What we’ve learned
managing $250M+.
Frameworks, attribution thinking, platform changes worth a CMO’s attention, and the occasional argument with conventional wisdom.
Insights
Frameworks, attribution thinking, and platform changes worth a CMO's attention.
Your CPC Is Supposed to Go Up
Move Google Ads bidding from a button click to closed revenue and the cost per click rises within weeks. Auction theory predicts it, field experiments explain it, and our client accounts show it. Here is why the higher price is the healthy sign, and where it stops being one.
Practitioner's Take.pivotal
Strategy.pivotalThe Ad Platform Is Smarter Than You. Your Job Is to Feed It What It Can't See.
Google, Meta, and LinkedIn already beat you at the auction. The accounts that win stop fighting the bidding system and feed it the one thing it's blind to: information it doesn't have. Here is the hierarchy that actually moves performance.
Strategy.pivotalLLMs Ate the Middle of Your Funnel
Your demand gen team is optimizing for a stage that doesn't exist anymore. 94% of B2B buyers now use LLMs during the buying process, but total vendor interactions haven't changed. Here's what actually happened to the middle of your funnel.
Practitioner's Take.pivotalGoogle Ads for SaaS: What $250M in B2B Ad Spend Actually Taught Us
Most SaaS Google Ads guides skip the hard part: connecting spend to pipeline. Here's what $250M in managed B2B ad spend taught us about what actually works.
Strategy.pivotalPower Law Marketing
Why marketing outcomes follow power laws, and what it means for budget allocation, channel strategy, and performance optimization.
Behind the CMO
James's newsletter. Candid field reports from inside the CMO's office. Read on Beehiiv.
Monday Briefing: ChatGPT Ads Hit Europe This Morning
Plus: Perplexity and Amazon fight over who controls the agent's front door, follower count ranks dead last, and Ritson asks who held the pen.
Behind the CMOBeehiiv ↗
Behind the CMOBeehiiv ↗The RevOps Land Grab
How a support function quietly took ownership of the numbers marketing gets judged by, and the three ways to respond.
Behind the CMOBeehiiv ↗Monday Briefing: Your Next Ad Won't Have a Landing Page
Plus: Google starts force-migrating your search campaigns, Walmart's retail media catches up to 2019, and the creator economy's $15,000 problem.
Behind the CMOBeehiiv ↗Pick Your P&L
Why the CMOs who own a revenue number outlast the ones who own a budget.
Behind the CMOBeehiiv ↗Monday Briefing: Google Is About to Spend Your Whole Target
Plus: Nielsen buys DoubleVerify for $2.15 billion, Diageo resets its ad-to-sales ratio, and Foot Locker goes back to the archive.