Podcasts about google tag manager

On this week's show special guest co-host Chris Wade, the founder of Corellium turned Cellebrite CTO, joins Patrick Gray and James Wilson to discuss the week's cybersecurity news. They cover: Microsoft has repos owned, GitHub tokens popped, and a new 0day dropped on them Meanwhile, researchers are choosing full disclosure instead of engaging MSRC Meta's AI support agent allowed a staggering 20,000 accounts to be stolen! Apple pulls Russia's MAX messenger from the App Store and disables notifications Anthropic gives the public our first Mythos-class model but it won't do cybersecurity work Stripe and Google Tag Manager used in eCommerce website hack campaign And much, much more! This week's show is brought to you by runZero. HD Moore, runZeros' founder, drops by in this week's sponsor interview to talk about the AI vibe shift. Everyone is very worried about getting owned all of a sudden, and it's really changing the cybersecurity business. This episode is also available on YouTube. Show notes Microsoft Hacked to Deliver Malware to Claude and Gemini Users | 404.feed.press Researcher publishes GitHub token-stealing exploit, blames Microsoft's disclosure process | therecord.media Microsoft Defender 'RoguePlanet' zero-day grants SYSTEM privileges | BleepingComputer Microsoft breaks Patch Tuesday record with 206 vulnerabilities | CyberScoop chompie1337 | X WhatsApp says NSO targeted users with spearfishing attacks in violation of court order | therecord.media Over 20,000 Instagram accounts stolen in Meta AI support hack | BleepingComputer New Apple feature automatically changes your compromised passwords | BleepingComputer Apple removes Russia's state-backed messaging app Max from its store | therecord.media Exclusive: Anthropic's Mythos can exploit new flaws in hours | Anthropic's new model is Mythos on a leash | CyberScoop Anthropic Offers Mythos Upgrade for Cyber Partners and a ‘Safe' Version for the Rest of You | wired.com OpenClaw AI agent found falling for phishing attacks, spills user data | BleepingComputer OpenAI unveils Lockdown Mode to protect sensitive data from prompt injection attacks | TechCrunch Security Hands on with Intelligent Terminal, an AI-powered Windows Terminal | BleepingComputer Seeking Counsel: Ongoing Targeted Campaign Against US Law Firms | Mandiant Check Point warns of zero-day flaw targeted by ransomware affiliate | Cybersecurity Dive ServiceNow discloses security incident exposing customer data | BleepingComputer Credit card theft campaign abuses Stripe to host stolen payment info | BleepingComputer CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks defy estimates as AI fuels cyber demand | Cybersecurity Dive The U.S. Military Quietly Turned GPS Into a Global ‘Numbers Station,' Evidence Suggests | 404.feed.press New 'HTTP/2 Bomb' DoS attack crashes web servers in under a minute | BleepingComputer Google has quietly cut staff across its Cloud business | businessinsider.com

[Expertpanelen] Avsnitt 160 med Johan Strand, senior digital analyst och partner på Ctrl Digital, om hur vi som marknadsförare kan börja prata med vår data och få svar med hjälp av AI, agenter och nya funktioner. Från Googles Ask Advisor, Conversational Analytics och dataagenter i Data Studio. Till möjligheterna med att koppla Claude eller ChatGPT mot olika plattformar via MCP. Samt varför svaren och analyserna du får bara är så bra som din setup och kontext. Du får dessutom höra om: Var han anser att marknadsförare ska börja Hur AI låser upp nya typer kvalitativ analys Nackdelarna med plattformsspecifika agenter Teknisk skuld är största hindret för AI-analys Skapa agenter med Conversational Analytics Varför analys behöver en human-in-the-loop Tips på analyser som AI kan köra schemalagt Du får också höra en lightning round om nyheter kring Meridian Studio, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads Data Manager och Microsoft Clarity. Om gästen Johan Strand är senior digital analyst och partner på Ctrl Digital, en av Sveriges ledande analytics-byråer. Han är otroligt vass på Google Analytics, BigQuery och att bygga datastrukturer som skapar affärsnytta. Som återkommande expert i poddens nyhetspanel delar Johan regelbundet sina analyser av de viktigaste förändringarna inom digital analys, spårning och datainsamling. Johan är också en av arrangörerna av MeasureCamp Malmö. Tidsstämplar [00:02:25] Plattformsagenter från Google och Meta. Googles Ask Advisor och Metas AI Business Assistant, plattformarnas inbyggda agenter, vad de är bra på och var de brister. [00:04:20] Data Studio och Conversational Analytics. Data Studio är tillbaka och Conversational Analytics har blivit gratis. Johan förklarar hur du bygger en dataagent med egen kontext och guardrails. [00:10:15] MCP:er och jämförelsen med agenterna. Rollen som MCP:er spelar när de kopplas in i AI-verktyg som Claude och ChatGPT, och hur det skiljer sig från de inbyggda agenterna. [00:17:35] Rapportering vs analys och AI:s styrkor. Varför rapportering är en tryggare startpunkt än analys, och var AI briljerar: från snabba kvantitativa svar till kvalitativ data och verifiering. [00:27:10] För- och nackdelar samt användningsområden. Plattformsagenter, dataagenter och MCP-kopplingar ställs mot varandra, plus Johans bästa användningsområden och varför teknisk skuld bromsar. [00:33:33] Komma igång med AI inom analysarbetet. Hur långt de flesta marknadsteam har kommit, schemalagd anomaly detection, och Johans bästa tips och råd. [00:38:37] Lightning round: Meridian Studio och MMM. Googles Meridian Studio och varför marketing mix modeling gör comeback nu när last click-attributionen blir allt mer opålitlig. [00:44:02] Google Tag Managers största uppdatering. Nytt UI, containrar som blir Google-taggar och en ny visuell eventbyggare. Och vad det här innebär för användare. [00:47:40] Google Ads Data Manager och Microsoft Clarity. Google gör det enklare att skicka data mellan sina plattformar, och Microsoft Clarity tar en allt större plats i analys-stacken. Länkar Johan Strand på LinkedInCtrl Digital (webbsida) Meet Ask Advisor, your new AI-powered collaborator – Google (artikel)Want to improve ad results? Ask Meta AI business assistant – Meta (artikel)Conversational Analytics in Data Studio overview – Google (dokumentation)Data Studio returns as new home for Data Cloud assets – Google (artikel) Introducing Meta Ads AI Connectors: Manage Your Meta Ads From the AI Tools You Already Use – Meta (artikel)Use AI-powered skills to run ads on TikTok – TikTok (webbsida) Lightning round:Meridian StudioGoogle Ads Data ManagerGoogle Tag Manager-uppdateringarMicrosoft Clarity Veckans partners Huvudpartner: DigitalentaPartnernätverket: Paloma, Check och Klingit Se alla partners här tonyhammarlund.io/partners

This Podcast is sponsored by Team Simmer Go to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases. The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles. (Getting an update soon) Sign up to the Simmer Newsletter for the latest news in Technical Marketing. NEW SIMMER COURSE ALERT!  - Data Analysis with R - taught by Arben Kqiku Latest content from Simo Ahava Add IPv6 Support To Your Server-side GTM Load Balancer Latest content from Juliana Jackson Your data will never match 1:1 across platforms, and that's fine. (subscribe to the newsletter for more amazing content) Article is written in collaboration with Stape.io Mentioned in the episode: Stape Jeff Sauer MeasureU Measure Summit Connect with Alina Popa Linkedin Her website This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava.

Großes kommt auf uns zu im Tag Manager – und viele weitere News der letzten Wochen im Schnelldurchlauf

Großes kommt auf uns zu im Tag Manager – und viele weitere News der letzten Wochen im Schnelldurchlauf

[Expertpanelen] Avsnitt 157 med David Larsson, chief strategy officer och partner på byrån Trickle, om de viktigaste nyheterna och trenderna inom paid social under första kvartalet 2026. Allt från vågen av bannade Meta Ads-konton efter oreglerade AI-experiment till Metas nya attributionsmodell och Andromeda-stacken som förändrar hur kampanjer byggs. Plus en genomgång av nyheterna, formaten och trenderna från IAB Newfronts 2026. Du får dessutom höra om: Vad David prioriterar att automatisera med AI Click-through och engage-through i Meta Ads Engaged view på Reels från 10 till 5 sekunder Hur Gem, Lattice och Andromeda hänger ihop Logo Takeovers och TV-taktikernas återkomst Meta opt-out-buggen som stoppade kampanjer i påsk Manus connectors mot Meta Ads och Instagram Om gästen David Larsson är chief strategy officer och partner på performance marketing-byrån Trickle och en av Sveriges vassaste på LinkedIn Ads. Han är med expertpanelen med fokus på paid social. Utöver sin expertis inom performance marketing och paid social så är David också utbildad journalist samt har jobbat med YouTube och sociala medier på TV4. Han är också föreläsare, kursansvarig och gästföreläsare på bland annat Medieinstitutet och Berghs. Tidsstämplar [03:00] Bannade Meta Ads-konton efter AI-experiment. Vad som ligger bakom "vågen" av nedstängda annonskonton, skillnaderna mellan annonsplattformar och om vi bör väga in risk i AI-automatisering. [22:29] Metas nya attributionsmodell och Reels-fönster. Click-through och engage-through skiljs nu åt, vilket ger ärligare CTR-siffror. Plus engaged view på Reels från 10 till 5 sekunder. [29:34] Förklaring av Meta Gem, Lattice, Andromeda. Genomgång av hur Metas olika AI-system och Sequential Learning samverkar. Samt varför kreativa vinklar trumfar manuell målgruppsstyrning. [35:57] Nyheter och format från IAB Newfronts 2026. Allt från Logo Takeovers och First Impression Ads till ett fortsatt fokus på kreatörer i annonsformat och Connected TV-format. [46:52] Lightning round om Meta, Manus och Reddit. Meta opt-out-buggen som stoppade kampanjer i påsk, Manus connectors mot Meta, Reddit Reminder Ads samt ny Meta Pixel-mall i Google Tag Manager. Länkar David Larsson på LinkedInTrickle (webbsida) Taktiskt skifte i hur vi använder AI för marknadsföring – Jesper Åström (LinkedIn)Claude Cowork building systems for my own work – Austin Lau (LinkedIn)Claude Code got my META ADS account banned – Saharsh Agrawal (LinkedIn)Will Claude Code Get My Meta Ads Account Banned? – Zentric Digital (artikel) Simplifying Ad Measurement for a Social-First World – Meta (artikel)Meta's Generative Ads Model (GEM): The Central Brain Accelerating Ads Recommendation AI Innovation – Meta Engineering (artikel)New AI advancements drive Meta's ads system performance and efficiency – Meta AI (artikel)Meta Andromeda: Supercharging Advantage+ automation with the next-gen personalized ads retrieval engine – Meta Engineering (artikel) IAB Newfronts 2026 (webbsida)Recap NewFronts 2026: B2B Marketing Has Entered the Outcomes Era – LinkedIn (artikel)From Commerce to Culture: How AI is Powering Personalized Connection and Growth Across the Funnel – Meta (artikel)NewFronts '26: TikTok Unveils New High-Impact Ad Solutions – TikTok (artikel)About TikTok Pulse suite – TikTok (dokumentation) About Manus Connectors – Meta (dokumentation)Official Meta Pixel template in Google Tag Manager – Thomas Eccel (LinkedIn)Introducing Meta Ads AI Connectors – Meta (artikel)

In dieser Folge ist Stefan Steinmann, Head of Performance Marketing bei Digit.ly, zu Gast. Gemeinsam mit Christian Ehlers blickt er auf die aktuellen Herausforderungen im B2B-Marketing: Wirtschaftliche Eintrübung, steigende Klickpreise und der Wandel der Suchmaschinen durch KI.Stefan erklärt, warum es gerade jetzt fatal ist, Budgets zu kürzen, und warum antizyklisches Handeln der Schlüssel zur Sichtbarkeit ist. Wir tauchen tief in die Technik ein und beleuchten, warum Server-Side-Tracking das Consent-Problem nicht löst und was das Urteil des Verwaltungsgerichts Hannover für den Einsatz des Google Tag Managers bedeutet.

A frontline nurse turned founder changes how we think about “marketing” by treating it like care extended. David Sanchez, RN, shares how clinical empathy, clear language, and the right tools help healthcare organizations and educators reach the people who need them most. We unpack the journey from ER shifts to launching a recovery program and a patient-first agency, then translate that experience into steps any small team can take to grow with integrity.We go deep on foundations that matter: setting up GA4 and Google Tag Manager so every call, form, and booking is measured; reading customer journeys to see what actually drives action; and editing pages for conversion instead of chasing shiny redesigns. David explains how keyword research becomes education, not fluff: answer the exact questions people ask, reduce jargon, and publish helpful content that boosts dwell time and trust. We connect personas and funnels to message fit, showing how to speak to awareness, consideration, and decision without confusion.You'll leave with quick wins you can ship this week: a 16-minute usability test with a real ideal patient, one concise educational article that answers a top-searched question, and a clean, prominent call-to-action that reduces friction. If this conversation helps you rethink growth with empathy and evidence, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so others can find it too.

In this repeat episode, Jack Herrington sits down with Tanner Linsley to talk about the evolution of TanStack and where it's headed next. They explore how early projects like React Query and React Table influenced the headless philosophy behind TanStack Router, why virtualized lists matter at scale, and what makes forms in React so challenging. Tanner breaks down TanStack Start and its client-first approach to SSR, routing, and data loading, and shares his perspective on React Server Components, modern authentication tradeoffs, and composable tooling. The episode wraps with a look at TanStack's roadmap and what it takes to sustainably maintain open source at scale. We want to hear from you! How did you find us? Did you see us on Twitter? In a newsletter? Or maybe we were recommended by a friend? Fill out our listener survey! https://t.co/oKVAEXipxu Let us know by sending an email to our producer, Elizabeth, at elizabeth.becz@logrocket.com, or tweet at us at PodRocketPod. Check out our newsletter! https://blog.logrocket.com/the-replay-newsletter/ Follow us. Get free stickers. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, fill out this form, and we'll send you free PodRocket stickers! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket provides AI-first session replay and analytics that surfaces the UX and technical issues impacting user experiences. Start understanding where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com. Try LogRocket for free today. Chapters 01:00 – What is TanStack? Contributors, projects, and mission 02:05 – React Query vs React Table: TanStack's origins 03:10 – TanStack principles: headless, cross-platform, type safety 03:45 – TanStack Virtual and large list performance 05:00 – Forms, abandoned libraries, and lessons learned 06:00 – Why TanStack avoids building auth 07:30 – Auth complexity, SSO, and enterprise realities 08:45 – Partnerships with WorkOS, Clerk, Netlify, and Cloudflare 09:30 – Introducing TanStack Start 10:20 – Client-first architecture and React Router DNA 11:00 – Pages Router nostalgia and migration paths 12:00 – Loaders, data-only routes, and seamless navigation 13:20 – Why data-only mode is a hidden superpower 14:00 – Built-in SWR-style caching and perceived speed 15:20 – Loader footguns and server function boundaries 16:40 – Isomorphic execution model explained 18:00 – Gradual adoption: router → file routing → Start 19:10 – Learning from Remix, Next.js, and past frameworks 20:30 – Full-stack React before modern meta-frameworks 22:00 – Server functions, HTTP methods, and caching 23:30 – Simpler mental models vs server components 25:00 – Donut holes, cognitive load, and developer experience 26:30 – Staying pragmatic and close to real users 28:00 – When not to use TanStack (Shopify, WordPress, etc.) 29:30 – Marketing sites, CMS pain, and team evolution 31:30 – Scaling realities and backend tradeoffs 33:00 – Static vs dynamic apps and framework fit 35:00 – Astro + TanStack Start hybrid architectures 36:20 – Composability with Hono, tRPC, and Nitro 37:20 – Why TanStack Start is a request handler, not a platform 38:50 – TanStack AI announcement and roadmap 40:00 – TanStack DB explained 41:30 – Start 1.0 status and real-world adoption 42:40 – Devtools, Pacer, and upcoming libraries 43:50 – Sustainability, sponsorships, and supporting maintainers 45:30 – How companies and individuals can support TanStackSpecial Guests: Jack Herrington and Tanner Linsley.

