Kim Doyal

If you’ve been scratching your head over why your Google Ad Grant campaigns suddenly took a dip, you’re not alone. I've been hearing from other agencies, nonprofit marketers, and Google Grant managers — and the reports are the same everywhere: impressions are down, clicks are down, and traffic is down. This isn’t just happening to your organization. It’s industry-wide. Google has tightened quality standards and shifted more heavily toward conversion-based optimization. That means the same strategies that worked a few months ago just aren’t enough today. Here’s what I’m seeing work to stabilize accounts: .... Setting up both major conversions (like donations) and micro conversions (like downloads or sign-ups). .... Moving campaigns to Maximize Conversions/Value bidding so they can break past the $2 CPC limit. .... Refreshing creative assets and checking landing pages for quality and clarity. In some cases, making website updates—because now more than ever, site quality impacts ad visibility. I know it can feel frustrating to see those drops, especially when you’re relying on the Grant to reach new supporters. But there’s good news: with the right adjustments, performance can rebound and even grow stronger than before. If your organization is seeing these changes and you’re not sure what to do next, I’d love to chat. Helping nonprofits maximize their Google Ad Grant is one of my favorite parts of this work — because when your ads perform, your mission reaches farther. https://lnkd.in/g4ATt6-8 #googlegrant #googleads #digitaladvertising

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Every single freelancer needs to listen to Ed Gandia's podcast Why AI Change Is Happening Faster Than You Think (and What That Means for Writers). https://lnkd.in/eSUgVf-s And not add it to your playlist to listen to sometime between now and Christmas. But find time to list to it this week. It’s that good and that important. I might have listened to it 3 times and even shed a few tears during it because I felt inspired about the future of our business. Ed doesn’t sugar coat what is happening, but he’s definitely not in the “gloom and doom camp.” He instead offers practical ways that writers can evolve both their mindset and their business. Here are my top 5 takeaways: 1.     The order taker model of freelance writing (meaning a client gives you a story, you write it and send it back) is coming to an end in the near future. This is the shift we are seeing on the ground right now. It feels like work is going away, but what clients need is just shifting way from the producer role to a conductor, which Ed describes as orchestrating human plus AI resources. 2.     Writers need to use AI to expand their capabilities. By looking at things we cannot offer and seeing how we can use AI to add these to our business, we can provide value to clients in new ways. Ed lists six types of capability gaps (craft, production, niches/industry, domain, process, strategic). He explains that we must now offer insight, judgement and strategic thinking, which AI can help us with. 3.     We need to consciously make a choice about our personal direction. My favorite quote of the episode is “Make a choice. Decide something, but don’t just stand there when that hurricane comes through and not take shelter just because, no, this is my beach.” 4.     We don’t have to overhaul our business, just evolve. This was very reassuring to me. My gut has been that the pivots we need to take aren’t ginormous treks into unknown territory, but more side hikes that appeal to us. Ed suggesting to use AI to become exponentially better at whatever lane you are already in or already chosen for yourself. If it leads you in a new and exciting place that thrills you, then he says that is fantastic, but that isn’t the goal or measure of success. 5.     Rapid adopters that move expand their capabilities in the next 6 to 18 months will gain a lasting advantage. Writers that miss this opportunity will struggle to catch up. I totally agree with this because I was an early adopter of content marketing writing and positioned myself as an expert in B2B tech content marketing, which gave me an edge that I still lean on today. Bottom line - we need to use AI for capability expansion. He says that in 6 months writers will either be systematically expanding capabilities or making excuses. I am 100% sure which one I am going to be. And this episode showed me how to get there. Thank you, Ed, for once again being a voice of reason and giving us an actionable path forward.

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To help every communicator navigate the AI shift, we’re making The Communicator’s Guide to AI free to all until December 31.   Since announcing the course last month, the response has been incredible, with thousands of communicators diving in. Whether you’re experimenting with Copilot or just starting to explore how AI fits into your workflow, this course is designed to help you:   • Work efficiently • Think creatively • Action quicker   The tools are ready. The access is open. Here is the link to get started: https://lnkd.in/ggPff_2x

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Use AI to Improve and accelerate Content Audits (not to perform them) with Ian Lurie 👇 "AI is not going to replace writers, content strategists, or anyone else. General-purpose AI can’t perform content audits. It can, however, improve them." Ian goes through 16 ways to do it. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/d2u5i_mx

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Seen a SaaS page where ‘Podcast Editing’ sits next to ‘Trim Audio’ and ‘Publish Podcast?’ All 3 labeled as features? It feels off. Because it is off. As a PMM, this should set off your alarm bells. ‘Trim Audio’ is a feature. ‘Podcast Editing’ & ‘Publish Podcast’ aren’t. One is a workflow. A functional bucket. The other one is an outcome. That’s like organizing your kitchen by knives, your cousin Maria, and how spicy you like your food. Different logic. Same shelf. That’s not a labeling mistake. That’s a structural flaw. And people feel it. They might not be able to explain why your SaaS page feels confusing. But they feel the friction. Why? Because your software taxonomy doesn’t map to how they think. When you inherit or mix product categorization lenses, you’re forcing product elements such as … — Workflows — Features — Outcomes Stacked like they belong on the same shelf. At the same hierarchical level. When that happens, people don’t see structure. Because they don’t think in mixed hierarchies. They see noise. You don’t need better naming conventions. You need structural integrity. Messaging clarity doesn’t start with good copy. It starts with organizing the thinking behind the copy. And if your product categories feel random … Your messaging will feel random too. — I run in-depth messaging audits for B2B SaaS PMMs. DM me to uncover where & why your messaging breaks. And how to fix it.

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Edamam is partnering again with Navigate for their new smarter content experience. Quote from the linked blog: "Our smart #recipe database, powered by Edamam, includes thousands of culturally inclusive, dietitian-approved #recipes tailored to dietary preferences and health needs, from #diabetes-friendly to #lowsodium to #hearthealthy. Participants receive #nutrition support tailored to their #health goals, including chronic condition management, integrated into their experience." #personalizednutrition #foodasmedicine https://lnkd.in/dWxfZ2bZ

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Here’s What Everyone Gets Wrong About Newsletters 👇👇👇 Most writers create newsletters because they want to build a business from writing. Sounds straight forward enough, right? But your writing is not a product. Your writing is a way to establish credibility and to show the market that you know what you’re talking about. You’re writing is a marketing channel for your services and products. Your writing is a means to an end, not the end itself. Just last week, I send out an issue of The Patient Profile, and from that issue, I generated a lead from a company that has 10 locations. All things considered, it is looking to be a six figure deal. $120k a year at minimum. Now compare that to what most people do, which is write and publish and hope and pray that someone will pay you $9 a month to see your “premium content.” This is almost impossible because your best writing should be free. Your best writing is always free because it’s a means to grow your brand. Do whatever your heart calls you to do. If you want to be a writer in the artist sense, then please don’t let me persuade you otherwise. But if you want to make money, you should give all your writing away for free and then use it as a way to sell products, promote your services, and build a real business through content marketing. Don’t be a creator. Be an entrepreneur.

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I'd be more willing to adopt the whole GEO/AEO approach if it's most vocal advocates took the time to actually learn the technology. So much of what I read about GEO/AEO on this web site and elsewhere are just made up theories not grounded in any real understanding of the tech. These folks look foolish and just further support the claims that this is all snake oil. You don't need a PhD to understand how these systems work. The concepts they are based on are super simple. Just take 10 minutes to read an article or watch a YouTube video. It's not hard to learn.

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AI Mode in Google Search is rolling out in the US today. This is a huge shift for search as it will provide a direct response to user queries and allow for chat-like follow-up conversations to occur. Some implications from this feel fairly obvious -- organic traffic will decline for most sites assuming this new feature gets widespread adoption. The question of how publishers are expected to make money if they don't get the same level of traffic definitely remains unanswered. What I keep getting stuck on is if publishers go under, what will AI train on in the future? If partnerships start to emerge between large publishers and companies like OpenAI and Google, we're going to lose smaller, niche publishers. And I'm not sure I want an internet that only consists of content from a handful of parent companies like Conde Nast. What a depressing thought. So I really hope companies like Google are looking further down the road at implications for publishing. I'm not convinced they are though. I am not someone who thinks this is the end of the road for SEO. The fight to get into the results is only going to get more competitive. There will always be opportunity to help sites optimize and grow. But, there are definitely going to be fewer sites to help in the future, and that feels like a shame. What makes the internet great is the diversity of voices out there. Wired did a good writeup on this and some of the accuracy concerns they have with the results in AI Mode and their generative AI experiences in general. It's worth checking out. It's posted in the comments below. ⬇️

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Is the video for your audio-first podcast unwatchable and underperforming? What if you turned your voiceovers into standups? Rethought remote recordings? Or got creative with b-roll? Here are some ideas for how to level up and make your videos more engaging without entirely reinventing your show or production process. https://lnkd.in/dQiFD9zt (These ideas came from all the questions I got from my first post about video podcasting - I hope they are helpful!) #videopodcasting #podcasting #youtube #video #strategy

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If you're abandoning your blog right now, you may be walking away from the Trojan horse that could get you found in AI results. I've been digesting all the juicy nuggets in Orbit Media Studios' annual blogging study, and I couldn't help but pull out this one from the one and only Joe Pulizzi: "Blogging may be entering a similar period to where email was in 2007. Many businesses dropped email in favor of social media because they thought email was going away (what a bad decision that was). Today, more and more seem to be discounting blogging because of AI. Those people who decide to drop blogging because of AI will be making a poor strategic decision. When more businesses consider dropping blogging, it creates an opportunity for those who continue. The results, however defined, seem to show this. And blogging could be the trojan horse for getting found in AI results.” I'm gonna run out of room to post all of my favorite takeaways, but here are a few more: 🤔 "Content marketing is resilient and effective, but not easy.” 🤔 "the percentage of marketers who don’t use AI has fallen from 65% to just 5% over the last 24 months." (where are these 5% and how do I talk to them?!?) 🤔 “Which content formats correlate with performance? It’s the long formats (guides and ebooks) and the collaborative formats (interviews and roundups). Webinars are also effective and are often another example of collaborative content (interviews with experts and influencers).” If you're feeling lost in the sea of conflicting content advice, check out this report (link where we have to put those things)! Thank you Andy Crestodina for consistently publishing such valuable insights 🙏

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Writers, are you sleeping on Pinterest? On my latest "Read and Write with Natasha" podcast episode, I asked writer Kayla Ihrig 🌴 how she uses Pinterest as part of her content strategy. She treats every blog post like it needs a book cover. She designs Pinterest “pins” (aka clickable thumbnails), optimizes them for search, and links them back to her site. That’s how she built traffic and landed freelance clients who found her via Pinterest or Google. Mind is blown! Have you ever considered incorporating Pinterest into your writing business marketing strategy? 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/edFQr8VF

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