Trustpilot’s Post

🚨 Traffic is no longer the growth signal it used to be. In his latest piece, Kyle Poyar argues that traditional website visits are losing relevance — while AI-driven discovery (think chatbots, LLMs, answer engines) is already converting 6× better than Google. 👉 Dive into the full article here.

Didn’t have time to make the webinar this week? All good, here are the main points you missed: Google doesn’t care how many trucks you have, it cares how many people trust you. In a world where AI is shaping how customers find you, trust is the new currency. (Kinda always been this way) Every review pushes you forward or backward, there’s no plateau. Strong reviews sharpen AI summaries, influence local SEO, and help Google understand real customer sentiment. Reviews don’t just boost rankings; they define reputation. Every review matters. Because people matter. And word-of-mouth advertising? It’s still the thing, reviews are the digital extension of that. Reviews should be a major focus for your brand, not an afterthought…. Also, I think Taylor Swift is the reason why the Chiefs are 3-3….

We’re living through the biggest shift since Google launched. In just the past year, the search bar turned into a chat box. What used to be about keywords and clicks is now about context and synthesis. Your customer doesn’t just type “best CRM for startups.” They ask: “What’s the best CRM for a 20-person SaaS team with remote employees, a small budget, and one rogue spreadsheet running the whole operation?” This new way of searching is completely rewiring how people find, evaluate, and trust brands. Which is why I was SO excited to host Heather Physioc on this week's Experts of Experience. Heather is VML’s Chief Discoverability Officer (coolest title ever??) and in our convo we unpack: 🤖 How LLMs are changing how humans think about finding information 🌐 Why “page one” doesn’t mean what it used to ⚙️ How AI overviews are rewriting the rules of search 💡 What brands can do to stay discoverable in a world that’s no longer just indexed, but interpreted If you work in marketing, CX, or digital strategy, this one will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about search in 2025. Can't recommend it enough! 🎧 Full episode linked below!

“Legacy Google is dying.” That’s what Marcus Sheridan shared in our latest episode of The Dealer Playbook. And when you hear the data he shares, it’s hard to disagree. Out of 3,000 professionals Marcus surveyed, half said they already use ChatGPT instead of Google to get answers. That shift isn’t slowing down. It’s accelerating. According to Marcus, the future of search isn’t a list of blue links. It’s faster, more conversational answers delivered through AI-driven platforms, and it’s already changing how people discover information and make decisions. He isn’t saying SEO is dead. He’s saying it’s evolving. And the question isn’t whether you agree. It’s whether you’re adapting. The Playbook: 1.) Don’t stay married to what you used to believe. The rules are changing. 2.) Pivot early. The market rewards those who evolve first. 3.) Understand behavior. People don’t want pages. They want answers. The takeaway isn’t fear. It’s awareness. Search is changing, and awareness is how you stay found.

Every marketing peer I talk to says the same thing. Calendars are full. Dashboards are endless. Reporting never stops. And somewhere between content, campaigns, and reporting, the space for strategic thinking just disappears. Most marketers today don’t have a creativity problem. They have an execution bottleneck. That's where GrowthPair comes in. They help teams offload execution to vetted offshore marketers who already know how to work inside fast-moving growth environments. When you combine that with smart AI workflows, your week starts to look different: More white space. More proactive planning. Fewer “urgent” fires. If 2026 is about anything, it is about protecting the time to think again. Some of the best marketers I know are buying back their time this way, and it is genuinely changing how they work.