Anthony Chiaravallo, founder and CEO of Vallo Media — a performance marketing agency that has placed over $100 million in paid media — joins Jeff Mains on SaaS Fuel for a candid, no-BS conversation about what actually works (and what doesn't) in B2B paid advertising.The conversation goes deep on performance media for SaaS: why cold lead gen ads are the fastest way to burn budget, how to build warm audiences before asking for a demo, and the massive cost savings that come from full-funnel thinking. Anthony exposes the hidden world of click fraud and bot traffic, explains how to set up clean data signals, and makes the case for why last-click attribution is quietly killing B2B ad performance. He closes with a pointed recommendation on where SaaS founders should — and should not — spend their limited marketing dollars.Key Takeaways3:44 — Anthony's Origin Story: From SVP to Founder Anthony's position was eliminated during COVID after five years building a paid media practice at a 4,000-person agency. He turned a side consulting hustle into Vallo Media, gave himself 6–12 months to match his corporate salary, and never looked back.5:50 — Founder Mindset: Replace Yourself First The biggest shift from agency leader to founder is understanding that your primary job as CEO is to replace yourself. Anthony systematically identified what he was spending the most time on and hired for it — starting with paid media execution so he could focus on sales and strategy.8:42 — How to Prioritize Your First Hires Start by asking: what am I spending the most time on that someone else could do better? Anthony's first hire was a paid search specialist — a person he found on LinkedIn, contracted for a project, and who has now been with him for six years running his entire paid media department.11:43 — What Makes B2B SaaS Performance Media Unique Running cold lead gen ads against a B2B SaaS audience is "a fast way to set cash on fire." One client was paying $8,000 per ebook download — from unqualified leads. The fix: build warm audiences through awareness and video campaigns first, then retarget. That same client dropped CPL from $8,000 to $115.16:49 — The Most Common Ad Waste Traps Brands celebrate cheap clicks without ever checking if those clicks are from real, qualified people. The most dangerous trap: reporting 1,000 clicks at $1 CPC while 90% of those users bounced in two seconds — bots or totally unqualified traffic.17:46 — Clean Data Signals & Behavioral Conversions Instead of only tracking form fills, set up behavioral conversions: time on site, page views, video engagement. These "quality signals" train the ad platform's AI to find more people like your best visitors — not just whoever clicks cheapest.20:40 — How Click Fraud Actually Works Bad actors spin up thousands of AI-generated fake websites, embed programmatic ad code, and deploy click bots to generate revenue from every ad served. Over half of annual digital ad spend is estimated to hit fake sites and bots.21:39 — How to Protect Your Ad Budget Set up behavioral conversion tracking in Google Tag Manager, link it to GA4, and monitor closely whether platform-reported clicks match actual engagement in your web analytics. Vallo Media manually excludes 50,000+ fraudulent domains per month in programmatic campaigns.26:56 — When a Flawed UX Tanks a Campaign Anthony walked a healthcare client through a campaign where 1,100 people clicked and zero downloaded the app — because the user flow required a QR code scan, app download, account setup, and SMS verification in sequence. He couldn't even complete it himself.30:39 — UX Is a Paid Media Problem Your landing page, checkout, and signup flow are part of your paid media strategy. A client ignored Anthony's landing page recommendations for eight months — performance suffered the entire time. Paid ads don't exist in a silo.36:18 — AI for Ad Creative: Useful Starting Point, Not a Replacement AI design tools can quickly improve creative direction (simplify text, modernize layouts, test variations) — but they need a human with marketing knowledge and taste to direct them and approve the output. "AI is only as good as the human giving it direction."39:32 — The Right Way to Test Ads Reserve 5–10% of monthly budget for digital experiments. Test one variable at a time. Run AB tests monthly. One surprise finding: ads showing a person looking at the product outperformed ads with the person making eye contact with the camera for driving direct sales.41:37 — Why Last-Click Attribution Is Killing B2B Ads Last-click attribution only credits the final touchpoint and ignores every podcast listen, social impression, and website visit that built purchase intent. In B2B SaaS, buying cycles can span a year — you need a mixed media model that assigns value across all touchpoints.46:31 — Where to Spend (and Not Spend) Your Budget Don't start with Google Ads — competition is high and lead quality is inconsistent without brand foundation. Instead: invest in data immersion first, then build brand through top/middle funnel awareness and engagement campaigns. Once you've built warm audiences, bring Google Ads online to capture the demand you've already generated.Tweetable Quotes"The worst thing a B2B SaaS company can do in performance media is run lead gen ads against a cold audience." — Anthony Chiaravallo"Paid media doesn't exist in a silo. It's part of your overall marketing mix — and there's an effective way to do it." — Anthony Chiaravallo"You can't just turn on a paid ad and expect the leads to flow. Especially in B2B, you're skipping five steps." — Anthony Chiaravallo"Over half of annual digital ad spend is going to fake websites, fake bots, and hackers collecting a payday on every click." — Anthony Chiaravallo"AI is only as good as the human giving it direction. It doesn't have taste, context, or discernment." — Anthony Chiaravallo"Build demand before you try to capture it. Your whole job becomes easier when it comes to conversion." — Anthony Chiaravallo"If your user experience is not totally frictionless, your campaigns are not going to be successful." — Anthony Chiaravallo"You eat what you kill as a founder. It was much more rewarding — you see your business grow, your team grow." — Anthony ChiaravalloSaaS Leadership Lessons1. Replace Yourself Systematically, Starting on Day One Anthony's first move as a founder was identifying what he was doing that someone else could do better. He hired a paid search specialist immediately, freeing himself for sales and strategy. The lesson: your job as CEO is to continuously remove yourself from execution and move toward empowerment.2. Sales Is Never Someone Else's Responsibility No matter how strong your sales team gets, as a founder you never fully hand off sales. Anthony kept business development as his north star from day one — because as he puts it, founders "eat what they kill." Staying close to the sale means staying close to the customer.3. Hire People Smarter Than You in Their Lane Don't try to be an expert in everything. Find people who are better than you at the specific skill you need, give them the resources and autonomy to outperform you, and focus your energy on orchestration and vision.4. Strategy Before Spend — Always 90% of success in paid media comes from setup: campaign structure, tracking, data signals, and understanding the customer journey. Before spending a dollar on ads, conduct a data immersion, audit your analytics, and map what your best customers' buying journey actually looked like.5. Full-Funnel Thinking Beats Tactical Execution SaaS founders who jump straight to lead gen ads skip the awareness and engagement layers that warm audiences and reduce acquisition costs. Brands that invest in the top and middle of the funnel — video, content, thought leadership — have dramatically lower cost-per-pipeline when they eventually run conversion campaigns.6. Measure What the Platform Won't Tell You Ad platforms report the metrics that make them look good. Real performance intelligence lives in your web analytics: time on site, page views, branded search volume, brand recall lift. Close the loop by sending quality signals back to the algorithm, and insist on UTM hygiene and proper GA4 setup before running a single dollar in spend.Guest Resourcesanthony@vallomedia.comhttps://www.vallomedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/vallomedia/https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonychiaravallo/https://www.linkedin.com/company/vallomediahttps://www.instagram.com/vallomedia/Episode SponsorThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group –

In questo episodio apriamo il bar con Andrea Verlicchi, performance engineer di SpeedKit ed ex front-end architect di Yoox Net-a-Porter. Parliamo di web performance a 360 gradi: dai Core Web Vitals all'ottimizzazione delle immagini, dal famigerato Interaction to Next Paint ai danni silenziosi di Google Tag Manager. Scopriamo come un prodotto SaaS possa migliorare le performance senza toccare il codice del cliente, come funzionano le speculation rules per il prerender, e perché la performance percepita e quella reale sono due mondi diversi. Non manca un tuffo nostalgico nei tempi di Flash, Dreamweaver e MySpace.

How does Google Consent Mode affect ePrivacy compliance, opt-in signals, traffic sampling, marketing performance, and CIPA claims? What are the most common technical mistakes in the configuration of Tag Managers, tracking rules, and consent banners? Where is “do not train” (LLMs) going? Does agentic traffic ruin analytics or the premises of consent?We have gone through all of this with a true Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and website auditing expert.Phil Pearce is founder of MeasureMinds and creator of ConsentModeMonitor. He started in paid search for CreditCards.com managing a multi-million dollar PPC account, before shifting to Privacy & Analytics about 8 years ago, when he did a series of talks about Black Hat Analytics. More recently, he has been helping brands with technical defence against CIPA & ePrivacy/PECR and GDPR claims. Prior to building his business, Phil worked for ConversionWorks, Jellyfish & Sitemakers as a Google Analytics and Search Specialist. He is a top authority in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager and is the author of the GTM developer guide as well as host of the GA4ward, GTM4ward and Privacy4Marketers conferences.References:* Phil Pearce on LinkedIn* Consent Mode Monitor (Masters of Privacy Toolbox), free website scans for three months* Compliance Briefs (Masters of Privacy Toolbox), $500 discount for our listeners* Lineberry v. AddShopper, Inc. (3:23-cv-01996), May 29, 2025* MCP Manager by Usercentrics* Introducing DPO Central: AI-powered privacy program management* Sealmetrics: cookieless, consentless analytics This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mastersofprivacy.com/subscribe

Neste episódio do 24Cast, recebemos Wellington, Head de Marketing da Sonax, para uma análise objetiva sobre como estruturar uma operação de marketing digital integrada ao Bitrix24 utilizando o módulo Sales Intelligence. A conversa aborda a conexão de campanhas de mídia paga ao CRM, o rastreamento preciso da origem dos leads e a mensuração de indicadores como CAC, Custo por Lead, Conversão e ROI dentro da própria plataforma. Apresentamos a aplicação prática adotada pela Sonax, destacando os pontos técnicos essenciais para garantir atribuição correta de canais, integração adequada das ferramentas e análise estratégica dos dados comerciais. Principais temas abordados: - O que é o Sales Intelligence e como ele funciona como módulo analítico avançado do Bitrix24 - Integração nativa com Google Ads e Meta Ads - Como o Bitrix24 importa dados de investimento, campanhas e conversões - Análise por lead, por canal e por vendedor dentro do CRM - Estruturação correta de UTMs e sua importância para atribuição - Uso de Google Tag Manager e Google Analytics para mensuração adequada - Desafios do WhatsApp como CTA e a quebra de rastreamento - Estratégia adotada para recuperar atribuição via qualificação no chat - Diferença estratégica entre Google (intenção ativa) e Meta (reforço de marca e remarketing) - Rastreamento de anúncios offline via Seis Intelligence - Uso de formulários integrados (Bitrix e Meta) - Monitoramento diário de métricas e ajustes para redução de CAC

Casey has been tinkering with AI tools for years—paying for subscriptions, defaulting to ChatGPT, getting marginal value. Then February 5th, 2026 happened. That's when Opus 4.6 dropped, and something clicked. In this episode, Casey breaks down what finally changed, why it matters more to CMOs than anyone's talking about, and why the demarcation between before and after is real—whether you feel it yet or not.   Casey also isn't pulling punches. He's watched AI make him mentally lazier, seen what it's doing to the developer job market, and felt the tension between moving fast and staying sharp. The risks are real—and so is the opportunity. The CMOs who win from here won't be the ones who waited to feel ready. They'll be the ones who got their hands dirty first. Key Topics Covered: - Opus 4.6 is the AI breakthrough we were promised—it finally works the way we were told it would - The biggest risk of AI isn't job loss—it's becoming mentally weak and surrendering critical thought - Claude Code has replaced the need to hire developers for the kinds of projects Casey used to pay $1,200+ for - MarTech tasks—Google Tag Manager, DNS migrations, anonymous telemetry—are now executable by a non-technical CMO - Your job isn't to become a technologist—but delegating to AI is becoming easier than delegating to humans - CMOs who play with these tools now will own the human vs. human battle later - Start small: build one thing, just for fun, and let the learning transform how you see the work

In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast, host Troy Trewin interviews Matthew Stafford, founder of Build Grow Scale, shares his journey from running a commercial contracting business to generating over $15M in e-commerce sales. He explains how data, analytics, and user experience—not just CRO—drive predictable growth. Matthew opens up about cash flow stress, scaling teams, and hard lessons from rapid growth. He also dives into mindset, self-belief, and why the business owner is often the real bottleneck. A must-listen for entrepreneurs serious about sustainable, long-term success. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here.   Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice.   And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? Matthew Stafford shares that the hardest thing in growing a small business is staying resilient and persistent, as every stage of growth brings new challenges and the business owner often becomes the biggest bottleneck. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? Matthew Stafford shares that his favorite business book is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, which focuses on the power of small, consistent daily habits and long-term improvement. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Matthew Stafford shares that he recommends podcasts and learning resources like The Operators podcast and newsletter, where experienced entrepreneurs openly discuss real growth challenges, wins, and failures. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Matthew Stafford shares that the most valuable tool for growing a small business is Google Analytics along with Google Tag Manager, as they provide clear insights into customer behavior and data-driven decision-making. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Matthew Stafford shares that the advice he would give himself on day one is to commit for the long term, stay patient, and not quit too early, because success often comes right after the hardest phase. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Most business problems aren't strategy issues—they're mindset issues hiding in plain sight — Matthew Stafford The entrepreneurs who win are rarely the smartest—they're the ones who don't quit — Matthew Stafford If your business is stuck, look in the mirror first—that's usually where the real work begins — Matthew Stafford      

Jack Harrington sits down with Tanner Linsley to talk about the evolution of TanStack and where it's headed next. They explore how early projects like React Query and React Table influenced the headless philosophy behind TanStack Router, why virtualized lists matter at scale, and what makes forms in React so challenging. Tanner breaks down TanStack Start and its client-first approach to SSR, routing, and data loading, and shares his perspective on React Server Components, modern authentication tradeoffs, and composable tooling. The episode wraps with a look at TanStack's roadmap and what it takes to sustainably maintain open source at scale. We want to hear from you! How did you find us? Did you see us on Twitter? In a newsletter? Or maybe we were recommended by a friend? Fill out our listener survey (https://t.co/oKVAEXipxu)! https://t.co/oKVAEXipxu Let us know by sending an email to our producer, Elizabeth, at elizabeth.becz@logrocket.com (mailto:elizabeth.becz@logrocket.com), or tweet at us at PodRocketPod (https://twitter.com/PodRocketpod). Check out our newsletter (https://blog.logrocket.com/the-replay-newsletter/)! https://blog.logrocket.com/the-replay-newsletter/ Follow us. Get free stickers. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, fill out this form (https://podrocket.logrocket.com/get-podrocket-stickers), and we'll send you free PodRocket stickers! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket provides AI-first session replay and analytics that surfaces the UX and technical issues impacting user experiences. Start understanding where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com. Try LogRocket for free today. (https://logrocket.com/signup/?pdr) Chapters 01:00 – What is TanStack? Contributors, projects, and mission 02:05 – React Query vs React Table: TanStack's origins 03:10 – TanStack principles: headless, cross-platform, type safety 03:45 – TanStack Virtual and large list performance 05:00 – Forms, abandoned libraries, and lessons learned 06:00 – Why TanStack avoids building auth 07:30 – Auth complexity, SSO, and enterprise realities 08:45 – Partnerships with WorkOS, Clerk, Netlify, and Cloudflare 09:30 – Introducing TanStack Start 10:20 – Client-first architecture and React Router DNA 11:00 – Pages Router nostalgia and migration paths 12:00 – Loaders, data-only routes, and seamless navigation 13:20 – Why data-only mode is a hidden superpower 14:00 – Built-in SWR-style caching and perceived speed 15:20 – Loader footguns and server function boundaries 16:40 – Isomorphic execution model explained 18:00 – Gradual adoption: router → file routing → Start 19:10 – Learning from Remix, Next.js, and past frameworks 20:30 – Full-stack React before modern meta-frameworks 22:00 – Server functions, HTTP methods, and caching 23:30 – Simpler mental models vs server components 25:00 – Donut holes, cognitive load, and developer experience 26:30 – Staying pragmatic and close to real users 28:00 – When not to use TanStack (Shopify, WordPress, etc.) 29:30 – Marketing sites, CMS pain, and team evolution 31:30 – Scaling realities and backend tradeoffs 33:00 – Static vs dynamic apps and framework fit 35:00 – Astro + TanStack Start hybrid architectures 36:20 – Composability with Hono, tRPC, and Nitro 37:20 – Why TanStack Start is a request handler, not a platform 38:50 – TanStack AI announcement and roadmap 40:00 – TanStack DB explained 41:30 – Start 1.0 status and real-world adoption 42:40 – Devtools, Pacer, and upcoming libraries 43:50 – Sustainability, sponsorships, and supporting maintainers 45:30 – How companies and individuals can support TanStack Special Guest: Tanner Linsley.

Dan welcomes his friend and mentor Cai who shares stories from his recent sailing trip through the Gulf Stream to the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas.• Dan discusses his recent trip to Florida with his son, including a visit to an animal sanctuary• Both reflect on seeking peace and purpose away from society's chaos• Conversation explores how different religions often fight over the same God• Kai distinguishes between religion (with rules) and spirituality (relationships between spirits)• Discussion about how organizational corruption affects pure religious messages• Cai emphasizes helping others as both men share examples of service• Exploration of Jesus's two commandments: loving God and loving your neighbor• Cai reframes love as an action word rather than just an emotion• Discussion about having a two-way relationship with God rather than treating God "like a rich uncle"• Final wisdom on staying humble: "It's pretty hard to teach a guy something he thinks he already knows"Send us a text Support the showInfo@dailyamericanpodcast.com

Confusion persists over the Microsoft Sharepoint zero-days. CrushFTP confirms a zero-day under active exploitation. The UK government proposes a public sector ban on ransomware payments. A new ransomware group is using an AI chatbot to handle victim negotiations. Australia's financial regulator accuses a wealth management firm of failing to manage cybersecurity risks. Researchers uncover a WordPress attack that abuses Google Tag Manager. Arizona election officials question CISA following a state portal cyberattack.  Hungarian police arrest a man accused of launching DDoS attacks on independent media outlets. On our Threat Vector segment guest host ⁠Michael Sikorski⁠ ⁠and Michael Daniel⁠ of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) explore cybersecurity collaboration. A Spyware kingpin wants back in. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. Threat Vector Segment On our Threat Vector segment, host David Moulton turns the mic over to guest host ⁠Michael Sikorski⁠ and his guest ⁠Michael Daniel⁠ of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) for a deep dive into cybersecurity collaboration. You can hear Michael and Michael's full discussion on Threat Vector ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and catch new episodes every Thursday on your favorite podcast app. Selected Reading ToolShell Zero-Day Attacks on SharePoint: First Wave Linked to China, Hit High-Value Targets (SecurityWeek) Microsoft: Windows Server KB5062557 causes cluster, VM issues (Bleeping Computer)  File transfer company CrushFTP warns of zero-day exploit seen in the wild (The Record) UK to lead crackdown on cyber criminals with ransomware measures (GOV.UK) Ransomware Group Uses AI Chatbot to Intensify Pressure on Victims (Infosecurity Magazine) Australian Regulator Alleges Financial Firm Exposed Clients to Unacceptable Cyber Risks (Infosecurity Magazine) WordPress spam campaign abuses Google Tag Manager scripts (SC Media) After website hack, Arizona election officials unload on Trump's CISA (CyberScoop) Hungarian police arrest suspect in cyberattacks on independent media (The Record) Serial spyware founder Scott Zuckerman wants the FTC to unban him from the surveillance industry (TechCrunch) Audience Survey Complete our annual audience survey before August 31. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ha llegado la hora de ponernos al día en las cinco áreas de siempre: ePrivacy y marco regulatorio; MarTech y AdTech; IA, competencia y mercados digitales; PETs y Zero-Party Data; Futuro de los medios.  Hemos añadido todas las referencias relevantes a la entrada de este episodio en nuestro blog: mastersofprivacy.com. Voces complementarias creadas por ElevenLabs.  

Esta semana nas rapidinhas falamos do Reddit que acusa a Anthropic, do Google Tag Manager pelo Cloudflare, do ChatGPT com conectores e muito mais…

In this solo episode of the OWNR OPS Podcast, I'm sharing some powerful insights I've been learning about how to scale a service-based business the right way. From mastering paid ads to building systems that actually work for growth, I break down the key strategies I'm using to grow my business, Bearclaw, and how you can apply them to your own local service business.Whether you're just getting started or looking to optimize what you've already got, these actionable tips will help you level up and push your business forward.For those who don't know me, I'm Austin Gray — owner of Bearclaw Land Services, specializing in land clearing, forestry, and snowplowing. I'm also the host of OWNR OPS, where I share my journey and learn from other seven-figure service business owners so we can all grow together.In this episode, you'll learn:The importance of building strong systems before scaling.How paid advertising and sales funnels are critical to growth.Why tracking and analyzing leads through tools like Google Tag Manager is essential.How tagging customers in your CRM can increase long-term customer value.Austin's top tips for generating better leads and optimizing marketing efforts.Tune in and learn from Austin's journey to growing a successful service business!

Send us a textGoogle Tag Manager simplifies website management by allowing you to add and modify tracking codes without editing your site's code directly. This one-time implementation saves time and reduces errors while providing advanced functionality through triggers and variables.• Requires only a one-time code placement on your website• Eliminates the need to edit site code when adding new tracking services• Particularly valuable for non-developers or those without direct site access• Includes powerful conditional triggers for specific events and actions• Works with Google Analytics, Facebook pixels, Google Ads tracking, and more• Useful for both small websites and enterprise-level implementations• Reduces technical errors from incorrect code placementBook a free, no-obligation one-on-one video call with me at keywordspeopleuse.com/demo to see how our tools can help you find and answer your audience's questions. You can also download my free 101 quick SEO tips from the show notes.SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.com Help feed the algorithm and leave a review at ratethispodcast.com/seo You can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tipsTo get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO and get a 7 day FREE trial of our Standard Plan book a demo with me nowSee Edd's personal site at edddawson.comAsk me a question and get on the show Click here to record a questionFind Edd on Linkedin, Bluesky & TwitterFind KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

How can embedding the booking engine and reintroducing voice finally tip the scales for direct bookings?In this episode of dojo.live, we welcome back Josh Graham, Head of Marketing Development for North America at Cloudbeds. This conversation explores the future of direct bookings and digital storefront innovation, with a spotlight on Cloudbeds' embedded booking engine and their AI concierge solution, Engage. From voice-assisted reservations to the power of Google Tag Manager, Josh unpacks how simplifying the guest's path to purchase—and enabling end-to-end journey tracking without data gaps—is helping hotels dramatically improve conversion and loyalty, while also optimizing marketing performance and user experience more effectively.After 10 years in hotel operations at branded and independent hotels in Washington, D.C., Josh Graham transitioned to technology at TravelClick. Over 13 years, he held a number of senior sales, marketing, and go-to-market roles, working with CRS, Business Intelligence, and e-commerce/digital marketing. In his final role, he served as Regional VP for their guest management/CRM product.Following TravelClick's acquisition by Amadeus in 2018, Josh joined Revenue Analytics in 2020 to help launch their RMS solution, N2Pricing. After roles at Salesforce in their Travel and Hospitality unit and FLYR for Hospitality, Josh found his home at Cloudbeds. As Head of Market Development for North America, he drives market awareness and introduces Cloudbeds to new hotelier segments.About Josh

In this powerful episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, hosted by Sean V. Bradley and LA Williams, we bring in a special guest: Penny Vettel-Diersing! Penny shares her extensive experience in auto dealership marketing, starting with a breakdown of intelligent lead routing within the BDC and why customized communication strategies are critical for maximizing every lead opportunity.  "What value before you click send, on a text, on a chat, on an email, what value are you giving to the customer." The conversation then leads to Penny's innovative take on digital marketing, Google tagging, and advanced analytics — showing how dealerships can move beyond simple reply metrics to truly measure the value of every communication effort. And her #1 success in her dealership - Text messaging! "A successful text campaign isn't about the reply count. It's about the action a customer takes after getting your text." If you're ready to sharpen your marketing, drive more meaningful engagement, and rethink how you track success, this episode is a must-listen!   Key Takeaways: ✅ Intelligent Lead Routing: Penny emphasizes the importance of routing leads based on dealer expertise to boost sales efficacy rather than the traditional round-robin method. ✅ Text Communication vs. Marketing: The distinction between communication and marketing was highlighted by Penny, as she proposed data-driven, actionable strategies for improving dealership engagement. ✅ AI-Powered Marketing Tools: The use of technology, particularly AI like Google Gemini, provides cutting-edge solutions for marketing strategies under fluctuating market conditions, improving customer interaction. ✅ Value over Engagement: Penny argues that effective communication should aim to drive customer action rather than merely waiting for a reply, revolutionizing standard dealership practices. ✅ Google Tagging Efficiency: Implementing URL tagging in communications not only tracks engagement but provides essential insight into the effectiveness of each marketing campaign.   About Penny Vettel-Diersing Penny Vettel-Diersing, is a 27-year automotive industry veteran who has mastered digital marketing, business development, and sales strategies! Penny began her automotive career in 1998 at Reynolds & Reynolds, where she specialized in web-based internet lead software, programs, and processes. In 2002, she moved into retail and began building and running business development centers. Since then, her career has expanded to include digital marketing strategies. She manages the sales process from advertising to business development (and everything in between)! Penny is a published author writing: Texts That Sell: How Modern Text Strategies Can Revolutionize Sales Engagement in Automotive Retail!   Inside the Dealer's Mind: Innovative Strategies for Success in the Automotive Industry   Key Takeaways: Strategic Communication: Crafting text marketing campaigns with value-driven calls to action is crucial for engagement and conversion. Intelligent Lead Routing: Tailoring lead allocation based on individual agent expertise can significantly enhance dealership performance and customer satisfaction. Leveraging Technology: Utilizing AI and analytics tools can provide deeper insights and improve marketing outcomes.   Transforming Communication Strategies in the Auto Industry In the fast-evolving landscape of the automotive industry, staying ahead hinges on the ability to embrace innovative communication strategies. Penny Vettel-Diersing, a veteran with 27 years of industry experience, shares a profound insight into how text communication and marketing techniques can redefine dealership success. "You never send a text message to a customer that doesn't give them something exciting to do," Penny emphasizes. This approach not only encourages engagement, but also empowers potential buyers with actionable information. Through the strategic use of Google Tagging and analytics, dealerships can track customer actions, gaining insights into what works and what doesn't. Penny states, "I want to know if they actually did it right… I take that tiny URL and when you click it, I see what you're doing on my website." By focusing on the actions that customers take rather than merely their replies, dealerships can refine their strategies to maximize conversions. This shift in perspective allows dealers to offer solutions tailored to the unique needs of each customer, driving both engagement and sales. Overall, the emphasis on creating value before clicking send and adopting a detailed approach to text communication highlights a pivotal change. Texts should be more than mere messages—they should be dynamic touchpoints that bring meaningful value to the customer. With this strategy, dealerships can foster stronger relationships and enhance customer loyalty. Intelligent Lead Routing: The Path to Empowerment The whirlwind of leads that dealerships manage can often become chaotic without a structured strategy. Penny's approach to intelligent lead routing serves as a beacon of efficiency. By recognizing and capitalizing on the unique strengths of each team member, dealerships can align customer needs with the right expertise. "A lot of dealers want to try to have the government cheese mentality… here's a lead for you, here's a lead for you," remarks Sean V. Bradley. By implementing a system of intelligent lead routing, dealers can customize the lead allocation process. This ensures that opportunities are distributed based on proven strengths, allowing the most capable agents to handle specific customer inquiries. This targeted approach eliminates the pressure of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and instead nurtures precision and efficacy. The use of intelligent lead routing establishes a comprehensive understanding that each lead requires a distinct approach, aligning resources to meet customer expectations effectively. Beyond improving operational efficiency, this strategy nurtures personal growth within the sales team, transforming the mindset from mere opportunity handling to strategic problem-solving. With detailed insights into their performance, agents can continuously refine their skills, enhancing overall dealership performance. Capitalizing on Technology for Success The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics is an evolving force with the potential to redefine success in automotive marketing. As Penny illustrates, leveraging AI tools like Google Gemini can uncover valuable insights, generating innovative approaches to customer communication. Through AI-generated strategies and templates, dealerships can streamline the creation and deployment of marketing campaigns, amplifying their effectiveness. The power of AI lies in its ability to deliver personalized and insightful information rapidly. "You know, you have to take the high road," Penny notes, stressing the importance of communicating with confidence and competence. By automating repetitive tasks and uncovering hidden patterns, AI enables dealerships to focus their energy on nurturing meaningful connections with potential buyers. The use of analytics tools, such as Google Tag Manager, complements AI, allowing dealerships to measure the success of their campaigns with precision. By integrating tagging and analytics, dealerships can gain visibility into the customer journey, monitor their interactions, and make data-driven decisions that optimize future efforts. This fusion of technology empowers dealers with the knowledge to not only meet but exceed customer expectations, ensuring continued success. Reflecting on Innovative Dealership Practices The insights shared by Penny Vettel-Diersing and Sean V. Bradley emphasize the transformative power of innovative strategies in the automotive industry. By redefining communication strategies, dealerships can engage potential buyers with purpose, creating value-driven interactions that foster engagement and loyalty. Emphasizing intelligent lead routing ensures that each prospect is matched with the right expertise, enhancing customer satisfaction and sales team efficiency. Leveraging AI and analytics technology transforms marketing efforts, delivering targeted insights and enabling data-driven decision-making. These strategies illustrate a holistic approach to dealership success. By integrating these techniques, dealerships can adapt to changing customer preferences, capitalize on technological advancements, and forge deeper connections with their customers. As the automotive landscape continues to evolve, dealerships equipped with these innovative practices will be poised to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.   Resources: Podium: Discover how Podium's innovative AI technology can unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive your dealership's sales to new heights. Visit www.podium.com/mcs to learn more!   NCC: Credit-Driven Retailing - NCC delivers industry-best credit-driven retailing for auto dealerships, combining a powerful credit and compliance engine and fully integrated CRM/Desking platform for maximum profitability. Visit www.nccdirect.com/dealer-synergy to learn more!   Complete CRM: Complete CRM is a streamlined, all-in-one system that simplifies your dealership software and processes so you can manage every aspect of your operation with ease; from tracking and following up on leads, desking deals, managing inventory, marketing to your customers, and more. Visit www.nccdirect.com/dealer-synergy to learn more!   Dealer Synergy & Bradley On Demand: The automotive industry's #1 training, tracking, testing, and certification platform and consulting & accountability firm.   The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group: Join the #1 Mastermind Group in the Automotive Industry! With over 28,000 members, gain access to successful automotive mentors & managers, the best industry practices, & collaborate with automotive professionals from around the WORLD! Join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today!   Win the Game of Googleopoly: Unlocking the secret strategy of search engines.     The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast is Proudly Sponsored By: Podium: Elevating Dealership Excellence with Intelligent Customer Engagement Solutions. Unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive sales with Podium's innovative AI technology, featured proudly on the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast. Visit www.podium.com/mcs to learn more!   NCC: Powered by proprietary solutions such as Intelligent Credit Engine™ and LenderSelect™, NCC transforms the car-buying experience for dealers and their customers. From compliance and lender selection to CRM and desking, to marketing and data mining—NCC integrates them all in a single, seamless platform to deliver better customer experiences, maximum efficiency and maximum profit. Visit www.nccdirect.com/dealer-synergy to learn more!   Complete CRM: As an innovative leader in the industry for the last 30 years, Complete CRM is designed to give your dealership the competitive edge in a demanding marketplace. Powered by Complete Credit™ and award-winning desking, Complete CRM™ is the industry's only credit and compliance-enabled CRM that lets dealers achieve maximum profitability on every deal. Built on modern technology, Complete CRM seamlessly integrates credit, compliance, inventory, data mining, lead generation, enterprise functionality, and customized reporting in one tool with a single login. Visit www.nccdirect.com/dealer-synergy to learn more!   Dealer Synergy: The #1 Automotive Sales Training, Consulting, and Accountability Firm in the industry! With over two decades of experience in building Internet Departments and BDCs, we have developed the most effective automotive Internet Sales, BDC, and CRM solutions. Our expertise in creating phone scripts, rebuttals, CRM action plans, strategies, and templates ensures that your dealership's tools and personnel reach their full potential.   Bradley On Demand: The automotive sales industry's top Interactive Training, Tracking, Testing, and Certification Platform. Featuring LIVE Classes and over 9,000 training modules, our platform equips your dealership with everything needed to sell more cars, more often, and more profitably!  

This Podcast is sponsored by Team Simmer.Go to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases.The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles.Sign up to the Simmer Newsletter for the latest news in Technical Marketing.Latest content from Juliana & SimoSign-up to Juliana's newsletter: Beyond The Mean. Subscribe here: https://julianajackson.substack.com/Latest from Simo: Clarification On GTM Auto-Loading Google Tag For Ads And Floodlight EventsLatest from Juliana: Brand Moments, Contextual Experience Debt, and Perception-Led Segmentation: A New Framework for Digital ExperienceConnect With Dave CainLinkedin This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava.

Welcome to another engaging episode of MOJO: The Meaning of Life and Business, where host Jennifer Glass delves into the often underestimated importance of tracking website conversions. In this episode, Jennifer is joined by Mark Harbeke, an expert in marketing analytics and founder of Harbeke Marketing, who brings a wealth of experience dating back to 2006. As many businesses invest significant resources into developing their websites, it's crucial to understand how visitors interact with these sites and convert into customers.Mark discusses his journey from journalism into marketing analytics, detailing the evolution of tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) to aid in this process. He breaks down the transition from GA3 to GA4, emphasizing the enhanced reporting capabilities and user-friendly interfaces that make it easier for business owners to track user engagement. Additionally, Mark introduces the concept of GTM, explaining its role in creating custom tracking events that shed light on the effectiveness of specific calls to action (CTAs) on a website.Listeners will discover the critical nature of analyzing unique visits, user paths, and other data points to optimize their websites and improve their return on investment. For those feeling overwhelmed by technical jargon, Mark and Jennifer ensure the discussion remains accessible, highlighting how even non-tech savvy individuals can implement and benefit from these tools. Furthermore, they touch upon the use of UTM parameters for detailed tracking of campaign performances.Whether you're a small business owner or part of a marketing agency, this episode offers practical insights and actionable steps to make your website work harder for you. Dive into this comprehensive discussion to enhance your understanding of GA4 and GTM and discover strategies to maximize your website's impact on your business success.About my guest: Mark Harbeke has been in the marketing industry since 2006 and founded his company, Harbeke Marketing in 2023. Mark helps small businesses to improve their website conversion tracking, including clients of marketing agencies and fractional CMOs. He also offers a video course that helps service business owners and solopreneurs to grow their leads pipelines.Keywords: Website conversion tracking, GA4, Google Analytics, Harbeck Marketing, website optimization, small business marketing, website conversion tools, website data analysis, user experience reports, e-commerce transactions, unique visitors, mobile visits, desktop visits, demographic data, GTM, Google Tag Manager, conversion events, UTM, Urchin Tracking Module, link tracking, form submissions, call-to-action tracking, conversion rate improvement, Facebook retargeting, Ad return on investment, website usability testing, online marketing strategies, analytics reporting, website traffic sources, email campaign tracking, lead generation analytics

In this episode of The Pro Church Marketing Podcast, we're diving deep into conversion tracking—why it matters and how to do it right. Jono Long is joined by Google Ads expert John Hosko and Faithworks's Melissa Keane to simplify the ins and outs of tracking actions like form submissions, phone calls, and donations using Google Tag Manager and GA4 Analytics. Whether you're a church using the Google Ad Grant or a nonprofit running paid ads, this episode shows how conversion tracking can be the key to unlocking performance. Learn how to stay compliant with Google's ad grant rules, get practical steps to set up tracking without coding, and discover how to use that data to improve your website's effectiveness and campaign results. You'll also hear real-world examples of how small changes on your website can lead to major gains—and how not tracking your conversions could be costing you clicks, opportunities, and even your grant. ✅ Great for churches, nonprofits, and anyone managing Google Ads! #GoogleAdGrant #ConversionTracking #ChurchMarketing #FaithworksMarketing #NonprofitMarketing #GoogleTagManager #GA4 #DigitalMissions

En este episodio se discute el estado de la medición en 2025, abordando los cambios en Google Tag Manager, la pérdida de datos en campañas publicitarias, y los desafíos que enfrentan los profesionales del marketing debido a las nuevas regulaciones de consentimiento.Analizan cómo estos cambios impactan la recolección de datos y la efectividad de las campañas publicitarias, así como el futuro de la analítica en un entorno digital en constante evolución.En esta conversación se discuten los desafíos actuales en la implementación de soluciones de medición digital, especialmente en relación con Google y su sistema de etiquetas.Se abordan las limitaciones de las soluciones actuales, la importancia del server side tracking y las mejores prácticas para optimizar la recolección de datos en un entorno regulado.Los participantes también analizan los costos asociados y las oportunidades que surgen en un contexto complicado para el marketing digital.En esta conversación se abordan los desafíos actuales en la gestión de datos en marketing digital, la importancia de la calidad de los datos y las estrategias de atribución.Se discute el futuro de la medición y la analítica, así como recomendaciones para la recopilación de datos de manera legal y efectiva.Los participantes enfatizan la necesidad de diversificar las estrategias de marketing y la importancia de la medición homogénea para obtener resultados óptimos.00:00 Introducción al Estado de la Medición en 202502:56 Cambios en Google Tag Manager y Etiquetas05:59 Impacto de la Pérdida de Datos en las Campañas09:01 Consentimiento y Regulaciones en la Recolección de Datos11:56 Desafíos de la Medición en un Entorno Cambiante14:57 El Futuro de la Publicidad y la Analítica17:56 Reflexiones Finales sobre la Medición y el Consentimiento23:05 La Realidad de Google y las Soluciones a Medias26:07 Desafíos en la Implementación de Etiquetas de Google28:01 Nuevas Funcionalidades y el Modo Propio de Google30:44 El Impacto del ITP y la Prevención de Tracking32:20 Buenas Prácticas para la Medición Efectiva34:13 El Server Side Tracking como Solución39:17 Costos y Beneficios del Server Side Tracking43:29 Oportunidades en un Entorno Complicado44:13 Desafíos en la Gestión de Datos47:04 La Importancia de la Calidad de los Datos49:11 Atribución y Cookies en el Marketing Digital51:37 El Futuro de la Medición y la Analítica54:53 Recomendaciones para la Recopilación de Datos01:00:20 Cierre y Reflexiones FinalesPPCFest: ppcfest.comPPCCast+: ppccast.com/plusPatrocinadores:Raiola Networks: ppccast.com/raiolaData Feed Watch: ppccast.com/datafeedConvertiam: ppccast.com/convertiam

In this episode of No Hacks Snacks, I talked to Marin Radovan, a digital analytics and martech expert about the intricacies of consent mode in Google Tag Manager. Marin emphasized the importance of setting up a proper Consent Management Platform (CMP) and the significant repercussions of neglecting this essential step. Marin highlighted legal risks, particularly under GDPR regulations, and the potential loss of crucial data that can hinder business decisions and optimizations. Common issues he encounters include incomplete consent setups across different subdomains and outdated CMP versions. To address these challenges, he provides actionable insights on identifying stakeholders and implementing ideal CMP setups that are both user-friendly and compliant with privacy laws.Tune in to learn why getting consent right is crucial for both legal compliance and effective digital marketing.---If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend!No Hacks websiteYouTubeLinkedInInstagram

Google Tag Manager (GTM), dijital pazarlamanın gizli silahı mı? Yoksa gereksiz bir araç mı? Eğer hala GTM kullanmıyorsan, büyük ihtimalle dönüşüm takiplerinde hatalar yapıyor, kampanyalarını yanlış verilerle yönetiyor ve en önemlisi, zaman kaybediyorsun! Bugünkü bölümde GTM'nin neden her pazarlamacının bilmesi gereken bir araç olduğunu konuşacağız. Teknik bir konu gibi görünebilir ama merak etme, GTM'yi en basit haliyle anlatacağım. Eğer Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok veya diğer platformlarda reklam veriyorsan ve dönüşümlerini takip etmek istiyorsan, bu bölümü sakın kaçırma! Bölümde Neler Konuşacağız? ✅ Google Tag Manager nedir, ne işe yarar? ✅ Pazarlamacılar neden GTM kullanmalı? ✅ GTM ile kod yazmadan etiket yönetimi nasıl yapılır? ✅ E-ticaret ve performans pazarlamasında GTM'nin sağladığı avantajlar ✅ GTM ücretli mi? Alternatifleri neler? ✅ GTM vs. Alternatif araçlar: Hangisi daha iyi? ✅ GTM'yi kullanmaya başlamak için yapman gerekenler Öncelikle, dijital pazarlamada en büyük hatalardan biri, dönüşümleri doğru takip etmemek! Belki Google Ads'te reklamlar veriyorsun, Facebook ve Instagram'da kampanyalar yürütüyorsun… Ama gerçekten kaç kişi sitene geldi, hangi sayfalarda vakit geçirdi, hangi butona bastı ve en önemlisi, alışveriş yaptı mı? Bunları yanlış ölçüyorsan, verdiğin reklam bütçesini boşa harcıyor olabilirsin! İşte tam burada Google Tag Manager devreye giriyor! Eskiden her bir takip kodunu web sitesine eklemek için bir yazılımcıya ihtiyacın vardı. Facebook Pixel mi eklemek istiyorsun? Geliştiriciye haber ver, kodu eklesin, sonra test edilsin… Günler sürebiliyordu! GTM sayesinde, hiçbir kod yazmadan tüm bu süreçleri tek bir panelden yönetebiliyorsun. GTM Nasıl Çalışıyor? Düşün ki GTM bir kontrol paneli gibi… Web sitene veya uygulamana eklediğin tüm etiketleri buradan yönetiyorsun. Örneğin:

From our Sponsors at SimmerGo to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases.The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles.Latest content from Juliana & Simo#GTMTips: Quickly Duplicate Tags In Google Tag Manager by Simo AhavaSend App Data To Server-side Google Tag Manager by Simo AhavaHow to Nail Client Discovery using 10 Behavior Science Principles by Juliana JacksonHow to Measure AI ROI in CX: The Value Chain Framework by Juliana Jackson This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava. Intro jingle by Jason Packer and Josh Silverbauer.

