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Cisco is advocating for a 'Better Together' spectrum strategy to continue to support more and better Wi-Fi in Europe. The post GUEST PAPER: What Ofcom’s ‘Better Together’ 6 GHz plan means for Wi-Fi, mobile, & the EU appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

You may know that Reddit can be a treasure trove of useful information and opinion, and that RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a clean and straightforward way to keep up with what's happening on the web—but you might not be aware that you can combine both Reddit and RSS in numerous ways. Reddit actually has a variety of RSS integrations built in, so you can point your RSS reader straight to your subreddits of choice and keep up with the latest posts. The usual benefits of RSS apply: You get an uncluttered, customizable interface, free from ads and other extras, and which you can work through at your own pace. If you're new to RSS, we've previously picked out a selection of the best clients to get you started, as well as spotlighting our favorites. These RSS apps give you rolling, chronological feeds of whatever websites (including Reddit) you point them towards, and they let you take in what you want to read at your own pace. Getting started with Reddit and RSS Feedly comes with Reddit integration built in. Credit: Lifehacker You can turn any subreddit into a feed for your RSS app by adding ".rss" to the end of it—so, for example, reddit.com/r/technology/ would become reddit.com/r/technology/.rss. That will give you a simple, reverse chronological feed of posts from the subreddit, with the newest submissions appearing at the top. The same goes for comments in a subreddit, and for user feeds: All you need to do is add ".rss" to the end of the URL. If you wanted to see all the comments happening in the tech subreddit, for example, reddit.com/r/technology/comments/.rss would be the feed to plug into your RSS reader of choice. You can use the ".rss" trick with a lot of Reddit URLs, but you don't always put it in the same place. If you want to keep tabs on a particular search term, for example, you can use a URL such as reddit.com/search.rss?q=lifehacker&sort=new for your RSS reader. That will return all the posts matching "Lifehacker" recently added to Reddit. These feeds work in the same way to any other RSS feed you add to your client—you can search through them, bookmark them, and follow the links to read the post in full on Reddit (including its full selection of embedded media and comments). Some RSS readers come with features specifically for Reddit. For example, Feedly is one of the best clients out there, and when you click the Follow Sources link in the Feedly web interface you'll see a Reddit tab—click this to add subreddits and searches directly, with no URL tricks required. Customizing your Reddit RSS feeds You can customize your Reddit RSS feeds in a variety of ways. Credit: Lifehacker Keep on digging and you'll find there are a few more tricks you can do with RSS and Reddit. As pointed out by Robin Spielmann, you can use a few variables in your URLs: "sort" to sort the posts, "t" to pick when the posts are from, and "limit" to restrict how many posts get pulled through. For example, plug reddit.com/r/technology/top/.rss?sort=top&t=day&limit=10 into your RSS reader to get the top posts from the technology subreddit today, with the number capped at 10. Bear in mind, though, that might give you some duplicates, if a post stays at the top for a while (depending on your RSS settings). Want to combine different feeds together, that's also possible: Adding reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful+explainlikeimfive/top/.rss?sort=top&t=day&limit=5 will get you the top five posts from both r/dataisbeautiful and r/explainlikeimfive combined. It's a useful way of keeping in touch with what's happening on Reddit without necessarily trawling through everything on your go-to subreddits. Some experimentation may be necessary, as Reddit's RSS support has tended to shift over the years. Adding reddit.com/hot/.rss to an RSS reader, for instance, seems to pull in some of the hot and trending posts from the platform's front page, but quite a lot more besides. There are further steps you can take if you want to customize this further. IFTTT (If This Then That) lets you build custom Reddit feeds and then turn them into RSS feeds, while the Upvote RSS tool enables Reddit feeds to be customized by keywords, timings, upvotes, and more—though you will need your own PHP server to set it up on. View the full article

LLMs have become a starting point for nearly everything — work, play, consumerism, health, and more. But one thing gets overlooked: how they finish answering prompts. They don’t — and that matters. They operate in a “no, you hang up first” mentality. The prompts we enter don’t just end. LLMs “nudge” us to continue the conversation, offering to take the next step. “Would you like me to create that travel itinerary for you?” “Would you like me to compare the Nike and New Balance running shoes and tell you which is best for a marathon?” These nudges make it easy to keep going. Most of the time, I enter “sure” or “sounds good. Thank you,” and move to the next step to see what it provides. These nudges drive consumer behavior. Where LLMs take us matters. If you’re a premium brand and the LLM suggests a price comparison, you may not like it, but you need to understand it so you can react. We analyzed how different LLMs use these nudges across prompts and platforms to understand the patterns shaping user behavior — and what they signal for brands trying to stay in control of the journey. What LLM nudges actually look like across platforms Budget and deals dominate LLMs provide different types of follow-up suggestions. Overall, 45% of mentions are budget- and deal-related. While not evenly distributed, budgets and deals are treated as the default of what consumers want to see. Perplexity and ChatGPT are over 60% budgets and deals. Meta is the only one that doesn’t make that assumption at the same level. Comparisons drive the next step The second biggest recommendation type is product comparisons. LLMs offer to compare various products, including financial services products, health treatments, and retail products. All industries see suggestions for comparisons. Specs play a minor role Another key point: much of the current thinking urges you to provide LLMs with detailed technical specs. But those make up a small share of these suggestions. That doesn’t mean content lacks ranking value — it does — but it’s not how LLMs usually extend conversations with users. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How each platform uses nudges differently We also analyzed the dominant nudge style across platforms. Each LLM uses a distinct tone when continuing the conversation. How these systems guide users forward reflects the personalities they present. PlatformDominant nudge styleKey characteristicChatGPT“If you want…”Heavy commerce focus: Primarily nudges toward deals and product comparisons.Microsoft Copilot“If you tell me…”Interactive/clarifying: Frequently asks for more user data to refine its recommendation.Google Gemini“Would you like me…”Polite and permission-based: Exclusively uses this formal invitation to continue helping.Perplexity“I can help…” / “If you’d like…”Service-oriented: Uses more varied phrasing to offer utility and assistance.Meta AI“Let me know…”Casual and passive: Primarily nudges toward product comparisons and specs with a less aggressive, “standing by” tone. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with What actions to take based on AI nudges These nudges are designed to keep the conversation going and push users to explore further. They drive consumer behavior and shape the customer journey. Over time, we’ll be able to better optimize for them as more data becomes available. For now, insights are limited to individual responses, with no way to connect conversations. The actions to take fall into three buckets, mostly tied to the content you create across onsite and offsite channels: Capitalize on the “support” gap Proactive nudges for troubleshooting and support are significantly lower than commerce-driven themes. Own the post-purchase “how-to” and technical support space to build long-term authority where AI is currently less aggressive. Prioritize the “comparison” hook LLMs consistently nudge users toward comparative analysis. Double down on “Product A vs. Product B” guides to capture the AI’s primary next step. Maximize the “budget and deals” opportunity Pricing and discounts are the No. 1 driver of AI nudges (48% of all triggers). Maintain structured, real-time deal data to ensure your site is the preferred destination for AI commerce referrals. The LLM landscape will keep evolving quickly as these platforms become the primary interface for consumer research and decision-making. Your priority now is to understand how LLMs talk about your brand and how those conversational nudges affect users. By analyzing these automated suggestions across platforms like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, organizations can see how consumers are being directed — whether toward budget-friendly alternatives, product comparisons, or technical specifications. Recognizing these patterns lets you move from passive observation to action, keeping your value proposition clear even when an LLM reframes the conversation around price or competitors. Tracking this shift is key to maintaining brand authority as AI-driven interactions shape the customer journey. View the full article

In operating reviews and boardrooms, I keep seeing the same pattern: leadership asks for rigor, teams deliver the numbers, and promising AI efforts get judged as underperforming before the organization has actually learned what it takes to make them real. Then someone pulls the plug, scales back the investment, or lets the initiative quietly expire. Sometimes they’re right. But often, they’ve just used the wrong test. The problem isn’t that leaders care about measurement. Strong measurement discipline is exactly what separates organizations that scale AI from those that accumulate pilots. The problem is that many leaders are applying a mature-business scorecard to work that isn’t mature yet—and the result is a predictable misread. The scorecard mismatch Think about how most established businesses evaluate success: ROI within a defined window, cost takeout, headcount efficiency. These are sensible metrics for stable operations. Used too early on emerging AI work, they don’t create discipline. They create false negatives. AI initiatives don’t mature on the same timeline as a product refresh or a cost-reduction program. The first value often surfaces as faster decisions, reduced rework, or improved data quality—not as a line item in next quarter’s P&L. Workflow redesign—the real work of integrating AI into how people actually operate—is slow, disruptive, and invisible to traditional financial reporting until it isn’t. When leaders demand conventional ROI on a one-to-three year horizon, teams respond rationally: they optimize for what’s measurable. They chase near-term efficiency wins, avoid the messier work of process redesign, and build pilots designed to survive a financial review rather than to learn something. It’s not bad faith. It’s a logical response to the incentives the scorecard creates. The result is what’s now being called “proof-of-concept fatigue”—organizations running dozens of AI experiments, few of which ever reach production. Gartner predicts 30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by end of 2025. That’s not primarily a technology failure rate. It’s a measurement failure rate. Four forms of value that fall off the scorecard When organizations apply legacy metrics to AI work, four things consistently disappear from the frame. Learning value. Early AI initiatives should be generating organizational knowledge—about which processes are actually AI-ready, where the data problems are, which teams can absorb change and which can’t. None of that appears on a standard ROI dashboard. If learning isn’t being tracked, it isn’t being valued. Eventually, it stops happening. Adoption reality. A model that performs well in a controlled pilot and fails at the point of deployment isn’t a technology problem. It’s a measurement design problem—the pilot criteria didn’t include the humans who would actually use it. Healthcare is full of examples: AI tools evaluated on administrative metrics that then crater when clinicians encounter them in real workflows. The benchmark omitted the most important variable. Workflow value. McKinsey research identifies workflow redesign—not model accuracy—as the single largest driver of AI’s EBIT impact. But workflow redesign is expensive and disruptive. When leaders measure AI against near-term efficiency targets, teams have every incentive to skip it. The faster path to a defensible number is a narrow pilot that proves almost nothing about whether AI can actually change how the business operates. Capability value. Organizations that get compounding returns from AI develop internal judgment over time—about where AI helps, where it doesn’t, how to integrate it without losing human accountability. That doesn’t show up in year-one cost savings. It shows up years later as a competitive advantage. MIT Sloan research found that organizations updating their KPIs to reflect how AI creates value were three times more likely to see meaningful financial benefit than those that didn’t. The metric change came before the financial gain. Metrics are not neutral This is the part that often gets lost in conversations about measurement rigor: the metrics you choose signal what you actually value. When leadership sets traditional ROI as the primary standard for an AI initiative, they’re not just creating a framework. They’re telling the team what matters. And if what matters is a short-term number, teams will build for that. You get the outcome your scorecard rewards—which may have nothing to do with the transformation you said you wanted. Over 40% of companies report struggling to define or measure the impact of their AI initiatives, and less than half are using AI-specific KPIs at all. That’s not a data problem. It’s a leadership problem. If the people setting the measurement standard haven’t updated their thinking about what early-stage AI value looks like, no amount of analytical capability downstream will fix it. The questions worth sitting with I’m not arguing against measurement. I’m arguing for measurement that fits the stage of the work. A few questions: Are the metrics you’re applying to this initiative the same ones you’d use to evaluate a mature business line? If so, why? What would you need to see in year one to know you’re building toward something real—even if traditional ROI isn’t visible yet? Is your team optimizing for learning, or for a number that will survive a budget review? The goal isn’t softer standards. It’s smarter ones. There’s a real difference between an initiative generating genuine learning and building toward scale, and one producing theater for a quarterly review. Good measurement tells those two things apart. The wrong scorecard doesn’t just misread AI value. It trains the organization to produce less of it. View the full article

Explore key takeaways from Sundar Pichai on agentic systems, robotics, and the future of AI-driven search and productivity. The post What I Learned About The Future Of Search And AI From Sundar Pichai’s Latest Interview appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Calling it a step towards "super intelligence," Meta announced it is releasing Muse Spark, an overhauled and improved AI. This "natively multimodal reasoning model" goes way beyond a chatbot, and it will soon live in your glasses and your social feeds. It's available now in the Meta AI app, with plans to roll out with a smart glasses update in the next few weeks. Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2), Headliner, Matte Black | Smart AI Glasses for Men, Women — 2x Battery Life — 3K Ultra HD Resolution — 12 MP Ultra-Wide Camera, Audio, Video — Clear Lenses — Wearable Technology $379.00 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $379.00 at Amazon Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, there are three levels to Muse Spark's "thinking," and users will be able control how deep the intelligence goes. Instant Mode: For quick questions and everyday chats. Thinking Mode: This mode is designed to solve more complex problems, so if you need some help with math, science, or logic, this is the mode. Contemplating Mode: Muse Sparks' highest level engages multiple AI agents that work in parallel and collaborate to complete complex, multi-step tasks. Meta says Muse Spark's performance compares to or exceeds their Llama 4 Maverick model while using over an order of magnitude less computing power. That means, theoretically, high-level reasoning without excessive server use. While Muse Sparks will be accessible in a variety of places, it seems like Muse Spark's ground-up integration of visual material is made for smart glasses. Here are some of the ways Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta users will be able to use the new AI. AI is now integrated across different tools One of the Muse Spark main improvements over Meta's previous model is the way the new AI will integrate visual information across different tools. So, theoretically, you could point your glasses at a mess of wires and electronic boxes and say "how do I hook up this home theater system?" Or get step-by-step coaching on assembling a piece of IKEA furniture without opening the booklet. The AI would read the instructions and make sure you're not screwing anything in upside down. Muse Sparks will have health reasoning capabilities Meta said its Meta Superintelligence Lab collaborated with over 1,000 physicians to develop the AI's health reasoning capabilities. Users will be able to do things like generate an interactive display that unpacks the nutritional information about food, and maps out what muscles are activated during a workout. But how will it actually perform? All of the above is "in theory." Artificial intelligence hasn't always lived up to its hype, even when it's being hyped in front of a massive audience. It's one thing to perform well in laboratory benchmark tests, but how the tech works in the real world, where lighting is spotty, wi-fi is slow, and furniture instructions can be extremely complicated, is the real challenge. While I haven't dug deeply into the tech, I did give it a quick test by turning on "thinking" mode and sending Meta AI the below picture of a random assortment of audio gear: Credit: Stephen Johnson It not only correctly identified everything in the picture, it gave me a couple different options for possible ways to hook it together, and told me (correctly) what cords I needs. So I look forward to having it on my glasses. If you want to test it yourself, Muse Spark is already running on meta.ai and the Meta AI app, and smart glasses firmware and social media integrations are expected to follow shortly. View the full article

Humanity is always aspiring to stretch itself to achieve new goals, including exploring new frontiers. The Artemis II crew accomplished this, traveling 252,000 miles away from Earth, the farthest any human has ever been before, breaking the Apollo 13 record. The four brave individuals are set to return Friday, splashing down off the coast of California, near San Diego. Here’s everything you need to know about the landing, including how to tune in. How did the Artemis get its name? The name Artemis is a throwback to the first NASA moon missions. Apollo 11 saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take giant leaps for mankind on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, so the moniker reflects the hope that it will follow in the previous big footsteps. Artemis II’s goal is to test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft with people on board. (No moon landings just yet.) The roughly 10-day mission circled the moon to test the systems so Artemis III can eventually land on the lunar surface. All about the Artemis II crew The head honcho of the Artemis II crew is commander Reid Wiseman. This isn’t his first rodeo in space as he has already logged 165 days on the International Space Station. At the wheel is Victor J. Glover Jr. who serves as the mission’s pilot. This father of four hails from Pomona, California, and previously served as a U.S. Navy captain. He first joined NASA in 2013. It’s fair to say that mission specialist Christina Koch has been dreaming of the Artemis mission since attending Space Camp in her youth. Now she’s in their Hall of Fame. She made history by serving as a flight engineer for a 328-day space mission, the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Canada is even getting in on the action with mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. As a member of the Canadian Space Agency, he became the first non-American to orbit the moon. A brief summary of the Artemis II mission so far This was no April Fools: The Orion spacecraft blasted off on April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It spent about 25 hours circling the Earth before leaving the atmosphere. Six days into the mission, the crew reached the moon. It spent seven hours circling the orb seeing parts of it no one has ever laid eyes on before. On Tuesday, April 7, the crew began making their way back home. When will the Orion splash down? It is believed the Orion will land off the coast of San Diego in the waters of the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10, at around 8:07 p.m. ET. This is a dangerous portion of the mission. The Orion will enter the Earth’s atmosphere at an extremely fast clip, with a velocity around 33 times faster than the speed of sound. Orion’s service module has to detach to make room for the parachutes that will slow down the craft. Thankfully, the heat shield will protect the astronauts from the high temperatures reached. After the big splash, the crew will be taken aboard the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluation and then transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. How can I watch or stream the splashdown live? To catch all the exciting action, head to NASA’s official channel on YouTube. You can also watch it on NASA+ or via the NASA app, which are both free services. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on all platforms. Until then, you can follow the Orion’s trajectory with NASA’s official tracking tool. View the full article

Learn how to build detailed and actionable SEO reports to share with clients and key stakeholders. View the full article

A 21.2% spike in the price of gasoline was the biggest contributor to a 0.9% increase in the Consumer Price Index in March, according to a Friday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency said other price increases were largely contained. View the full article

The 11 best local SEO tools include Google Business Profile, Review Management, and Position Tracking. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Hisense 85QD7QF Smart TV has dropped to $797.96 (originally $1,299.99) on Amazon—its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. That kind of discount makes an 85-inch screen feel a lot more attainable than it usually is. The 85QD7QF is large enough to anchor a living room, and while it comes with free delivery to your room, you will need to handle setup yourself. CNET also named it one of the best 85-inch TVs to buy in 2026, which gives you an idea of how it stacks up. 85" Hisense QD7 Series TV $797.96 at Amazon $1,299.99 Save $502.03 Get Deal Get Deal $797.96 at Amazon $1,299.99 Save $502.03 In use, the size is the first thing you notice, but the panel does more than just go big. It uses Mini-LED backlighting with full-array local dimming, which helps create better contrast than standard LED TVs—bright scenes hold up well and darker scenes show more detail without looking washed out. And its QLED layer adds a bit more color richness, so sports and movies look lively without feeling oversaturated. That said, this is still a budget-friendly large TV, so while local dimming helps, it does not match the precision you get from higher-end Mini-LED or OLED TVs, so you may still notice some blooming in high-contrast scenes. That aside, it handles motion well, with a native 144Hz refresh rate that keeps fast action smooth, and it pairs with features like AMD FreeSync Premium and variable refresh rate support to reduce stutter, especially if you’re connecting a console or PC. You’ll also find that the 85QD7QF supports Dolby Vision for HDR content, and there’s Dolby Atmos to give the built-in audio a bit more presence than basic TV speakers, though it still does not replace a dedicated soundbar. The Fire TV interface is also easy to navigate (and should feel familiar if you’ve used an Amazon streaming device)—it puts apps front and center, but it can feel busy at times, especially if you prefer a cleaner layout. This isn’t a top-tier performer by any means, but for under $800, you get a very large screen that works well for everyday viewing, sports, and gaming. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $224.00 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $319.99 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $329.00 (List Price $399.00) Fire TV Stick 4K Plus Streaming Player With Remote (2025 Model) — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Amazon Fire TV Soundbar — $99.99 (List Price $119.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

