What we learned running the numbers.
Fifty Ads a Week: Creative Volume for Meta's New Ranking Model
Meta rebuilt the system that picks which ads to consider for each person, and it was built for far more ads than most accounts make.
Point of View: What Your Market Deletes, Distorts and Generalizes
In a famous 1999 study, about half the people counting basketball passes did not notice a person in a gorilla suit walk through the scene.
Desire Is a Gap: How Words Become Pictures Become Feelings
You cannot write a feeling.
Action Is Desire Minus Objections
Most copy tries to make people want the thing more.
Direct Mail Is Not Dead: List Sourcing and Cost Benchmarks
The US Postal Service will deliver a flyer to every address on a route for 26 cents, with no list and no permit.
Earnings Per Session Beats Conversion Rate
A page can raise its conversion rate and make less money.
E-E-A-T for Agencies and Consultants: What Google Actually Checks
E-E-A-T is not a score you can raise with a plugin.
Email as the Profit Center of a Service Business
The first mass email went to about 400 people in 1978 and reportedly brought in 13 million dollars.
Emotion First, Claims Down
A psychologist noticed that a waiter remembered every unpaid order perfectly and forgot them the moment they were paid.
Enterprise AI Agents: What They Are and When They Pay
One company said its AI assistant did the work of 700 people in a month.
Limitations Are Expectations: Offers as Expectation Engineering
People valued furniture they built themselves 63 percent more than the same furniture ready-made.
Experience vs Experienced: Positioning When You Are New
You cannot claim results you have not produced.
The First Three Seconds: What the Eye Does Before the Brain
A Soviet psychologist attached a recording device to volunteers' eyes in the 1950s and 1960s and traced where people look.
Four Kinds of Problems and Two Kinds of Buyers
Every customer problem is one of four kinds: a counting problem, a wanting problem, a belonging problem, or a body problem.
Four Sources of Credibility
In 1909 a magazine started stamping a seal on products it had tested.
Fragmented Data, the Company Brain, and Why You Do Not Need a Two-Year Overhaul
Make AI work over fragmented data without a re-architecture: the retrieval layer pattern, data investments by workflow, and a company brain.
The FTC Risk Drivers in Marketing Claims
In October 2021 the FTC sent a notice to more than 1,100 businesses selling money-making opportunities, warning of penalties of up to $43,792 per violation for deceptive earnings claims.
Funnels Are Decision Timelines: Market-Based Funnel Architecture
A funnel is not a row of pages.
How to Size a Google Ads Budget Before You Spend a Dollar
A Google Ads budget calculator in four numbers: customers you want, close rate, click-to-lead rate, and cost per click.
Google Ads Cost Per Click by Industry in 2026, and How to Use the Number
Google Ads CPC by industry for 2026, from $0.
How a Small Firm Gets a Google Knowledge Panel
You cannot apply for a knowledge panel.
Google Search vs AI Assistants: Where Buyers Actually Ask the Question
Google still handles hundreds of times more searches than ChatGPT.
Hidden Meta Ads Settings That Quietly Wreck Your Account
Nine Meta Ads defaults that widen your audience, rewrite your copy, spend on placements you excluded, and reset when you duplicate.
Hide the Pitch: Podcast and Editorial Sales Formats
The soap opera got its name from the soap companies that paid for radio dramas.