Send us a textIn this Office Hours episode on The Digital Marketing Mentor Podcast, Danny sits down with Optidge's Head of Paid Search, Brianna Deboever, to dive deep into Google Ads. As our resident expert in paid search, she shares her insights on spotting red flags, optimizing campaign settings, and avoiding common pitfalls.  Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just getting started, this episode will guide you through building stronger, more efficient paid search campaigns. Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to's, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights: When it comes to Google Ads campaign setup, a few best practices include limiting ad groups to 3-7 keywords, avoiding overuse of broad match keywords, and setting location settings to “presence only.” Once your campaigns are ready to go live, Brianna recommends beginning with manual bidding and regular monitoring of conversion tracking to ensure accuracy and alignment before transitioning to automated tracking tactics. Brianna suggests incorporating negative keywords to reduce wasted ad spend and reviewing search terms frequently to refine keyword lists, assign accurate values to conversions, and enhance targeting. It's good practice to utilize tools like Clickcease, Google Tag Manager and GA4 in paid search to block spam traffic, streamline conversion tracking, and ensure alignment with campaign goals. Episode Links: Brianna's Linkedin Brianna's previous The Digital Marketing Mentor podcast episodeFollow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business's digital marketing strategy.

Remarketing is one of the most underrated yet impactful strategies in digital advertising. But how do you re-engage potential customers without crossing the line into annoyance? On this episode of the Stay Hungry Podcast, Joel Stone and Martha Dale reveal the secrets to mastering the art of remarketing. Packed with real-world examples and actionable tips, this episode will help you transform lost opportunities into loyal customers.Joel and Martha begin with the fundamentals of remarketing - what it is, why it works, and how familiarity can dramatically boost conversions. Did you know that only 2% of visitors convert on their first visit? Remarketing bridges that gap, and this episode shows you how.Key Topics Discussed:Why Remarketing Matters: Discover how retargeting past visitors and customers drives trust, builds familiarity, and increases conversions.Best Practices for Remarketing: Learn the golden rule of adding value without overwhelming your audience, tailoring messages to different user actions, and avoiding ad fatigue with techniques like frequency capping.Success Stories: Real-life case studies of businesses boosting sales and conversions with dynamic product ads and email retargeting.Common Mistakes to Avoid: Don't fall into the traps of over-targeting, mismatched messaging, or poorly timed campaigns.Actionable Takeaways: Practical steps like setting up tracking tools (Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager), building audiences, and launching your first remarketing campaign.Whether you're an entrepreneur, marketer, or small business owner, Joel and Martha's insights will give you the confidence to dive into remarketing with strategies that work. With their expert guidance, you'll be able to engage your audience smartly, drive results, and avoid the pitfalls that can damage trust.Links Website: https://www.codebreak.co.uk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codebreakcrew/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/codebreakcrew/Joel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelstoneofficial/ Joel's Facebook: https://facebook.com/joelstoneofficial/Free Marketing Budget Calculator: https://codebreak.outgrow.us/knowyournumbers Arrange a call with Codebreak: https://form.jotform.com/241272835208051 InstagramFacebookLinkedIn

Visit thedigitalslicepodcast.com for complete show notes of every podcast episode. Join Brad and Mercer as they chat about how small business owners can identify key metrics and master measurement marketing to guide their decisions.  Chris Mercer is an esteemed measurement marketing expert and the co-founder of MeasurementMarketing.io. With an unwavering dedication to helping marketers, marketing teams, and agencies understand and leverage data, Mercer has become a trusted name in the industry. Mercer's approach to measurement marketing is comprehensive and actionable. He guides his audience through the crucial steps of identifying key metrics, implementing measurement tools like Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4, and creating insightful dashboards. With his extensive knowledge and ability to simplify complex concepts, Mercer has become a sought-after speaker at prestigious conferences and events, including Traffic & Conversion, Social Media Marketing World, Content Jam, and more.  The Digital Slice Podcast is brought to you by Magai, up your AI game at https://friedmansocialmedia.com/magai.

In this episode, we welcome marketing expert and official Google expert and trainer Maria Elena Duron, who shares invaluable insights into how bloggers and content creators can boost visibility and build audience trust using Google tools. https://creativesonfirepodcast.com/episode168 Key Points: Optimize with Google Tools to Build Trust Google puts extra trust in content creators who utilize its tools, like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Business Profile. Ensure consistency across these tools to increase Google's confidence in your content, improving your chances of appearing in top search results. Prioritize Content Quality and Reader Relevance Write for your audience by addressing their key questions and challenges. Use Google Search Console to see which keywords and questions are leading people to your blog, so you can create more content that truly resonates with readers. Speed and Security Matter A secure and fast-loading site (especially on mobile) is crucial; Google rewards these factors in search rankings. Consider using tools like Google Tag Manager to offload heavy plugins and improve site performance. Why It Matters: Building trust and focusing on relevant, valuable content creates a foundation for strong SEO and a loyal audience, increasing organic reach over time. Listen in and take your blogging visibility to the next level! New to blogging or looking for a refresh? Visit CreativesOnFirePodcast.com/start to get started. Remember, no one is you, and that's your superpower! Links and resources mentioned during this episode: 164 | The Achieve Conference 2024 Connect with Maria on Instagram @MarketingCoachMaria or LinkedIn, and visit her website, KLIbrand.com, for free webinars and community support. Free Guide: How to Start a Blog 2025 Content Planner is HERE! SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW I am honored to share a new Blogging Creative on Fire each week on the podcast to bring you inspiration, behind-the-scenes secrets, and quality tips. I hope it is truly helpful for you. One of the best ways you can bless me in return is to subscribe to the show and leave a review. By subscribing, you allow each episode to be downloaded straight to your phone which helps the download numbers and ensures you never miss an episode. And when you leave a review, you help show others the value of what we provide! You can GO HERE to subscribe and review

From our Sponsors at SimmerGo to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases.The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles.A new course is out now! Chrome DevTools for Digital MarketersLatest content from Juliana & SimoArticle: Cookie Access With Shopify Checkout And SGTM by Simo AhavaArticle: Unlocking Real-Time Insights: How does Piwik PRO's Real-Time Dashboarding Feature work? by Juliana JacksonAlso mentioned in the EpisodeStape's blog: https://stape.io/blogStape website: https://stape.ioMeasure Slack: https://www.measure.chat/Connect with Denis Golubovskyi This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava. Intro jingle by Jason Packer and Josh Silverbauer.

Title: Insider Secrets for Digital Marketing Success Part 2In this episode, join Steffen Horst and digital marketing expert Navar Hopkins in Part 2 of their insightful series on how small businesses can thrive through digital advertising. Discover the essential strategies for effective advertising, explore the latest ad channels like local service ads and DemandGen, and learn how to avoid common pitfalls. With over 15 years of experience, Navar shares her expertise on budget allocation, conversion tracking, and the importance of data-driven decision-making. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your digital marketing game!On this episode, We'll talk about:Advertising Strategies: The importance of location targeting and time zone considerations when running ads, particularly in the U.S. market.Conversion Tracking: The significance of using Google Tag Manager for efficient tracking and how it can improve site speed and diagnostics.Primary vs. Secondary Conversions: Understanding the difference between primary conversions (which impact reporting and bidding) and secondary conversions (which do not) and how to manage expectations during periods of volatility.Micro Conversions: The suggestion to incorporate micro conversions if a business is struggling to reach the required number of conversions for effective ad performance.Community Engagement: Navar Hopkins shares ways to connect with her and learn more about PPC management through various platforms and groups.The views and opinions expressed on the “Performance Delivered” podcast are solely those of the author and guests and should not be attributed to any other individual or entity. This podcast is an independent production of Performance Delivered, and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2024.

Show Resources: Here were the resources we covered in the episode: Join the LinkedIn Ads Fanatics community and get access to our 4 courses to take you from beginner to expert Follow AJ on LinkedIn B2Linked's YouTube Channel LinkedIn Learning Course Contact us at Podcast@B2Linked.com with any questions, suggestions, corrections! A great no-cost way to support us: Rate/Review! Show Notes: Episode Summary: In this episode of the LinkedIn Ads Show, host AJ Wilcox dives into LinkedIn's product roadmap, detailing new and upcoming features advertisers should get excited about. If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve and leverage the latest tools in LinkedIn Ads, this episode gives you everything you need to know. AJ shares personal insights, community feedback, and predictions for how these features could impact your campaigns. Key Topics Covered: Pro Tip for Lead Generation Ads: Keep ad copy between 100-160 characters to avoid the “See More” link, saving costs on unnecessary clicks that don't trigger lead forms. Dynamic Sponsored Content in Alpha: Salesforce is testing dynamic variables (like industry or company name) in sponsored content. Expect more personalization options coming soon. Reserved Ads & Primetime Ads (2025): Reserved Ads: Secure the first ad slot in the feed for maximum visibility. Primetime Ads: Achieve 100% audience reach within a 24-hour period—ideal for major campaigns. Live Event Ads Rolling Out: Promote live events dynamically before, during, and after the event, with advanced retargeting options based on attendee engagement. Connected TV (CTV) in Public Beta: Use LinkedIn targeting to deliver non-skippable video ads on streaming services like Roku, Hulu, and Peacock. Buyer Group Targeting (Q2 2025): Automatically target the entire buyer's committee with roles and titles relevant to a specific prospect. Conversion API Now Available: Report conversions with high accuracy without relying on cookies. Partners include HubSpot, Zapier, and Google Tag Manager. Dynamic UTM Parameters Launched: Apply dynamic UTM tracking at the campaign or account level to streamline campaign setup and reporting. Business Manager Enhancements: Block/Allow Lists can now be applied at the Business Manager level, simplifying brand safety management across multiple accounts. Coming Soon: Publisher Reporting & Share of Voice Insights: Get performance breakdowns by publisher for LAN and CTV ads, and measure how much visibility your brand captures compared to competitors. Objective-Aware Creative Rotation (Q1 2025): AI-powered ad rotation tailored to campaign objectives for better performance. Predictive Companies Beta: Expands on predictive audiences by identifying entire companies showing interest, offering more precise B2B targeting. If you want to stay ahead with these new LinkedIn Ads features, we've got AJ's expert breakdowns and actionable tips! Don't miss this opportunity to prepare for the future of LinkedIn Ads. Get insights into what's working, how to optimize campaigns with the latest tools, and how to use new features to boost your results. Join the LinkedIn Ads Fanatics community to discuss strategies, learn from experts, and upgrade your advertising game! Show Transcript: For the full show transcript, see the show notes page here: Episode 151

Send us a textEver felt overwhelmed by the myriad of tracking codes needed to optimize your website's performance? Imagine a world where you only need to place a single piece of code once and manage everything else through an intuitive web interface. Join me, Ed Dawson, as I unravel the wonders of Google Tag Manager, your new best friend for seamless website management. From my recent Shopify setup experience, I'll share how Tag Manager revolutionized my workflow, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.In this episode of "SEO is Not That Hard," you'll gain practical insights on integrating essential services like Google Analytics and Facebook tracking pixels without the hassle of constant code updates. Whether you're an SEO veteran or just starting, understanding the power of Google Tag Manager can significantly boost your site's functionality. Tune in to discover how this tool can make your SEO efforts not just efficient, but downright enjoyable!SEO Is Not That Hard is hosted by Edd Dawson and brought to you by KeywordsPeopleUse.comYou can get your free copy of my 101 Quick SEO Tips at: https://seotips.edddawson.com/101-quick-seo-tipsTo get a personal no-obligation demo of how KeywordsPeopleUse could help you boost your SEO then book an appointment with me nowSee Edd's personal site at edddawson.comAsk me a question and get on the show Click here to record a questionFind Edd on Twitter @channel5Find KeywordsPeopleUse on Twitter @kwds_ppl_use"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

From our Sponsors at SimmerGo to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases.The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles.A new course is out now! Chrome DevTools for Digital MarketersLatest content from Juliana & SimoArticle: GA4 to Piwik PRO Using Server-side Google Tag Manager by Simo AhavaArticle: Unlocking Real-Time Insights: How does Piwik PRO's Real-Time Dashboarding Feature work? by Juliana JacksonAlso mentioned in the EpisodeKick Point Playbook content consumption tracking recipe from DanaKick Point Playbook Newsletter - The HuddleDana's LinkedIn Learning CoursesGoogle Developers AcademyConnect with Dana DiTomasoDana's LinkedinKick Point Playbook website This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava. Intro jingle by Jason Packer and Josh Silverbauer.

From our Sponsors at SimmerGo to TeamSimmer and use the coupon code DEVIATE for 10% on individual course purchases.The Technical Marketing Handbook provides a comprehensive journey through technical marketing principles.A new course is out now! Chrome DevTools for Digital MarketersLatest content from Juliana & SimoNew Piwik PRO Templates In Server-side Google Tag Manager by Simo AhavaArticle: Unlocking Real-Time Insights: How does Piwik PRO's Real-Time Dashboarding Feature work? by Juliana JacksonAlso mentioned in the EpisodePiwik PROServer Side Webinar with Simo and Piwik PROGTM ToolsStape.ioGoogle Algo Leak explainedGenerative Engine OptimisationGoogle Satisfaction Score PaperSMX LondonConnect with Michael KingLinkedinhttps://ipullrank.com/ This podcast is brought to you by Juliana Jackson and Simo Ahava. Intro jingle by Jason Packer and Josh Silverbauer.

Google Tag Manager is an excellent tool… when it works and is used properly. GTM allows marketers to insert code into your website without needing a developer, who are frequently busy. But to a developers fear, GTM lets marketers insert code into a live website. In this episode of the Digital Marketing Podcast, we are joined by digital marketing consultant Becky from Tattoo Ink Marketing, who will help us identify the most common mistakes to avoid with Google Tag Manager and how to fix them. -- Show notes:   Have any feedback on the show? , tell us what you love and what you think could be better. And, if you are really enjoying the show, please 

Send me a text!In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show Podcast, I interview Katlyn Paskorz, the owner of KatydidPGH. We discuss her journey from an unfulfilling career in banking to becoming a WordPress designer and SEO expert for small business owners. Key points include Katlyn's transition to SEO, the importance of talking to customers for creating effective strategies, and leveraging tools like Google Business Profile and Google Ads for optimizing web presence. Katlyn also shares practical tips like using Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics and creating local-customized content for better traffic conversion. We finish by highlighting the importance of gradually implementing SEO principles into everyday business processes and making SEO accessible and straightforward for everyone.Connect with Katlyn:LinkedInInstagramFree Website GuideFree Meta Description Guide0:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome00:17 Katlyn's Pittsburgh Connection01:27 Katlyn's Journey to Starting Her Agency03:05 The Creative Side of SEO04:10 Client Strategies and Packages04:54 Importance of Customer Interaction06:57 Leveraging Google Business Profile and Ads14:45 Using Google Tools for SEO17:51 Understanding Google Analytics for Small Businesses18:18 Setting Up and Tracking Key Metrics18:50 The Importance of Quality Traffic20:27 Optimizing Blog Content for Conversions22:22 Creating Conversion-Focused Content23:42 Leveraging LinkedIn for SEO24:51 SEO Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs27:33 Conclusion and ResourcesSchool of Podcasting -Launch, Grow, Monetize Your PodcastYou're don't know where to learn to podcast. Now You do. Click the link.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the Show.Search the Simple and Smart SEO Show podcast for something you heard! It's free!Apply to be my podcast guest!

In this video, we will delve into the basic principles of Google Tag Manager and how to track website events without any coding. Google Tag Manager is a tool that enables you to easily update and manage tracking codes on your website or mobile app. While this tool allows you to track various conversion actions such as video views, file downloads, bounce rate, and page scroll length, today we will focus on setting up event tracking for Google Analytics and AdWords. You will learn: The Basics: Container, Tag, Trigger, and Variable concepts You can also watch the video: https://youtube.com/live/OQL0E0m9Fwg Work with us to grow your apps faster & cheaper: *************** SPONSORS Are you aiming to make your messaging more unique? Elevate your communication with Phoji custom emojis. Designed from authentic content, our custom emojis convey genuine emotions and meanings. Whether it's for individual chats or mass communication, Phoji SaaS seamlessly integrates across all platforms. *************** Follow us: YouTube: ⁠AppMasters.com/YouTube⁠ Instagram: ⁠@App Masters Twitter: ⁠@App Masters TikTok: ⁠@stevepyoung⁠ Facebook: ⁠App Masters⁠ *************** How to track various user touchpoints on the web How to set up Google Tag Manager on WordPress/Shopify sites --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/app-marketing-podcast/message

 Ever wondered how a chance snowstorm and an RV can lead to profound insights on shed industry marketing? That's precisely where our adventure begins as Dylan Street and I, Shannon Latham, reminisce about our snowy escapade to Knoxville, setting the stage for an episode that's as unpredictable as the weather. We unpack the story of our professional journeys—mine from the sales floor to the marketing sphere, and Dylan's from the world of heavy machinery to the heart of the shed industry—highlighting the transformative power of effective communication and the importance of truly understanding our audience.Peek behind the curtain of shed design and industry collaboration with us. We explore the innovative My Shed 3D tool, which empowers customers to customize their dream sheds with a few clicks, and discuss Shed U's role in fostering a collaborative dealer network. Our personal tales interlace with the shared narrative of community and growth, reminding us that at the core of our bustling industry lies the simple goal of serving through selling. This episode is a toast to the technology that's reshaping our trade and the communal spirit steering us toward collective success.Strap in as we chart a course through the maze of marketing strategies that can turbocharge a shed business in the digital age. From capturing lead details with pinpoint precision to differentiating our approach to sales and marketing, we tackle the Idaho client conundrum—swamped with leads but starved for sales—and the solutions that flipped the script. And don't miss our practical guide on navigating the often-treacherous waters of Facebook advertising, the usefulness of Google Tag Manager, and why data is the new currency in our tech-savvy marketplace. Join us, and you might just find the digital marketing keys to unlock your business's potential. Also, find out how the podcast can be heard throughout the plain communities by dialing the number 330-997-3055. If the number is busy, just dial again! For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.This episodes Sponsors:Studio Sponsor: Union Grove LumberMy ShedDigital Shed BuilderShed HubCAL

