”) articles were the strongest performing content formats.
  • In this experiment, clustering topical articles on a page did not generate AI citations.

The wrap up: AI bots are working to provide the best answers, they just don’t always know when the sources are bogus. It’s up to us to provide the best answers by staying on top of AI optimization best practices.

• Scaling AI companywide is no small feat. McKinsey released some intriguing questions to ask your company before jumping onto the AI train.

• Brands that clearly use AI-generated content in their marketing — what do you really think about it? Pause while you think. Now, take a look at this recent EMARKETER Chart of The Day. The majority of respondents to that question were neutral. Those who said, “it would make them trust the brand less” (31%) far exceeded those who said “it makes them trust the brand more” (7%).

• YouTube is testing a “conversational search experience” for Premium users. Basically, YouTube’s lil AI bot is going to assemble info for you so you don’t have to pilfer it from a bunch of videos. YouTube SEO can only help here, y’all.

• Speaking of social SEO, here’s SocialFly’s article on TikTok SEO, including info on keywords, hashtags, engagement, and trending audio/formats. 

• Influencer marketing — what can your brand do to make the most of your campaigns? Offering creative freedom, clear communication, and growth opportunities are great places to start! What makes influencers stay includes compensation, audience feedback, and a positive brand relationship. 

• Creators… in the C-Suite? Oh yes, well, popular creators are naturally tapped into culture and trends. The key to making this work is alignment on compensation and having the brand/creator/audience fit.

Black Girls CODE is teaching thousands of young women to lead and innovate in the tech/science/math space. Since 2011, BGC has been helping to improve the pipeline for girls of color in tech. The organization has chapters across the globe, including New York, Seattle, and South Africa. Learn how and why this organization needs your support: Black Girls CODE.

I started doing a mindfulness breathing exercise from Thich Nacht Hanh.

“As you breathe in, count 1 in your mind, and as you breathe out, count 1. Breathe in, count 2. Breathe out, count 2. Continue through 10, then return to 1 again…. When the count is lost, simply return to 1 and keep trying until you can keep the count correctly.”

Simple, right? Well, when the pressures of life kick in, staying mindful long enough to get to 10 can be challenging.

I’ve found it to be a stress gauge. The lower my count is, before my mind wanders off into the woods of things past and upcoming, the more I restart the exercise. My goal is to get to 10 at least twice without restarting.

Days with more restarts signal when your mind needs mindfulness most. So, be especially patient, loving, and curious at those times — as they tend to be when we learn the most about ourselves.

You got this 😎

Natalie

It’s the season of the mosquitos. 

Here’s a super-easy, organic mosquito control method for your yard.

Ya welcome.

Hi all,

No fear, we are here with digital marketing news and mindful ponderings for your marketing minds!

• AI Overviews help filter out low-value clicks while driving more total searches, according to Google’s Liz Reid reports in a Bloomberg podcast interview. Search queries are getting longer, more natural as people write out their whole need instead of a simplified search term. It rings up the same old marketing question, how can your brand best solve your target market’s problems?

• Open AI is now rolling out a Cost-Per-Click ad model for ChatGPT vs. the Impressions model it has been testing since February. This puts the ChatGPT ads in line with the traditional Google and Bing paid search models. The big issue for advertisers will be in determining whether the intent of people using ChatGPT is similar enough to traditional search intent to drive conversions. That said, some advertisers may just be happy with the free impressions on ChatGPT regardless of clicks.

• What do viral YouTube Shorts have in common? Modern Millie and team analyzed viral YouTube shorts and here’s what we found interesting:
  • Most have 3 or more hooks (like moving an object into frame, loud music, & zooming in).
  • While established creators did not need to use SEO techniques, SEO helped the lesser known creators gain more engagement.
  • Of the types of value videos could provide, 71% were entertaining, 12% were relatable, 11% were educational, & 6% were inspirational. Yes, entertaining videos are on top, but other value styles have a chance too.

• Meta has plans to track employee productivity to train its AI agents. Mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, screenshots — it will all be tracked. Management says the data collected will not be used for performance reviews. That may be true but we wonder if training better AI agents may end up in reducing workforce counts.

• TMI, TL;DR — you’re familiar with these acronyms. How about TMD; NEI? Probably not because we made it up just now, inspired by this MarTech article “Too Much Data; Not Enough Insight.” Written from a B2B perspective (but easily applicable to any industry), it teaches us to leverage different layers of data to better target audiences and drive results.

Transforming the lives of foster youth is their mission. Foster Love started with one event to help one child and eventually grew into an initiative helping millions of children. From business events to donations, find ways you can help their cause: Foster Love.

My dogs are Obsessed (capital “o” for amplified emphasis) with one blue ball. 🔵

Soccer-ball-sized and crafted of hard plastic, they roll the treasured toy around the yard in a flurry of sandy noses and paws. The game has no rules, no time limit, and defensive and offensive roles are interchanged seemingly without sense.

When was the last time you were so invested that time lost its meaning? The world spun, and you were blissfully unaware, enraptured in your moment so fully.

I ask you: what brings timelessness back to your life? What is your metaphorical “blue ball”?

May you find your blue ball and the timelessness that goes with it. 

Happy Wednesday!

Natalie

Our one-and-only pun master/Flyers superfan/VP Marc Englesman’s birthday is tomorrow! 🥳

We are so lucky to have such a remarkably intelligent and wonderfully fun VP on our team — let’s give a hip hip hooray for the best VP around!

Hey y’all,

Here’s your digital marketing roundup with a little mindfulness sprinkled on top!

• 49% of US AI users say they’re likely/very likely to try a different brand if an AI assistant suggests an alternative. This in spite of lingering issues with AI as only 46% of shoppers fully trust AI recommendations and 86% still check AI information before buying.

• Our VP Marc Engelsman had a chat with Perplexity on Marketing and AI use. Catch some blatant contradictions and interesting insights on creating duplicative content, brand differentiation, and departmental silo mentality.

• Sharing is caring (is not what Google is saying right now). The EU may require Google to share search data with rival search engines, including AI chatbots, to “contest Google Search’s position.”

• ❓Did you know? Google gives users the option to select Preferred News Sources for Google to include in results. What’s even cooler is that news publishers can add those links to their website to make it easier for users to see their articles in results.

• As someone who is responsible for proving the value of marketing, what actions do you take to show success?
  • Develop stronger marketing performance tracking
  • Demonstrate the financial impact of marketing
  • Demonstrate the value of brand and customer relationships
  • Collect competitive data
  • Run experiments
  • Collect customer data
  • Offer novel customer insights
  • Would it surprise you that the above list is ranked in order as captured from the latest CMO Survey? Jaw-droppingly, demonstrating the financial impact of marketing is actually ranked second!

• A different approach to demonstrating the value of brand marketing: leverage growth in branded Google Search data. Think with Google shared a case study on how this could work.

• Control of your Insta algorithm has now expanded to your Explore and Reels feed. The question is: will people actually use it?

• Google Looker Studio changed names… again. It’s now called Google Data Studio… again.

• Dynamic Search Ads will retire in September and transition to AI Max campaigns. If you want more control over targeting, creative, and landing page settings, it’s best to switch over now.

• Ready for something crazy? Meta is on track to overtake Google in global revenue.

There are too many wonderful causes to choose from, so we are supporting them all! Here are our favorite Earth Day charities!

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

The fact that we can type onto metal and plastic and those exact symbols can be read instantaneously across the globe… That children grow from microscopic particles into fiercely individual collections of 30 trillion cells by adulthood… That we mash, spin, and recycle ideas to create infinitely new possibilities.

Every breath, every heartbeat is miraculous.

Let’s give a moment (or many) to reflect on this.

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

Natalie

Did ya know the Great Barrier Reef is the only structure that can be seen from space?

How about that there are 400 trees for every person on Earth? (And can we make that number of trees grow?)

Today has some more fun facts for your perusal.

Howdy,

It’s high time we discuss what’s going on in digital marketing.

• Do you think a 90% accuracy rate for Google AI Overviews is good enough? Or do you worry that on any given search you perform that response will be among the 10% that have errors? How often do you do additional searches to double-check the results? This recent NYTimes article explores AI Overviews accuracy and its implications. (Also, check out Marc’s witty post on this.)

• Quick SEJ Updates: 
  • The March 2026 Google Core Update is complete (looks like YouTube got some added visibility with this rollout). 
  • The Google Search Console bug inflating impressions has been fixed. 
  • John Mueller also reminds us that calling oneself an “SEO guru” is problematic (in a multitude of ways). We all need to remember that SEO is evolving, and we have to continue learning!

• We don’t fully subscribe to the dire tone presented in this article on the Reddit effect. While we’re not oblivious to Reddit’s growing citation visibility, how much that visibility is actually stealing clicks from the other citations in AI results and SERPs? Still, the suggestion for brands to leverage their subject matter experts to provide authoritative, human content in website and community content is one we fiercely advocate.

• For my techies 🖥️: Have you thought about MCP for your website? Market Context Protocol (MCP) acts as a standardized bridge for LLMs to communicate with external data, applications, and services. Basically, it helps AI chatbots get accurate information from your site through clean, semantic access. Here’s a cool video on implementing MCP across apps! Thanks to Corinna Zennig for bringing this up with us!

