Jay Mac

100+ high-value clients across a 12-year consulting career in marketing, ads, and strategy.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

Early advertisers are complaining of under-delivery in ChatGPT ads.

Only around 30-50% of assigned budgets are being spent as OpenAI are being cautious.

I think this is a great sign, many others would just maximise revenue but clearly they're testing, learning. and adapting.

[Simon Høiberg @SimonHoiberg]

Users from ads generally pay more and churn less. They are an overall better, more healthy type of users.

The catch is: They are significantly harder to convert.

But it's actually a good thing. It humbles you in the best way possible.

When you turn away from this tiny creator bubble on Twitter/LinkedIn/YouTube and start pointing at total strangers out there - real users, with real businesses, and a real problem to solve, who don't care how many followers you have or how much ass you're shaking on social - you'll learn a lot about how strong your positioning is, how well your landing page actually converts, how good your product truly is.

I know many creators here claim that "ads don't work" - but it's mostly a symptom that their business is weak. Either poorly positioned or just not a very competitive/appealing product.

One solution is to keep shaking ass, of course. And that's fine - but if you want a more mature business, I suggest start running ads, cold calling, or cold emailing people.

Get the experience of selling to total strangers, not fans.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

"Conversational intent" is the new term being banded around for ChatGPT ads.

It's pretty important though, and the main reason I'm super bullish on them once the teething phase is over.

Let's consider someone searching for a hotel.

Google: [4* family hotel in Paris]

ChatGPT: [I'm looking for a highly rated family hotel in Paris, ideally close to the Eiffel Tower, my daughter loves it, a view of it would be amazing if possible. I like a gym to train in the mornings and my wife loves to use the sauna. It needs to have good reviews for children, and be priced around €300/night]

It doesn't take a genius to imagine that IF ChatGPT can get their ad targeting/matching right they can provide a much more relevant ad to the user at the key moment.

There is also prior context and user insight on both platforms but you could even argue ChatGPT's is/will be more useful here too.

And of course Google is moving towards more conversational search and has Gemini so it's not like they can't tailor ads for these placements as well.

The Google vs OpenAI battle for ad spend is going be lively to say the least!

[Dr. Julie Gurner @drgurner]

An overlooked personal signal to pay attention to:

The things that are *easy* for you in your work, are often a sign of incredible talent in that area.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

https://t.co/WRGs3i47d6

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

This is when we find out how valuable ChatGPT ads could be.

I predict after some teething issues they absolutely fly and budgets start to shift to the platform more & more into 2027.

Preparing myself now for an upcoming wave.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

@rndhouse @p_millerd I wonder if the bad stuff (lack of sleep, noise, chaos, etc) is easier to imagine as that stuff happens in life anyway.

But the best things are impossible to describe so people can't imagine the upside but the 'downside' is clearer perhaps.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

From @p_millerd latest newsletter (always a great read btw)

A nice extract on parenting I can relate to..

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

@levelsio @Airbnb Very similar happened to me in Sao Paulo, Brazil a couple of years ago.

I'd booked dozens of stays with Airbnb prior all over the world with good reviews, so for them just to dismiss us completely and side with the host I was pretty pissed.

Never used them since.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

Yep.

And the latter is 10x more fulfilling.

Nomading is fun though, perfect precursor to find your forever home life.

[NIK HUNO 🦉 @NikHuno]

the digital nomad thing peaked around 2022 and now there's a quiet correction. people buying property. getting dogs. learning the language of wherever they landed. the forever-travelers are settling and nobody's writing about it because "I stopped moving" isn't a sexy headline. but it's the truer story. the sequel to "quit your job and travel" is "find your place and build."

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

@DmytroKrasun Currently there are still some keywords but the direction of travel is basically they'll scan your URL and you can add a brief of who your audience is, brand guidelines, relevant themes & topics, etc. then it'll match that to who they is best to target your ads to.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

A few thoughts from Google Marketing Live:

• It's going to be a keywordless future in Google Ads 😢

• I'm sceptical about AI brief for AI Max but it's a positive step for keeping ads on brand/targeted

• They're pushing demand gen campaigns hard (signal they'll improve)

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

As I predicted by pivoting from ads retainers, they're literally saying do not keep editing your campaigns so often and let AI do its thing.

The suggestion was to do any changes all in one day which ties in with my plan to offer more one-off audits & optimisation projects.

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

A few thoughts from Google Marketing Live:

• It's going to be a keywordless future in Google Ads 😢

• I'm sceptical about AI brief for AI Max but it's a positive step for keeping ads on brand/targeted

• They're pushing demand gen campaigns hard (signal they'll improve)

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

Spent some time digesting Google's guidance for GEO/AEO or whatever.

The most important line to summarise it all imo was in a search engine journal article...

"The distinction is whether content provides unique insight beyond common knowledge"

[Maurizio @themgmtconsult]

Consultants -> Forward Deployed Engineers

The great rebrand of the 2020s

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

Think there could be some notable updates here.

Gemini Ads, anyone?

[Google Ads @GoogleAds]

We’re just 𝗢𝗡𝗘 week away from 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 - the 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 of the year. 📣

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[Jay Mac @jaymac]

Once again, a reminder - "the bar is so low"

If you're competent, professional, reliable, responsive, and just mildly pleasant, you're top 5% these days.

I used to say top 10% but standards are getting worse.

[Nico @nico_jeannen]

Im never hiring ppl from X again 💀

Tried hiring motion designer for a video for a 30s video

> Found someone on X who shared nice videos
> Slightly more $$ as other quotes I received, but portfolio looked good
> I want to be easy to work with, so I pay in advance, no hard deadline, trusted him to do its job properly

Result:
>0 communication, have to babysit every little thing
>garbage result I can't use

> ok maybe instructions not clear enough?
> Sent exact mockup of what I needed
> Still didn't follow what I asked for 💀

Lesson learned lol, I'll use Fiverr/Upwork next time

The bar is so low, why can't people just do what they paid for?
How do you find people who can actually do their job and follow instructions? 🥲

[Jay Mac @jaymac]

I get asked more for ads work now that I've stopped taking on clients than when I was in full growth mode.

Funny how that works. I've actually started saying yes as I have some space and I'm enjoying it.

Perhaps just in time to have one more run as ChatGPT ads enter the game.

[mitsuri @0xmitsurii]

Barack Obama: "Just learn how to get stuff done, and people will notice."

[Jack Elstub @jack__elstub]

I run the ads.

This one has been live since January. It's not top of funnel. It's bottom of funnel - pushing people over the line who set a goal at the start of the year and quietly let their daily discipline slip.

Turns out that's a lot of people. In May.

Never kill what's working.