Welcome back to seasoned marketing analyst, strategist, educator, and owner of BEAST Analytics, Brie Anderson, for her second interview segment. The last episode was all about setting the stage. This week, Erin and Brie will take you through the rehearsal process necessary to rock out a live GA4 performance! Learn to develop a rehearsal plan of analyzation tactics so that you can steer your content in the right direction come showtime. Now you've taken the stage! Get ready to execute an analytical symphony that springs the audience to their feet this week on the EDGE of the Web! [00:03:21] Introducing Brie Anderson [00:04:06] Brie's GA4 Session at Brighton SEO  [00:06:05] Testing GA4 Before the ‘Show'  [00:11:22] Can You Set Up GA4 Tracking to Expand Behavioral Analysis? [00:16:12] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics [00:17:14] What to Actually Do With All This Data [00:19:58] Is Multi-Touch Reporting in GA4? What About Assisted Conversion Reporting?  [00:23:18] Benchmarks of User Experience  [00:29:00] EDGE of The Web Sponsor: Wix  [00:30:11] Mapping Out The User Journey [00:38:40] Brie's Experience From Developing Educational Courses [00:41:11] Final Pro Tip From Brie Anderson Thanks to Our Sponsors! Site Strategics: http://edgeofthewebradio.com/site   Wix: http://edgeofthewebradio.com/wix Follow Our Guest Twitter: https://twitter.com/brie_e_anderson?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brieeanderson/ Resources:  BEAST Analytics GA4SEO - BEAST Analytics  UTM Generator Google Sheet

In this episode, we bring Daniel Roe, the Lead Maintainer of Nuxt.js, an open source framework that makes web development intuitive and powerful. Today, he shares his journey into the framework and sheds some light on intriguing questions surrounding its development and usage. Today's talk ranges from the origins of Nuxt to its unique features and practical tips for developers, deliberate naming, comparison with Next.js and technical and detailed discussion regarding performance optimization and project structuring.Learn back-end development - https://boot.devListen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fmDaniel's Twitter: https://x.com/danielcroeDaniel's Website: https://roe.dev/Nuxt Framework: https://nuxt.com(00:14) - How did Daniel Roe join Nuxt? (02:53) - Elk, Moose and Wilderness (06:07) - Was it named Nuxt intentionally to confuse people? (08:32) - Next.js vendor lock-in criticism and does Nuxt have any similar issues (11:31) - Boot.dev moved from a Vue 3 SPA to Nuxt (14:19) - Auto-importing by default? (20:01) - Using longer variable names because of global namespace (21:58) - Explaining the default Nuxt payload behavior (26:59) - Default prefetching (30:17) - What are the most common use cases for Nuxt apps (32:32) - Who has control in your project? (33:45) - Enabling JavaScript or not? (37:25) - Updating head tags in Nuxt (39:09) - New feature that improves script handling in Nuxt (41:01) - What do you prioritize? Interactivity or Scripts? (42:06) - Google Tag Manager (46:07) - What's Daniel's favorite Nuxt feature? (47:11) - Types are amazing! (49:37) - How did the Idea of Boot.dev came to be? (51:24) - Gamification of coding (53:46) - Theory is picked up from practice (56:05) - What's one thing you'd instantly change about Nuxt if you could (59:04) - Separation of what goes on in the client vs the server in the same file (01:04:44) - Where to find Daniel