• While written for B2B marketers, this Martech article’s ideas of connecting messaging, user experience, and CTAs apply to all marketers including search marketers. The big difference is that searchers are a self-selecting audience with implicit or explicit intentions, so the alignment of messaging relevant to their search is critical to get the click. Then, user experience and calls-to-action alignment are needed to complete conversions.

• Claude AI now works in Microsoft Word. Check it out!

• HubSpot’s Loop Marketing strategy aims to adapt modern marketing strategy to the AI era. Their prompt library can help integrate AI into your planning.

673 million people go to bed hungry. 

30% of people worldwide are food insecure. 

32% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to a healthy diet. 

Action Against Hunger’s mission is to save the lives of children and their families. Learn about them and how you can help: Action Against Hunger.

Hey, you’re doing a good job. No ifs or buts. Accept you’re trying your best.

That’s all.

Best Wishes,

Natalie

You know when you’re listening to a randomized playlist and a song hits the exact moment perfectly. 

This piano cover by Jon Michael Ogletree is magical. 🎹🪄

Hey y’all!

Come sit… we’ve got some digital marketing news to talk about.

• Google Search Console (GSC) has been reporting inflated impression data since May 13, 2025. Clicks and other metrics weren’t impacted, but you should watch your click-thru rate in addition to impressions in the coming weeks as they fix it.

• SEO platforms were the most replaced marketing tool in 2025. AI capabilities, cost pressures, and the changing needs in a shifting search landscape were the main drivers. The AI capabilities being integrated into SEO platforms include content generation and optimization, SERP analysis and intent modeling, and workflow automation. Two thoughts:
  • These AI capabilities are tactical and can not replace the need for a strategic approach to optimizing for traditional search and AI search engines; and 
  • Relying on solely AI to create content can actually be counter-productive to search visibility.

For my technical SEOs: Llms.txt, a Markdown file to help large language models (LLMs) understand and use website content, has limitations including the manual maintenance updates and the lack of relationship model. Duane Forrester in SEJ suggests having four layers of a machine-readable content stack on top of llms.txt.

• Improve AI content generation prompts by including more strategic directives with clearer direction on the desired output. One of the checkpoints offered for managing content is a “Human-in-the-loop (HITL)” protocol that is required at the strategic start and the editorial finish. Full guidance in this Martech article.

• Speaking of HITL, Tom Fishburne takes an ironic look at the concept. Some thought-provoking data included: “only 17% of workers believe AI is reliable without human oversight, 64% expect the need for human review to increase, and 20% said AI made customer situations worse.”

• The use of AI in marketing is “quickly becoming another test of brand values” that requires addressing, according to Quick Study’s recent survey of US customers. The use of AI needs to be justified and used in a way that morally aligns with your customers.

Protecting and preserving our nation’s national parks is their goal. With over 1.9 million members outside the organization, they advocate for conservation on the ground, in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill. Learn more about what they do: National Parks Conservation Association.

You finally made it. 

Stress that’s been perched on your shoulders like a spikey-toed hawk makes its long-awaited departure. While that stressful situation flaps away, something in you lets go….

A little cold snowballs into an achy, energy-draining ailment. 

Or a pain arises in a part of your body, as random as a bingo drawing.

This is called the “Let-Down” effect, and it happens right after something stressful unwinds. Your body tells you, “That was tough — I need a rest so urgently that I’m making you stay still for a while.”

While we may not fully prevent a let-down, taking care of ourselves amidst the inclement time may be key to preventing major bodily upheaval.

You got this 😎

Natalie

Did you catch the title reference?

Here are some of the show’s greatest moments!

Hi all!

We got your feedback on our LinkedIn poll, so here’s our take on tracking AI Visibility:

Tracking your visibility on AI platforms takes some sleuthing and, unfortunately, there is not yet a single source of truth. Here is a list of tracking tools and their limitations… all in one convenient place (you’re welcome:).

Free for all:

• Google Analytics
  Positives: GA4 tracks AI-driven traffic from Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.
  Negatives: AI Overviews or AI Mode cannot be tracked separately from all Organic Google Search traffic. Also, while you can track sessions and key events like any other session source, you’re not going to see the original prompts the users clicked to get there.

• Bing Webmaster Tools
  Positives: The AI Performance tracker that shows you CoPilot grounding queries used in prompts people used to click to your website and the number of citations gained for pages on your site.
  Negatives: Grounding queries are the shortened phrases the AI used to do its backend search and not the actual prompts entered, so they are directional at best. Bing Webmaster Tools does not show actual clicks on citations so you only have a sense of citations “impressions”.

