Thelo Aiken

This is a very important read: Google quietly testing "Message Multiple" through LSAs and offering zero transparency to advertisers. This means, while you may think you are paying for a phone call from a prospect, you really are just one of four competitors getting a message.... and you have NO IDEA how much each of those different leads costs you. If you are an LSA advertiser, this is a must read (and also... track your economics for LSAs very very carefully.

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Nobody's had more starts and stops in the streaming industry than HBO. - From multiple acquisitions, deciding to build in-house, then outsource, then bring it back in-house. - From wholesale and direct to consumer subscribers, to going ALL IN on DTC, launching a product without two of the largest distributors, and now embracing channel aggregators again (Max just partnered with The Roku Channel) - From theatrical, to straight to streaming, to theatrical. This is the story of HBO's streaming endeavors over the years. #TBT S/O Skip The Streaming Wars

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So much of the marketing advice on LinkedIn is about short-term conversions. People are telling you to focus on tactics for that quick sell and "fast revenue". I don't blame you, its hard to do anything else when you have shareholders breathing down your neck for that fast revenue. But-what are you giving up in return? Recurring revenue and long-term profitability. Like Sam's experience, we find when we focus on LTV, the companies we work with become more profitable in the long term. Why? Because they offer an exceptional user experience, its less spend, and overall generates more profit. I find this to be true in both the B2B, B2C, and DTC space (yes, with over 22 years of experience, we've worked in all three spaces and yes, what works in DTC can translate to B2B when you focus on the customer experience).

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I scraped 300k agencies. I’ve got things like their service, country, headcount, and more. You can filter the google sheet for “ad agencies, <100 people, in United States.” Drop in your favorite enrichment tool, grab your emails, and you’re good to go! Apollo and Zoominfo don’t have filters for “industries” like agencies. This crucial first step gets you the right companies so can write targeted cold emails. Preview it here! https://lnkd.in/dSFFaQJf

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“It’s between you and one other vendor.” After years in MarTech Intelligence, I know nothing fuels as much anxiety for vendors as a potential client uttering these words… So when you’re neck and neck for the contract, how do you edge out the competition? I recently sat down with the Operations Director at a $500M apparel and accessories retailer making this exact decision on a new CDP for one of their brands. Here are the factors he’s considering:  (Hint – save these insights to ace your next RFP!) >> CDP Option 1 << He likes how: - Easy to use - Straightforward - And effective it is And he loves its functionality: “It tags all the site stuff to help record customer interactions even if they’re anonymous. Then it works to de-anonymize them!” All in all, “it’s a great product for tracking and pushing data to the data warehouse,” he says. “Plus it’s at a great price.” But while he loves Option 1, the brand’s team is leaning toward a second option… >> CDP Option 2 << The brand’s team likes its: - Ability to test content across their site, - Collect effective data on consumer behavior, - And create a cohesive and compelling site experience. Because this brand is 100% D2C, the team cares less about de-anonymizing data and more about creating a compelling site experience with testing and customer insights. >> Bonus Considerations << Most of the retailer’s other brands are just 5-10% D2C and could all leverage CDP Option 1. Plus, one of his top goals for 2024 is to identify and quantify customer data in offline channels. So he naturally prefers Option 1. But Option 2 might be a better match for this brand’s unique CDP needs.  ___ How will this buyer decide? Ultimately, it’ll come down to the priority that takes first place for the brand and the overarching company. Tl;dr — Make sure you invest time in truly understanding your prospect's goals. Then use those insights to frame your MarTech’s value prop so it’s personally relevant to them. After working with 100s of buyers, I can tell you firsthand this is one of the best ways to win their RFP.

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Every month we help 100+ orgs distribute their content to thousands of news outlets. But... if I were in-house as VP Content/Marketing and responsible for distributing content direct… Here’s what I’d do: 1. Produce content that is made for distribution Too many brands do amazing research, then produce content that is written in the first-person, has overtly self promotional language, etc - and hope that a journalist will rewrite the story. Produce stories that you could see being republished in full on your hometown newspaper, word for word. Use visualizations and charts. This will both a) help content be seen through the lens of journalism, not content marketing, and b) remove friction for them to republish, should they choose to. 2. Curate your Hot List Gather 5-10 of the most exemplary stories you have produced in the past 3 months. Unless when I land on your blog/articles section 100% of the content is objective and authoritative editorial (no blog posts about your new VP hire, a new product launch, etc) - then you don’t want to share the site right off the bat. Have a short list of great content to share and make sure you can steer people to your best stuff. First impressions matter. 3. Identify targets Figure out who has gaps where you have coverage. If you produce investing content, chances are Fortune Magazine isn’t interested. (sorry). Recently, we have found that news outlets have a shortage (and need) for content in the lifestyle space - think health, wellness, parenting, summer activities, etc etc etc. 4. Find a warm intro Editors get way too many pitches. You will drastically increase your chances of success if you can find a warm intro, someone that is willing to stick their neck out for you and at least make sure your email gets read. Get creative. 5. Make the pitch Two things to keep in mind: Build Authority/Credibility: who has written the content? Why should they trust you? What makes you different? The Greatest Sales Advice of All Time: make it about them, not you. At the end of the day, many news outlets are looking for great content - frame the pitch in terms of how you can help them. 6. MAKE IT EASY: Journalists are busy, and the more friction you can remove, the more likely they are to syndicate your story. Stacker goes as far as literally providing the HTML code for stories that an editor can paste into their CMS to get the full story. 7. Or you could just work with Stacker :) Follow Noah Greenberg for more tips on how to leverage content distribution, or reach out to chat.

