Author Archives: markpilip

USPS 3685 and the State of Marketing

Posted on Tuesday, 23 April 2019 7:00 am

Sometimes reading the USPS-required Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (form 3685) can reveal a lot about the state of one’s industry. As a direct marketing and postal junkie, I find USPS forms fascinating. (I don’t get out much.) I … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Education, Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

First Mile Problems

Posted on Thursday, 18 April 2019 7:30 am

I was recently interviewed by Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge, on The Last Mile Podcast. Among our discussion of SAC, CAC, LTV, ROI, other three-letter acronyms, we also spent time on “first mile” marketing problems. As a practicing performance/direct response … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct Response, Marketing, Media, Philosophy, Rants, Strategy, Tactics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

At the End

Posted on Wednesday, 6 March 2019 11:07 am

When my brother-in-law passed away early Sunday, his wife was by his side. I hope to be as lucky. Godspeed, John. Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged | 3 Comments

Buy direct

Posted on Sunday, 10 February 2019 1:14 pm

There’s only one correct way to buy ads, and that’s direct from the publisher. If you buy any other way you’ll pay too much in adtech tax or get scammed buying something that’s not what you think it is. Probably … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, fraud, Media | Tagged ,

Ads on blogs

Posted on Monday, 26 November 2018 9:24 am

I just had a chance to check my blog. Here’s the type of quality ad that gets served on blogs like mine. Do you know if the creative is automatically generated by some brilliant AI? Or have you ever really … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, Direct Response, Marketing, Media, Tactics | Tagged , , , , , , ,

Ads back on temporarily

Posted on Friday, 9 November 2018 9:57 am

I just turned the WordPress WordAds monetization tool back on. Doing a little test.

Posted in Uncategorized

2.8 billion years of evolution, down the drain

Posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 8:40 am

Someday, as expressed in this article by Shelly Palmer, AI and technology will be so good it will be impossible to tell truth from fakes. In other words, we won’t be able to trust our eyes and ears any more. … Continue reading →

Posted in fraud, Marketing, Media | Tagged , , , , , ,

The silence of the fake influencers and lack-of-thought leaders is deafening…

Posted on Saturday, 22 September 2018 3:15 pm

Originally posted on The Malcolm Auld Blog:
Those who have read my missives or attended my seminars, are aware I’ve been calling out the online zealots and their snake-oil since the invention of the information superhighway. So here’s today’s polite…

Posted in Uncategorized

Your Facebook Rebate

Posted on Monday, 16 July 2018 10:27 am

Q2 2018 is in the books. Plenty of time for advertisers and their agencies to true up Q1 and really start work on the second half of the year. As a reminder, in Q1 Facebook removed: 583MM fake accounts. 21MM … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, fraud, Social Media Marketing | Tagged , , , , ,

Talent > Systems

Posted on Wednesday, 13 June 2018 8:47 am

“Any industry that values systems and processes over talent is an industry in decay.” Wrote Bob Hoffman today, reminding us that the adtech, martech, …aaS, and whatever other stuff we’ve cobbled into a tech stack isn’t our secret sauce. Like … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , ,