Adam Fridman

Hiring agencies is always a bit of a crapshoot. You can review case studies. You can check references. You can visit the agency. None of it promises success. None of it guarantees the desired results. Because I like to think I'm pretty good at what I do, at the end of an agency search process or RFP or pitch scenario...a brand is often left with a tough decision. "We like 2 agencies -- we could see working with both" I'll never tell them who to pick but I do generally ask a few pointed questions and tell them to answer as quickly as possible. 1) If you HAD to pick right now, and stake YOUR career on the results...who would you choose? 2) Who could you see being in the trenches with when sh*t undoubtedly hits the fan at some point? 3) Which ideas did you like more? This is an interesting one bc I also encourage them to remember that (depending on the process) these agencies don't know you incredibly well yet. The follow up here if they didn't love the ideas from one group is -- "do you think you can get there with them." My final reminders I give is... 1) that hiring any agency COULD be the worst professional decision of your life. It could go horribly horribly horribly wrong. I then remind them that while it would suck...nothing is forever. You aren't required to stay with an agency if it isn't working out. 2) When it comes time to sign, you should be supremely excited. Excited at the possibility of what's to come. Of what your team and their team can accomplish together. If you are NOT supremely excited to sign with an agency...you either need to chat more, OR, you need to talk to more agencies bc this one is not for you.

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Most agencies depend on referrals or the occasional inbound lead. Unfortunately, it’s unpredictable and keeps growth out of your control. That’s why we built something different: Account-Based Podcasting. In this Scrappy ABM episode, I sat down with Joseph Lewin, our Head of Podcast Strategy, to break down exactly how we generated $2M in revenue in two years from a podcast that started with zero listeners. We walk through the 3 questions every agency should answer before launching a show and a 30-day framework for turning guest outreach into pipeline.
 Grab the tips: https://lnkd.in/gx5xH5xk

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Custom, subscription-oriented sticky CTAs have been crushing it on our LPs. IMO every single page needs to have it. -> People easily stray off & forget -> CTA is always within thumb reach -> Easy to make a purchase + subscribe If your LP copy is great, at some point people will be convinced and choose to buy. At this point, you need to make it as easy as possible to convert and go to the checkout. + ideally make them subscribe. Here's an example we did for Talo Skin.

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The $1 Billion Budget Shift: CMOs are betting big on GEO in 2026. We’re seeing a massive pivot in marketing spend. Traditional SEO isn’t enough anymore when your customers are asking ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations instead of scrolling through blue links. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the new frontier. But you can't optimize what you can't measure. If you're still only tracking Google rankings, you're missing the conversation AI is having about your brand. Are you being cited? Is the sentiment positive? Are you losing share of voice to a competitor who optimized for the LLMs? We built CiteMetrix to give you the data Google Search Console doesn't: - ModelScore™: Your overall visibility across the top AI platforms. - Citation Tracking: Real-time monitoring of brand mentions. - Sentiment Analysis: How AI actually characterizes your products. The shift is happening now. Don't let your brand become invisible in the AI search era. Check your ModelScore today: https://citemetrix.com

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I used to think higher pricing meant harder work. But with agencies, that’s rarely true. The ones charging premium rates? They’re not working more — They’ve just positioned better. Here’s what they do differently: → Niche down → Sell outcomes, not hours → Focus on perception, proof, and premium clients Here’s the insight: Agencies that niche + position around outcomes Charge 2–5x more than generalists — Often with fewer clients and leaner teams. It’s not about doing more. It’s about being seen as worth more. PS: I post business insights daily. You might consider following to not miss in the future.

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I wrote a blog about the new model LinkedIn has launched. I'm very curious to know how other people are experiencing 360Brew and the changes it's bringing to your feed.