• Temporary Chat Prompting
  Positives: Certain AI chatbots can give you a snapshot of example responses, without the bias of previous conversations. See rules on Perplexity Incognito Mode, ChatGPT Temporary Chat, and Claude Incognito Chats. (Note that there are data retention periods for safety purposes, but they shouldn’t influence future chats.)
  Negatives: It is unconfirmed whether Copilot and Gemini use previous chats to influence temporary chat options. There is no data on the number of times these prompts were used (like we can see with Google’s Keyword Planner for average keyword search volume).

• HubSpot AEO Grader:
  Positives: Analyze your presence on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini while seeing competitive and perceptive “topical” data.
  Negatives: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Claude, and other AI chatbots are not included in the analysis.

Paid Options:

• Answer the Public
  Positives: Known for long-tail traditional search query research, ATP has a newer AI Model research feature to show you how people are prompting AI bots around specific topics.
  Negatives: The charts are pretty, but this is another directional tool as there is no way to gauge the volume of usage for the suggested prompts.

• Moz
  Positives: The new AI Visibility feature (requires a medium subscription plan) may be interesting as it advances out of Beta. Their Prompt Suggestion and True Competing Content features are great places to research topics for content and how your content is faring from search and AI chatbot perspective, respectively.
  Negatives: We won’t know until the Beta rolls out.

How We Use Them:

Our team integrates the Google Analytics AI-Source traffic data into our dashboards. Then, once a month, the Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance feature provides insight on which pages are being cited in Copilot and the grounding query topics that are driving clicks. Temporary chat prompting shows how a brand performs in specific, high-value prompts. To get a zoomed out perspective of how a brand is viewed by AI chatbots, HubSpot AEO Grader offers generalized insights. Answer the Public gives great ideas on prompts that can be helpful for fueling future content creation and refreshing previously published content. Moz features are also great directional tools to further enhance your content creation strategy against competitors.

Follow to stay tuned for the next LinkedIn poll, so we can answer your burning SEO/SAIO/digital marketing queries!

• We got a Google Spam update — the first of 2026! It’s relatively new, and you can peek at your rankings to see if you’ve been affected. If you’re following white-hat SEO best practices and releasing relevant content, you should be good, fam. ✌🏼
  • Also, we’ll keep you posted on the March 2026 Core Update that’s going live during the next 2 weeks.

• 🎥 OpenAI is shutting down ChatGPT’s video generator, Sora, and thus its $1b content partnership with Disney. As OpenAI has still yet to make a profit, Sora’s struggle with copyright violations, the public distaste of AI deep fakes, and vast competition influenced the decision.

• Fan-out queries tell us how people and Google/AI chatbots may be looking for your brand. Moz labels 10 fan-out query types to help with prompt research.

• Is AI ruining the job market? We need to flip that: how can AI enhance the job market? Catch this enlightening conversation between Erin McGoff, career advice creator, and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Rolansky.

• Speaking of using AI to enhance, let’s discuss using GenAI in high-trust industries (think healthcare, legal, etc.). Alexander Amatus in Marketing Profs lays the steps for use without jeopardizing trust:
  • Clearly deciding AI’s uses
  • Defining non-negotiables to AI
  • Creating content workflows with AI to upskill marketers
  • Setting boundaries with what AI can and can’t do/access

• It’s a 🎶”tale as old as time” (if you only go back to the 80s), but it is still lingering and languishing. What is it? The Sales vs. Marketing silo mentality. Only 56% of companies say they feel highly aligned across functions. Understand the challenges and solutions for those yearning for alignment via this Unbounce survey, MarketCharts visual, and Marc’s LinkedIn Musing.

• It’s not just Sales and Marketing either. Here’s a story about “Why CMOs struggle and how aligning with CFOs changes everything.” Bottom line: success lies in getting agreement on measurement values and the analytics attribution to prove it. It’s not the easiest of tasks, but improving the lines of communication is a good start.

Building supportive, stable communities by helping families build and improve their homes is what Habitat for Humanity is all about. Learn more, and consider a team project for your company that can help your community too!

“Perfectionism kills curiosity by telling us that we have to know everything or we risk looking “less than.” Perfectionism tells us that our mistakes and failures are personal defects, so we either avoid trying new things or we barely recover every time we inevitably fall short.”

~ Brené Brown Atlas of the Heart

You are more than your knowledge, your mistakes, your failures; you are the phoenix that rises from them to be the human you are.

Keep sparkling ✨

Natalie

Because we all deserve to laugh, here’s one of my favorite memes for ya.

We all know an adult like this in our lives — this kid’s performance 10/10.