TLDR MARKETING 2026-02-24

👉 Join live on February 25 at 10am EST

BRANDS SEE BIGGEST GROWTH ON TIKTOK BUT ORGANIC REACH IS SLOWING ON INSTAGRAM

TikTok is delivering the strongest audience growth, with median follower counts rising over 200% year over year and generating high engagement per post. Instagram continues to post steady follower gains, but organic reach is declining across all formats, limiting its growth upside. Facebook remains largely flat in follower growth while still anchoring overall audience scale. The data suggests TikTok is emerging as the primary discovery engine, while Instagram and Facebook function as reach stabilizers rather than accelerators.

AI-SEO IS A CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROBLEM

AI SEO efforts fail mainly because of organizational misalignment, not weak tactics or tools. Readiness and change management drive success, and fewer than one-third of teams sustain performance improvements during major shifts. About 70% of AI implementation hurdles relate to people and process issues, while only about 10% are purely technical. 84% of marketers say their LLM visibility measurement is inaccurate. Strong change management can create an 8X improvement in success, and firms using key transformation factors can raise success rates from 30-80%. Teams need to treat SEO leaders as change agents before deploying AI-SEO tactics.

CAN THE CREATOR ECONOMY STAY AFLOAT IN A FLOOD OF AI SLOP?

The creator economy is entering a new phase as leading YouTubers expand into consumer products and venture-backed businesses. At the same time, generative video tools are accelerating content production, increasing the risk of saturation and IP conflicts. AI may make breakout growth harder for emerging creators. Monetization will depend less on views alone and more on owned products and direct audience relationships.

I GET 3X MORE INBOUND FROM COMMENTS THAN POSTS

LinkedIn reach is shrinking, making strategic commenting more effective than posting for visibility and inbound. Comments over 15 words carry roughly 2X the algorithmic weight. Consistent 15 minute daily commenting generated 3-4X more inbound conversations in six months and took 40% less time because comments tap into existing distribution. The most effective comments add relevant experience or sharp questions, while AI-sounding replies get suppressed.

PUNCH THE MONKEY AND A $0 MARKETING MASTERCLASS

IKEA's social media manager, Elissa Wardrop, turned a viral baby monkey story into a marketing win by acting fast. She took a real-time photo of the IKEA toy Punch used, bypassed approvals, and reinforced the brand's role by donating first, earning authentic “story permission” before promotion, and the post drove massive engagement. Daily updates kept the audience engaged, showing how a single post can become a series that builds connection and sustained attention.

HOW TO WRITE AN UNIGNORABLE EMAIL (WEBINAR)

Carly Valancy, founder of Reach Out Party, will share the 3 levers of her Unignorable Email Framework at this webinar. She'll also talk about how to feel confident cold emailing the people you don't feel "ready" to connect with and build a repeatable networking process. The event will take place on February 25 at 9 AM PT.

HOW TO KNOW YOUR CONTENT RENDERS AT SCALE

Enabling JavaScript crawling in Screaming Frog captures fully rendered screenshots of every page on a site. This provides a scalable view of how content displays. Instead of testing pages individually, Screaming Frog automates the process by configuring the spider to render JavaScript, enabling page screenshots, running the crawl, and reviewing each page's rendered view in the HTML report. This approach helps identify rendering issues across key pages and templates and highlights where JavaScript or AI tools might struggle to index content accurately.

THE CASE FOR HUMANS

AI doesn't care about outcomes. An agent can pass tests and generate endless code, yet if the product breaks or users leave, the human is still accountable. Speed creates opportunity, but it is not a moat. When building becomes cheap, customers stop rewarding effort and start rewarding what is hard to copy. Infinite output does not create a durable advantage because real advantage comes from nonobvious bets and hard tradeoffs. As AI floods the world with personalized content, shared experiences and community grow more valuable because trust and belonging cannot be automated.

7 SURPRISING FINDINGS FROM OUR STUDY OF 15K+ GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNTS

This study shows widespread inefficiency in paid search, with the average account wasting more than $1K per month and over a quarter recording no conversions within a 90-day window. Only 22% of accounts maintain a Quality Score of 7 or higher, and 36% fall below 4, highlighting structural weaknesses across industries. Smaller spenders outperform larger budgets in conversion efficiency, challenging the assumption that scale drives results. The strongest accounts rely on tighter segmentation and negative keywords, which correlate with nearly 3X higher conversion rates.

GEN Z IS FUELING AN IPOD COMEBACK

Gen Z is reviving the iPod as a distraction-free alternative to smartphones.

B2B LANDING PAGE TEMPLATES WITH 7 EVERGREEN MODULES

A modular landing page includes the hero, problem, proof points, FAQ, and a clear CTA.