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The best marketing leaders I work with share 7 traits: Revenue-focused, not activity-obsessed Data-informed, not data-paralyzed Customer-centric, not product-centric Collaborative, not territorial Strategic, not just tactical Curious, not know-it-all Resilient, not rigid The pattern? Balance. Great industrial marketing leaders balance: Art and science. Short-term and long-term. Brand and performance. Innovation and execution. Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking better questions. #bestmarketing #industrialmarketing #betterquestions #marketingleaders

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Everyone's panicking about AI killing SEO. On Dec. 4th, I’m speaking at Metadata's Agentic GTM 2026 to reveal how brands get cited and mentioned in AI search. We've spent the last year re-architecting content systems with brands like Klaviyo, Webflow, and Kayak. The first step to winning is understanding that the fundamentals of search never actually changed - they simply evolved. I'm breaking this down at Metadata's Agentic GTM event on December 4th. What I'm covering: 1/ Why the "old" game of search holds every answer you need. (The new game just happens to be the NFL) The principles that drove visibility in Google's golden era are the exact same principles that drive citations and mentions in LLMs today. Most teams missed this connection. What's changed? The stakes and competition are in a whole new league. Content that fails to produce frontier knowledge for LLMs won't get you cited or mentioned. 2/ How the direction of travel for search visibility completely changed (and what that actually means for your organic strategy). Previously all organic traffic needed to flow through a link to your website to the eyeballs of consumers. Now LLMs instantly synthesize and render the answer to your questions from both your site and others that mention you. This massively changes your onsite and offsite content investment strategy. 3/ The data we're collecting on the field. We've working with the best brands in the world across B2B and B2C to understand exactly what works. Where traditional SEO tactics move the needle. Where new approaches are needed. How to measure ROI. If you're rethinking your organic strategy for next year, this is worth 30 minutes. December 4, 12:00-12:30 PM ET Awesome speakers will be giving talks 11am-2pm on Dec 3-5, including: Alina Vandenberghe 🌶️ of Chili Piper, Maura Rivera from Qualified, Brooke Cunningham from LogicMonitor, Tim Hillison from Entry Point 1, and Sydney Sloan from G2. Free to attend! Link in comments 👇

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There is a universal axiom in building companies: "There are revenue problems, and then there's everything else." Revenue is the only metric that ultimately matters in advertising. To illustrate the point, how often do CEOs and CFOs talk about reach and frequency KPIs in Board meetings? Yeah, pretty much never. But they do talk about...revenue. Yet a lot of the conversation around “agentic AI” is drifting toward workflow efficiency. In this week’s newsletter, I explore why agentic advertising should be accountable to revenue. If an AI system isn’t improving CAC, LTV, or incremental revenue, it’s probably optimizing activity rather than growth. And you can’t conflate the two. Another misconception is the idea that a single universal AI model can optimize every advertiser, every campaign, and every product equally. That won’t work either. In performance marketing, every product has different economics and growth dynamics. For CTV, product-level intelligence means tying every media decision back to measurable business outcomes. When evaluating AI platforms, executives should focus on one question: how does this system improve the economics of our specific business? Because in the end, every CEO and CFO cares about profitable growth.

