The State of the Post-Search Web in 2026
Google's AI Overviews now answer most informational queries without a click. Here's where that leaves organic traffic in 2026, and what's still working.
Field Notes & Reviews
The Journal
A Practical Guide to Zero-Click Search
More than half of Google searches now end without a click. Here's what zero-click search is, where the traffic went and how to stay visible in AI Overviews.
How Zero-Click Search Changed Digital Marketing in 2025
A year-in-review of 2025, when Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews pushed zero-click search past a tipping point, forcing a focus on citations, not rankings.
A Practical Guide to Retail Media
AI-generated ad creative tools are standard on major retail platforms, Walmart's connected-TV inventory is coming online and clean rooms are going mainstream.
How Retail Media Changed Digital Marketing in 2025
How retail media matured in 2025: off-site expansion, AI-driven ad creative and the push for standardized measurement across a crowded field of networks.
A Practical Guide to Retail Media Networks
Walmart's pending Vizio deal and Instacart's expanding ad tools show how fast retail media networks are maturing, and how to allocate a limited budget.
A Practical Guide to AI Marketing Automation
AI marketing automation shifts decisions from a rule someone wrote to a model that decides who to reach and when. Here's what works and how to adopt it safely.
How AI Marketing Automation Changed Marketing in 2025
A look back at how AI features quietly became default inside marketing automation platforms in 2025, from predictive send times to automated segment discovery.
Why Email Automation Matters: The Revenue Math Behind It
Automated email is a tiny share of what most brands send, yet it drives a large share of email revenue. Here's the math behind that gap and why it happens.
Mastering Short-Form Video: A Marketer's Playbook
An operational playbook for short-form video in 2025: hook mechanics, the signals that drive distribution and how to keep producing through TikTok uncertainty.
12 Short-Form Video Strategies for the AI Video Era
Twelve short-form video tactics for 2025, a year that opened with TikTok briefly going dark in the US and closed with AI-generated video flooding every feed.
12 Short-Form Video Strategies for the TikTok Ban Era
Twelve concrete short-form video tactics that were working in 2024, from hedging against the TikTok ban law to using YouTube's maturing Shorts monetization.
How Creator Partnerships Changed Digital Marketing in 2024
TikTok's legal fight in the US pushed brands to hedge creator budgets across platforms in 2024, and long-term deals kept replacing one-off posts.
The Rise of Creator Partnerships
By 2024 creator partnerships moved beyond sponsorship deals into platform infrastructure: TikTok Shop, YouTube's revenue share and MrBeast-style owned brands.
Why TikTok SEO Matters for Your Bottom Line
A senior Google executive admitted young users often search TikTok before Google. Here's the actual business case for optimizing videos to be found there.
A Practical Guide to Predictive Personalization
Showing someone a product they viewed isn't personalization, it's a reminder. Predictive personalization anticipates what they want next, and here's how.
How Customer Data Platforms Changed Marketing in 2025
What customer data platforms did differently in 2025: feeding AI agents, powering retail media targeting and replacing patchwork spreadsheets.
A Practical Guide to First-Party Data
First-party data is what customers give you directly, and it keeps getting more valuable as tracking disappears. Here's how it flows to a usable view.
AI-Native Customer Experience: What Businesses Need to Know
AI-native CX rebuilds the customer journey around intelligence, not a chatbot bolted onto old systems. Here's what changes and how to adopt it responsibly.
Generative Engine Optimization: How to Get Cited by AI
Ranking first on Google means nothing if ChatGPT or Perplexity never mentions you. Here are the tested moves that influence whether an AI answer cites you.
Building an Autonomous Marketing Agents Strategy From Scratch
Handing an AI agent a goal and letting it plan and act on its own is now possible, and risky without a plan. Here's how to build an autonomous agent strategy.
Why Omnichannel AI Matters for Your Bottom Line
Why coordinating channels with AI shows up directly in retention and revenue, not just experience scores and where most omnichannel efforts break down.
How Sustainable Marketing Changed Digital Marketing in 2025
2025 was the year sustainability marketing got quieter, as regulators cracked down on vague claims and brands learned to say less but prove more.
A Practical Guide to Sustainable Marketing
The line between a defensible environmental claim and a greenwashing headline comes down to specificity and evidence. Here's how to stay on the right side.