We’re being pushed harder than ever — expected to hit bigger revenue targets with the same or smaller PPC budgets. Even with flat budgets, rising platform costs mean we’re effectively facing a budget cut. Average CPCs have risen by as much as 40%, with an average of 3.74%, per Wordstream. Certain periods, such as Black Friday, see much higher increases. Teams are experiencing budget cuts, with average marketing budgets flatlining at 7.7%, according to Gartner. Our own account audits show that 20-30% of most accounts’ spend is quietly underperforming. This is the reality of paid media in 2026. But it isn’t all bad news. Efficiency isn’t just about spending less, it’s about spending smarter. Here’s how to find the waste, fix the fundamentals, and get maximum return from every dollar you invest. Why efficiency has become the priority Paid media has shifted dramatically over the last few years, with a greater focus on automation, which has led to hidden data. In parallel, businesses are freezing or reducing budgets while expanding revenue targets, and we’re seeing inflation hit CPCs across most industries, with accounts across our portfolio averaging 10% increases year on year, depending on the industry. With the expansion into AI-driven automation, this has pushed us further into smart bidding strategies, meaning that where CPCs are rising, you have to be clever with the levers you pull to curtail or minimize these increases. Meanwhile, customers are spreading their attention across more platforms than ever before, switching between screens and devices, and frequently double-screening. The question for many businesses is no longer “how do we spend more?” but “how do we get maximum return from every dollar we spend?” Getting that answer right starts with an honest look at where money is being lost. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Auditing for waste: The 20-30% rule One of the most important (and uncomfortable) truths in paid media is that aggregate metrics hide wasted spend in plain sight. A campaign with a 600% ROAS average might have a single product consuming 20% of the budget at just 300%. An untouched search term report can contain dozens of irrelevant queries burning through spend, especially when broad match keywords or Performance Max campaigns are in play. Settings or targeting that made sense when you first launched your campaigns may not do so now. Consumer behavior shifts, and business objectives develop and change over time. Are your ROAS targets still reflective, for example? Common waste zones to investigate include: Zero-conversion products or keywords. Low ROAS/CPL outliers. High spend, low ROAS/CPL. Zero-conversion products or keywords Products or keywords that receive spend but generate no conversions are generally loss-making. Before drawing this conclusion, apply impression, click, and spend thresholds to ensure sufficient data. If a product or keyword has surpassed your target, look to stop spend in these areas. You also want to assess for seasonality and review other contributing factors such as: Search term relevance. Checkout funnels. Competitive advantage. Low ROAS/CPL outliers Products consistently below your viable ROAS/CPL threshold are often hidden within blended campaign performance. Use performance bucketing, and set more aggressive targets to control spend and CPCs for these areas. High spend, low ROAS/CPL High visibility with low return is a common and costly pattern. Optimize your product feed, and apply more aggressive targets to bring these in line. Again, these products will benefit from implementing product bucketing. Beyond products, a thorough audit should cover: Account-level settings (such as content suitability, scheduling, landing page quality, and device performance). Campaign-level detail (including search term reports, cannibalization, negative keyword coverage, bid strategy alignment, and asset performance). AI tools can significantly accelerate this analysis. Feeding your data into a well-prompted model can surface patterns that would take hours to identify manually. AI can also help visualize data more clearly and break it down into manageable, easy-to-understand segments. Full-funnel thinking: Where should your budget sit? When budgets are tight, funnel prioritization becomes critical. Not all spend is equal, and the hierarchy matters. Conversion (retargeting, branded terms, exact match) This is where the highest intent and highest return live. Protect this budget as much as you can, but also assess whether other channels can pick up some of this slack. For example: Do you need to spend on brand searches, or can you capture this organically? Can you re-engage better through email? Consideration (generic search, shopping, social) For established brands, this is where the majority of the budget will sit, supporting the pipeline. These users have an active need for your product, and you should prioritize appearing for these searches/users. Again, consider the need for paid ads. If you are strong organically, with low competition, can you cut back? Which keywords and products is your budget best spent promoting? Awareness (social, display, video, audio) Valuable for long-term brand building, but is usually the first area to be trimmed when budgets are under pressure. You should try to maintain a level of branding, or you end up passing the issues down the road, as you are unable to build a future pipeline. In Google Ads, campaign types like Performance Max allow full-funnel targeting. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Creative is a must-have, not a nice-to-have Creative is no longer just a brand awareness nice-to-have. It’s directly correlated to campaign success. Google and Meta campaigns rely heavily on creative variation to test and optimize. Without sufficient variants, the system runs out of testing capability, and performance plateaus over time as frequency increases. Campaign types such as Performance Max (Google Ads), GMV Max (TikTok), and Advantage+ (Meta) are heavily restricted without sufficient creative. This results in inefficient spending. Variety is a system requirement: Platforms need multiple creative variations to identify what works for each auction, audience, and placement. If you don’t supply enough variety, you risk performance decline. Fatigue is accelerating: With AI-generated content flooding the digital landscape, audiences are tiring of ads faster than ever. For most categories, refreshing creative at least every four to six weeks is now the baseline. Quality beats quantity: Variation is valuable, but one clear, well-crafted message will outperform ten low-quality. Know the purpose of each ad, and who it’s for before. AI can support creative production, but strong messaging and strategic clarity still matter most. Attribution and measurement: Getting honest about what works Platform attribution has become more fragmented and broken over the years, but many advertisers are unsure how to address this and move forward. Elements such as cross-device behaviors, iOS privacy changes, consent mode, and GDPR, modeled data, plus the platform’s bias toward claiming conversion credit mean that in-platform numbers should be treated as optimization signals, and not sources of truth. Using blended metrics gives a cleaner picture of actual efficiency, and can help you establish how your paid media efforts are working: Marketing efficiency ratio (MER): Total revenue divided by total ad spend. A single, honest view of overall paid media efficiency. New customer acquisition cost (nCAC): Total spend divided by the number of new customers acquired. Shifts focus from retention to business growth. CLV:CAC ratio: Sets a strategic ceiling on customer acquisition costs. A ratio of 3:1 or above is the benchmark to aim for. Building a reliable measurement framework follows a clear sequence: fix your base tracking first, build a blended view of performance, use in-platform data for optimization signals only, and apply incrementality testing when making significant budget decisions. Incrementality testing allows you to use treatment and holdout groups to clearly establish whether a new campaign or platform launch, for example, has added incremental value. Automation and AI: Efficiency with guardrails AI and automation offer real efficiency gains, but only when applied with thought and control. The biggest mistake is automating decisions that require strategic judgment, or removing human oversight from areas where context matters. Safe to automate: Bidding strategies. Budget pacing alerts. Data-backed budget adjustments. Product labeling and exclusions. Scheduled reporting and data visualization. Competitor ad monitoring. Keep human oversight: Channel strategy. Audience targeting. Creative strategy. Targets and KPIs. Campaign launches. Interpreting significant performance changes. Scripts for product bucketing are a particularly high-value area of automation. Automatically labeling products based on performance criteria allows for continuous, data-driven management without manual intervention. Performance Max: When to use it (and when not to) PMax works well when you have a strong product feed, sufficient conversion volume, high-quality assets, clear audience signals, an appropriate budget, and effective conversion measurement in place. Without these conditions, the risks can be high, and can hide troublesome metrics among the averages. This can include: Cannibalization of brand search. Over-indexing on existing customers. Loss of product-level control. Get the foundations right before leaning into automation. Getting the most from AI bidding strategies Choosing the right bidding strategy matters as much as setting it up correctly: StrategyWhen to useWatch out forTarget ROAS30+ conversions/month with a clear ROAS targetToo high throttles spend; too low creates wasted trafficTarget CPALead generation, where dynamic revenue isn’t trackedWorks best with consistent CPA; wrong targets cause delivery to spiralMaximize Conversion ValueWhen you lack sufficient data to set a ROAS targetNo bid ceiling, monitor CPCs and budget closelyMaximize ClicksUpper funnel only, where traffic volume is the goalIgnores the bottom of the funnel entirely See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The highest-leverage moves for paid media efficiency If your paid media budget is under pressure, the highest-leverage moves are: Run a waste audit: Find the 20-30% that’s underperforming. Protect lower-funnel spend: Conversion-focused campaigns should be the last to be cut. Refresh creative more frequently: Creative fatigue is costing performance in ways that aren’t always visible in the numbers. Move to blended measurement: Get honest about what’s working across channels, not just within platform dashboards. Automate selectively: Use AI for what it does well, and keep human judgment where it counts. Done well, efficiency can give you a competitive advantage, and it’s available to any team willing to look honestly at where their spend is actually going. View the full article

Steam cleaning should be a low-risk activity, but that hasn’t been the case for some owners of Bissell’s Steam Shot products. Michigan-based Bissell Homecare has recalled about 1.7 million of its Steam Shot OmniReach and Steam Shot Omni Steam Cleaners with attachments. The recall follows reports of the attachments coming undone and creating a burn hazard, according to an announcement from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Another 96,000 or so units sold in Canada have also been recalled. Of the 206 reports of malfunctioning products, 161 accounts have included notice of minor burn injuries. In one case, someone reported a second-degree burn. Where and when was the product sold? The Bissell steam cleaners were sold in the U.S. and Canada at Target, Walmart, and a number of other stores nationwide. They were also available on the websites of Bissell, Amazon, and HSN, among others. The sales occurred between October 2024 and March 2026. Each item sold for between $9 and $55. According to Bissell, a range of model numbers are included in the recall: 4155 4155L 4155W 4155G 4155D 4155J 4155Y 4155P 4171 4171L 4171W 4171F 4171B 4171C 4171D 4171H 4171J 4171X The products come in green, gray, white, blue, and dark blue. Across the different models, accessories include a nozzle, grout brush, flat scraping tool, extension hose, and more. How dangerous is this product? Almost all of the burn injuries reported so far have been minor, except one case of second degree burn. Of course, no one wants to get any sort of burn. This product is dangerous and should not be used with the attachments. What should I do if I have this product? Again, don’t use this product with the attachments, even if they have been working well for you. Immediately unplug the product and find the model number on the back of the machine. If your product is affected, then gather all affected attachments and put them in the trash. Then, take a clear photo of them in the trash. Bissell outlines each of these steps with detailed pictures on its website. You can request free new attachments here. View the full article

These paid and free website traffic analysis tools help you learn about site performance and your users. View the full article

Surge in prices highest since May 2024 as impact of Iran conflict spreads through global economyView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Soundcore P31i earbuds are down to $36.98 (originally $59.99), which is about as low as they’ve been, according to price trackers. At this price, most earbuds stick to the basics, so it’s unusual to see features like active noise cancellation and LDAC included here. That doesn’t mean they compete with premium pairs, but they do give you more to work with than you’d expect for under $40. Soundcore P31i Earbuds ANC wireless Bluetooth earbuds $36.98 at Amazon $59.99 Save $23.01 Get Deal Get Deal $36.98 at Amazon $59.99 Save $23.01 These earbuds are light, they fit well, and they don’t get uncomfortable after an hour or two, which isn’t always the case with cheaper earbuds. Battery life, too, holds up through a full day of use, with a little over seven hours on a single charge and extra top-ups from the case. The sound quality is better than expected for the price, though it leans toward bass-heavy tuning out of the box (you can tweak it in the app, but the app itself is not the most intuitive and takes some getting used to, notes this ZDNET review), and if you’re using a compatible device, LDAC support gives you the option for better audio quality. There are also a few extras tucked in, like HearID for tuning the sound to your ears and an AI translation feature, though features like that feel more like a bonus than something you will use every day. As for its noise cancellation, it works, but expectations need to stay in check—it reduces steady background noise like engines and traffic, but it won’t match the isolation you get from more expensive earbuds. That lines up with its overall build, as well, which feels a bit basic compared to more expensive options. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $224.00 (List Price $249.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $319.99 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $329.00 (List Price $399.00) Fire TV Stick 4K Plus Streaming Player With Remote (2025 Model) — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Amazon Fire TV Soundbar — $99.99 (List Price $119.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Google's March core update finished rolling out. A Search Console bug inflated impressions for nearly a year. Pichai warns AI will break software security. The post Core Update Done, GSC Bug Fixed, Mueller On Gurus – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Facebook wasn't really on my radar as a place to make money. Instagram, sure. TikTok, absolutely. But Facebook felt like the platform I used to keep up with my high school friends, rather than the one I'd turn to for creator income. But things are changing! Facebook has been making a lot of effort to lure over creators from other platforms — especially when it comes to monetization. As a nano creator, I’ve been keeping a close eye on this for several months now. Brand partnerships make up a small part of my income, but most platforms’ native monetization features are woefully out of reach for me as a small creator. So Facebook piqued my interest. The idea that I could earn money from content I'm already making was enough to send me down a research rabbit hole. This article is what I came back with. Down the rabbit hole we go! Jump to a section: Can you actually make money on Facebook? How Facebook monetization works Facebook monetization requirements 7 ways to make money on Facebook How to get paid on Facebook Facebook monetization FAQ More Facebook resources Can you actually make money on Facebook?Short answer: yes, and increasingly so. Facebook paid creators nearly $3 billion in 2025 through its monetization programs — a 35% increase from the year before, and the platform's highest annual payout ever. The number of creators earning more than $10,000 a year on Facebook grew by over 30% year-over-year, too. What's changed recently is that Facebook no longer limits payouts to video creators. Through its Content Monetization program, creators now earn from reels, stories, photos, and text posts. In 2025, about 60% of total payouts went to reels, with the remaining 40% split across other formats. So even if you're not making videos, there's still a path to earning. Whether you're a creator exploring a new platform, a small business owner looking for an additional revenue stream, or someone (like me) who's curious about making money as a nano creator, Facebook has more options than most people realize. How Facebook monetization worksThere are four different routes to native monetization on Facebook (that is, earning money from Facebook itself). The most straightforward is Facebook Content Monetization, but creators can also earn by joining the Creator Fast Track Program, earning Stars, or setting up subscriptions. Let’s start with the main one, Facebook Content Monetization. It’s an invite-only program that pays creators based on how their content performs. It used to be limited to in-stream ads on longer videos, but it's expanded a lot in recent months to include reels, photos, text posts, and even stories. It works a bit like YouTube monetization — you post eligible content, and Facebook places ads in and around that content. You earn a share of the ad revenue based on performance. Then there’s the Creator Fast Track program, which seems to be a bit of a sub-program for eligible folks. No performance-based earnings here — creators get paid just to post. Still, it’s a bit trickier to get into than general monetization. Stars are completely different — and ‘gifted’ to creators by fans. They’re a bit like tips. For every star earned, Meta pays out $0.01 USD. Then, subscriptions are a bit like having an exclusive Patreon for your Facebook superfans. Subscriptions are the only one of these native monetization options that are exclusive to Facebook pages. The rest are available to Facebook professional mode profiles as well. In all cases, creators can check (and withdraw!) their earnings in their dashboard or in the Meta Business Suite (pages only), along with metrics to help them understand which posts made bank, and which didn’t. These aren’t the only ways to earn, however — more on that in a sec. 💡Switch to a professional profile on Facebook: A professional profile unlocks monetization tools, audience insights, and the Professional Dashboard — and you don't lose your existing friends or personal content. To switch: open the Facebook app, go to your profile, tap the three dots (⋯) menu, and look for Turn on professional mode. One thing to know: turning on professional mode makes your profile public by default.Facebook monetization requirementsBefore you can earn from Facebook's official programs, you'll need to meet a couple of requirements. These vary depending on the monetization tool you're going after. Here’s a big-picture look at them all, but I’ll give the comprehensive list in the section below. In all cases, you’ll need to have either a professional personal profile or a Facebook Page and be in good standing with Partner Monetization Policies and Community Standards. Almost all these programs are available pretty widely globally, except Fast Track — that one’s only open to folks in the US and Canada (🥲). Stars (fan tipping) is the most accessible — you need 500 followers for 30 consecutive days and to be in an eligible country.Facebook Content Monetization program is invite-only and… less clear. Facebook says invites are ‘sent out periodically,’ but has not shared eligibility criteria.Fan subscriptions require at least 10K followers (or 250+ return viewers), plus 50K post engagements or 180K watch minutes in the last 60 days.The Creator Fast Track program is really for established creators on other platforms. You need at least 20K followers on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, and at least 30K video views in the last 60 days.When you’re eligible, you’ll see an invite like the one below in Meta Business Suite (for pages) or in your creator dashboard (for professional profiles). Yes, there are a couple of hoops to jump through (I’m right there with you!), but there are other ways to make money on Facebook we haven’t touched on yet. Here’s a comprehensive list on all the ways to make money on Facebook as a creator. 🌱Need to get serious about posting on Facebook? Buffer can help! Plan and schedule posts, reply to comments, and review your analytics from a single dashboard. Sign up free →7 ways to make money on FacebookHere's a full round-up of all the ways creators and influencers and earn on Facebook. 1. Join the Content Monetization programThis is the big one — Facebook's flagship monetization program that pays creators for all types of content, not just video. If you can get invited, it's the most direct way to earn from content you're already posting. The program works by placing ads around your content, and you earn a share of that ad revenue. What makes it really cool is the format flexibility. While reels are the highest earning format, photos, text posts, and stories all qualify. Eligibility: Content Monetization is currently invite-only. The best way to improve your chances is to switch to a professional profile, use a page, or post consistently and build engagement. Facebook has been gradually expanding access, so it's worth checking your Professional Dashboard regularly. 2. Apply for Creator Fast TrackThis is brand new — Meta launched Creator Fast Track in March 2026, and it's designed specifically for established creators who are new to (or returning to) Facebook. The pitch: guaranteed pay just for posting reels, plus increased reach to help you build a Facebook audience faster. The program pays out monthly, with tiers based on your follower count on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube: 20,000-99,999 followers: $100-$450/month100,000-999,999 followers: $1,000/month1,000,000+ followers: $3,000/monthTo unlock your payout each month, you need to post 15 eligible reels on Facebook, uploaded across at least 10 separate days. There are no Facebook view counts to hit. Bonus: You can crosspost content you've already made for other platforms. It just needs to be your original work and not already posted on Facebook. So you may not even have to make new content. On top of the guaranteed pay, accepted creators get increased reach on eligible reels (very appealing as well) and immediate access to Content Monetization. That means you can earn even more from the performance of your content, and you stay in the Content Monetization program after Creator Fast Track ends. Eligibility: To be eligible, you need to live in the US or Canada, be 18 or older, have (or create) a Facebook Page with an account that's at least 30 days old, and not have posted a Facebook reel in the past six months. You'll also need at least 20K followers and 30K video views in the last 60 days on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. 3. Collect Stars from fansStars are Facebook's tipping feature — viewers can buy Stars for $0.01 each and send them to creators during live streams, on reels and for other content. If you get 5,000 Stars, that's $50. It might not mean loads of money, but it’s pretty accessible. You only need 500 followers for 30 consecutive days to be eligible, which puts it within reach for a lot of creators who aren't close to the thresholds for other programs yet. It's especially valuable for creators who do live content — Q&As, tutorials, behind-the-scenes streams — where audiences feel personally connected enough to tip. To enable Stars, head to Creator Studio, select Creative Tools, then Live Dashboard, and toggle Stars on. Eligibility: You need at least 500 followers for 30 consecutive days, and you need to be in an eligible country (though it’s pretty widely available!). Stars are available on both Facebook Pages and professional mode profiles, and there's no minimum view count or engagement threshold — which is why it's the most accessible of Facebook's native monetization options. You do need to be 18+ and have a payout account set up to actually receive earnings. 4. Set up fan subscriptionsFan subscriptions let you put some content behind a paywall for a monthly fee that you set. Think of it as a mini-membership: subscribers might get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, early access to posts, subscriber-only Lives, or special badges. The eligibility requirements are steeper — you'll need at least 10K followers and strong recent engagement. But if you've built a dedicated audience, the recurring nature of subscriptions makes your income a lot more predictable than ad revenue (which can swing wildly month to month). A word of advice from creators who've done this well: make sure the subscription price reflects the value. Research what other creators in your niche charge. Too high and you'll alienate followers; too low and you're undervaluing your work. Eligibility: You'll need at least 10K followers (or 250+ return viewers), plus 50K post engagements or 180K watch minutes in the last 60 days. Subscriptions are only available on Facebook Pages — not professional mode profiles. You also need to be 18+ and in an eligible country. Availability is broad; there are only a handful of countries that aren’t on the list. Check here for your specific country's status. 5. Partner with brands on sponsored contentIf you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: You don’t need to have thousands of followers to earn from brand partnerships. As a creator with under 30K followers on all my platforms combined, I can personally attest to this! gets off soap box You don't need to be in any official monetization program, either — you just need an audience that a brand wants to reach. This is how a lot of creators (including me, as a nano creator) earn the bulk of their income. My best partnerships have come from one of two ways: Personally reaching out to a brand I love and want to create content aboutTagging a brand in content I’ve already made about their productThere’s a third option, and that’s applying for a creator program or marketplace like Collabstr, Passionfroot, or Aspire.io — there are hundreds of marketplaces out there that help match brands with creators, and they’re worth exploring for sure. Once you’ve landed a partnership (yay, you!) you should explicitly label it as such on Facebook. When creating a post, tap the handshake icon at the bottom of the composer, search for the brand's Page, and tag them. This adds a "Paid partnership with [Brand Name]" label to your post. There's also a toggle to let the brand boost the post as an ad, which many will want — it's worth discussing upfront. Eligibility (for paid partnership label): Any creator with a professional mode profile or Facebook Page can use the paid partnership label. Creator Marketplace has its own thresholds (1,000+ followers and engagement minimums). For the brand deals themselves, there's no official follower minimum — it comes down to what brands are looking for. 6. Set up a Facebook ShopIf you have an established product line (physical or digital), a Facebook Shop lets people browse and buy without leaving the app. You can tag products directly in your posts, reels, and stories to make content shoppable. This pairs well with the creator monetization tools — imagine earning ad revenue on a reel while also driving product sales from tagged items in that same reel. For small business owners, it turns Facebook from a marketing channel into a direct sales channel. Eligibility: Facebook Shops are available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, and most of Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and others), plus Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. You'll need to comply with Meta's Commerce Policies, have an online store or product catalog, and demonstrate trustworthiness through an authentic, established presence on the platform. 7. Promote affiliate productsAffiliate marketing involves sharing products you use and earning a commission when someone buys through your link. Commission rates typically fall between 5% and 25%, depending on the program and product category. The setup is simple: find affiliate programs in your niche (search "[your niche] + affiliate program" or check whether your favorite brands offer one), get approved, create your referral links, and share them in your Facebook posts and video descriptions. Just be transparent about affiliate relationships — your audience will appreciate the honesty, and it's required by law in many countries anyway. You can also tap into Facebook Affiliate Partnerships, a native system that lets creators tag shoppable products directly inside posts and reels and earn commissions on qualifying stuff. It's currently available with Amazon (US), Shopee (Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan), and Mercado Libre (Brazil, Mexico), with eBay and Temu in the US expected to follow. Eligibility: There's no follower minimum for traditional affiliate marketing — anyone can share affiliate links in their posts. You can link existing affiliate accounts through Meta Business Suite and manage everything from your Professional Dashboard. How to get paid on FacebookOnce you've earned money through any of Facebook's official programs, you'll need to set up your payout account. Here's how it works: Facebook processes payments monthly, usually between the 17th and the 22nd of each month for earnings from the prior month. There are two payout thresholds depending on the monetization tool: $25 for some features and $100 for others. Payment options vary by country but typically include bank transfer and PayPal. To set up your payout information: go to your Professional Dashboard, navigate to Monetization settings, and follow the prompts to add your bank account or payment method. Make sure your tax information is up to date too — Facebook requires this before processing any payments. 🌍A note for international creators: payout availability varies by country. This is one of the things I'm personally keeping an eye on as someone in South Africa — not all monetization features are available everywhere, and payout methods can differ. Check Facebook's help center on monetization eligibility for the most current list of supported countries.A few more bits and bobs to help you earn and growGetting monetized is the first step — growing what you earn comes down to a couple of things I keep coming back to in my own research. The biggest one is consistency across formats. Facebook rewards creators who show up regularly, and with Content Monetization paying for reels, photos, text posts, and stories, you're not boxed into video. Our data on the best times to post on Facebook can help you figure out when to publish for maximum reach. And if you're already creating for other platforms, crossposting to Facebook is one of the easiest ways to expand your earnings without doubling your workload — tools like Buffer make that pretty painless (have you tried our duplicate feature? swoon). The other thing worth mentioning: Facebook is actively prioritizing original content and cracking down on reposted and spammy stuff. Original content qualifies for higher monetization rates too, so there's a direct financial incentive to create for the platform rather than just reshare. Understanding how the Facebook algorithm works helps here — the more your content gets distributed, the more qualified views you earn, and the more you get paid. I'm still early in my own Facebook experiment, but the monetization options are more developed than I expected going in — and they're growing fast. If you're a creator who's been sleeping on Facebook (like I was), it might be worth a second look. Facebook monetization FAQHow many followers do you need to make money on Facebook? It depends on which monetization tool you're using. Stars has the lowest bar at 500 followers for 30 consecutive days. Fan subscriptions need 10K (or 250 return viewers). The Content Monetization program's exact threshold isn't publicly listed, while the Creator Fast Track Program requires at least 20K on other platforms. How many views do you need to start earning on Facebook? For in-stream ads, you need at least 600K minutes viewed in the last 60 days. For the Content Monetization program, Facebook uses "qualified views" as the metric — not every view counts toward earnings. Only unique views that last around 5 seconds will count as qualified, for example. Do Facebook Reels make money? Yes — and they're the top earner. Reels accounted for about 60% of total creator payouts on Facebook in 2025. They're monetized through the Content Monetization program via ads that play before, during, or after your reel. Can you make $500 a day on Facebook? Technically possible, but not where most people start. Earning $500 daily would take some combination of very high view counts, strong CPMs, a successful product operation, or solid brand deals. Most creators start small and build — which isn't a bad thing. Consistent smaller earnings from content you're already making add up faster than you'd expect. What's the minimum payout on Facebook? Either $25 or $100, depending on the monetization feature. Payments go out monthly, usually between the 17th and 22nd. Should I switch to a professional profile on Facebook? If you’re looking to earn money, you’ll need create a Facebook Page, or convert your personal Facebook profile into a professional profile. If you already have followers there, I’d go this route. It unlocks monetization tools, audience insights, and the Professional Dashboard. How do I switch to a professional profile on Facebook? Open the Facebook app, go to your profile, tap the three dots (⋯) menu, and look for Turn on professional mode. It takes about 30 seconds, and you can switch back to a personal profile at any time. Once it's on, you'll see a new "Professional Dashboard" option in your menu — that's where you'll manage monetization, check eligibility, and track your content's performance. One thing to know: turning on professional mode makes your profile public by default. Your existing posts stay with their original privacy settings, but new posts will default to public. If you'd rather keep a separate presence for your creator content, setting up a Facebook Page is the other option — and the only one that supports fan subscriptions. How do I check if I'm eligible for Facebook monetization? Open your Professional Dashboard on Facebook, go to the Monetization tab, then Content Monetization on Meta Business Suite (for pages), navigate to All Tools > Monetization. If you're not eligible yet, you’ll be able to turn on a notification for if (when!) you get invited. More creator resourcesThe best time to post on FacebookHow the Facebook algorithm worksHow to get more followers on FacebookFacebook Reels: what you need to knowHow to start and grow a Facebook GroupFacebook benchmarks for engagementHow to make money on InstagramHow to make money on TikTokHow to make money on YouTubeView the full article

There has been no shortage of retailers closing locations over the last few years as consumer behaviors shift online and foot traffic at brick-and-mortar stores continues to decline for many chains. And now, iPhone maker Apple has announced that it will join the ranks of companies closing locations, with multiple Apple stores to close for good this summer. Here’s what you need to know. Which Apple retail stores are closing? Yesterday, Apple confirmed that it will close three Apple retail stores in the United States. While there have been a few instances in the past of Apple closing a retail store, this is the first time the company has announced the closure of three in one fell swoop. In a statement to MacRumors, Apple confirmed the closure of three locations across the United States. Based in three different states, those locations are: California: Apple North County retail store at the Shops at North County, 272 E Via Rancho Parkway, Escondido 92025 Connecticut: Apple Trumbull retail store at Trumbull Mall, 5065 Main Street, Trumbull 06611 Maryland: Apple Towson Town Center retail store at Towson Town Center, 825 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson 21204 According to MacRumors, all three locations will close in June. Each location was also temporarily closed yesterday, but is now open and will continue operating until its final shuttering this summer. Why is Apple closing these retail stores? When a retailer announces store closures, many assume the company’s entire business is struggling. But given that Apple continues to rake in money hand over fist, quarter over quarter, that is clearly not the case. The company currently operates around 540 retail stores worldwide, with over 270 in America, and those numbers are growing. Since 2025, Apple has opened 11 new retail stores. So why is Apple closing the three specified stores? You can blame the shopping centers they are located in. In its statement to MacRumors, Apple said that it remains “deliberate about evaluating our existing locations” and that “Following the departure of several retailers and declining conditions at Trumbull Mall, the Shops at North County, and Towson Town Center, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our stores at these locations.” In other words, Apple is just the latest retailer to pull out of these three locations. Like many malls and shopping centers in America, the three locations losing their Apple stores appear to have struggled with declining foot traffic in recent years. Apple has now decided that the conditions at the three locations no longer warrant investing in a retail presence at those locations. Apple is closing its first retail store to unionize One notable thing about this round of Apple Store closures is that it includes the first Apple retail store to unionize. In 2022, the Apple Towson Town Center retail store in Maryland became the first Apple retail store in the United States to unionize. And just two years later, it became the first Apple retail store to vote to authorize a strike. Now, that store, along with the two other nonunion stores, is being shuttered. But the workers at all three stores aren’t being treated equally. According to the company’s statement, Apple will keep the retail workers at the two nonunion stores—Apple North County and Apple Trumbull—on staff, transferring them to other Apple retail locations in their areas. As for the closing unionized Apple Towson Town Center retail store, the workers there will not automatically continue in their roles at other retail stores. Instead, Apple says, “Towson employees will be eligible to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.” In a statement to MacRumors, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union, which represents the union workers at the closing Towson Town Center store, said Apple’s decision to not automatically transfer them to other stores “raises serious concerns.” “Apple’s claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation is simply false and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union,” a union spokesperson said. “We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable.” Fast Company has reached out to Apple for comment. View the full article

For the next two weekends (April 10-12 and April 17-19), Los Angeles is going to be quieter than normal. This is because many Angelenos will be hitting the road to attend the popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival located in Indio, California. For those who aren’t able to attend in person, never fear: There’s a free livestreaming option that allows you to avoid port-a-potties. Here’s everything you need to know about both weekends of this rocking event, including how to watch from your living room. How did Coachella begin? The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was created by concert promoters Rick Van Santen and Paul Tollett in 1999. Tollett discovered the venue for the festival, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, after a successful Pearl Jam concert. A seed was planted for a multiday event with numerous artists. Among the first headliners were Beck and Rage Against the Machine, and tickets cost only $50. Coachella didn’t immediately take off, partly because of hot temperatures and a lack of corporate sponsors. The festival even took a year off and scaled back to one day after a lackluster opening year. By 2004, the event sold out for the first time. It expanded to two weekends in 2012. In 2017, the city allowed the capacity for the event to increase to 125,000. These days, the festival is considered one of the most important music events of the year. Who’s performing at Coachella 2026? Three headliners are set to perform at Coachella in 2026. Karol G will become the first Latina artist to get top billing. In 2024, Sabrina Carpenter promised the audience that they would see her back at the festival when she headlined. She’s about to keep her word. Justin Bieber will make his festival debut after doing a “dress rehearsal” at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Beyond the headliners, The xx and the Strokes will return to the beloved music festival. Fans are also eager to hear the rock band Geese. For a complete list of the 140-plus artists performing at Coachella, check out the official website. When did the livestreaming option begin? Coachella began large-scale livestreaming in 2011. Audiences were treated to multiple camera angles of three stages. The livestream has always been public and free, with no paywalls. How to tune in This is the biggest year yet for the Coachella livestream. Seven stages will be available to watch. Viewers can pick four different artists to watch on their television at the same time. The Coachella Stage, Outdoor Theatre, and Sahara will all be presented in 4K resolution, so the picture quality will be crisp. All you have to do to tune in is head to the official YouTube channel linked here beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10. Here’s the full schedule so you can plan your viewing experience accordingly. If you just can’t get enough, the “Coachella TV” YouTube channel is here to help. It features 24/7 content of archival footage, music videos, and (eventually) festival highlights of all of this year’s performers. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you lift a weight, how many times should you lift it? Supposedly, there’s a correct “rep range” to use to build strength, and a different rep range to build muscle size, or endurance, or to “tone.” But how much of the oft-repeated wisdom is true? Not as much as you’d think. What are reps and sets? Just so we’re on the same page here: if you pick up a dumbbell and do eight curls before putting the weight down, you have just done one set of eight reps. (Rep is short for repetition.) Typically a workout will call for several sets of each exercise, separated by a rest period of a minute or two, or by another exercise. Typical schemes include three sets of 10, four sets of eight to 12, or five sets of five. These are often written in the format [sets]x[reps], so 5 x 5 would be five sets of five reps each, and 3 x 10 would be three sets of 10. There are many factors you might consider (or that an experienced trainer might include when writing your program) when deciding how many reps you should do, but often people try to stick with the “rep range” that they are told makes sense with their goals. PowerBlock Elite EXP Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair, 5-50lb) $339.15 at Amazon $449.00 Save $109.85 Get Deal Get Deal $339.15 at Amazon $449.00 Save $109.85 What are the traditional rep ranges? Here’s what you’ll hear from many trainers, influencers, and online resources. Beware that you need to take these with a grain of salt, and I’ll explain why in a minute: Smaller numbers of reps, like one to five, are said to be for strength. Medium numbers, like six to 12, are said to be for building muscle size. If you’re a woman and want to “tone,” you may be told that eight to 12, or maybe 10 to 15, will give you definition while keeping your muscles from growing too much. (You may notice this overlaps with the range for muscle growth.) A rep range of 15 or more is usually held to be for muscular endurance. The exact numbers will vary depending on who you ask, but no matter how you slice it, something isn’t adding up. If you do 10 reps, are you building muscle size, or are you keeping your muscles “toned”? It can’t be both—unless 10 can work for either goal, in which case the number of reps isn’t what determines the outcome. (Hmm…) It’s also wrong to think that strength and muscle growth are completely separate from each other, with different ways to build each. So let’s go over some practical advice for deciding what rep ranges you should actually work with. Strength and muscle size don’t (always) require different trainingBeginners in the gym often spend a lot of effort figuring out the “optimal” routine to meet their goals. But as I’ve said before, optimal is optional. Getting the details right is not nearly as important as getting the big picture right. And the big picture for most beginner and intermediate lifters is that pretty much everything will build both strength and muscle size. You can lift in the “strength” range and still build muscle. You can lift in the “size” range and find yourself gaining strength. You can read a deep dive on this idea here. The author, powerlifter, and coach Greg Nuckols does conclude that lower numbers of reps (like 1-5) have a bias toward strength, and higher reps (15+) have a bias toward muscular endurance. But for growing muscles in size, just about anything works. He summarizes: “The ‘hypertrophy [size gaining] range’ of roughly six to 15 reps per set may produce slightly better results per unit of time invested than low rep and high rep work. However, on the whole, the advantage you get from working in the hypertrophy range isn’t nearly as big as people seem to think; maybe a ~10-15% advantage per unit of effort invested at most.” He recommends training in a variety of rep ranges if you want bigger or more defined muscles, rather than using the same narrow range every time. That’s pretty much the consensus among good trainers, anyway: most effective training programs have a mix of high- and low-rep exercises. That’s because each rep range has its pros and cons when it comes to particular exercises and purposes, not just a person’s overall goals. When to use low reps (1-5)This is traditionally the strength range, and to be fair, it is a good rep range to work on strength. Here, I’m using “strength” to mean increasing the amount of weight you can lift, even if you can only lift it once. For strengthIf you want to show off in front of your friends by benching more than them, or if you want to enter a weightlifting competition and place well, or if you want to achieve your first pullup, you want to work on strength. This means you need to practice with heavy weights. A weight that you can lift 10 times in a row is going to be fairly light, relative to your ability, and it won’t teach your body everything it needs to know for a heavy lift. So you’ll need to work with low reps (at least sometimes!) if you’re aiming for a strength goal. To learn techniqueLow reps also help you to focus and avoid fatigue. You might get tired or sloppy by the 10th rep of a set, but that’s less likely to happen in a set of three. Olympic weightlifters typically do their tricky competition lifts in sets of just one to three. Beginners who are learning a new exercise, like squats or barbell presses, may also want to work in this range. Do a few reps, take a break, then come back fresh. For muscle size, alongside other rep rangesHeavy weights put a lot of mechanical tension on your muscles, and they help you get stronger. These factors mean low-rep sets can still help your muscles to grow, even though they aren’t the traditional muscle-growth rep range. After all, the stronger you are, the heavier the weights you can handle—which means you can go even heavier in your moderate- and high-rep sets. When to use moderate reps (6-12)This is a good middle ground that will build strength and size, and will give you plenty of practice moving weight around. Pretty much everybody can benefit from working in this rep range, at least some of the time. For strength and muscle sizeThis is the range that’s probably ideal for gaining muscle size, and it will help a lot in supporting your efforts to build strength. Even athletes who focus on strength will include plenty of work in this rep range for the purpose of growing some extra muscle mass. After doing squats in sets of three, you might go and do sets of 10 on lunges or leg extensions or the leg press machine. For beginners and for general fitnessWhile low reps are best for learning an exercise that is complicated or that is brand new to you, beginners are often recommended to work in a medium rep range as soon as they’re comfortable with it—and that makes a lot of sense. Doing eight or 10 reps of the same exercise gives you plenty of practice (there are 30 reps in three sets of 10), without having to strain to handle a heavy weight that you haven’t mastered the technique for yet. For “toning” Toning isn’t a specific strength training goal, and that’s why it doesn’t have its own special rep range. Being “toned” is a look: it means you have some muscle definition while being relatively slim. That’s why the same exercises that build muscle in people who want to “bulk” are also appropriate for people who want to “tone.” Or to put it another way: any resistance training that builds muscle will be appropriate for both goals. So what makes a “bulky” body different from a “toned” one? Partly nutrition (the more you eat, the bigger your muscles can get) and partly just how long you’ve been training and how hard you’ve worked. It takes a lot of time to build a lot of muscle. I might even say there’s a component of mindset: people who recognize how important muscle is for their health and for their fitness goals tend to see their new muscles as part of a healthy, fit look—not necessarily as “bulk.” When to use higher reps (15+)Traditionally, this is described as the “muscular endurance” range, but that’s a misnomer. Higher reps aren’t great at building strength, and may not be your best option for building muscle size, so just about all they have left to offer is that they might help you do high numbers of reps. For muscular endurance, alongside lower rep rangesThe thing is, if you want to build muscular endurance—say, you want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row—you will also benefit from using lower rep ranges to build strength. The stronger you are, the easier each pushup will be for you, and the longer you’ll be able to keep going. Studies have found that you don’t need to stick to the 15+ rep range to build muscular endurance—the three-to-five and six-to-eight ranges may work even better than spending your training time on high reps. If your ultimate goal is to do 100 pushups, I wouldn’t tell you to only do high-rep sets; those low-rep ones are useful too. But I’d still expect you to practice high reps for the skill, conditioning, and mental toughness that will be required to execute your goal. For muscle size (and “toning”), if you only have light weights availableTo do heavy or moderate reps, you need appropriate weights. So if you’re working with limited equipment, you may have no option but to make the best of what you’ve got. Fortunately, research has found that muscles can still grow in size if you use light weights and high repetitions, so long as you take each set to failure. So if it takes 20 or even 30 reps to tire out your arms when doing bench press with a set of light dumbbells, that’s still workable. If you’re able to do more than 30 reps, though, we’re starting to leave the realm of strength training and enter a territory that’s more like cardio. At that point, you should really look for harder exercises or find a way to get your hands on heavier dumbbells. The bottom line: variety in rep ranges is goodUltimately, you don’t need to decide on one rep range for all your training. You won’t see powerlifters only working in the strength range, or bodybuilders only working in the size range. The guy in your neighborhood who can do 25 pullups at the local park probably isn’t doing 25 of everything in his workout routine. So when you go to the gym, you’ll probably want to use low reps for a strength-focused exercise or two, moderate reps for most of your other work, and occasionally some higher-rep work for variety or to make do with lighter equipment. View the full article

