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What we’re re-thinking.
Strategy notes from inside the studio on paid media, organic, brand systems and AI automation. It’s the thinking we used to keep private, posted openly so you can read the practice before you hire it.
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Showing 73 to 96 of 117 older posts, newest first
What Is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)? A Plain-English Explainer
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is how content gets cited inside AI answers, not just ranked. Here's the plain-English definition, how it differs from SEO and GEO, and why it matters now.
How AI Overviews Choose Which Brands to Cite
Google won't publish the ranking formula. Here's what its own documentation confirms about query fan-out, and what's still an educated guess.
SEO vs AEO: Where Should a Small Brand Invest First?
SEO ranks your pages. AEO gets them quoted in AI answers. Here's the order a budget-conscious brand should fund each, and why one feeds the other.
What a real marketing engine looks like: strategy, scope, and reporting that maps to the business
A real marketing engine has clear scope, outcome-mapped reporting and one accountable operator, so paid, organic, email and content work as one system.
How creators turn an audience that likes them into a business that pays them (without the guru act)
How creators turn an audience that likes them into a business that pays them, without the guru act. The honest path from attention to reliable revenue.
Where AI Actually Fits in a Marketing Engine (and Where It Quietly Makes Things Worse)
Where AI genuinely helps a marketing engine and where it hides problems. An operator's principle that survives every tool launch, from The Social Target.
The most common leaks in a DTC marketing funnel (and how to find yours)
The recurring leaks that quietly drain a profitable DTC funnel, from one creative carrying everything to no retention, and how an operator finds yours.
What performing eight shows a week taught me about marketing
A West End performer and nine-year agency founder on what eight shows a week teaches you about marketing: reps, reading the room, and hitting the mark every time.
Creative Fatigue in Paid Ads: How to Spot It Before It Kills Your ROAS
Frequency climbs, CTR slides, CPM rises, often in that order, before ROAS moves. How to catch creative fatigue while your paid ads account still looks fine.
What Creative Testing Actually Looks Like
Real creative testing means a hypothesis, one isolated variable, real volume, and a winner defined before the test starts. Here's what that actually looks like, and when to kill a creative.
Why Your Facebook Ads Aren't Converting (It's Probably Not the Ads)
Facebook ads getting clicks but no sales? It's usually not the ad. The real causes: tracking gaps, landing page speed, offer mismatch, and cold vs warm traffic.
How Much Should You Spend on Ads?
How much should you spend on ads? There's no flat number, only a formula: what a customer is worth, what you can afford per one, and the platform's learning minimum.
The Email Flows Every Ecommerce Brand Needs
Welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, VIP: six core email flows many ecommerce brands should consider, and the order to build them in.
How Often Should a Brand Email Its List?
There's no fixed number of marketing emails to send. The real signals: engagement by segment, complaint and unsubscribe rates, and how often customers actually buy.
What a Welcome Flow Should Actually Do
A welcome flow should build trust before it asks for a sale. Here's the job each email should do, and why a discount-first welcome trains discount-buyers.
AI Agents vs. Automations, in Plain English
An automation follows a fixed path. An AI agent decides. The plain-English difference between AI agents and automations, when each is the right tool, and why "AI agent" is often just marketing.
What to Automate First in a Small Business (and What to Leave Alone)
The four small business tasks worth automating first (lead routing, follow-up, reporting, data entry) and the test that tells you what to leave to a human.
Landing Page vs Website: What Your Campaign Actually Needs
Landing page vs website: one job each. When a dedicated campaign page pays for itself, and when pointing ads at your homepage quietly wastes budget.
Is Packaging Design Worth Agency Money?
Packaging design pays off on a retail shelf, as a gift, or in an unboxing video. Here's when it's worth agency money, and when it isn't. See real examples.
How to Market a Gym That Keeps Members
Gym churn often starts in the ad, not the gym floor. A guide to marketing a gym for member fit and retention, not just lead volume.
Marketing a Skincare Brand in a Regulated Space
What a UK skincare brand can legally claim under ASA rules, and why the compliant version usually converts better than the vague one. Read the playbook.
Fashion Brand Marketing Without Burning the Budget
Low-budget social media marketing for fashion: which channels compound, what drains spend, and how to build a system that survives the drop calendar.
How Musicians Get Heard Beyond Streaming
Streaming pays rightsholders, not artists directly. A West End performer and 9-year agency founder on the audience musicians should actually be building.
You fought for that traffic. Your landing page is leaking it.
Traffic is not your problem. A leaking landing page is. Here are the five places small, bootstrapped pages lose visitors, and how to fix them without a redesign.
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The Social Target · Limited · Est. 2017 · London