Media Captain Digital Marketing Podcast

This week on The Media Captain Podcast, we have a lot to catch up on. We sold Derm Warehouse, built our own tool to track how brands show up in AI search, and spent a morning with business students at Ohio State. We also talk through Google’s latest earnings, the projections that have Meta passing Google in ad revenue, and why we still prefer standard Search campaigns over PMax.00:55 Our AI visibility tracking tool. Why we built our own software to track long-tail searches across Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and ChatGPT.05:04 Google’s earnings. Ad revenue growth is slowing, and more people are searching on LLMs. Here’s what that means for Google.09:20 Asking Claude about our own business. We ran some business questions through Claude and didn’t love what it said about us, so we built pages that spell out who we are and what we do.14:10 Running quotes through AI. Why we started doing this during the sales process and what it taught us about how clients read our pricing.16:10 Derm Warehouse is joining Dermstore. After 10 years and 145,000 customers, we sold the business. The deal started with a LinkedIn outreach campaign.23:26 Meta vs. Google. New projections show Meta pulling ahead of Google in total ad revenue.25:19 What we learned at Ohio State. Almost every student uses ChatGPT, some classrooms ban tech entirely, and a few classes start the day with mindfulness exercises.30:56 Google Business Profile updates. Business owners now have more control over third-party ordering and scheduling links on their profiles.34:49 Staying in our lanes. Giving everyone on the team a clear area to own made us more productive and sped up decisions.39:09 Search vs. PMax. What our campaign data shows and why standard Search keeps bringing in better leads.40:39 What’s growing and what’s not. Demand for AI search and SEO strategy is way up, while standard web development projects are slowing down.

This episode covers how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini describe your business (and how to fix it when they get it wrong), why every website needs an AI instructions page, Google’s new emphasis on effort and originality, why Yelp matters more for AI citations, and what happens when AI agents start calling your business on behalf of customers.If you own or market a local business, this episode will help you show up in AI search, build authority, and avoid wasting budget on unproven ad platforms.Timestamps:0:00 Intro0:37 #1: Why your website messaging matters for AI and LLMs5:15 #2: Meta launches Muse, its AI personal assistant11:22 #3: When prospects send their AI agent to ask follow-up questions15:18 #4: Why you need an AI instructions page on your website19:29 #5: Google adds effort and originality to its guidelines25:25 #6: Yelp is becoming a powerhouse for AI citations28:48 #7: How we use Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT32:13 #8: 40.2% of local searches now trigger a Google AI Overview34:58 #9: Authority score and building local backlinks38:00 #10: Should you advertise on ChatGPT yet?41:08 #11: Google’s Call Me Now feature lets Gemini call businesses for you44:45 What we’re excited about

Today, we cover everything from upcoming SEO content strategies and the shifting landscape of social media platforms to a mind-blowing case study where deleting 200 blogs actually multiplied organic traffic! Stay tuned until the end to hear how AI tools like Gemini are transforming travel and ticket booking.Timestamps:01:30 - Item 1: Building Content Pillars and Spoke Pages for SEO04:17 - Item 2: Streamlining Design and Development with Claude Artifacts07:54 - Item 3: New York City’s Banning and Testing of AI in Pre-High School Education10:10 - Item 4: Instagram and LinkedIn Cracking Down on AI Slop12:54 - Item 5: The Rise of the Content SEO Manager Role15:19 - Item 6: Case Study: Deleting 200 Blogs to 4x Organic Traffic18:50 - Item 7: Google Ads Migrating Campaign Structures into AI Max20:40 - Item 8: Review Platforms Partnering with LLMs for Sentiment-Driven AI Search24:30 - Item 9: Triggering Ad Automation with Meteorological Data and AI26:18 - Item 10: Why AI Search Tools Bypass Homepages for Inner Core Pages28:13 - Item 11: Utilizing "Voicemail Drops" for Personalized Client Outreach & Personal Updates

"You can't trick Google." That's the line this week, but plenty of business owners are trying anyway. One client quietly rolled out AI to auto-generate a blog post every single day. Jason and Stefanie explain why that's a fast track to getting your whole site flagged as AI slop, then dig into 10 more marketing moves you need to know about.Plus, an actual civil war has broken out inside the Media Captain office. Half the team swears by Performance Max campaigns. The other half thinks the results are smoke and mirrors. Jason and Stefanie pick a side and explain why Google's own recommendation might not be the right call for your budget.In this episode:0:00 – Why a client's AI blog auto-generator was a huge mistake2:41 – The hidden cost of a bad SEO strategy (and why "you can't trick Google")5:01 – Is paying an SEO company to write blogs a waste of money?9:03 – Why accolades and sourced media mentions matter for AI search13:04 – New study: schema markup has 0% effect on rankings14:47 – Google's John Mueller and rumors of an AI content crackdown16:55 – Why every business needs an internal PR strategy21:12 – Where AI is actually safe to use in SEO (title tags, meta descriptions)23:56 – The Performance Max vs. Search Ads debate splitting our agency26:34 – Google's third major algorithm update of 202628:19 – Instagram's new logo, and Meta's $18B settlement over kids' social media addiction

Claude just started adding invisible watermarks to everything it writes. LinkedIn just launched a tool that lets users flag AI slop the same way they'd report spam. Neither of those happened by accident, and the agencies still winning right now are the ones writing like actual humans instead of prompting like robots.A few small changes are making a real difference lately. A tighter LinkedIn profile gets picked up by AI search tools far more often. Sharper questions on a contact form filter out bad leads before they ever reach a sales call. GoHighLevel keeps prospects warm after they submit a form instead of letting them go cold in an inbox somewhere.We also built our own AI reporting tool straight into our ad platform APIs, and it's already saving us real money. Ten conversations with business owners taught us that mid sized companies aren't using AI to cut staff yet. They're using it to get sharper, more useful output out of the people already on the team.Timestamps:00:50 – Claude incorporating invisible watermarks on generated content03:41 – Optimizing your personal LinkedIn profile02:20 – Adding social media profiles to Google Search Console13:17 – The importance of questions in your website's contact form16:22 – Processes and strategies for post-contact form submission21:10 – Implementing an internal AI reporting tool to save costs23:08 – Insights from conversations with business owners on incorporating AI26:47 – LinkedIn's feature for calling out "AI slop" posts29:56 – Putting money behind all organic social media content32:31 – An update on the Jason's 100-day, 100-video challenge