So much happening across digital marketing right now -- AI, SERP changes, analytics recalibration. Our latest Nova breakdown is a solid snapshot of where things are headed

Stop! Step away from that Power Point. If your strategy for 2026 is just last year’s plan with '+10% budget' scribbled on top, you’re not planning, you’re recycling. Run this 10-minute audit before you turn your marketing into a money bonfire. The Big Picture Pitfalls (Everyone’s Guilty) 1. Budget-Patient Mismatch Throwing money at overbooked providers? That’s not marketing, that’s madness. → Fix it: Pump the brakes on saturated schedules. Move that spend where new patients can actually get in the door. 2. The 'Because It’s in the Budget' Spending Habit If you can’t explain why you’re spending on something, there’s your red flag. → Fix it: Figure out your real patient-value. Set up your measurement tools and AI tracking NOW, before December scrambles everything. 3. The Google Monopoly Still dumping 90% of your budget into Search? Congrats, you’re paying premium rent for stale clicks. → Fix it: Test incrementally. Split your bets—Meta, Performance Max or whatever’s next. Stop worshipping one algorithm. Tactical Red Flags (aka Silent Budget Assassins) 1. Lead counts ≠ Patient counts If you’re still optimizing for 'leads', you’re teaching your algorithm to hit empty targets.  → Fix it: Strategize a full funnel approach, data quality > vanity metrics. 2. You’re invisible in AI search Your SEO rocks, but what happens when someone asks ChatGPT or Claude about you and gets crickets? → Fix it: Search yourself. Audit your AI presence. Close the reality gap before the bots do it for you. Focus on GEO. 3. The Landing Page Lie Your ad screams, 'Same-day slots with Dr. XYZ!', while the booking calendar on your landing page whispers, 'Try again next month'.   → Fix it: Align every ad promise with reality. No echo chambers and no false promises. Last Call Before Budget Lockdown Your 2026 budget freezes in December. Miss these leaks and you’ll be stuck firefighting bad campaigns with money you can’t move. Ten minutes now = fewer headaches later. Or skip it and start 2026 explaining 'why performance dropped again'.

Most businesses lose leads before they even say hello. They’ll spend $10k/month on ads... Then take hours to reply to the leads those ads brought in. At that point, you might as well just donate your ad budget to Meta or Google. Because here’s the truth: Speed-to-lead isn’t some nerd metric. It’s survival. Every minute you wait, your lead’s already on someone else’s website — or worse, on a call with your competitor. And it’s not your rep’s fault... Humans just can’t compete with instant responses 24/7. That’s why I stopped trying to “train” faster responders and started building AI systems that ARE fast responders. If you’re spending to get leads — but replying slower than your competitors— you’re leaking profit, not traffic.

We measure everything, don't we? Every click, every impression, every conversion. Yet, for some reason, the one thing that often has the biggest impact—the creative itself—gets a bit of a pass. It's like we just hope it works, then move on. This new report from Google, Kantar, and Marketing Week really hit home for me. It talks about this "creative measurement gap" and how AI might actually be the key to closing it. Honestly, it's about time. For ages, it felt like creative was this nebulous thing, hard to quantify beyond basic A/B tests or gut feelings. We'd optimize media buys down to the tiniest detail, but the actual ads? Often, that was more art than science in terms of understanding their true impact. But if AI can help us genuinely understand what makes creative resonate, what truly drives engagement and action, that's a game-changer for marketers. It means less guesswork and more intentional, effective communication. Imagine being able to fine-tune your message with real data, not just assumptions. This isn't about replacing human creativity; it's about augmenting it. Giving creatives and marketers better tools to build things that actually hit the mark. It makes you wonder what kind of leaps forward we'll see in advertising when we can truly measure the heart of what we do.

If your advisers need five new leads a week, where are they actually coming from? Is it a bit of everything, or one system that's been refined and mastered? There’s a lot of talk about being on every platform, trying every channel, testing every shiny new thing. AI this, reel/shorts that. What most businesses actually need is to be great somewhere. Just one somewhere. The advice firms I see growing consistently aren’t dabbling in ten tactics at once. They’ve found one reliable source of leads, Google Ads, referrals, content etc, and they’ve gone all in there. Being a jack of all trades in marketing sounds smart, but it usually means you’re spread too thin to see what’s actually working. Mastering one form of advertising, one repeatable system, creates stability. From there, you can layer on new channels. But start with the one that delivers then double down until it’s predictable. You don’t need 10 average traffic sources. You need one great one that feeds the rest.