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A float is a very simple financial concept: money that is double counted due to delays in processing a transfer of funds. We know this concept well in ad tech. Advertisers negotiate payment terms. Publishers negotiate payment terms. The money can’t be transferred across all parties immediately and so someone has to float the delay. There are business services founded on floating and recovering payments for a fee. I will argue one of these service providers is the SSP. The float is a big part of what publishers pay SSPs for. They facilitate the purchase of inventory via technical and business services. They connect to the publisher, they connect to the buyer, they host the auction, clear the bid, deliver the ad and collect payment from the buyer. Who’s actually paying the SSP? The DSP. To buy media programatically, the advertiser has to pay the DSP. There could be reconciliation nuances based on fruad or ivt. That shouldn’t affect an above board pub or an SSP with a stand up customer base. Clawbacks reconcile the float retroactively and should reflect a very small and recoverable percent of the total float. So if the advertiser has to pay the DSP and the DSP has to pay the SSP, why is the float contentious? Pub payment schedules are set back from the advertiser payment scedules to mitigate float accumulation and risk, right? Why on earth would an SSP try to negotiate out of floating their advertiser partners? I’d love to hear from some SSPs but here are my assumptions: 1) the SSP isn’t consistently paid for every impression it sells 2) the SSP isn’t confident it will continue to be paid for every impression it sells 3) the SSP isn’t being paid on time and the float burden is putting too much pressure on their business 4) the SSP has weak payment schedules or terms with their buy side partners…maybe because they are leveraging extended payment schedules in exchange for something from the DSP. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. The float doesn’t go away. The duration of the float can be managed and should be better than it is given the “efficiency” of programmatic. If the SSP doesn’t float the advertiser the publisher has to. How can the publisher do that without holding the relationship with the buyside? Without knowing who they are doing business with and managing those terms directly? If the the SSP doesn’t want to float they need to stick to a just the pipes service model and that doesn’t warrant a rev share. It warrants a very very low cost CPM IMO. Very interested in additional information or perspectives…

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“Enriching User Profiles with Zero Party Data, But Not Using It” is one of the most significant issues Ben Zettler discovered while auditing 65 Klaviyo accounts over the past six months. Many retailers and brands only measure CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) against top-line growth, overlooking the potential of customer visits after ad spending. This oversight represents hidden opportunity costs. I believe we need to view CACs multidimensionally and leverage every touchpoint of a customer’s visit. #zeropartydata #productdiscovery #ai

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Marketers: Did we decide? Is AI coming for our jobs? Here’s my updated 2025 prediction. ♦️ Prediction 1: The most in-demand, highest-paid marketers will be the marketing ops folks that stitch AI tools together. In the past the highest paid folks were the digital advertising / demand gen folks, but that’s about to change. Google and Meta AI is already choosing which ad creative permutations to run and which audiences to serve ads to. But there are now hundreds of new point-solutions helping us create better ads, predict the best leads to call, write better personalized emails, predict who will churn, etc. But stitching these point-solutions together, making sure data is piping so the AI has the context to personalize well, etc. - that’s where we humans still have enormous value. Learn to configure these tools, design experiments to measure their impact, and measure ROI of these stools. ♦️ Prediction 2: AI will destroy the traditional SDR function. The need for SDRs doing cold outbound outreach has disappeared entirely. A single marketer can use Clay.com to orchestra conduct a ton of outbound outreach, replacing 10 SDRs. 11x AI is making it easy to qualify inbound leads and get them scheduled with an AE using a voice-based AI SDR. And imagine generating 1000 perfectly personalized video sales letters or demo videos. YC-backed Yarn that is doing this today. ♦️ Prediction 3: Organic Search is Fragmenting, and Google’s share of our ad spend will decline. 57% of Google’s revenue is search 🔎, so their incentive is to load a full page of search results to sell lots of ads. But most folks don’t want a page of potential answers, they want to get straight to the answer. And some users are switching to tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT. Additionally, Gen Z is increasingly turning to TikTok as their preferred search engine: • 74% of Gen Z use TikTok for search, with 51% preferring it over Google • 45% of Gen Z are more likely to use "social searching" on sites like TikTok and Instagram instead of Google, compared to about 35% of millennials, 20% of Gen X, and less than 10% of Boomers • According to Google's internal data, nearly 40% of young people turn to TikTok or Instagram instead of Google Maps or Search when looking for a place to have lunch Finally, Amazon is growing: >50% of product searches now start on Amazon, not on Google • Amazon is projected to control nearly 25% of U.S. search ad dollars by 2025, with that figure expected to grow to 27% by 2026 So where does that leave Google? Google is responding to ChatGPT by putting AI-snippet-answers in search results. They’re hoping that as long as they have our search intent, they can serve us intent-based ads elsewhere (i.e. instead of on the SERP page, they’ll show us a display ad or YouTube ad). But if their overall share of search continues to decline, we advertisers will naturally shift our spend to searches on TikTok, Amazon, and OpenAI.