If you missed the other episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can listen to the first episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e2incubatorgoodz) and the second episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e4incubatorgoodz), and the third episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e6incubatorgoodz) to catch up! Lindsey Christensen and Jordyn Bonds catch up with the co-founders of Goodz, Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal, where they share insights from their journey during the Incubator program, including the usefulness of the application process in aligning their vision and the challenges and benefits of user interviews and the importance of not overreacting to single user feedback and finding a balance in responding to diverse opinions. They reveal the varied reactions of users to Goodz's product, highlighting the different market segments interested in it. As the Incubator program nears its end for Goodz, Chris and Mike reflect on their achievements and future plans. They've made significant progress, such as setting up an e-commerce site and conducting successful user interviews. The co-founders discuss their excitement about the potential of their product and the validation they received from users. Mike mentions the importance of focusing on B2B sales and the possibility of upcoming events like South by Southwest and Record Store Day. Transcript: LINDSEY: Thanks for being here. My name's Lindsey. I head up marketing at thoughtbot. If you haven't joined one of these before, we are checking in with two of the founders who are going through the thoughtbot Startup Incubator to learn how it's going, what's new, what challenges they're hitting, and what they're learning along the way. If you're not familiar with thoughtbot, we're a product design and development consultancy, and we hope your team and your product become a success. And one way we do that is through our startup incubator. So, today, we are joined by our co-founders, Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito, Co-Founders of the startup Goodz. And we also have another special guest today, Danny Kim, from the thoughtbot side, Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot. So, I think, to start off, we'll head over to the new face, the new voice that we've got with us today. Danny, tell us a little bit about your role at thoughtbot and, specifically, the incubator. DANNY: Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me on, and thanks for letting me join in on all the fun. I'm one of the product managers at thoughtbot. I typically work for the Lift-Off team. We usually work with companies that are looking to, like, go into market with their first version MVP. They might have a product that exists and that they're already kind of doing well with, and they kind of want to jump into a new segment. We'll typically work with companies like that to kind of get them kicked off the ground. But it's been really awesome being part of the incubator program. It's my first time in helping with the market validation side. Definitely also, like, learning a lot from this experience [laughs] for myself. Coming at it specifically from a PM perspective, there's, like, so much variation usually in product management across the industry, depending on, like, what stage of the product that you're working in. And so, I'm definitely feeling my fair share of impostor syndrome here. But it's been really fun to stretch my brand and, like, approach problems from, like, a completely different perspective and also using different tools. But, you know, working with Mike and Chris makes it so much easier because they really make it feel like you're part of their team, and so that definitely goes a long way. LINDSEY: It just goes to show everyone gets impostor syndrome sometimes [laughter], even senior product managers at thoughtbot [laughter]. Thanks for that intro. It's, you know, the thoughtbot team learns along the way, too, you know, especially if usually you're focused on a different stage of product development. Mike, it's been only three weeks or a very long three weeks since last we checked in with you, kind of forever in startup time. So, I think the last time, we were just getting to know you two. And you were walking us through the concept, this merging of the digital and physical world of music, and how we interact with music keepsakes or merchandise. How's my pitch? MIKE: Good. Great. You're killing it. [laughter] LINDSEY: And has anything major changed to that concept in the last three weeks? MIKE: No. I mean, I can't believe it's only been three weeks. It feels like it's been a long time since we last talked. It's been an intense three weeks, for sure. No, it's been going really well. I mean, we launched all sorts of stuff. I'm trying to think of anything that's sort of fundamentally changed in terms of the plan itself or kind of our, yeah, what we've been working on. And I think we've pretty much stayed the course to sort of get to where we are now. But it's been really intensive. I think also having sort of Thanksgiving in there, and we were kind of pushing to get something live right before the Thanksgiving break. And so, that week just felt, I mean, I was just dead by, you know, like, Thursday of Thanksgiving. I think we all were. So, it's been intense, I would say, is the short answer. And I'm happy, yeah, to get into kind of where things are at. But big picture, it's been an intense three weeks. LINDSEY: That's cool. And when we talked, you were, you know, definitely getting into research and user interviews. Have those influenced any, you know, changes along the way in the plan? MIKE: Yeah. They've been really helpful. You know, we'd never really done that before in any of the sort of past projects that we've worked on together. And so, I think just being able to, you know, read through some of those scripts and then sit through some of the interviews and just kind of hearing people's honest assessment of some things has been really interesting. I'm trying to think if it's materially affected anything. I guess, you know, at first, we were, like, we kind of had some assumptions around, okay, let's try to find, like...adult gift-givers sounds like the wrong thing, adults who give gifts as, like, a persona. The idea that, like, you know, maybe you gift your siblings gifts, and then maybe this could be a good gift idea. And I think, you know, we had a hard time kind of finding people to talk in an interesting way about that. And I think we've kind of realized it's kind of a hard persona to kind of chop up and talk about, right, Chris? I don't know [crosstalk 04:55] CHRIS: Well, it also seemed to, from my understanding of it, it seemed to, like, genuinely stress out the people who were being interviewed... MIKE: [laughs] CHRIS: Because it's kind of about a stressful topic [inaudible 05:03], you know, and, like, especially -- LINDSEY: Why? [laughs] CHRIS: Well, I think, I don't know, now I'm making assumptions. Maybe because we're close to the holiday season, and that's a topic in the back of everybody's mind. But yeah, Danny, would you disagree with that? Those folks, from what we heard, seemed like they were the most difficult to kind of extract answers from. But then, if the subject changed and we treated them as a different persona, several of those interviews proved to be quite fruitful. So, it's just really interesting. DANNY: Yeah. It really started, like, you kind of try to get some answers out of people, and there's, like, some level of people trying to please you to some extent. That's just, like, naturally, how it starts. And you just, like, keep trying to drill into the answers. And you just keep asking people like, "So, what kind of gifts do you give?" And they're just like, "Oh my goodness, like, I haven't thought about buying gifts for my sister in [laughs], like, you know, in forever. And now, like [laughs], I don't know where to go." And they get, like, pretty stressed out about it. But then we just kind of started shifting into like, "All right, cool, never mind about that. Like, do you like listening to music?" And they're like, "Yes." And then it just kind of explodes from there. And they're like, "This last concert that I went to..." and all of this stuff. And it was much more fruitful kind of leaning more towards that, actually, yeah. LINDSEY: That's fascinating. I guess that speaks to, especially at this stage and the speed and the amount of interviews you're doing, the need for being, like, really agile in those interviews, and then, like, really quickly applying what you're learning to making the next one even more valuable. MIKE: Yeah. And I think, you know, like, we launched just a little sort of website experiment or, like, an e-commerce experiment right before Thanksgiving. And I think now, you know, we're able to sort of take some of those learnings from those interviews and apply them to both sort of our ad copy itself but also just different landing pages in different language on the different kind of versions of the site and see if we can find some resonance with some of these audience groups. So, it's been interesting. LINDSEY: Are you still trying to figure out who that early adopter audience is, who that niche persona is? MIKE: I think we -- CHRIS: Yes, we are. I think we have a good idea of who it is. And I think right now we're just trying to figure out really how to reach those people. That, I think, is the biggest challenge right now for us. MIKE: Yeah. With the e-commerce experiment it was sort of a very specific niche thing that is a little bit adjacent to what I think we want to be doing longer term with Goodz. And so, it's weird. It's like, we're in a place we're like, oh, we really want to find the people that want this thing. But also, this thing isn't necessarily the thing that we think we're going to make longer term, so let's not worry too hard about finding them. You know what I mean? It's been an interesting sort of back and forth with that. CHRIS: From the interviews that we conducted, you know, we identified three key personas. Most of them have come up, but I'll just relist them. There's the sibling gift giver. There was the merch buyers; these are people who go to concerts and buy merchandise, you know, T-shirts, albums, records, things along those lines to support the artists that they love. And then the final one that was identified we gave the title of the 'Proud Playlister'. And these are people who are really into their digital media platforms, love making playlists, and love sharing those playlists with their friends. And that, I would say, the proud playlister is really the one that we have focused on in terms of the storefront that we launched, like, the product is pretty much specifically for them. But the lessons that we're learning while making this product and trying to get this into the hands of the proud playlisters will feed into kind of the merch buyers. MIKE: Yeah. And I think that, you know, it's funny, like, this week is kind of a poignant week for this, right? Because it's the week that Spotify Wrapped launched, right? So, it's like, in the course of any given year, it's probably, like, the one week of the year that lots and lots and lots of people are thinking about playlists all of a sudden, so trying a little bit to see if we can ride that wave or just kind of dovetail with that a bit, too. LINDSEY: Absolutely. And do you want to give just, like, the really quick reminder of what the product experience is like? MIKE: Oh yeah [laughs], good call. CHRIS: This is a prototype of it. It's called the Goodz Mixtape. Basically, the idea is that you purchase one of these from us. You give us a playlist URL. We program that URL onto the NFC chip that's embedded in the Good itself. And then when you scan this Good, that playlist will come up. So, it's a really great way of you make a playlist for somebody, and you want to gift it to them; this is a great way to do that. You have a special playlist, maybe between you and a friend or you and a partner. This is a good way to commemorate that playlist, turn it into a physical thing, give that digital file value and presence in the physical world. LINDSEY: Great. Okay, so you casually mentioned this launch of an e-commerce store that happened last week. MIKE: It didn't feel casual. LINDSEY: Yeah. Why [laughter]...[inaudible 09:45] real casual. Why did you launch it? How's it going? MIKE: I don't know. Why did we launch it? I mean, well, we wanted to be able to test some assumptions. I think, you know, we wanted to get the brand out there a little bit, get our website out there, kind of introduce the concept. You know, this is a very...not that we've invented this product category, but it is a pretty obscure product category, right? And so, there's a lot of sort of consumer education that I think that has to go on for people to wrap their heads around this and why they'd want this. So, I think we wanted to start that process a little bit correctly, sort of in advance of a larger launch next year, and see if we could find some early community around this. You know, if we can find those core people who just absolutely love this, and connect with it, and go wild around it, then those are the people that we're going to be able to get a ton of information from and build for that persona, right? It's like, cool, these are the people who love this. Let's build more for them and go find other people like this. So, I think, for us, it was that. And then, honestly, it was also just, you know, let's test our manufacturing and fulfillment and logistics capabilities, right? I mean, this is...as much as we are a B2B, you know, SaaS platform or that's what we envision the future of Goodz being, there is a physical component of this. And, you know, we do have that part basically done at this point. But we just, you know, what is it like to order 1,000 of these? What is it like to put these in the mail to people and, you know, actually take orders? And just some of that processing because we do envision a more wholesale future where we're doing, you know, thousands or tens of thousands of this at a time. And so, I think we just want to button up and do some dry runs before we get to those kinds of numbers. CHRIS: I think it also it's important to remember that we are talking in startup time. And while this last week seems like an eternity, it's been a week [laughs] that we've had this in place. So, we're just starting to learn these things, and we plan on continuing to do so. MIKE: Yeah. But I think we thought that getting a website up would be a good way to just start kind of testing everything more. LINDSEY: Great. Danny, what went into deciding what would be in this first version of the site and the e-commerce offering? DANNY: I mean, a lot of it was kind of mostly driven by Chris and Mike. They kind of had a vision and an idea of what they wanted to sell. Obviously, from the user interviews, we were starting to hone in a little bit more and, like, we had some assumptions going into it. I think we ultimately did kind of feel like, yeah, I think, like, the playlisters seem to be, like, the target market. But just hearing it more and hearing more excitement from them was definitely just kind of like, yeah, I think we can double down on this piece. But, ultimately, like, in terms of launching the e-commerce platform, and the storefront, and the website, like, just literally looking at the user journey and being like, how does a user get from getting onto a site, like, as soon as they land there to, like, finishing a purchase? And what points do they need? What are the key things that they need to think through and typically will run into? And a lot of it is just kind of reflecting on our own personal buyer behavior. And, also, as we were getting closer to the launch, starting to work through some of those assumptions about buyer behavior. As we got there, we obviously had some prototypes. We had some screenshots that we were already working with. Like, the design team was already starting to build out some of the site. And so, we would just kind of show it to them, show it to our users, and just be like, hey, like, how do you expect to purchase this? Like, what's the next step that you expect to take? And we'd just kind of, like, continue to iterate on that piece. And so... LINDSEY: Okay. So you were, before launching, even showing some of those mockups and starting to incorporate them in the user interviews. DANNY: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we tried to get it in there in front of them as early as possible, partially because, like, at some point in the user interviews, like, you're mostly just trying to first understand, like, who are our target customers? Who are these people? And we have an assumption of or an idea of who we think they are. But really, like, once you start talking to people, you kind of are, like, okay, like, this thing that I thought maybe it wasn't so accurate, or, like, the way that they're kind of talking about these products doesn't 100% match what I originally walked into this, you know, experiment with. And so, we, like, start to hone in on that. But after a certain point, you kind of get that idea and now you're just like, okay, you seem to be, like, the right person to talk to. And so, if I were to show you this thing, do you get it, right? Like, do you understand what's happening? Like, how to use this thing, what this product even does. And then also, like, does the checkout experience feel intuitive for you? Is it as simple as, like, I just want to buy a T-shirt? So, like, I'm just going to go by the T-shirt, pick a size, and, you know, move on with my life. Can we make it as seamless as that? LINDSEY: And so, you mentioned it's only been a week since it's been live. Have you been able to learn anything from it yet? And how are you trying to drive people to it today? MIKE: Yeah, I think we learned that sales is hard [laughs] and slow, and it takes some time. But it's good, and we're learning a lot. I mean, it's been a while since I've really dug deep in, like, the analytics and marketing kind of metrics. And so, we've got all the Google Tag Manager stuff, you know, hooked up and just, you know, connecting with just exploring, honestly, like the TikTok advertising platform, and the YouTube Pre-Rolls, and Shorts. And, like, a lot of stuff that I actually, since the last time I was heavily involved in this stuff, is just totally new and different. And so, it's been super interesting to see the funnel and sort of see where people are getting in the site, where people are dropping off. You know, we had an interesting conversation in our thoughtbot sync yesterday or the day before, where we were seeing how, you know, we're getting lots of people to the front page and, actually, a good number of people to the product page, and, actually, like, you know, not the worst number of people to the cart. But then you were seeing really high cart abandonment rates. And then, you know, when you start Googling, and you're like, oh, actually, everybody sees very high cart abandonment rates; that's just a thing. But we were seeing, like, the people were viewing their cart seven or eight times, and they were on there sort of five times as long as they were on any other page. And it's this problem that I think Danny is talking about where, you know, we need to actually get a playlist URL. This gets into the minutiae of what we're building, but basically like, we need to get them to give us a playlist URL in order to check out, right? And so, you sort of have to, like, put yourself back in the mind of someone who's scrolling on Instagram, and they see this as an ad, and they click it, and they're like, oh, that thing was cool. Sure, I will buy one of those. And then it's like, no, actually, you need to, you know, leave this, go into a different app, find a play...like, it suddenly just puts a lot of the mental strain. But it's a lot. It's a cognitive load, greater than, as you said, just buying a T-shirt and telling what size you want. So, thinking through ways to really trim that down, shore up the amount of time people are spending on a cart. All that stuff has been fascinating. And then just, like, the different demographic kind of work that we're using, all the social ads platforms to kind of identify has been really interesting. It's still early. But, actually, like, Chris and I were just noticing...we were just talking right before this call. Like, we're actually starting to get, just in the last 12 hours, a bunch more, a bunch, but more people signing up to our email newsletter, probably in the last 12 hours that we have in the whole of last week. Yeah, I don't know, just even that sort of learning, it's like, oh, do people just need time with a thing, or they come back and they think about it? CHRIS: Yeah. Could these people be working on their playlists? That's a question that I have. MIKE: [chuckles] Yeah, me too. CHRIS: It's like, you know, I'm making a playlist to drop into this product. It's really interesting. And I think it gives insight to kind of, you know, how personal this product could be, that this is something that takes effort on the part of the consumer because they're making something to give or to keep for themselves, which is, I think, really interesting but definitely hard, too. DANNY: Yeah. And I also want to also clarify, like, Chris just kind of said it, like, especially for viewers and listeners, like, that's something that we've been hearing a lot from user interviews, too, right? Like, the language that they're using is, like, this is a thing that I care about. Like it's a representation of who I am. It's a representation of, like, the relationship that I have with this person that I'm going to be giving, you know, this gift to or this playlist to, specifically, like, people who feel, like, really passionate about these things. And, I mean, like, I did, too. Like, when I was first trying to, like, date, my wife, like, I spent, like, hours, hours trying to pick the coolest songs that I thought, you know, were like, oh, like, she's going to think I'm so cool because, like, I listen to these, like, super low-key indie rock bands, and, like, you know, so many more hours than she probably spent listening to it. But that's [laughs] kind of, like, honestly, what we heard a lot in a lot of these interviews, so... LINDSEY: Yeah, same. No, totally resonates. And I also went to the site this week, and I was like, oh damn, this is cool. Like, and immediately it was like, oh, you know, I've got these three, you know, music friends that we go to shows together. I'm like, oh, this would be so cool to get them, you know, playlists of, like, music we've seen together. So, you might see me in the cart. I won't abandon it. MIKE: Please. I would love that. CHRIS: Don't think about it too long if you could -- [laughter]. LINDSEY: I won't. I won't. CHRIS: I mean, I would say I'm really excited about having the site not only as a vehicle for selling some of these things but also as a vehicle for just honing our message. It's like another tool that we have in our arsenal. During the user interviews themselves, we were talking in abstract terms, and now we have something concrete that we can bounce off people, which is, I think, going to be a huge boon to our toolset as we continue to refine and define this product. MIKE: Yeah, that's a good point. LINDSEY: Yeah. You mentioned that they're signing up for, like, email updates. Do you have something you're sending out? Or are you kind of just creating a list? Totally fine, just building a list. MIKE: [laughs] No. CHRIS: It's a picture of Mike and I giving a big thumbs up. That's, yeah. [laughter] MIKE: No. But maybe...that was the thing; I was like, oh great, they're signing up. And I was like, gosh, they're signing up. Okay [laughter], now we got to write something. But we will. LINDSEY: Tips to making your playlist [crosstalk 19:11] playing your playlist -- MIKE: Yeah [crosstalk 19:13]. CHRIS: Right. And then also...tips to making your playlists. Also, we're advancing on the collectible side of things, too. We are, hopefully, going to have two pilot programs in place, one with a major label and one with a major artist. And we're really excited about that. LINDSEY: Okay. That's cool. I assume you can't tell us very much. What can you tell us? MIKE: Yeah. We won't mention names [chuckles] in case it just goes away, as these things sometimes do. But yeah, there's a great band who's super excited about these, been around for a long time, some good name recognition, and a very loyal fan base. They want to do sort of a collection of these. I think maybe we showed the little...I can't remember if we showed the little crates that we make or not, but basically, [inaudible 19:52] LINDSEY: The last time, yeah. MIKE: So, they want to sell online a package that's, you know, five or six Goodz in a crate, which I think will be cool and a great sort of sales experiment. And then there's a couple of artists that we're going to do an experiment with that's through their label that's more about tour...basically, giving things away on tour. So, they're going to do some giveaway fan club street team-style experiments with some of these on the road. So, first, it's ideal, provided both those things happen, because we definitely want to be exploring on the road and online stuff. And so, this kind of lets us do both at once and get some real learnings as to kind of how people...because we still don't know. We haven't really put these in people's hands yet. And it's just, like, are people scanning these a lot? Are they not? Is this sort of an object that's sitting on their shelf? Is it...yeah, it's just, like, there's so much we're going to learn once we get these into people's hands. LINDSEY: Do you have the infrastructure to sort of see how many times the cards are scanned? CHRIS: Mm-hmm. Yep, we do. MIKE: Yeah. So, we can see how many times each one is scanned, where they're scanned, that sort of thing. CHRIS: Kind of our next step, and something we were just talking about today with the thoughtbot team, is building out kind of what the backend will be for this, both for users and also for labels and artists. That it will allow them to go in and post updates to the Goodz, to allow them to use these for promotion as people, you know, scan into them to give them links to other sites related to the artists that they might be interested in before they move on to the actual musical playlist. So, that's kind of the next step for us. And knowing how users use these collectibles, both the kind of consumer Good and the artist collectibles that we were just talking about, will help inform how we build that platform. LINDSEY: Very cool. And right now, the online store itself that's built in Shopify? MIKE: Yeah. The homepage is Webflow that Kevin from the thoughtbot team really spearheaded in building for us. And then, yeah, the e-commerce is Shopify. LINDSEY: Y'all have been busy. MIKE: [laughs] LINDSEY: Is there anything else maybe that I haven't asked about yet that we should touch on in terms of updates or things going on with the product? MIKE: I don't know. I don't think so. I think, like Chris said, I mean, we're just...like, now that the site has kind of stood up and we're really switched over to kind of marketing and advertising on that, definitely digging into the backend of this kind of SaaS platform that's going to probably be a big focus for the rest of the, you know, the program, to be honest. Yeah, just some other things we can do on the next front that could eventually build into the backend that I think can be interesting. No, I guess [laughs] the short answer is no, nothing, like, substantial. Those are the big [crosstalk 22:26] LINDSEY: Yeah. Well, that was my next question, too, which is kind of like, what's next, or what's the next chunk of work? So, it's obviously lots more optimization and learning on the e-commerce platform, and then this other mega area, which is, you know, what does this look like as a SaaS solution? What's the vision? But also, where do we start? Which I'm sure, Danny, is a lot of work that you specialize in as far as, like, scoping how to approach these kinds of projects. DANNY: Yeah. And it's interesting because, I mean, we were just talking about this today. Like, part of it is, like, we can, like, really dig into, like, the e-commerce site and, like, really nailing it down to get it to the place where it's like, we're driving tons more traffic and also getting as low of a, like, cart abandonment rate as possible, right? But also, considering the fact that this is in the future, like, large-scale vision. And there's, like, also, like, we're starting to, I think, now iron out a lot of those, like, milestones where we're kind of like, okay, like, we got, like, a short-term vision, which is, like, the e-commerce site. We got a mid-term vision and a potential long-term vision. How do we validate this long-term vision while also still like, keeping this short-term vision moving forward? And, like, this mid-term vision is also going to, like, help potentially, either, like, steer us towards that long-term or maybe even, like, pivot us, like, into a completely different direction. So, like, where do you put your card, right? Like, how much energy and time do we put into, like, each of these areas? And that's kind of, like, the interesting part of this is starting to talk through that, starting to kind of prioritize, like, how we can maximize on our effort, like, our development and design effort so that things just kind of line up more naturally and organically for our future visioning, so... MIKE: Yeah. A lot of different things to juggle. I saw there was a question. Somebody asked what the URL is, but I don't seem to be able to [crosstalk 24:10]. LINDSEY: The same question as me. We got to drop the link for this thing. MIKE: Yeah, getthegoodz.com. CHRIS: That's G-O-O-D-Z. LINDSEY: Get in there, folks MIKE: Yeah, get [crosstalk 24:23]. LINDSEY: And let us know how it goes. MIKE: Yeah, please [laughs]. Any bugs? Let us know. Yeah. I think that those...yeah, I mean, it's a good point, Danny, in terms of juggling kind of the near-term and longer-term stuff. You know, it's a good kind of reminder our big focus, you know, in the new year is going to be fundraising, right? We're already talking to some investors and things like that. So, it's like, okay, yes, as you said, we could tweak the cart. We could tweak the e-commerce. Or, like, can we paint the big picture of what the longer-term version of this company is going to be in a way that makes it compelling for investment to come in so that there can be a long-term version of this company? And then we can build those things. So yeah, it's definitely a balance between the two. LINDSEY: Oh, also, just casual fundraising as well. [crosstalk 25:06] MIKE: Yeah, yeah. LINDSEY: [laughs] MIKE: But it's hard. It's like, you wake up in the morning. It's like, do I want to, like, write cold emails to investors? Or do I want to, like, look at Google Analytics and, like, tweak ad copy? That's actually more fun. So, yes. LINDSEY: Yeah, life of the founder, for sure. All right. So, that's getthegoodz (Goodz with a z) .com. Check it out. We'll tune in and see what happens with the e-commerce site, what happens with the SaaS planning the next time that we check in. But Chris, Mike, Danny, thank you so much for joining today and sharing what's been going on over the last few weeks: the good, the bad, the challenge, the cart abandonment. And, you know, best of luck to you over the next few weeks, and we'll be sure to check in and see how it's going. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Transcript:  LINDSEY: Thank you to our viewers and listeners. We are catching up once again with one of the startups going through the thoughtbot Incubator. My name is Lindsey Christensen. I'm joined today by Jordyn Bonds, who heads up the thoughtbot incubator, as well as our Co-Founders of Goodz, Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal. Welcome, everybody. MIKE: Thanks, Lindsey. LINDSEY: Before we get started, before we put Chris and Mike back in the hot seat, at the top here, Jordyn, we have a special announcement for our viewers and listeners. JORDYN: Application window is open for session 1 of 2024, folks. You can go to thoughtbot.com/incubator and apply. And Chris and Mike can tell you how easy or hard applying was. MIKE: It was easy. It was totally easy. It's a very straightforward process. CHRIS: Yeah, it was way more straightforward than a lot of applications that we've dealt with in the past, for sure. JORDYN: Ha-ha. And if you've got a business idea that involves software but you haven't gotten anything out there yet, come talk to us. We will help you make sure that it's a good idea and that there are people who might buy it, and maybe get you even a little further than that. MIKE: We actually have a friend who's considering applying. I'll tell him applications are open. He's worried his idea is not big enough to actually be a business idea, so we'll see. CHRIS: Even the process of doing the application was really helpful for us because it helped us get aligned on exactly what we were doing, yeah. JORDYN: I love that. And I found that to be true when I was a founder applying to some of these things, in particular, applying for an SBIR grant was one of the most challenging things that we did, but it was so productive. I was so annoyed by it at the time, and then I cribbed from that thing. It actually sort of forced us to make a business plan [laughs], and then, basically, we ran it, and it was great [laughs]. CHRIS: Yeah. I think that was, for us, that was our point where we were like, "Is this idea fleshed out enough to move forward?" And we were like, "Yes, it is. Let's go. Let's do this." JORDYN: So, use the application as a forcing function, everybody. It will help you clarify your thinking. LINDSEY: Yeah. Jordyn, what would you say to Mike's friend who's questioning if their idea is big enough? How do you respond to that sentiment? JORDYN: That is a fascinating sentiment because I feel like so much more often, I am trying to help founders with the opposite problem where they think this thing is so big that they are not thinking about what step 1 is going to look like. They're just, like, in 10 years, we're going to be the next Amazon, and I'm like, "Maybe [laughter]. Let me help you figure out how to get to that giant vision." So, I don't come across the "Is this big enough to be a business?" question as often. And, I don't know, what would I say? I guess I need the details. LINDSEY: It could be a perfect fit MIKE: It could be. JORDYN: It could be a perfect fit. LINDSEY: In a way, that's what you're answering, right? MIKE: Right. LINDSEY: In some of this work. MIKE: That is true. So, yeah, you guys would certainly...just thinking through the process we've gone through the last two months, it would definitely help them flesh that out. LINDSEY: Which is a great segue. MIKE: Great segue. LINDSEY: Chris and Mike, we're actually coming up to the end of your incubator time. CHRIS: It's so sad. LINDSEY: Can you believe it? MIKE: It's gone by really fast. I mean, eight weeks is not a long time, but it has gone by very, very fast. CHRIS: It felt like a very long time in the middle of it. MIKE: [laughs] CHRIS: But now that it's over, it feels like a blink that it's coming to a close. MIKE: I don't know. It's funny. I think we had some note in our retro today that was like, maybe the very end of the year is not the best time to do an accelerator just because you have, like, the holidays kind of jumping in here in the end. So, that might have helped make it feel like a... I feel like the end of the year always feels like a rush anyway. So, I think just life gets a little bit busier this time of year, too, but yeah. CHRIS: Yeah, my gingerbread man decorating game is, like, really down this season because we've been so busy. Tragic. LINDSEY: Chris, can you remind our viewers and listeners who might not be familiar what was the idea that you and Mike have been exploring with the incubator or, like, what did you come in with? CHRIS: So, with Goodz, what we're trying to do is make little, physical collectibles objects that connect back to the digital content that a user loves. The idea being that today, we are awash in these digital files, links, so many things on our desktops, on our phones, on our devices, and it's really hard to tell which part of those are really, really important to us. So, by giving them a presence in the physical world, that denotes that's something that's really important, worth keeping, worth sharing, and showing off to your friends and family. And to start this off, mostly because Mike and I are both kind of music nerds, we're starting off with a music focus, but at some point, we're hoping to move into other realms, too. LINDSEY: And a lot of the incubator, as repeat listeners will know, is focused on really kind of evolving user interviews all the way through and narrowing in on, you know, a core audience, a core market. Mike, how has that evolution been? I think the last time we chatted was around three weeks ago. What has the latest iteration of user interviews looked like in terms of the people you're talking to and even what you're asking them? MIKE: It's been a really fascinating process. I mean, I'm trying to think of where we were exactly the last time we talked to you, but I think we'd probably just launched the e-commerce site that we had been experimenting with putting up. LINDSEY: Yeah, exactly. MIKE: And so, and we really then started cranking on user interviews kind of once that was live. And so, moving away from the conceptual and more into like, "Okay, share your screen. Here's the link. Like, tell me what you think is going on here," and really sort of getting users who had never, you know, never heard our pitch, never been involved with us to sort of try to wrap their heads around what we are and what we're doing just based on that website and trying to sort of make iterative changes based on that. You know, for me, because I had not done user interviews very much in the past, like, it's very tempting, like, you get sort of 1 note from 1 person in 1 interview, and you're like, oh, we need to change this word. That word didn't make any sense to them, or this thing needs to be blue instead of pink. I think, for me, it was like, all right, how do we kind of synthesize this data in a responsible way? And it emerged naturally, which, I mean, Jordyn and all thoughtbot folks said that it would, but you sort of started hearing the same things again and again. And we never really got to a place where, like, you heard the exact same things from everyone. But there were enough buckets, I feel like, where we're like, okay, like, this part really isn't making that much sense to people, or, like, we do really need to, you know, structure this differently to convey. So, it was a bunch of that kind of work over the last three weeks or so and sort of just getting a sense of like, are we conveying our message? It's hard. I mean, it's a new, like, we're not the only people making physical products with NFC chips in them, but it is not the most common, like, product. Like, it is kind of a new category out there. And so, really trying to understand just right off the bat, do people get it? And you get wildly different answers [laughs] as to whether they get it or they don't, which has been fascinating, too. JORDYN: Yeah. [crosstalk 7:12] LINDSEY: Chris or Jordyn, anything to add there? JORDYN: Yeah. You get the best, like, bootcamp in the don't overreact to a single user interview experience in some ways because we [laughs]...it would literally be like, interview in the morning someone says this thing. Interview in the afternoon, someone says the exact opposite thing [laughter]. And you're like, okay [laughs], like, which one of these things are we going to respond to, if either of them? CHRIS: Yeah. It's hard. As somebody with, like, a strong desire to please, it's hard to reign yourself in and want to change things immediately, but it definitely makes sense to do so in the long run. MIKE: But yeah, but, I mean, like I said, I do feel like it kind of came down to buckets. It's like, okay, you're that. I can, like, categorize you with all those other people and you with all those other people. And yeah, I hear you. I'm like, yeah, it's tempting to want to please them all. But I think with this one, we're fighting hard to be like...or we sort of have a philosophy that this product is emphatically not for everyone because, at the end of the day, you get a lot of people who are like, "Wait, you're just putting a link to a streaming playlist on a physical object? Why don't I just text someone the link?" And sometimes that breaks down by age group, like, 18-year-olds being like, "What are you talking about, old man? LINDSEY: [laughs] MIKE: Like, why the hell would I do that? It makes no sense." But it sort of skews all over the age ranges. But then there'll be other people who are 18 or 20 years old who are like, "Wow, I never had cassettes when I was growing up," or "I never got to make, you know, mixtapes or CD-Rs for people." And like, you know, so it's, yeah, it's about finding the people who are the early adopters. As Jordyn has said a lot, it's like, we need to find those early adopters and, like, make them love us, and then other people will come later. CHRIS: I mean, some of the most gratifying moments, I think, are there's been some interviews where people have been so excited that after the interview, they've gone and purchased our products, which is just, like, the coolest feeling ever. LINDSEY: Wow. MIKE: Yeah, it's pretty cool. LINDSEY: Are you open to sharing a little bit more about what those buckets or what those segments look like? CHRIS: I mean, I think there's folks who outright just get it almost immediately, and I think those people tend to be hardcore music collectors, hardcore music fans, Jordyn and Mike, please feel free to jump in if you disagree with any of this. They just get it right off the bat. Then I think there's, in my experience, there's another bucket of people who are a little more hesitant, and maybe they wouldn't buy it, but they seemed really excited about the idea of getting one as a gift, which is really interesting. They're like, "I don't know if I'd buy this, but I'd really like to have one." And then there is another segment, like, which Mike just mentioned, of folks who just don't see the value in this whatsoever, which is totally fair. MIKE: Yeah, totally. I think it's also...I see it almost as, like, a matrix. There's, like, desirability, and, like, technical understanding because people were like, "I technically understand what this is, and I do not want it in my life." Or like, "I get what this is and, oh my God, I have to have that," or like, "I don't really understand what you're talking about, but, man, I love physical stuff. Like, sure I want..." you know, it's like, it goes across those two planes, I think. JORDYN: I will say that it, I think you alluded to this before, Mike, but, like, we're going to run a whole analysis of...because we did a ton of interviews, and we haven't actually done that, like, sort of data-driven thing of like, are there trends in the demographics somewhere that we're not getting? Because the pattern has not been there. Like, someone will talk to an 18-year-old, you know, at 1:00 p.m. who is just, like, "Why on earth would I ever want this?" And then I, like, you know, will talk to a 21-year-old who is like, "I love this." And it's like, why? Like, this is the answer. The thing we're trying to get out now is, like, what is the difference between those two people? It's not a demographic thing that we can see from the outside, so what is it instead? But with consumer stuff like this, often, you don't necessarily...you don't need that in such great detail when you're starting. You just kind of, like, throw it out there and see who grabs it, and then you start to build sort of cohorts around that. And that is kind of what these interviews have shown us is that there are people who will grab it, and that was part of what we were trying to validate. Are there people who Mike and Chris do not know personally who will, like, get this and be psyched about it immediately? And that is, you know, check unequivocally true. Like Chris said, there are people that we were, you know, that we had recruited on this user interviews platform [chuckles] who then just turned around and bought the product because they were so psyched about it. One of the guys I interviewed was like, "Can I invest in your company right now?" Like, during the interview, and I was like, "Maybe?" [laughs] CHRIS: There was, like, another person who wanted to work for us immediately... JORDYN: Yes, great. CHRIS: Which was really interesting and kind of awesome. JORDYN: Yeah, they're like, "Are you hiring?" You're just like, okay. So, it's validating that there are people all over that spectrum. Like, where those trends lie, though, which is, I think, what you were asking, Lindsey, not as straightforward and in a fascinating way. So, we still have a little more, like, number crunching to do on that, and we may have an answer for you later. LINDSEY: That's exciting. Exactly. I'm curious: what are the connecting dots between the folks who are really into it, and how might that impact how you approach the business? MIKE: Yeah, it's hard. It's definitely going to be a niche to start. And so, we got to figure out kind of got to crack the code on how we find those people. LINDSEY: And, Mike, I think you had also mentioned last time that, you know, you or both of you have a network kind of in the music industry, and you've been floating the idea past some people there. Have you been having more of those conversations over the last few weeks, too? MIKE: We have, yeah. Well, so yeah, we've had a couple more just kind of straight-up pitch calls versus like, "Hey, there's this cool thing we're doing," and having those people be like, "Cool. Let's do a pilot." And so, they're ordering, you know, 500 or 1,000 units at a time, which is rad. LINDSEY: Whoa. MIKE: For the first...yeah. LINDSEY: Okay, very cool. MIKE: Yeah. The first two or three of those should happen in January or maybe early February, but yeah, those are done and in production and arriving soon. So, that's really exciting with some cool bands. We won't say the names in case it doesn't [laughs] work out, but it does look like it's going to work out. LINDSEY: And so, it's specific bands that are creating merch for their fans. MIKE: Yeah, yeah. So, we're working with one artist manager on a band that he manages, and then we're working with a record label. And they're going to try with a couple of smaller artists. And so, yeah, it's actually really good for us. One is going to be straight-up sales, most likely, and it's, like, selling these things. And the other ones will be given away as kind of promo items on tour artists, which is also a really interesting use case for us, too, that we're excited about and using them as a way to sort of get email addresses and, like, fans engaged and stuff, so... And then yeah, then I had another conversation, and they want to talk about doing some pilots. So far, like, that side of things is going great. We're sort of 3 for 4 in terms of initial calls leading to pilots right off the bat, which is kind of unheard of from [laughs] my experience. LINDSEY: Yeah, I'd say so. No, a lot of very good signals. MIKE: Really good signals. But then we were able to turn some of those into user interview conversations, actually, as well over the course of the last couple of weeks, which has been really helpful, like, talking to manager and label-type people about what they might want out of a software product that is associated with this because we're not just thinking about making physical products but sort of coupling that with an online toolset. And that part, we haven't gotten as far along as we did with the direct-to-consumer e-commerce, but it's been fascinating. LINDSEY: So, what has been happening with the online shop? As you noted the last time we talked, it was just a baby less than a week-old Shopify site getting, you know, some first hits of people going around maybe putting things in their basket. I'm sure a lot has happened over the last few weeks. What kind of work, what kind of insights have you seen around the site? CHRIS: We've been, I mean, we've been selling stuff at a slow but steady pace. It's been great because it's enough to, you know, because our product really straddles the line between physical and digital; there's a lot of physical aspects to this that we need to figure out and kind of the level of orders that we've been getting have been really...it's, like, the perfect number to think about fulfillment issues, things like what kind of package does this go in? How do we mail this out? Things along those lines, just very basic, practical questions that needed to be answered. But yeah, it's been great. We actually, I mean, we hit our goal for the amount of these that we wanted to get in people's hands before Christmas, which is pretty awesome. And we continue now with the lessons learned. I think our plan is to try and make a push for Valentine's Day because these seem like they would be a great Valentine's Day present: make a playlist; share it with your loved one; share it with a friend; share it with somebody you don't like at all. Who knows? LINDSEY: [laughs] CHRIS: But yeah, that's kind of our next sales push, we think. LINDSEY: The hate playlist. CHRIS: [inaudible 15:40] hate playlist. MIKE: Yeah, perfect. Real passive-aggressive. CHRIS: Just Blue Monday, like, by New Order, like, 14 times. LINDSEY: [laughs] Yeah, every song is just like a sub-tweet... MIKE: [laughs] LINDSEY: About something they've done and [inaudible 15:53] Have you updated the site? Like, how do you decide what gets updated on the site? [laughter] Everyone laughed. MIKE: It was a little haphazard, I would say, there for a minute. But -- CHRIS: We got the site up very, very quickly. And from my perspective, I've been dealing a lot with the physical side of things, just getting great product photos up there, which is, like, something that thoughtbot has actually been super helpful with. You know, everybody on the team is starting to submit photos of their Goodz in the real world and using their Goodz, which is great. And we continued to update the site with that but also making sure our text made sense, refining copy in response to things that people said during user interviews. The checkout process, the process of adding the URL that we point the Good to that, we did a bunch of experimentation there based on what people were saying during user interviews. So, it has been a little haphazard, but we have made a bunch of changes. LINDSEY: Jordyn, has there been any experiment, like, structured experimentation around the site or how you're getting people to the site? JORDYN: Mike actually did a little bit of ad funnel work that I don't think we've, like, even remotely scratched the surface of. So, I wish I could say that was conclusive, but I think we've found a little bit more...here are plenty of sales that are from people that nobody here knows. MIKE: True. JORDYN: So, people are finding out about this somehow [laughs]. But I think it's a little bit, like, word-of-mouth sort of chain of events is our sense so far. I wanted to say, though, about the site, we did get what Chris was saying about, like, this experiment was, in part, about fulfillment and figuring out how fulfillment would work and packaging, and not just messaging and not just closing the sale with consumers, but also, just, like, how do you fulfill these? But one of the really fun things we've managed to do in the last, since we talked last time, which I can't even believe...I feel like this wasn't even a gleam in our eyes for this project, but we managed to get out, like, stood up and out the door, and working in production in the last few weeks is a way for folks to actually assign the URL to their mixtape themselves. Previously, the plan had just been for Chris and Mike to do that, which is fine but a little bit unscalable, right? CHRIS: That was a huge dream or, like, that was high on our wish list. And we didn't think we'd get to it. And it's been pretty amazing that we have, yeah. JORDYN: Yeah, so that was one thing that is an update to the site. So, then we had to do a little bit of, like, micro iterating, on, like, the messaging around that. Like, how do you communicate to people? This is, like, a little bit of an abstract challenge, right? Like, here's this object. It's going to point to a digital thing. How do you tell the physical object which digital thing it's pointing to [laughs]? So, a lot of our recent interviewing has been to sort of get inside the mind of the consumer about how they're thinking about that and how we can best communicate that to them. So that's been a lot of the, like, recent iteration is getting that mechanism stood up and then the messaging around it. CHRIS: It's also really cool because it adds to the utility of the object itself in the sense that now our Goodz, when a user gets one, they can add a URL to their Good themselves, but they can also change that URL. So, it's much more malleable. JORDYN: Which is something that in one of our early user interviews was, like, a hot request [laughs], and we were like, "Someday, someday." And it's, you know, I should actually go back to her and be like, "Someday is today." [laughter] MIKE: Well, yeah, and just as Chris was saying, it just makes it so much easier to ship these out without having to manually load them, and you could sell them, and yeah, retail outlets, like, it just opens up a lot of opportunities for us for them. LINDSEY: And Mike mentioned that some of the, like, kind of future looking aspirations for the solution are, you know, how might you figure out the B2B, like, SaaS aspect of it? Jordyn, is that something that's been explored at all at this point, or is it early? JORDYN: That experiment I just described is actually sort of the link between the two projects. It sort of proves the concept and proves the value in some ways, and it has given us a little bit more visibility into sort of how we're going to execute some of this technical stuff. Like, how easy, how difficult is it going to be? These little experiments all build your confidence around your ability to do those things and what it's going to look like. And so, this experiment absolutely feeds into that question. But I would say it was really this week where we got to have a really fun brainstorming sort of blue sky conversation about that that I don't think would have been nearly as both creative and blue sky or rooted in reality as it was if we hadn't done these experiments and hadn't talked to so many...we had so much work...we could participate in a conversation like that so much more confidently and creatively because all of us had a lot more shared context. So, we really got to dream big, like, what is a SaaS platform built around these physical objects? And I don't want to, you know, I'm not going to give it away at this moment because we had a lot of, like, really cool ideas. It's one part talking to the B2B customer, which, you know, you mentioned earlier, getting what their pain points are, and what they're looking for, what they need, but then also dreaming big about now we understand the technology a little bit more and how it feels to use it. What does that unlock in our brains? The analogy I used in that conversation and that I use all the time is like, the users of Twitter invented hashtags, right? Twitter did not invent hashtags. And so, hey, everybody out there, newsflash: users invented hashtags, not Twitter or something else, if you didn't realize that Twitter was where those things kind of emerged. But there was just a user behavior that was happening in the wild, and Twitter was just very good at making that easier for them, looking at that and being like, "Oh, hey, is this a thing you all want to do? Here, we'll make that even more useful for you." And it was part of Twitter's early success that they were able to do that. And so, that was the kind of thinking we were trying to employ here is, like, now that we have these objects and we understand a little bit more how it feels to use them, you get these second order effects. What does that then make us think of? What is then possible to us that we wouldn't have been able to dream of previously because we didn't quite get it? So, that was really happening this week. LINDSEY: So, as the incubator time wraps up, what are the kind of final activities or deliverables, one, that Goodz wants and you know that they're going to get? What are the parting gifts as we send you out into the next phase? MIKE: Yeah, well, loads of stuff. I mean, we're getting all that code that [SP] Guillermo and the guys worked on to let people set their own playlist settings. And we've got that up in a GitHub repository now. And we've got a bunch of great design work that's all being handed over, like Chris was saying, product shots that a bunch of the team members were taking, synthesizing all the user interviews. We're actually sort of making some kind of final reports on those, so it's kind of more usable, actionable data for us. The whole website, you know, that didn't exist before. And that will sort of continue to grow as the entire website for Goodz moving forward. I don't know. That's a lot. What else was there, Chris? CHRIS: As a result of all that, I mean, one of the things I'm most excited about is now we have a small user base who actually has the physical products that, hopefully, we can get them to answer questions. That's huge for what's coming next. Starting the path towards the SaaS platform, too, it's really helped narrow our scope and think about, you know, how to make that successful or if it will be successful. LINDSEY: Yeah, that sounded like a big discussion this week that I know has been on your minds from the beginning. Wait, the last time, also, you said you were starting to get emails, too. Have you emailed anyone yet, or are you still holding on to them? MIKE: Oh. No, I still haven't sent a newsletter out [laughs], actually, but we have Mailchimp set up. Yeah, no, we've got a good kind of core of our, yeah, early folks on there. We'll start getting a newsletter out with some sort of regularity. We're building up the socials very slowly just focusing on Instagram mostly right now and trying to get back into that game. It's been a long time since I've had to do kind of social marketing stuff. And so, it's a lot of work, as it turns out, but we'll get all that cooking. I think this was just such a sprint, working with the thoughtbot folks and trying to get all this stuff done. Before the end of the year, now we can sort of take a breath and start engaging folks in the new year. LINDSEY: Yeah. Well, so, do you know what you want to do next or what the next phase looks like? Are you going to do fundraising? MIKE: We're certainly going to continue to have some fundraising conversations. We've had some conversations emerge over the last, you know, since we've been in thoughtbot, again, not the greatest time of year to try to be raising a round. But we're also not, like, desperately, urgently needing to do that right this second. I think, you know, part of it is the fundraising landscape, you know, doesn't look amazing. And we're still sort of building out a lot of traction, and sort of every week, there's some new, exciting thing, or we've got some new, big artists who wants to do something. So, I think, in some ways, to the extent that we can bootstrap for a little while, I think we will, yeah. So, we will focus on...I'd like to get back to focusing on, like, B2B sales. I'd like to hit the ground in January and just start talking to a bunch of music industry folks. And thinking ahead a little bit, sort of Q1 and Q2, like, what are the big tentpole events? You know, you got South by Southwest coming up in March. You got Record Store Day in April, or whenever it is. But, you know, there's, like, a bunch of those sorts of things that it's like, oh, let's not let those things suddenly be tomorrow. Like, right now, they're all still two or three/four months out. Like, let's make sure we're queued up for those things and see what happens. And Jordyn has been giving really good advice on the fundraising side where it's just like, just keep getting cool stuff like that and just do almost like little drip campaigns with funders who aren't maybe giving you the time of day or think it's too early, and just kind of keep going back to them. Like, the best excuse to go back to funders is like, "Hey, we just closed this new thing. We just launched this new thing. We just got this thing working. Hey, we're launching with this major band," Like, enough of those happen, and I think the fundraising will happen more organically. It's a strategy. CHRIS: I think we're really lucky in the fact that, you know, now, at this point, we're not talking about vapourware, you know, like, these are actual things that actually exist that, like, anybody could go onto our site right now and buy, which is awesome. And because of that, the product's going to continue to evolve, and, hopefully, our sales record will continue to evolve, too. LINDSEY: Amazing. Well, that feels like a good place to wrap up, maybe. Are you going to hang around in our incubator Slack, the thoughtbot incubator Slack for all our past founders? MIKE: Yes. Emphatically, yes. LINDSEY: Okay. We're holding you to it then [laughs]. CHRIS: I'm excited about that. We met with the other founders yesterday for the first time, and it was a really great and interesting conversation. It was cool seeing how diverse all these projects are and how folks are working on things that we had no idea about and how we're working on stuff that they have no idea about, and it was really great. It felt like a good cross-pollination. MIKE: Agreed. LINDSEY: That's awesome to hear. Jordyn, any final thoughts? JORDYN: [inaudible 26:58] out there listening and watching and want to join this community of founders [laughs], don't you want to have office hours with Chris and Mike? LINDSEY: All right, thoughtbot.com/incubator. You can apply for session 1 of the 2024 incubator program. And yeah, you two, if you have more recommendations, referrals, definitely send them our way. Chris, Mike, Jordyn, thank you so much once again for joining and catching us up on all the exciting developments for Goodz. MIKE: Thank you. LINDSEY: A lot of really cool milestones. JORDYN: I got to say, so much good stuff. And like, you know, just wrapping it all up almost diminishes the impact of any single one of those things that we just talked about, but it's, like, pretty amazing. People out there, apply to the incubator but also go buy yourself a Goodz mixtape. It's cool with playlists on it. MIKE: It's a good point. JORDYN: Give it to your BFF. Come on. LINDSEY: Getthegoodz.com. MIKE: Getthegoodz.com. Awesome. LINDSEY: All right. Thanks, Chris and Mike. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Special Guests: Chris Cerrito, Jordyn Bonds, and Mike Rosenthal.

If you missed the first and second episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can listen to the first episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e2incubatorgoodz) and the second episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e4incubatorgoodz) to catch up! Lindsey Christensen, head of marketing at thoughtbot is joined by Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito, co-founders of the startup Goodz, and Danny Kim, Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot. Mike and Chris discuss the progress of Goodz, focusing on the recent intense weeks they've had. Goodz, a startup merging the digital and physical worlds of music, has stayed on course with its initial concept. Mike details their approach to Thanksgiving and the launch of their e-commerce experiment. He shares insights from recent user interviews, which have influenced their approach and understanding of their target audience. When the discussion turns to the challenges of launching and maintaining their e-commerce platform, Mike and Chris talk about learning from analytics, marketing strategies, and the importance of understanding consumer behavior. They discuss the challenges in balancing short-term and long-term goals, and the upcoming fundraising efforts. Transcript: LINDSEY: Thanks for being here. My name's Lindsey. I head up marketing at thoughtbot. If you haven't joined one of these before, we are checking in with two of the founders who are going through the thoughtbot Startup Incubator to learn how it's going, what's new, what challenges they're hitting, and what they're learning along the way. If you're not familiar with thoughtbot, we're a product design and development consultancy, and we hope your team and your product become a success. And one way we do that is through our startup incubator. So, today, we are joined by our co-founders, Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito, Co-Founders of the startup Goodz. And we also have another special guest today, Danny Kim, from the thoughtbot side, Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot. So, I think, to start off, we'll head over to the new face, the new voice that we've got with us today. Danny, tell us a little bit about your role at thoughtbot and, specifically, the incubator. DANNY: Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me on, and thanks for letting me join in on all the fun. I'm one of the product managers at thoughtbot. I typically work for the Lift-Off team. We usually work with companies that are looking to, like, go into market with their first version MVP. They might have a product that exists and that they're already kind of doing well with, and they kind of want to jump into a new segment. We'll typically work with companies like that to kind of get them kicked off the ground. But it's been really awesome being part of the incubator program. It's my first time in helping with the market validation side. Definitely also, like, learning a lot from this experience [laughs] for myself. Coming at it specifically from a PM perspective, there's, like, so much variation usually in product management across the industry, depending on, like, what stage of the product that you're working in. And so, I'm definitely feeling my fair share of impostor syndrome here. But it's been really fun to stretch my brand and, like, approach problems from, like, a completely different perspective and also using different tools. But, you know, working with Mike and Chris makes it so much easier because they really make it feel like you're part of their team, and so that definitely goes a long way. LINDSEY: It just goes to show everyone gets impostor syndrome sometimes [laughter], even senior product managers at thoughtbot [laughter]. Thanks for that intro. It's, you know, the thoughtbot team learns along the way, too, you know, especially if usually you're focused on a different stage of product development. Mike, it's been only three weeks or a very long three weeks since last we checked in with you, kind of forever in startup time. So, I think the last time, we were just getting to know you two. And you were walking us through the concept, this merging of the digital and physical world of music, and how we interact with music keepsakes or merchandise. How's my pitch? MIKE: Good. Great. You're killing it. [laughter] LINDSEY: And has anything major changed to that concept in the last three weeks? MIKE: No. I mean, I can't believe it's only been three weeks. It feels like it's been a long time since we last talked. It's been an intense three weeks, for sure. No, it's been going really well. I mean, we launched all sorts of stuff. I'm trying to think of anything that's sort of fundamentally changed in terms of the plan itself or kind of our, yeah, what we've been working on. And I think we've pretty much stayed the course to sort of get to where we are now. But it's been really intensive. I think also having sort of Thanksgiving in there, and we were kind of pushing to get something live right before the Thanksgiving break. And so, that week just felt, I mean, I was just dead by, you know, like, Thursday of Thanksgiving. I think we all were. So, it's been intense, I would say, is the short answer. And I'm happy, yeah, to get into kind of where things are at. But big picture, it's been an intense three weeks. LINDSEY: That's cool. And when we talked, you were, you know, definitely getting into research and user interviews. Have those influenced any, you know, changes along the way in the plan? MIKE: Yeah. They've been really helpful. You know, we'd never really done that before in any of the sort of past projects that we've worked on together. And so, I think just being able to, you know, read through some of those scripts and then sit through some of the interviews and just kind of hearing people's honest assessment of some things has been really interesting. I'm trying to think if it's materially affected anything. I guess, you know, at first, we were, like, we kind of had some assumptions around, okay, let's try to find, like...adult gift-givers sounds like the wrong thing, adults who give gifts as, like, a persona. The idea that, like, you know, maybe you gift your siblings gifts, and then maybe this could be a good gift idea. And I think, you know, we had a hard time kind of finding people to talk in an interesting way about that. And I think we've kind of realized it's kind of a hard persona to kind of chop up and talk about, right, Chris? I don't know [crosstalk 04:55] CHRIS: Well, it also seemed to, from my understanding of it, it seemed to, like, genuinely stress out the people who were being interviewed... MIKE: [laughs] CHRIS: Because it's kind of about a stressful topic [inaudible 05:03], you know, and, like, especially -- LINDSEY: Why? [laughs] CHRIS: Well, I think, I don't know, now I'm making assumptions. Maybe because we're close to the holiday season, and that's a topic in the back of everybody's mind. But yeah, Danny, would you disagree with that? Those folks, from what we heard, seemed like they were the most difficult to kind of extract answers from. But then, if the subject changed and we treated them as a different persona, several of those interviews proved to be quite fruitful. So, it's just really interesting. DANNY: Yeah. It really started, like, you kind of try to get some answers out of people, and there's, like, some level of people trying to please you to some extent. That's just, like, naturally, how it starts. And you just, like, keep trying to drill into the answers. And you just keep asking people like, "So, what kind of gifts do you give?" And they're just like, "Oh my goodness, like, I haven't thought about buying gifts for my sister in [laughs], like, you know, in forever. And now, like [laughs], I don't know where to go." And they get, like, pretty stressed out about it. But then we just kind of started shifting into like, "All right, cool, never mind about that. Like, do you like listening to music?" And they're like, "Yes." And then it just kind of explodes from there. And they're like, "This last concert that I went to..." and all of this stuff. And it was much more fruitful kind of leaning more towards that, actually, yeah. LINDSEY: That's fascinating. I guess that speaks to, especially at this stage and the speed and the amount of interviews you're doing, the need for being, like, really agile in those interviews, and then, like, really quickly applying what you're learning to making the next one even more valuable. MIKE: Yeah. And I think, you know, like, we launched just a little sort of website experiment or, like, an e-commerce experiment right before Thanksgiving. And I think now, you know, we're able to sort of take some of those learnings from those interviews and apply them to both sort of our ad copy itself but also just different landing pages in different language on the different kind of versions of the site and see if we can find some resonance with some of these audience groups. So, it's been interesting. LINDSEY: Are you still trying to figure out who that early adopter audience is, who that niche persona is? MIKE: I think we -- CHRIS: Yes, we are. I think we have a good idea of who it is. And I think right now we're just trying to figure out really how to reach those people. That, I think, is the biggest challenge right now for us. MIKE: Yeah. With the e-commerce experiment it was sort of a very specific niche thing that is a little bit adjacent to what I think we want to be doing longer term with Goodz. And so, it's weird. It's like, we're in a place we're like, oh, we really want to find the people that want this thing. But also, this thing isn't necessarily the thing that we think we're going to make longer term, so let's not worry too hard about finding them. You know what I mean? It's been an interesting sort of back and forth with that. CHRIS: From the interviews that we conducted, you know, we identified three key personas. Most of them have come up, but I'll just relist them. There's the sibling gift giver. There was the merch buyers; these are people who go to concerts and buy merchandise, you know, T-shirts, albums, records, things along those lines to support the artists that they love. And then the final one that was identified we gave the title of the 'Proud Playlister'. And these are people who are really into their digital media platforms, love making playlists, and love sharing those playlists with their friends. And that, I would say, the proud playlister is really the one that we have focused on in terms of the storefront that we launched, like, the product is pretty much specifically for them. But the lessons that we're learning while making this product and trying to get this into the hands of the proud playlisters will feed into kind of the merch buyers. MIKE: Yeah. And I think that, you know, it's funny, like, this week is kind of a poignant week for this, right? Because it's the week that Spotify Wrapped launched, right? So, it's like, in the course of any given year, it's probably, like, the one week of the year that lots and lots and lots of people are thinking about playlists all of a sudden, so trying a little bit to see if we can ride that wave or just kind of dovetail with that a bit, too. LINDSEY: Absolutely. And do you want to give just, like, the really quick reminder of what the product experience is like? MIKE: Oh yeah [laughs], good call. CHRIS: This is a prototype of it. It's called the Goodz Mixtape. Basically, the idea is that you purchase one of these from us. You give us a playlist URL. We program that URL onto the NFC chip that's embedded in the Good itself. And then when you scan this Good, that playlist will come up. So, it's a really great way of you make a playlist for somebody, and you want to gift it to them; this is a great way to do that. You have a special playlist, maybe between you and a friend or you and a partner. This is a good way to commemorate that playlist, turn it into a physical thing, give that digital file value and presence in the physical world. LINDSEY: Great. Okay, so you casually mentioned this launch of an e-commerce store that happened last week. MIKE: It didn't feel casual. LINDSEY: Yeah. Why [laughter]...[inaudible 09:45] real casual. Why did you launch it? How's it going? MIKE: I don't know. Why did we launch it? I mean, well, we wanted to be able to test some assumptions. I think, you know, we wanted to get the brand out there a little bit, get our website out there, kind of introduce the concept. You know, this is a very...not that we've invented this product category, but it is a pretty obscure product category, right? And so, there's a lot of sort of consumer education that I think that has to go on for people to wrap their heads around this and why they'd want this. So, I think we wanted to start that process a little bit correctly, sort of in advance of a larger launch next year, and see if we could find some early community around this. You know, if we can find those core people who just absolutely love this, and connect with it, and go wild around it, then those are the people that we're going to be able to get a ton of information from and build for that persona, right? It's like, cool, these are the people who love this. Let's build more for them and go find other people like this. So, I think, for us, it was that. And then, honestly, it was also just, you know, let's test our manufacturing and fulfillment and logistics capabilities, right? I mean, this is...as much as we are a B2B, you know, SaaS platform or that's what we envision the future of Goodz being, there is a physical component of this. And, you know, we do have that part basically done at this point. But we just, you know, what is it like to order 1,000 of these? What is it like to put these in the mail to people and, you know, actually take orders? And just some of that processing because we do envision a more wholesale future where we're doing, you know, thousands or tens of thousands of this at a time. And so, I think we just want to button up and do some dry runs before we get to those kinds of numbers. CHRIS: I think it also it's important to remember that we are talking in startup time. And while this last week seems like an eternity, it's been a week [laughs] that we've had this in place. So, we're just starting to learn these things, and we plan on continuing to do so. MIKE: Yeah. But I think we thought that getting a website up would be a good way to just start kind of testing everything more. LINDSEY: Great. Danny, what went into deciding what would be in this first version of the site and the e-commerce offering? DANNY: I mean, a lot of it was kind of mostly driven by Chris and Mike. They kind of had a vision and an idea of what they wanted to sell. Obviously, from the user interviews, we were starting to hone in a little bit more and, like, we had some assumptions going into it. I think we ultimately did kind of feel like, yeah, I think, like, the playlisters seem to be, like, the target market. But just hearing it more and hearing more excitement from them was definitely just kind of like, yeah, I think we can double down on this piece. But, ultimately, like, in terms of launching the e-commerce platform, and the storefront, and the website, like, just literally looking at the user journey and being like, how does a user get from getting onto a site, like, as soon as they land there to, like, finishing a purchase? And what points do they need? What are the key things that they need to think through and typically will run into? And a lot of it is just kind of reflecting on our own personal buyer behavior. And, also, as we were getting closer to the launch, starting to work through some of those assumptions about buyer behavior. As we got there, we obviously had some prototypes. We had some screenshots that we were already working with. Like, the design team was already starting to build out some of the site. And so, we would just kind of show it to them, show it to our users, and just be like, hey, like, how do you expect to purchase this? Like, what's the next step that you expect to take? And we'd just kind of, like, continue to iterate on that piece. And so... LINDSEY: Okay. So you were, before launching, even showing some of those mockups and starting to incorporate them in the user interviews. DANNY: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we tried to get it in there in front of them as early as possible, partially because, like, at some point in the user interviews, like, you're mostly just trying to first understand, like, who are our target customers? Who are these people? And we have an assumption of or an idea of who we think they are. But really, like, once you start talking to people, you kind of are, like, okay, like, this thing that I thought maybe it wasn't so accurate, or, like, the way that they're kind of talking about these products doesn't 100% match what I originally walked into this, you know, experiment with. And so, we, like, start to hone in on that. But after a certain point, you kind of get that idea and now you're just like, okay, you seem to be, like, the right person to talk to. And so, if I were to show you this thing, do you get it, right? Like, do you understand what's happening? Like, how to use this thing, what this product even does. And then also, like, does the checkout experience feel intuitive for you? Is it as simple as, like, I just want to buy a T-shirt? So, like, I'm just going to go by the T-shirt, pick a size, and, you know, move on with my life. Can we make it as seamless as that? LINDSEY: And so, you mentioned it's only been a week since it's been live. Have you been able to learn anything from it yet? And how are you trying to drive people to it today? MIKE: Yeah, I think we learned that sales is hard [laughs] and slow, and it takes some time. But it's good, and we're learning a lot. I mean, it's been a while since I've really dug deep in, like, the analytics and marketing kind of metrics. And so, we've got all the Google Tag Manager stuff, you know, hooked up and just, you know, connecting with just exploring, honestly, like the TikTok advertising platform, and the YouTube Pre-Rolls, and Shorts. And, like, a lot of stuff that I actually, since the last time I was heavily involved in this stuff, is just totally new and different. And so, it's been super interesting to see the funnel and sort of see where people are getting in the site, where people are dropping off. You know, we had an interesting conversation in our thoughtbot sync yesterday or the day before, where we were seeing how, you know, we're getting lots of people to the front page and, actually, a good number of people to the product page, and, actually, like, you know, not the worst number of people to the cart. But then you were seeing really high cart abandonment rates. And then, you know, when you start Googling, and you're like, oh, actually, everybody sees very high cart abandonment rates; that's just a thing. But we were seeing, like, the people were viewing their cart seven or eight times, and they were on there sort of five times as long as they were on any other page. And it's this problem that I think Danny is talking about where, you know, we need to actually get a playlist URL. This gets into the minutiae of what we're building, but basically like, we need to get them to give us a playlist URL in order to check out, right? And so, you sort of have to, like, put yourself back in the mind of someone who's scrolling on Instagram, and they see this as an ad, and they click it, and they're like, oh, that thing was cool. Sure, I will buy one of those. And then it's like, no, actually, you need to, you know, leave this, go into a different app, find a play...like, it suddenly just puts a lot of the mental strain. But it's a lot. It's a cognitive load, greater than, as you said, just buying a T-shirt and telling what size you want. So, thinking through ways to really trim that down, shore up the amount of time people are spending on a cart. All that stuff has been fascinating. And then just, like, the different demographic kind of work that we're using, all the social ads platforms to kind of identify has been really interesting. It's still early. But, actually, like, Chris and I were just noticing...we were just talking right before this call. Like, we're actually starting to get, just in the last 12 hours, a bunch more, a bunch, but more people signing up to our email newsletter, probably in the last 12 hours that we have in the whole of last week. Yeah, I don't know, just even that sort of learning, it's like, oh, do people just need time with a thing, or they come back and they think about it? CHRIS: Yeah. Could these people be working on their playlists? That's a question that I have. MIKE: [chuckles] Yeah, me too. CHRIS: It's like, you know, I'm making a playlist to drop into this product. It's really interesting. And I think it gives insight to kind of, you know, how personal this product could be, that this is something that takes effort on the part of the consumer because they're making something to give or to keep for themselves, which is, I think, really interesting but definitely hard, too. DANNY: Yeah. And I also want to also clarify, like, Chris just kind of said it, like, especially for viewers and listeners, like, that's something that we've been hearing a lot from user interviews, too, right? Like, the language that they're using is, like, this is a thing that I care about. Like it's a representation of who I am. It's a representation of, like, the relationship that I have with this person that I'm going to be giving, you know, this gift to or this playlist to, specifically, like, people who feel, like, really passionate about these things. And, I mean, like, I did, too. Like, when I was first trying to, like, date, my wife, like, I spent, like, hours, hours trying to pick the coolest songs that I thought, you know, were like, oh, like, she's going to think I'm so cool because, like, I listen to these, like, super low-key indie rock bands, and, like, you know, so many more hours than she probably spent listening to it. But that's [laughs] kind of, like, honestly, what we heard a lot in a lot of these interviews, so... LINDSEY: Yeah, same. No, totally resonates. And I also went to the site this week, and I was like, oh damn, this is cool. Like, and immediately it was like, oh, you know, I've got these three, you know, music friends that we go to shows together. I'm like, oh, this would be so cool to get them, you know, playlists of, like, music we've seen together. So, you might see me in the cart. I won't abandon it. MIKE: Please. I would love that. CHRIS: Don't think about it too long if you could -- [laughter]. LINDSEY: I won't. I won't. CHRIS: I mean, I would say I'm really excited about having the site not only as a vehicle for selling some of these things but also as a vehicle for just honing our message. It's like another tool that we have in our arsenal. During the user interviews themselves, we were talking in abstract terms, and now we have something concrete that we can bounce off people, which is, I think, going to be a huge boon to our toolset as we continue to refine and define this product. MIKE: Yeah, that's a good point. LINDSEY: Yeah. You mentioned that they're signing up for, like, email updates. Do you have something you're sending out? Or are you kind of just creating a list? Totally fine, just building a list. MIKE: [laughs] No. CHRIS: It's a picture of Mike and I giving a big thumbs up. That's, yeah. [laughter] MIKE: No. But maybe...that was the thing; I was like, oh great, they're signing up. And I was like, gosh, they're signing up. Okay [laughter], now we got to write something. But we will. LINDSEY: Tips to making your playlist [crosstalk 19:11] playing your playlist -- MIKE: Yeah [crosstalk 19:13]. CHRIS: Right. And then also...tips to making your playlists. Also, we're advancing on the collectible side of things, too. We are, hopefully, going to have two pilot programs in place, one with a major label and one with a major artist. And we're really excited about that. LINDSEY: Okay. That's cool. I assume you can't tell us very much. What can you tell us? MIKE: Yeah. We won't mention names [chuckles] in case it just goes away, as these things sometimes do. But yeah, there's a great band who's super excited about these, been around for a long time, some good name recognition, and a very loyal fan base. They want to do sort of a collection of these. I think maybe we showed the little...I can't remember if we showed the little crates that we make or not, but basically, [inaudible 19:52] LINDSEY: The last time, yeah. MIKE: So, they want to sell online a package that's, you know, five or six Goodz in a crate, which I think will be cool and a great sort of sales experiment. And then there's a couple of artists that we're going to do an experiment with that's through their label that's more about tour...basically, giving things away on tour. So, they're going to do some giveaway fan club street team-style experiments with some of these on the road. So, first, it's ideal, provided both those things happen, because we definitely want to be exploring on the road and online stuff. And so, this kind of lets us do both at once and get some real learnings as to kind of how people...because we still don't know. We haven't really put these in people's hands yet. And it's just, like, are people scanning these a lot? Are they not? Is this sort of an object that's sitting on their shelf? Is it...yeah, it's just, like, there's so much we're going to learn once we get these into people's hands. LINDSEY: Do you have the infrastructure to sort of see how many times the cards are scanned? CHRIS: Mm-hmm. Yep, we do. MIKE: Yeah. So, we can see how many times each one is scanned, where they're scanned, that sort of thing. CHRIS: Kind of our next step, and something we were just talking about today with the thoughtbot team, is building out kind of what the backend will be for this, both for users and also for labels and artists. That it will allow them to go in and post updates to the Goodz, to allow them to use these for promotion as people, you know, scan into them to give them links to other sites related to the artists that they might be interested in before they move on to the actual musical playlist. So, that's kind of the next step for us. And knowing how users use these collectibles, both the kind of consumer Good and the artist collectibles that we were just talking about, will help inform how we build that platform. LINDSEY: Very cool. And right now, the online store itself that's built in Shopify? MIKE: Yeah. The homepage is Webflow that Kevin from the thoughtbot team really spearheaded in building for us. And then, yeah, the e-commerce is Shopify. LINDSEY: Y'all have been busy. MIKE: [laughs] LINDSEY: Is there anything else maybe that I haven't asked about yet that we should touch on in terms of updates or things going on with the product? MIKE: I don't know. I don't think so. I think, like Chris said, I mean, we're just...like, now that the site has kind of stood up and we're really switched over to kind of marketing and advertising on that, definitely digging into the backend of this kind of SaaS platform that's going to probably be a big focus for the rest of the, you know, the program, to be honest. Yeah, just some other things we can do on the next front that could eventually build into the backend that I think can be interesting. No, I guess [laughs] the short answer is no, nothing, like, substantial. Those are the big [crosstalk 22:26] LINDSEY: Yeah. Well, that was my next question, too, which is kind of like, what's next, or what's the next chunk of work? So, it's obviously lots more optimization and learning on the e-commerce platform, and then this other mega area, which is, you know, what does this look like as a SaaS solution? What's the vision? But also, where do we start? Which I'm sure, Danny, is a lot of work that you specialize in as far as, like, scoping how to approach these kinds of projects. DANNY: Yeah. And it's interesting because, I mean, we were just talking about this today. Like, part of it is, like, we can, like, really dig into, like, the e-commerce site and, like, really nailing it down to get it to the place where it's like, we're driving tons more traffic and also getting as low of a, like, cart abandonment rate as possible, right? But also, considering the fact that this is in the future, like, large-scale vision. And there's, like, also, like, we're starting to, I think, now iron out a lot of those, like, milestones where we're kind of like, okay, like, we got, like, a short-term vision, which is, like, the e-commerce site. We got a mid-term vision and a potential long-term vision. How do we validate this long-term vision while also still like, keeping this short-term vision moving forward? And, like, this mid-term vision is also going to, like, help potentially, either, like, steer us towards that long-term or maybe even, like, pivot us, like, into a completely different direction. So, like, where do you put your card, right? Like, how much energy and time do we put into, like, each of these areas? And that's kind of, like, the interesting part of this is starting to talk through that, starting to kind of prioritize, like, how we can maximize on our effort, like, our development and design effort so that things just kind of line up more naturally and organically for our future visioning, so... MIKE: Yeah. A lot of different things to juggle. I saw there was a question. Somebody asked what the URL is, but I don't seem to be able to [crosstalk 24:10]. LINDSEY: The same question as me. We got to drop the link for this thing. MIKE: Yeah, getthegoodz.com. CHRIS: That's G-O-O-D-Z. LINDSEY: Get in there, folks MIKE: Yeah, get [crosstalk 24:23]. LINDSEY: And let us know how it goes. MIKE: Yeah, please [laughs]. Any bugs? Let us know. Yeah. I think that those...yeah, I mean, it's a good point, Danny, in terms of juggling kind of the near-term and longer-term stuff. You know, it's a good kind of reminder our big focus, you know, in the new year is going to be fundraising, right? We're already talking to some investors and things like that. So, it's like, okay, yes, as you said, we could tweak the cart. We could tweak the e-commerce. Or, like, can we paint the big picture of what the longer-term version of this company is going to be in a way that makes it compelling for investment to come in so that there can be a long-term version of this company? And then we can build those things. So yeah, it's definitely a balance between the two. LINDSEY: Oh, also, just casual fundraising as well. [crosstalk 25:06] MIKE: Yeah, yeah. LINDSEY: [laughs] MIKE: But it's hard. It's like, you wake up in the morning. It's like, do I want to, like, write cold emails to investors? Or do I want to, like, look at Google Analytics and, like, tweak ad copy? That's actually more fun. So, yes. LINDSEY: Yeah, life of the founder, for sure. All right. So, that's getthegoodz (Goodz with a z) .com. Check it out. We'll tune in and see what happens with the e-commerce site, what happens with the SaaS planning the next time that we check in. But Chris, Mike, Danny, thank you so much for joining today and sharing what's been going on over the last few weeks: the good, the bad, the challenge, the cart abandonment. And, you know, best of luck to you over the next few weeks, and we'll be sure to check in and see how it's going. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Special Guests: Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal.