Good morning.
We don’t know about you, but this heatwave is hitting The Crew hard. We’ve tried everything: ice packs, cold brew, sheer willpower.
There’s a silver lining, though. We’re remote, so we get to melt in the comfort of our own air-conditioned homes instead of an office.
Sure beats negotiating thermostat settings with twelve coworkers.
Instagram wants you to chat with its algorithm, YouTube turns comments into audience research
Clearly, Meta has been watching Love Island.
Because it wants to pull you for a chat: The platform is testing new controls that lets you shape the algorithm depending on what you want to see more of.
The proposed features include a pull-down panel from the home screen, topic controls between Reels, and conversational prompts that refine recommendations.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri wants the algorithm to “feel like something you talk to rather than something that happens to you.” Lofty.
But critics say these tools offer the illusion of control more than real agency, since fiddling with settings means less doomscrolling, which is the whole business model.
It still signals where discovery is heading. A more personalized, more AI-cued, more conversational platform.
Meanwhile, YouTube shipped something arriving today: New AI-powered comment tools in YouTube Studio let you search comments by meaning, not just keywords.
Type a conversational query like “questions about my gear” or “people asking for a part 2 video,” and the AI groups them for you.
You can also auto-sort replies into themes like “excitement and enthusiasm” or “negative feedback,” and use “Find similar comments” to pull up everything in the same vein.
This is a free audience-research tool. Mine it. What viewers want should shape your next video.
Google’s new AI search rules
Turns out the secret to AI search visibility is the advice your high school English teacher kept repeating.
Have something worth saying: Google’s VP of Search, Liz Reid, says it comes down to two moves:
- Open your pages to Google’s crawlers.
- Publish material that readers will value.
Reid was blunt about slop. If your article merely recycles what’s already everywhere, expect crickets. But original, expertise-rich work still earns clicks, she says.
It’s not all AI’s fault, however. A Reuters study showed that audiences are chasing video and social platforms over text.
Make sure Google can reach your pages. Then channel your energy into what only you can offer: fresh, relevant, useful expertise.
This advice conveniently sidesteps the “Google Zero” panic, where even major sites watch their search referrals dry up.
If the giants are sweating, where does that leave the recipe blogs, product reviews, and travel guides?
The rules are simple. Surviving them, less so.
Get the CRO system that boosted 300+ brands’ conversion rates—with tests you can set up in minutes
You’ve probably got a checklist of things to optimize—CTA buttons, headlines, social proof placement, checkout flow…
But did you know you only need 3–4 strategic tests to double your conversion rate?
That’s what veteran CRO agency owner Carlos Valdivia discovered after skyrocketing the revenue of 300+ six and seven-figure brands.
Now he’s packaged his entire process, SOPs, and framework into a 2.5-hour course that shows you:
- The hidden Google Analytics 4 report that instantly reveals why visitors aren’t converting.
- The reverse strategy that generates optimization test ideas fast.
- How to identify which tests will drive the biggest revenue impact first.
… And dozens of other strategies that let you skip the guesswork, saving you time and budget.
Why spend weeks and dollars testing random variables when you can spend 2.5 hours narrowing down the CRO strategies that matter most for your business?
Only 22% of marketers have integrated AI into SEO. Have you?
Everyone agrees AI has changed search. But it seems like almost nobody has changed how they work.
At least that’s what Margarita Loktionova and the Semrush team found after surveying 481 marketers.
Despite the shift, almost no one treats AI as a separate channel. 85% of marketers say AI reshaped their approach to search. Just 12% report no real change.
And 77% now file AI search under SEO. Only 15% still call it a separate channel.
Our take: The different channel framing is officially the minority opinion. The hard part is acting on that belief across teams and tools.
Only 22% say SEO and AI search are fully integrated across strategy, execution, and reporting. The other 78% have a gap somewhere.
Among teams seeing more AI-driven traffic or leads, 81% were fully integrated, versus 36% running things separately.
Why this matters: Integration is the variable that separates teams getting results from teams just talking about them. Teams feel aligned, but their workflows tell a different story
90% claim their teams are at least somewhat aligned on strategy. One in ten teams has nobody owning AI search at all.
The bottom line: Alignment on a slide deck is cheap. When no single person owns the outcome, consistent execution can become impossible.
Measurement is where the gap is widest. 49% say measuring AI’s impact on revenue is a top challenge. Only 9% can track everything that matters.
Meanwhile, 40% still manually type prompts into AI tools to check if they appear.
What we think: You can’t act on what you can’t see. Manual spot-checks don’t scale and leave most teams watching half the picture.
The teams succeeding with AI search share one trait. Their operating model matches their strategy. They own the work, measure it, and run it consistently.
Full breakdown, charts and all, in the original study.
Make selling feels like your second nature
Selling feels hard when you try to force it. It feels easy when you align with human nature.
The best brands don’t nag you to buy—they trigger the psychological “yes” button already inside your head.
Psychology of Marketing reveals these hidden triggers. Every Thursday, we break down one ethical strategy that lowers resistance and makes buying the natural choice.
Search priority #1: Truth
What do online users want? Answers! When do they want them? Now!
And they also want to believe them.
When searching for products, “trustworthy results” is the top priority for 49% of users. This beats “easily understandable content” (38%) and even “Finding cheap prices” (35%).
The flashy stuff marketers obsess over ranks much lower:
- Video formats: 14%
- Audio formats: 8%
Users prioritize clarity and credibility over format. They want accuracy before aesthetics.
In a world of AI-generated spam, authority is the new SEO gold. Users are tired of scrolling through life stories to get answers.
They want facts, fast, from sources that don’t feel like content farms.
Quick Win: Audit high-traffic pages for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Add clear citations, author bios, and “last updated” dates to signal fresh, verified content.
That should be a signal to all of the search engines, LLMs, and your users that your content is credible.
AI MARKETING: This daily newsletter condenses the latest and greatest AI developments into a 5-minute read. They read the noise, pull out the signal, and explain what actually matters for work, strategy, and the tools your team is already using. Trusted by 700k+ readers. Subscribe right here.*
CHATGPT: Pew asked 5,000+ Americans about AI and found that about half now use chatbots, up from 33% in 2024. OpenAI’s tool leads at 44%, beating Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, and Claude. Most folks treat these bots as search engines so get your brand into AI answers.
TIKTOK: Forget short clips alone. TikTok is becoming a “super app,” packing in hotel booking, sports hubs, fintech in Brazil, TikTok Shop, search, maps, microdramas, and games. The goal is to be the app nobody closes, while nibbling at Google and Amazon. Plan for it as a full funnel.
TIKTOK: A fresh gambling policy landed on June 25, banning eight card break formats, lucky spins, raffles, and sweepstakes across US livestreams. Random breaks now count as gambling. Sellers need a 2.5+ performance score to run the allowed ones. Good to know.
*This is a sponsored post.
This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes sings but never talks. Lacks arms, has hands; lacks a head but has a face. What is it?
You can find the answer here.
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