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Something the best ad agencies can learn from McKinsey -   McKinsey gives high-conviction advice.   Most times, it's right.   B/c they have an edge...their people and their playbook.   If a client consistently disregards their advice, they do something refreshing…   Something most consultants and agencies never do...   They fire the client.   TLDR - they prioritize reputation over revenue.   They'd rather bleed quality and have a reputation for outcomes than bank extra rev.   Chalk it up to a "third edge."   This is how we operate too.   It's not that we're never wrong…   We're learning every day, too.   But if you're not ready to move quick and learn together, we're not a fit.   B/c retainers with the wrong brand--no matter how large--aren't worth the cost.

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Snag grew their DTC from $0 - Over $30m+ in 3 years. Here’s how they did it: ➤ Problem-Focused Conception While out shopping, Brie realized her tights were slipping down. Growing frustrated, she asked some friends of hers if they experienced something similar. Turns out every single one of her friends had the same issue. This was natural fuel for her to look into things further. ➤ Data = Unfair Advantage Brie didn't have a background in marketing. Instead, her data-oriented mind gave her an advantage by looking at things a little differently. She ran a Google Survey of 3000 women to find out who else struggled to find a pair of tights that fit. The answer? 90% of 3000 people. Bingo. Opportunity validated. The data also showed how: → The market was commoditized → Men made most of the product purchases (Crazy right?) → Most women accepted poor fitting tights as the norm This inspired her to really look into solving this problem, and her search for suppliers began. ➤ Knew the numbers Before launch, Brie’s focus to really get a grip on her numbers really paid off. Since the sales were through DTC, she knew she needed: → 25% of revenue back into marketing → First-order profit → Small seed round to fund initial stock order Armed with the validation from the survey and some strong number-crunching, Snag launched. They cleared £300k/mo in under a year. The emphasis of being profitable from the first order was key to allow her to scale forward and further invest in marketing. ➤ Applied Zero-Party Data & Customer Service This is where Brie’s data-oriented approach really shone a light on how Snag scaled rapidly. The pandemic caused havoc for many brands, including Snag. Over 60% of the business disappeared overnight, and they went into negative. They had Facebook debt that had to be paid. Fast. Or Snag would die. That’s when Brie turned to her customers for answers. Her customers suggested a brilliant offer: 2 tights for the price of one, but the second pair gets sent in 6 months. The offer worked - Snag survived. And eventually thrived. This was a genius idea to help relate to her customers. ➤  Applied the ‘3-Piece’ DTC Law Finally, Brie understood the fundamental law of DTC. → Commitment to customer service → Great product experience → Solve a big problem Since all 3 were checked, the rest was down to semantics, unit economics, and following marketing fundamentals. ➤  Final Thoughts As a data analyst, Brie’s final words of advice were super impactful and really hit home. Yes, data is important, but it’s even more important that each data point is an actual human being, not just a number on a spreadsheet. Combining the importance of data with the understanding that each data point is a human is a brilliant formula for growth. What else would you add?

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Mr. Miyagi’s Two Rules for GTM in 2H 2024 1) Just when you think you have it figured out; everything changes. Thats the new reality, successful teams are nimble and creative. 2) First learn rule #1

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Agencies shouldn't have advertised minimums. Yet...many do. I hear the following from agencies, often. "If they don't have $X per month, we don't want to chat with them" A better reframe is "most of our clients spend $X per month with us" The reason I think it's worth it to explore, most of the time, is because I see budgets balloon every single day. In 2024 alone, I've seen the following. - Brand came to me with a budget of $20k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for close to $100k/mo. - Brand came to me with a budget of $7k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for $15k/mo. - Brand came to me with a budget of $10k/mo. Ended up signing a retainer for $30k/mo. - Brand came to me with a (project) budget of $50k. Ended up with a budget of $200k. Agencies who want to grow, should explore. They have to. You'll potentially waste some time. But, you'll potentially find some great clients. When agencies tell me they have minimums, I joke, that brands don't always walk around with a sign on their forehead with their budget on it. To get to the big budgets, you have to be willing to talk about the small stuff, sometimes. If you do, and you think long term v short, over time, you'll be really really really really really glad you did.

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Are you spending too much time worrying about attribution? Sure, you need to know what’s working—but chasing 100% accuracy is a time sink. The truth is, you’re never going to have the complete picture, and that’s okay. At TLDR, we’ve found a balance. (For context, we get hundreds of inquiries each month from tech companies eager to sponsor ads in our newsletters.) Here’s how we approach it: 1) Software-reported attribution: Basic, but effective. First and last click sources help us get a general sense of what’s working. 2) Self-reported attribution: We ask potential sponsors how they found us and use ChatGPT to organize their responses. This helps us get insights into “direct” and “organic” leads and identify trends in a way that works for us. What have we found? Most come from socials, referrals, or are existing TLDR subscribers. We’re not obsessing over perfect data—we just need “good enough” to make informed decisions that move the needle. tl;dr: Don’t let attribution eat up your time. Get to a place where it’s good enough for your business, and then focus on strategies that drive growth.

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I've enjoyed talking to these folks within the past 2 weeks. You would enjoy them too: Phil George building a whole new paradigm for digital marketing campaign attribution and pricing. John Carle is always a source of deep creator economy info and tells me what cartoons I should watch (and he's usually right). Rob Cantor is a songwriter extraordinaire I've known since college. He is the musician behind the 'Shia LeBeouf' music video that's often meme'd (the one where he's clapping) and wrote the 'One Potato' Disney Junior song my kids listen to near-daily. Jessica Brandt (Irwin) knows the power of creator affiliate programs and will happily discuss them. James Longley whose Corby Town FC is getting set up to be the next Wrexham. David Lampert and his crew are a giffft to the world, and have great taste in Japanese food. Mohamad Fattal, my longest-standing board partner and a constant reminder that the creator economy extends far beyond this continent. Alexandra Spector, a burst of positive energy, game-producer-turned-talent-manager who's going places fast. Alex Berkmen is always down to drop some podcast monetization wisdom. Ali Adab, creator economy OG, with our first time breaking bread NOT at a VidCon. Elkanah Carnell Reed, the business-savvy consummate entrepreneur cheerleader disrupting remote work and business communications. Joshua Maresca is fighting the good fight to revolutionize how we watch game streams more actively. Gil Elias building a social shopping suite with massive potential. Chris Alexander breaking free from the corporate world to own his influencer management destiny. Allen Copeland because I think if we went a full day without texting each other, the world would cease to exist. Mike Craddock holding down the creator economy fort out of the UK. And, of course, Falk Maschitzki, whose infectious enthusiasm makes me believe recurring revenue streams and generational wealth are possible! I'm feeling a lot of gratitude lately, and these people (and so many more) make my industry a heck of a lot better. Anyone you're feeling particularly grateful for recently? #friyay #gratitude

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Big ups to Jimmy Kim for highlighting the changes that are finally (truly, no seriously, and scarily) rolling out in full from Gmail on June 1 that will really hurt some bulk senders. My tl;dr for brands ... Stop sending to unengaged folks / send to your most engaged audience => drive up metrics Gmail and Yahoo et al. look at => Improve Deliverability => Improve inbox placement => Improve revenue => Party => Get back to work and improve your actual product => Tell your customers with email => they see it b/c deliverability scores are high => more revenue => take a day off jkjkjkjk #grind #startuplife #seriouslytakemanydaysoff

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Linkedin Post: Is Google's Search Empire Really Crumbling? Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a bold headline: "Google’s Grip on Search Advertising is Loosening." It certainly grabbed my attention. Hold onto your britches, before you start reallocating your ad spend based on this, let’s dig a little deeper—because headlines aren’t always the full story. Here’s the TLDR: Saturday (WSJ Article): The WSJ claims Google’s $300 billion search ad dominance is being challenged by TikTok, AI search engines like Perplexity, and Amazon. Monday (Rand Fishkin’s Response): Rand Fishkin fired back, highlighting that Google still controls 88% of U.S. search and 90% globally. AI engines and TikTok are growing, but they’re not real threats—yet. The Key Takeaway: Google’s grip is still firm. But, Amazon’s creeping growth and emerging players like TikTok and Perplexity could shake things up in the future. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because when it comes to advertising budgets, overreactions to flashy headlines can lead to misguided decisions. While AI and new platforms may look exciting, Google remains the powerhouse—for now. It’s hard enough getting your website conversions optimized, let alone worry about needing to shift your advertising spend. So rest assured, your advertising dollars are safe with google - or are they? (That’s another story - how much of your ad spend goes to ads?) #sparktoro #WSJ #advertising

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