Heidi Sturrock, a paid search consultant with 24 years of industry experience, joined me on a recent episode of PPC Live The Podcast. The episode covers a broad match mistake with an unexpected silver lining, and Heidi’s experience testing AI Max across 50+ accounts. The broad match mistake — and the unexpected silver lining Early […]

Once upon a time, in the delightfully chaotic 1990s, web copywriting was all about exact-match keywords and relentless meta tag stuffing. As algorithms matured, so did SEO copywriting.  Now, with proposition-based retrieval systems, writing like you’re in the business of tricking a crawler into seeing relevance through keyword repetition is no longer a viable strategy.  […]

As AI agents reshape how advertising platforms are used, Google is bringing focus toward the developers behind the systems and create content specifically for them. What’s happening. Google’s Advertising and Measurement Developer Relations team has launched Ads DevCast, a bi-weekly vodcast and podcast hosted by Cory Liseno. The show focuses on technical deep dives across […]

SEO has moved past shortcuts and quick wins. What drives results now isn’t just content — it’s content that earns attention, builds trust, and converts.  Storytelling plays a direct role in that. Used well, it can improve engagement signals, strengthen relevance, and turn traffic into action. Here are seven storytelling techniques to apply in your […]

OpenAI is beginning to build the infrastructure for a formal advertising business around ChatGPT — but early performance signals suggest the company still has work to do to match established search platforms. What’s happening. OpenAI started testing an Ads Manager dashboard with a small group of partners, according to confirmation shared with ADWEEK. The tool […]

Chloe Varnfield, a digital marketing specialist at Atelier Studios with nearly eight years in PPC, joined me to share the mistakes that shaped her career — and the lessons every advertiser should take from them. When Google sneaks settings past you Chloe’s first story centers on Google’s account-level automated assets setting — a feature so […]

Eight in ten Performance Max advertisers are receiving connected TV (CTV) impressions via YouTube, as reported by Smarter Ecoommerce’s Mike Ryan. Google has expanded the channel’s reach over the past year — and the trajectory is only accelerating. The timeline of how we got here: Q2 2025: Google began serving CTV ads using standard product […]

Most people fail on Reddit because they write comments like ads. Reddit eats ads for breakfast.  It’s better to follow a Reddit comment framework that has been proven thousands of times to get engagement and increase visibility and awareness.   The winning move? Be useful first, be human, then casually exist as a company. Below are […]

Google AI Max drives revenue but at a higher cost, according to Smarter Ecommerce’s Mike Ryan, who analyzed 250+ campaigns. Outcomes vary, and much more testing is still needed. Why we care. AI Max isn’t a minor update. It’s Google’s most significant reimagining of Search campaigns in years, shifting away from keyword syntax toward pure […]

Google will begin enforcing a minimum daily budget for Demand Gen campaigns starting April 1, 2026. What’s happening: The Google Ads API will require a minimum daily budget of $5 USD (or local equivalent) for all Demand Gen campaigns. The change is designed to help campaigns move through the “cold start” phase with enough spend […]