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If your media or events business relies on Google traffic, you are "done for." You know the days of mainlining the "Google drug" are ending. But knowing the landscape has changed doesn't solve your revenue problem - what are you actually doing to fix it? The gap between the media businesses actively adapting and the ones just clinging to outdated models is widening fast. In a recent episode of The Revenue Room™, I sat down with Jacob Cohen Donnelly, Founder of A Media Operator (AMO), to break down exactly what the next generation of profitable, durable media businesses looks like. For revenue-critical leaders navigating this transition, this episode is your strategic roadmap. A snapshot of what we discussed: -The Blueprint for Durability: Why pivoting away from pure marketing services toward a unified strategy of Media + Events + Data is the only way to build a sustainable moat. -Exclusive M&A Predictions: Jacob's insider perspective on the 2025/2026 M&A market, including who sells next (Questex, Clarion Events, CloserStill Media) and what private equity buyers are actually looking for. -The AI Content Reality Check: Why "average" content will be destroyed by AI, and why the most successful businesses will actually spend more money on proprietary content creation over the next three years. -The Leadership Gap: A candid discussion on why founder-led companies are outmaneuvering executive-led ones, and why "decisiveness" is the ultimate currency right now. Jacob is one of the clearest strategic voices on how to build in this space. And on a personal level, Jacob is someone I deeply respect and truly enjoy talking shop with. Because we are both bootstrapped founders, we know exactly how scary and thrilling it is to go all-in on building a business from the ground up. I admire him because he isn't just theorizing about the industry - he has actively walked the walk, growing AMO from a solo side-gig into a multi-revenue powerhouse spanning subscriptions, advertising, and live events. He is unapologetic, decisively forward-thinking, and his insights are an absolute must-listen for anyone serious about growth. Listen to the episode: Apple Podcast: https://hubs.li/Q046jp2F0 Spotify: https://hubs.li/Q046jvfl0 Watch the episode here: https://hubs.li/Q046jmSM0 🔥 Jacob Donnelly will be taking the stage at RevvedUP 2026 this March 23-24 at The Vinoy in St. Pete, FL! Join CEOs and top operators who refuse to fall behind. Grab your ticket to RevvedUP here: https://hubs.li/Q046jpV-0 RevvedUP, a Revenue Room™ CXO event, is co-produced by H2K Labs and Outsell, Inc.

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The $200 return protection just vanished overnight And thousands of sellers haven't run the math on what this actually costs them That threshold used to shield high-value items from return processing fees Now sellers absorb return costs on everything except handmade, oversize, heavy, or digital products The immediate impact hits unit economics harder than most people realize Return rates between 5% and 15% are standard for certain categories Fashion and electronics run even higher Every return now costs processing fees plus the lost sale plus potential inventory damage Run the math on actual exposure A product with 10% return rate and 1,000 monthly units means 100 returns Multiply by return processing fees plus restocking costs That's a new line item eating straight into net margin The categories hit hardest are the ones already dealing with fit issues, subjective quality assessments, or buyer remorse Apparel, beauty products, home goods, anything with size or color variations Dimensional weight matters more now Products sitting just under the oversize threshold stay exempt from these fees A few inches in package dimensions could save thousands annually in return costs FBM sellers can file SAFE-T claims for return fraud and abuse FBA sellers don't have that option The return comes back, Amazon charges the fee, and the only defense is preventing the return in the first place Better product photography reduces returns Detailed size charts cut fit-related returns Clear descriptions manage expectations Improved packaging prevents damage during initial shipping Calculate the new return cost structure against current margins Some products might not survive the change profitable

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When Dave Pickles and I started TTD, we wanted to create a platform that was more transparent and more aligned with buyers. We wanted to create closer alignment with brands and agencies. We were one of the few DSPs that didn’t focus on disintermediating the agencies. I stand by our choice to partner with agencies. I stand by our choice to be transparent, even though I think we at times have been too open (as I shared at Marketecture Media last week). Over the last year or two, things have gotten much harder for agencies. Lately it seems that there are those who want to wave the flag of transparency publicly, but run from it in practice as they arbitrage in the inefficiencies of programmatic. Or in the most ironic programmatic practice, principal-based buying. (More on this next week. I know…I’m such a tease.) It bothers me when leaders of non-transparent business models are critical of those of us who are setting the bar—especially when they advocate for moving dollars to more opaque platforms and transaction methods. As Terence Kawaja said to me last week as we sat backstage at Marketecture, the long arc of programmatic, like any market, will inevitably bend toward efficiency and competition. Those who succeed will be those who embrace transparency and offer clients competitive, objective value. Thankfully, almost all of our clients, including the world’s largest brands and agencies, share this point of view. TTD has not “failed" any audit ever. Ruben Schreurs, CEO of Ebiquity plc, assured me today that he was unaware (until after published) that his firm would be quoted or used in any articles about TTD. Relatedly, we will not disclose the bills of all of our clients and partners to one of them simply because they assert ambiguous audit rights.   Working with our clients, we always welcome objective and rigorous analysis of our processes, fees, and the value we deliver for clients.

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