AIMCLEAR EU crew set to work Sept. in Germany: Köln & München here we come!
Autumn looms large at AIMCLEAR meaning whilst Minnesota cools off, our team’s European itinerary heats up. September alone features 28 people-days abroad in Germany. We’re running custom workshops for a favorite travel/hospitality vertical client and immersing in our fourth SEOktoberfest. AIMCLEAR knows Europe from the inside, suitcases loaded with GDPR solutions to help marketers transform […]
Evocative Targeting Layers, Vertical Creative, & Being a Good Warlock
Marketers are living in fascinating, regressive times. While privacy challenges have been simmering for years, Cambridge Analytica tipped over the cauldron when it stole data from Facebook, merging individuals’ personality tests with baseline Facebook profile data. Based on a persona segmentation schema called O.C.E.A.N (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), this data was used to […]
America the Marketing Privacy Sh!thole: Bipartisan Privacy Busters Outlawed in Europe
In the true spirit of this July 4th holiday, let us unite around common truth. America the beautiful is a porous rat hole of consumer privacy, inadvertently fomented over 25 years by both Republicans and Democrats. Ironically, let’s enjoy a moment of bipartisan political togetherness on this Independence Day. As the United States grew quickly […]
Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts: AIMCLEAR Ranks AGAIN (among many friends and clients)
Among the absolute coolest things about being part of the digital marketing community is the fact we are TRULY a community. In many instances, we compete for business – sometimes fiercely. But the lines quickly blur between competitor, partner, complementary player, respected adversary and all points in between. We are oftentimes more community than industry, […]
Target SPECIFIC (/KNOWN) Individuals – Twitter’s (Unbelievable) Targeting Secret
There’s been quite a flap over Facebook data privacy lately. The political establishment’s fixation on Facebook is ironic to hardened marketers. Whilst Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress last week, paparazzi snagged pictures of his printed session cheat sheet. Those prep notes suggested Facebook’s CEO was ready to throw other digital channels under the bus. Yep, […]
RIP Facebook Custom Audience Insights (for now), Northeastern’s Bug Bounty Bullseye, & Workarounds
Facebook has removed the ability to analyze Custom Audiences everywhere it was previously possible (API, Audience Insights, Campaign Reach, etc.). This development is troubling on a few levels. This post explains the cause, ramifications and offers workarounds, so we can still gather FB data about audiences. The solution is not elegant as straight-up study of […]
This Retro PREtargeting Tactic Makes Performance Marketing Sparkle
Highly targeted, psychographic caliber, pre-conversion Internet branding has been too often expensive. Marketers face choices between costly, explicit targeting or weaker, more generalized audience placements. This conundrum is not new. Madison Ave. Madmen of yesteryear did the best they could to target branding, hurling direct mail, train station banners, radio, newspaper and outdoor posters – […]
Michael Streko died, SEO, blogging lessons, & WTF to write about
I woke up Monday morning, scheduled to write a blog post, and at first couldn’t think whatever to write about. Our colleague and friend Michael Streko passed away Saturday, still another casualty of a sad-you-can-imagine outcome. Streko was an important marketer, early evangelist of all shades of SEO (cough), aggressive social marketing, and blogging. He […]
Facebook Killed Free Traffic for Brands & Publishers: How to Fix It
If you just want the tips, skip to the bullet points below. For a bit of background, read on. Recently Facebook re-boosted friend-2-friend visibility in feeds, nearly eliminating free feed distribution for company pages. Barely a boo-hoo from the Facebook community. Sure, the traffic and engagement were nice and added up for big social players. […]
Paper or Plastic? What Marketers Can Learn From a 12 Year Old Grocery Bagger
“Paper or plastic sir?,” a pleasant, gently assertive female voice chimed from my right side peripheral vision. I’ve heard this phrase many times at the grocery store, completely familiar, baseline-communication, the fundamentals. “Paper or plastic” is a pure business expression. Let’s look at sheer functionality of the phrase, “Paper or plastic sir?:” Safe introductory greeting, completely […]