Will artificial intelligence enable an even higher level of creativity, or turn us into cognitively deflated Sims spitting out chatbot responses? This question has polarized much of the internet. On one hand, you have the ardent defenders who believe that AI writing speeds up their process, allowing them to quickly transform bullets of information into elegant and typo-free copy. On the other hand, there are the critics who contend that AI writing seems to violate something sacred, and that by using a large language model (LLM) to write, you’re not only degrading the craft, but also yourself. AI, in its ideal form, is a technology that allows us to off-load or complete a range of tasks in a smarter, faster way. In the past month, I have used AI in a variety of extremely helpful ways, including translating pages of a table of contents from Russian to English so that I could better find intersecting sections in a book; building and modifying a graphic that would have taken far longer to create myself; and producing code that could, in turn, ingest a bunch of data into an easy-to-read data frame. Even when utilized as a search engine, Claude and ChatGPT produce far more expansive and helpful results—especially for niche topics—than the platforms I used to use. (Sorry, Google!) But writing, in its ideal form, is a finalized and set ordering of your thoughts, the penultimate step in the creative process before sending something off to be read and digested by other people. Writing isn’t just thinking; it’s the thinking you commit to when you’re finally ready to speak from a place of authority. AI has a ton of real and powerful use cases, including in the research process. But outsourcing the writing to AI is to lose the part of the process that requires you to declare your command over the material, including your understanding of how you might have used AI to come to your conclusions. To rely on AI writing is to work under a model rather than over it, and to turn to an insurgent and powerful technology for possibly its least astonishing application. The woes and worries of the AI writing wars Some of these arguments against AI writing are very practical. The first, and most significant, is that AI hallucinates things and makes statements, even confidently, that are flat-out wrong. It’s true that models are getting better, but it’s also true that they can insert mistakes into their responses. In recent tests, Google announced that Gemini—the same AI model that dictates your summarized Google results—is wrong about 10% of the time. I catch AI making factual errors frequently, especially in domains that are less discussed on the internet and likely less well-represented in training material. Another worry is that AI writing—and reading AI writing—will cause deleterious sociological and psychological effects. For instance, some research suggests that AI writing is homogenizing our language and pushing to a sort of digital common denominator that strips us of our cultural, individual, even grammatical context. As Megan O’Rourke noted in a New York Times op-ed last year: Reading AI writing can sometimes feel like the equivalent of processed food. It’s good but something, eerily, feels off. There’s also the even more alarming anxiety that AI is making us much stupider. Some research suggests this might actually be happening. A group of researchers based at MIT and nearby universities suggests that relying on LLMs could reduce our neural activity. (The research on this question is ongoing, though.) And there’s another rub: AI writing is bad, many argue, because it lacks the inventiveness of human writing. It used to be that AI writing, some alleged, could be identified by certain grammatical features. (Remember the AI em dash apocalypse?) Still, as AI has evolved, critiques of AI-generated prose have evolved, too, and even become more convoluted. AI proponents also have a million responses to these arguments and shifting goalposts. These are ongoing debates that force us to wrestle with what AI writing is and what human thinking is, and various other really important questions. AI produces errors, but so do humans. AI writing may strike you as bad right now, but AI is also getting better and better, and in terms of quality, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference. Also, the tech industry often suggests we can engineer away the flaws of the products it produces. And maybe it’s true that AI is making us stupid, but we’re also naturally incentivized to seek efficiency and use tools that help us. In a lot of ways, it feels really smart to use it. Navigating how to use AI tools for research requires, critically, an understanding of deterministic and stochastic processes, a healthy understanding of false positives and false negatives, and the limits of search engines and data. You need to be fluent in the kind of errors AI can make, in the same way you need to know that your office intern can make stuff up and mess up. If you aren’t, then you shouldn’t be using AI for anything serious. Great uses of artificial intelligence exist above the model. In other words, you need to be the one in charge. No, you might not be particularly literate in the weights and biases that make an LLM tick, or the inner layers of a neural network. But you need to have some sense of an AI’s innards. You need to know what it’s doing so that you can coach it to be better, whether that’s catching its mistakes or pushing it toward more productive outputs. AI is your bloodhound, not a sentinel. Ted Chiang argued in The New Yorker a few years back that “if an A.I. generates a ten-thousand-word story based on your prompt, it has to fill in for all of the choices that you are not making.” There’s a corollary here. The process of writing is messy and frustrating and often quixotic, but in the end, you need to arrive at a sort of final peace between what thoughts are tumbling around your brain and the words on the page. This is one of the most satisfying—and important—parts of the process. If you are not working through your thoughts, and writing them up, you are not coming to this peace—and you have not participated in the critical steps in what it takes to decide something is true, even just true to you. In writing, there’s an old adage: Write what you know. This, of course, requires actually knowing something. View the full article

Companies today are facing a paradox they can’t seem to solve: Roles are going unfilled while millions of capable workers remain overlooked. Work has changed. That much is undeniable. Artificial intelligence, automation, demographic shifts, and economic pressure are reshaping how companies operate and who they need to hire. The future of work isn’t on the horizon; it has already arrived. Yet the way most organizations approach hiring and workforce development remains rooted in the past. The consequences are increasingly visible. Job growth has slowed from its post-pandemic peak. Layoffs are rising across sectors. And still, critical roles in healthcare, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and the skilled trades remain persistently unfilled. A LABOR MARKET OUT OF ALIGNMENT What we are seeing is not a shortage of talent—it is a failure to connect talent to opportunity. Across the economy, millions of workers have skills that are not being recognized or effectively matched to available jobs. At the same time, fewer young people are pursuing traditional postsecondary education, with enrollment still below pre-pandemic levels and projected to decline further. Meanwhile, demand for essential roles continues to grow. Companies need healthcare workers to deliver care, electricians and construction teams to build infrastructure, and technicians to maintain critical systems. These are not future jobs—they are open now. The disconnect lies in how roles are defined and how candidates are evaluated. Hiring systems built around degrees and linear career paths are no longer aligned with the realities of how work gets done. RETHINK THE PROXY FOR POTENTIAL For decades, a college degree has served as the default signal of capability. Today, it is an increasingly incomplete one. A degree may reflect knowledge or persistence, but it does not consistently measure whether someone can perform a specific job. Yet most hiring systems still treat it as a gatekeeper—screening out qualified candidates before they are ever considered. A skills-first approach offers a better path forward. By focusing on what individuals can actually do—their competencies, experiences, and demonstrated abilities—companies can access a broader, more relevant talent pool. Millions of workers already possess the skills needed to succeed in high-demand roles, regardless of how they acquired them. But adopting a skills-first mindset requires more than removing degree requirements from job postings. It demands a fundamental shift in how organizations define work, assess talent, and create pathways for advancement. THE GAP BETWEEN INTENT AND EXECUTION Most leaders understand this. Many hiring managers even support it. But inside organizations, intent often breaks down in execution. Job descriptions continue to default to degree requirements. Hiring platforms filter candidates based on traditional credentials. Evaluation methods vary widely, making it difficult to consistently assess skills. And internal incentives often prioritize speed and familiarity over precision and long-term fit. The result is a system that reinforces the very barriers companies say they want to remove. Embedding a skills-first approach requires alignment across leadership, redesigned hiring processes, and sustained change management. It is not a surface-level adjustment—it is an operational transformation. WHY INSIGHT MUST DRIVE ACTION In a labor market defined by rapid change, workforce decisions cannot rely on outdated assumptions. Companies now have access to unprecedented levels of data—from labor market trends to internal workforce analytics to emerging technologies that map skills in real time. This information has the potential to fundamentally improve how organizations hire and plan for the future. But data alone is not enough. The advantage lies in how companies use it: to redefine roles based on actual work, to identify where talent exists, and to build systems that accurately match people to opportunities. Organizations that translate insight into action will move faster and hire better. Those that do not will continue to face talent gaps—not because the talent isn’t there, but because they are not equipped to find it. FROM INSIGHT TO IMPACT After working alongside leading employers, one lesson is clear: Without the ability to operationalize insight, even well‑intentioned strategies stall. Roles remain misaligned. Talent remains overlooked. Impact remains unmeasured. That realization is driving a broader shift. As OneTen evolves into SkillsRight, the focus is on building an insights engine that integrates multiple data streams to help companies make smarter, faster workforce decisions—redefining roles, expanding access, and creating systems that reflect the realities of today’s labor market. A MORE RESILIENT AND INCLUSIVE FUTURE OF WORK When companies get this right, they do more than improve hiring—they transform how work functions. A skills-first approach enables organizations to operate with greater precision, adaptability, and resilience. It expands access to talent, increases workforce flexibility, and creates career pathways that are not constrained by traditional credentials. In an imbalanced labor market, this isn’t just a competitive advantage, it is a necessity. And the benefits extend beyond companies. Workers gain access to opportunities aligned with their capabilities. Employers access talent they were previously missing. The result is stronger, more durable hiring outcomes—and a more inclusive economy. Getting this right doesn’t just solve workforce challenges. It unlocks opportunity for millions and builds a labor market that works better for everyone. Debbie Dyson is CEO of SkillsRight (formerly OneTen). View the full article

Measurement is the foundation for everything we do in performance marketing. Without accurate measurement, what we recommend, implement, and optimize is, at best, guesswork. Maintaining accurate measurement is more challenging than ever — and getting harder. Regulatory crackdowns and increased privacy concerns, alongside longer multi-touch journeys, are compounding to create a measurement crisis. Brands still using decade-old tactics won’t be able to overcome modern measurement challenges. If your brand falls into this category, it’s time to rebuild your measurement foundation — from integrating first-party data (crawl), to creating cross-channel reporting for actionable insights (walk), to advanced media mix modeling (MMM) and incrementality testing for true incremental media lift (run). The crawl: Building a first-party data foundation Without integration of first-party data into your performance marketing channels, you’re fully reliant on third-party signals. While these metrics can be helpful, they’re surface-level signals and don’t show how channels impact your business goals Audience integration The first step is integrating your customer relationship management (CRM) data into your paid media platforms. This includes: Remarketing to abandoners. Creating exclusion lists for current subscribers or recent purchasers. Compiling priority contact lists. You might be uploading lists today, but integration improves targeting by connecting to up-to-date audience lists for media platform targeting. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Offline-conversion tracking For lead gen businesses, the next recommended step is setting up offline conversion tracking (OCT). It shows the bottom-line impact of your media on sales. The integration passes sales data back to the platforms for campaign attribution. With OCT in place, you can optimize for lower-funnel, higher-quality conversion steps in the sales cycle or even begin optimizing toward revenue to improve your return on ad spend. Setup is simple. You add a click ID to your form and then pass it from the platform to your CRM. Most of the top CRMs today, like Salesforce, integrate directly with platforms for easy implementation. Server-side tracking and consent mode To gain momentum from crawl to walk requires a heavier uplift, shifting from client-side tracking to server-side tracking. Client-side tracking is the default process for passing conversion signals from your website to your media platforms. The user’s web browser sends that signal, allowing for cookie loss, ad blockers, or strict browsers like Safari to muddy the signals and reduce data accuracy. With server-side tracking, instead of relying on the user’s browser, you use a dedicated tagging server to capture signals from your website and send them directly to the platforms. This bypasses browser-based tracking and relies on your first-party data. It keeps your data accurate and resilient as privacy restrictions increase and cookies disappear. You have two main integration methods: Partner integration is the simpler option, as it uses pre-built connectors for setup through partners like Shopify, Tealium, Google Tag Manager, or similar platforms. Direct API is code-heavy and for complex data or custom backends, and requires a developer team to build it. How you set up server-side tracking depends on the paid media channels you use, your tech stack, and your integration method. Both options require a dedicated cloud hosting server, which adds cost, but it’s worth it to better understand your media investment. The walk: Cross-channel reporting integration With a stronger measurement foundation in place, the next step is to break down platform silos and see the full ecosystem. Going beyond last click With server-side tracking in place, you’ve created a clean data pipeline. Last-click and first-click attribution give full credit to the first or final step, ignoring the full-funnel path a user takes. Platforms offer advanced attribution models, like Google’s data-driven attribution, but they still favor and silo data within their own platforms. For example, a user clicks a Meta ad, then searches and converts on a Google ad. In this case, each platform claims the conversion. The solution is to use a data warehouse, such as BigQuery or Snowflake, to centralize your data from your website, CRM, and other platforms. From there, you can apply custom logic to build a multi-touch attribution model that stitches your data together using your first-party identifiers to see the full journey and attribute across the ecosystem. Unified reporting dashboards With evolved attribution, a unified reporting dashboard will merge the platform performance data (views, clicks, impressions, etc.) with your integrated first-party conversion data (using server-side tracking and advanced attribution). There are many dashboard builders — the easiest being Looker Studio, as it integrates directly with BigQuery and Snowflake, making it effectively plug-and-play. With a dashboard in place, you can now visualize the data across the funnel to gain actionable insights into which platforms are driving volume, converting, and impacting your bottom line. The run: Media mix modeling and incrementality testing You now have a detailed, day-to-day view of performance of user-level events and insights. But key questions remain. How do you know if a channel has room for more growth? How do you measure offline performance like a TV ad? How do you know if a tactic is working? Understand the full impact of your media investment and tactics at a macro level requires media mix modeling and incrementality testing. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The holistic view through MMM Think of MMM as your compass guiding strategy. It provides a holistic, mathematical source of truth for your paid media investments by measuring the relationship between your media inputs and business outcomes (revenue or leads) over time. This isn’t a day-to-day tool. You typically use it on a 3-, 6-, or 12-month cycle, depending on your data volume, and it requires 2+ years of data to account for seasonality and promotions. The model then runs a regression analysis to determine the relationship between your inputs and business outcomes. With MMM, you get channel-agnostic insights that remove platform bias. It helps you answer key questions about diminishing returns, budget allocation, and the impact of upper-funnel investment on revenue. That clarity helps you make smarter decisions for the next quarter, half, or year so your marketing dollars drive maximum impact. Pulse checks with incrementality testing Incrementality testing validates both MMM and your marketing efforts. It measures a single tactic or channel by splitting your audience into two groups: a test group that sees the tactic and a control group that does not. It compares results between the groups, with the difference representing incremental lift. You can split test and control groups using user-level holdouts, individual-level tracking, or geo-level holdouts when individual tracking isn’t possible. It answers a core question: if a user didn’t see the ad, would they have converted anyway? This shows the true lift of a specific platform or tactic and helps you decide whether to stop bidding on brand terms for existing customers. It can also calibrate your MMM. For example, if MMM reports paid social drives $1 million in revenue, but an incrementality test shows lift closer to $500,000, you can feed that back into the MMM to improve future forecasts. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The sprint: Clean, integrated, and validated first-party data With first-party data integrated through server-side tracking, cross-channel reporting, and custom attribution, you’ve built a strong measurement foundation. Guided by MMM and validated with incrementality testing, you’re ready to sprint — with a system that helps you make better decisions and clearly show the impact of every investment. View the full article

On the latest Search Off The Record Podcast, Martin Split and Gary Illyes discussed the growing page weight issue and how that impacts users and Googlebot crawling. This follows Google updating its documentation to clarify file size limits for Googlebot (and various versions of Googlebot). View the full article