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AI Max search match types now appear in Google Ads reports, and another verification to comply with
Out of the black box…
And into the open: If you’ve got AI Max campaigns enabled and you open Google Ads this morning, you should see AI Max search match types in the search terms report.
Yep, under the Keywords tab, you can actually see the effect AI Max is having on your ROAS, CPC, CPA, and revenue.
So if you wanted to compare traditional match types against Google’s automated AI Max, well, now you can. Tell your CEO or clients. Heck, buy them dinner, too.
Then get back to business: Starting August 1st, Google Ads is also getting serious about enforcing phone number verification for message assets.
So make sure all new and existing message assets have verified phone numbers by August, or your ads may stop serving.
Who wants that, right?
YouTube finally fixes viewer metrics, and Substack gets serious about live video
Wait, are these platforms actually giving us updates we asked for?
Doing a double take: YouTube is ditching its oversimplified “returning viewers” metric for something far more useful: Three distinct categories tracking who’s actually watching your content.
Now you’ll know if viewers are:
- New viewers.
- Casual viewers. They watched 1–5 months in the past year.
- Regular viewers. They watched 6+ months of the year.
In other words, you can finally stop treating drive-by or viral viewers the same as your ride-or-die audience.
Sounds like it’s time to craft different content strategies for different engagement levels…
And another: Substack is transforming live video from “that feature you forgot existed” into a legitimate growth engine.
The latest update includes scheduled promotions, guest invitations—even for non-Substackers—auto-generated clips shared to Notes, and YouTube Shorts integration.
Not only that, these streams keep working for you long after you’re done talking into the void.
Good stuff if you’re using the platform for your newsletter.
Oh, and speaking of newsletters…
Want to build a profitable newsletter? Don’t make the mistakes we did…
After 6+ years of running Stacked Marketer, we’ve tried nearly every newsletter growth idea out there.
Some improved our numbers significantly. Others looked great on paper but tanked in practice.
We tracked the results, followed the money, and compiled our real-world lessons into The Untold Secrets of Stacked Marketer.
This report gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a profitable newsletter business from scratch.
Inside, you’ll learn the realities and truths most “gurus” gloss over:
- Solid tactics that help you achieve growth—and the ones that filled our list with bot clicks and ghost subscribers.
- How we kept subscribers engaged for the long haul.
- How we adapted to Apple Mail’s brutal privacy updates.
Before you pour time or money into your newsletter idea, give it a look. This report might just save you hundreds of dollars—maybe even thousands.
Get the full report inside Stacked Marketer Pro so you can build a profitable newsletter.
Don’t fear churn—it’s an honest feedback loop. Here’s how to use it
Retention isn’t just a metric anymore, it’s a constant test of whether your product still fits the market.
And in today’s environment, where AI can upend entire categories overnight, that test comes faster for most brands than they’d like.
If your churn rates are rising, it’s a sign you’re falling out of sync with your users, and the time to act is now. Elena Verna recently explained how, and her insights are gold.
Important context: Churn starts long before a user cancels. It begins at activation, specifically, when companies mistake setup for value.
Activation should be tied to outcomes: Publishing something, getting a response, collaborating with a teammate.
If you’re not clear on what that moment actually is, users will drift away before they ever really engage.
Even when activation works, users still churn if they don’t adopt the right features. This happens when important tools are buried, poorly surfaced, or overwhelmed by feature bloat.
What can you do?
1) Identify which features correlate with long-term retention. Also, ask what users should be adopting to get full value. Use that data to clean up.
Smart retry flows and recovery tools can plug those unintentional churn gaps, but these are just a temporary fix.
2) Re-engage lapsed or inactive users. But instead of sending generic “come back” emails, show users how the product has improved.
You can reengage free-tier users with trial offers, especially around new feature launches.
Inactive users might respond better to a slow drip of updates that show how you’re finally solving the problems they walked away from.
Ultimately, churn is feedback. It’s the market telling you what’s not working.
You can ignore it, throw discounts at it, or automate a few retries, but none of that fixes the core issue.
Your best options are: Listening closely, taking action, and building a product that stays relevant long after the signup.
Not easy. But so, so important.
You’re not out of marketing ideas. You just need to know which ones are worth doing.
The wash of endless marketing advice online can overwhelm even seasoned pros.
And too often, most of those ideas are theories versus proven tactics you can actually use.
That’s why Tactics delivers just one strategy every Saturday, backed by real-world examples of brands that made it work.
It takes just seven minutes to read and gives you something you can actually implement.
Subscribe for free and turn one idea into action by next week.
Feel like you’re earning less than you should be?
If so, you’re not the only one.
Yesterday we shared a worrying report that shows marketers are still quite overwhelmed—a situation that hasn’t changed since last year, when we first covered it.
One of the main reasons? They’re working more, and earning less.
A recent UK survey paints a good picture:
60% of UK marketers think salaries haven’t increased with the costs of living. And they are probably right. What’s the situation where you’re at?
Other top reasons include poor pay across the industry (38%), doing more than their role requires (37%), and being unable to save for long-term goals (36%). All familiar issues.
In this volatile environment, there’s not a lot you can do to improve it. No matter if you’re an employer or an employee.
Remote options, time-off, or career growth paths can compensate when the time is tough.
So consider asking for it, or offering it—depending on your role. Also, use market benchmarks to negotiate fairly.
For more data on how marketers are feeling, check out the full report. Warning—it may hit too close to home.
BUYING BEHAVIOR: Your messaging might sound great to your team, but if you don’t connect with customers on a deep emotional and psychological level, your creatives and campaigns won’t convert. Psychology of Marketing shows you how to leverage human psychology—ethically, of course. Get one insight per week, for free.*
GOOGLE: Are tablet and pill presses dangerous? Yes, if you ask Google. And you won’t be able to advertise them on the platform starting September 1st. If you’re in the industry, that should give you enough time to pivot and test different channels.
ADVERTISING: Youngsters are cutting video game spending. According to reports, gamers aged 18–24 spent 25% less on video game products in April year–over-year. Good to know if you’re running video game ads…
SEO: No, spam links don’t affect traffic, nor do they play much of a role in core updates, either. A user apparently shared a correlation between spam attacks and loss of traffic, which Google’s John Mueller rebuffed. Who will you trust? That’s up to you.
*This is a sponsored post.
POOLSIDECHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Was this car ahead of its time?
It seems that as technology improves, things get smaller. Computers. Phones. Wait times reduce…
So maybe the 1943 DAF Mobile Raincoat was ahead of its time.
It was so small it could fit through a doorway, and was literally designed to drive straight into your house so you wouldn’t get rained on.
A little dramatic? Yes. Iconic? Also yes.
It weighed just 330lbs, could reverse at 35mph, and was eventually donated to the circus post-war.
Honestly, that makes sense. It looks like it drove straight out of a cartoon…
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