Category Archives: Media

Killing the Paywall

Posted on Monday, 12 August 2019 7:56 am by

Tom Goodwin’s recent article, “Why making content on the internet free was our biggest mistake… and how to fix it” is required reading for all marketers in publishing. I’ve felt this way for a long time. Mr. Goodwin only wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, Leadership, Marketing, Media, Strategy, Tactics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

First Mile Problems

Posted on Thursday, 18 April 2019 7:30 am by

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 , , ,

Buy direct

Posted on Sunday, 10 February 2019 1:14 pm by

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 by

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 , , , , , , ,

2.8 billion years of evolution, down the drain

Posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 8:40 am by

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 Forgotten Boolean NOT

Posted on Tuesday, 3 April 2018 9:02 am by

I spent last week in Glasgow and London, with a UK SIM card temporarily in my phone. As part of my daily routine of checking Twitter, I learned that many social media advertisers and agencies have forgotten how to use … Continue reading →

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

Were You the Same in 2014?

Facebook is pumping out a lot of spin these days. They’re trying to make us forget they ran (and continue to run) a massive, unregulated surveillance operation. They’re trying to distance themselves from Cambridge Analytica in any way possible, before … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on Friday, 23 March 2018 8:42 am by | Tagged , , , ,

Algorithms: Recipes for Disaster

Posted on Thursday, 22 March 2018 8:15 am by

When we purchase digital advertising, we place our faith in the algorithms–a fancy word for “recipes”–used to determine things like the final price of the inventory, which creative is shown, and the frequency at which those impressions are shown. There’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, digital marketing, Education, Leadership, Media, Strategy | Tagged , , , ,

Programmatic: Buying or Media?

Posted on Monday, 5 March 2018 8:46 am by

I’ve been asked a couple of times if I’m pro- or anti-programmatic. My answer, sometimes to the asker’s frustration, is “it depends.” Whether or not a medium works for you depends on many things. The first, and most fundamental question … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, Media, Travel | Tagged , , ,

Media Whitewash

Posted on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 8:29 am by

The ever thought-provoking Don Marti wrote something in “This is why we can’t have nice brands” on February 17th that reminded me of a standard direct mail practice: “Twitter has a solution that keeps its ads saleable: just don’t show … Continue reading →

Posted in Branding, digital marketing, Direct Response, fraud, Media, Social Media Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , ,