Good morning.
Remember when marketers used to obsess over Google+ circles like they were the next big thing?
We spent hours organizing people into categories, debating strategy, and genuinely believing it was the future of social media…
Now we can’t even remember our login credentials. Some things are better left in the past, we suppose.
Amazon rebuilds its ad manager and announces a new ads agent, Google Display rolls out asset-level reporting, and more
Together at last: Amazon just combined its demand-side platform (DSP) and advertising console into one unified Campaign Manager, making your ads more straightforward to plan.
It also threw in a new agentic AI that can build campaigns, generate creative, and write complex Amazon Marketing Cloud queries all from using plain English.
Oh, and the new AI ad agent also translates your questions into SQL queries, without the need for any complicated coding.
In other words, any member of the team can now extract custom insights that previously required technical expertise. You should find it in the Amazon Marketing Cloud.
Meanwhile, Google is hung up on bad numbers: Starting December 10, any number tied to fraud or past policy violations will get blocked. You’ve got about eight weeks before enforcement ramps up.
Make sure you audit your contact info now or you’ll risk disapprovals that could sink your campaign performance.
On a brighter note, Google’s rolling out asset-level reporting for Display ads so you can finally see how individual images, headlines, and descriptions perform.
That way you can keep what works, kill what doesn’t, and actually optimize based on data rather than gut feelings.
And one more thing: Google Ads now shows budget setting summaries at a glance in the optimization section.
It’s a small update, but it saves you from clicking through five screens to remember how your campaigns are configured. Phew!
A new Value rules option, API Opportunity Score, AI ad targeting results, and more
Finally, you can tell Meta where the real money is.
Bid on this: Meta rolled out a new Device Platform option in Value rules, letting you adjust bids based on whether users are on mobile or desktop.
Meta naturally chases the cheapest conversions, which usually means mobile. But if your desktop leads convert at higher rates, you can now tell the system to spend more there.
… Just don’t use value rules without a reason. They’re designed to solve problems Meta can’t see on its own. Adjusting bids without a real issue will just drive up your costs.
Fix this: Also, Meta’s Marketing API now includes an Opportunity Score that ranks over 40 recommendations with impact estimates and direct links to Ads Manager.
This eliminates some guesswork. Instead of wondering what to tackle first, you get a prioritized list based on data, so you can focus on what actually improves results.
Find this: Meta claims its Generative Ads Recommendation Model (GEM) is now 4x more efficient than previous models and is much better at finding customers you’d otherwise miss.
It also says advertisers are already reporting better performance. More accurate targeting means lower costs and better ROI, especially as it learns to spot patterns humans can’t.
We like the sound of this. We also hope it’s true…
Kiss this goodbye: Meta is shutting down Facebook’s Like and Share buttons for third-party websites on February 10, 2026.
While those buttons stopped being a meaningful traffic driver years ago, it marks the end of an era when social plugins felt like the future of the web. Remember that?
Stop paying for every team member. Sked Social gives you unlimited users, seamless approvals, and AI insights without the enterprise price tag
Remember when adding a team member meant explaining why your software bill just jumped 20%?
Here’s some budget-friendly news: Sked Social eliminates per-seat penalties with unlimited user pricing, letting your team scale without surprise costs.
- Create, schedule, and approve content in one place, without endless Slack threads or email chains.
- Analyze performance with AI-powered insights that actually drive smarter strategy.
- And when your team grows, your costs don’t.
With unlimited users and no per-seat penalties, Sked scales with you, not against you. Streamline collaboration, simplify approvals, and finally get a platform that proves social impact without the busywork.
And the timing’s perfect: Sked is offering 50% off this Black Friday with code SKEDBF50.
5 things marketers need to stop believing
We all want to believe there’s a proven and reliable rulebook for marketing success.
But as Sarah Levinger reminds us, that mindset can actually hold marketers back. Here’s a splash of cold water:
1) “Customers just need more education.”
Don’t act like a textbook and dump more information into already overloaded brains. Your customers don’t need more facts, they need to see how those facts fit into their own story.
2) “If they understood our value, they’d buy.”
Understanding doesn’t pay the bills, but belief might. People don’t act because they know more. They act because they finally see where your product fits into their life.
3) “We just have to simplify the message.”
Simplifying often strips your message of its meaning. Don’t just simplify, anchor it. Try tying your offer to something they already trust or experience every single day.
4) “Our job is to teach people about the product.”
You’re not a product-tour guide. That’s what a user manual is for. Your real job is to help your customers see themselves as strong, capable human beings. Education points to information, but empowerment points to their identity.
5) “More education means more trust.”
Trust isn’t built on facts; it’s built on fit. It happens when people feel oriented, when your story aligns perfectly with how they already experience the world.
Sarah’s pointers are a good reminder to question the “truths” we rely on. Sometimes, they need a complete rewrite…
97 agency founders reveal their high-return tactics to get a fill their pipeline every month with new clients
Growing an agency is great… Until it isn’t.
When the pipeline dries up, retainers leave you and the inconsistent cashflow takes your sleep… It gets exhausting, doesn’t it?
That’s why we analyzed 97 interviews with agency founders.
We gathered their top lead generation strategies and tactics and put them all in our latest Agencies Growth Pro Report.
If you’re tired of having a dry pipeline and constantly wondering where your next client will come from, this Pro Report will show you how to get more leads and high paying clients.
“But what does PR actually do?”
Ever had a boss ask you this? We’re guessing you have.
Well, here’s your cheat sheet.
Spoiler: The answer is more than just about “making us look good.”
According to the data, digital PR has a very clear job. It’s all about the top of the funnel and SEO:
- Digital PR is, first and foremost, an SEO play. A massive 89.6% say it’s most effective for building backlinks.
- Right behind that is a core marketing goal—building brand awareness (83.2%).
- The link to SEO is solidified by the third-place finisher, driving organic traffic and rankings (77.5%).
- Interestingly, bottom-of-funnel goals like driving qualified leads (24.9%) and increasing sales (18.5%) are seen as far less effective outcomes.
This chart is the perfect ammo for your next budget meeting.
Done well, digital PR is the engine for your off-page SEO and the fuel for your brand’s top-of-funnel awareness. It’s a marketing function, not just a comms one.
This shows you should keep your SEO team close.
Share your pitching targets with them to align on domain authority, and ask them for a keyword list to naturally weave into your press release copy. You’re welcome!
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AI SEARCH: Ahrefs analyzed 146M searches and confirmed AI Overviews are almost exclusively targeting informational intent. So if your strategy relies on commercial or transactional keywords, your traffic is likely safe from AI disruptions… for now.
META: Watch your Business Suite inbox. Hackers are sending clever phishing emails that look real because they come from the legitimate facebookmail.com domain. They mimic official alerts, then steal your login details. This campaign is hitting users in the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia hard right now. Yikes.
WHATSAPP: Public Channels on WhatsApp just got a new, unwelcome title in the EU—”Very Large Online Platform.” Yep, because the feature officially crossed the 45M user threshold, it now faces the Digital Services Act’s toughest content moderation rules. This won’t touch private chats, but your public feeds just got more regulated.
YOUTUBE: … Admitted an error is doubling some October earnings in Studio reports. YouTube is also cracking down on ad blockers, making the site unusable for some browsers with built-in blocking. So check AdSense for your real numbers, and don’t cash that check just yet.
MICROSOFT: Heads up if you’re a third-party publisher. Microsoft is now fully enforcing its requirement to use Microsoft Clarity, meaning any Microsoft Advertising clicks or impressions without it will be filtered out and become non-billable.
VIDEO MARKETING: Gen Z might not be the only ones enjoying your long-form content. New data from Ampere Analysis reveals that viewers aged 35–64 are actually the biggest consumers of free movies and TV shows on the platform and driving a surge in multigenerational viewing. Worth noting if you’re producing long-form videos.
*This is a sponsored post.
I give you a group of three. One is sitting down, and will never get up. The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third goes away and never returns.
What is this group of three?
You can find the answer here.
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