Performance Max can scale. But only if you control the inputs.
Otherwise? You’re handing the wheel to a robot with no map.
In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, I’m joined by Ben Lund, founder of Rise Marketing Group and ex-Googler, to unpack what’s real...and what’s wildly misunderstood...about AI-driven campaigns in 2025.
We get into:
⚙️ The real value of human strategy in an AI world
📉 Why Performance Max fails when left unchecked
🧠 The mindset behind building a 7-figure agency that’s still human-first
👀 Why automation without alignment is just budget drain
💡 If you’ve ever felt the gap between AI promise and real ROI…this one’s for you.
🔗 Listen + learn more at risemkg.com and connect with Ben
00:00:06
All right.
00:00:07
Welcome back to
00:00:08
Is Anything Real?
00:00:09
in Paid Advertising?
00:00:10
The show where agency
00:00:11
founders unpack what's real
00:00:13
and what's just noise.
00:00:15
I'm your host, Adam W.
00:00:16
Barney.
00:00:16
And today we've got someone
00:00:18
who's not just keeping
00:00:19
up with AI's pivot.
00:00:20
He's training it
00:00:21
to work smarter.
00:00:23
Ben, welcome.
00:00:25
How are you doing today?
00:00:26
Doing great.
00:00:27
Thanks so much for having
00:00:28
me excited, to chat.
00:00:30
Awesome.
00:00:31
You want to give about two
00:00:32
seconds on where you come
00:00:33
from, what you're building
00:00:34
with Rise Marketing
00:00:35
Group before we dive in?
00:00:37
Yeah, definitely.
00:00:38
So, yeah, my name is Ben.
00:00:40
I'm the founder
00:00:40
of Rise Marketing Group.
00:00:41
I've been in the marketing
00:00:43
advertising industry for 20
00:00:45
years now, which is crazy.
00:00:47
Started off, earlier in my
00:00:49
career at companies such as
00:00:50
Yahoo, when that was a thing,
00:00:52
when people went to the Yahoo
00:00:53
portal to access the Internet.
00:00:55
And then, and then over time
00:00:58
I worked at a big agency.
00:00:59
Then I worked at Google
00:01:01
up here in Cambridge.
00:01:02
We live in the greater
00:01:03
Boston area.
00:01:04
And then a little over
00:01:05
seven years ago, I founded
00:01:06
Rise Marketing Group
00:01:07
and we're a full service
00:01:09
digital marketing firm
00:01:11
offering ads, SEO,
00:01:13
website design, development,
00:01:14
email marketing.
00:01:16
Awesome.
00:01:16
All right, well, let's start
00:01:18
with a quick pulse check.
00:01:19
With Google specifically
00:01:21
dropping more AI into
00:01:22
the Ad mix daily, is anything
00:01:25
real anymore in paid media
00:01:27
from that perspective?
00:01:28
Oh, yeah, it's getting
00:01:30
crazy, but it's also very
00:01:32
exciting in the same lens.
00:01:33
I mean, one of the draws
00:01:35
to advertising 20+
00:01:38
years ago for me was
00:01:40
it's always changing.
00:01:41
So it's exciting.
00:01:42
It's if the Google
00:01:44
product and the Google
00:01:45
ecosystem was never
00:01:48
changing, you just had your
00:01:50
traditional search campaigns
00:01:52
and based off a different
00:01:53
phrase, match, you know, you
00:01:55
probably get bored of it
00:01:56
after a little while.
00:01:57
But it's constantly changing.
00:01:59
And Google is keeping up with
00:02:02
all things AI because they
00:02:03
kind of have an arms race
00:02:05
going on against ChatGPT
00:02:07
perplexity and all the AI
00:02:08
tools that can now provide
00:02:11
just as good of a search
00:02:13
engine or knowledge engine
00:02:15
as Google can.
00:02:16
And we're starting to see
00:02:18
a shift in consumer behavior.
00:02:20
And that has Google a little
00:02:22
concerned or probably
00:02:23
way more concerned.
00:02:24
And then so they're updating
00:02:26
their ecosystem to be more
00:02:27
AI heavy from both an organic
00:02:29
perspective and then
00:02:31
also from an advertiser
00:02:32
perspective as well.
00:02:34
Right.
00:02:35
And I know that's something
00:02:35
that's changed over 20 years.
00:02:37
I mean, maybe we could talk a
00:02:38
little bit more about how,
00:02:40
you know, the Google beast
00:02:41
has shifted from having 90
00:02:43
plus plus 98%, maybe percent
00:02:46
of the search share and how
00:02:47
that's changed over recent
00:02:49
years.
00:02:49
That's driving a little bit of
00:02:50
the shifts here that we're
00:02:51
seeing with Google's approach
00:02:53
and how they relate to all of
00:02:55
the other search bars that are
00:02:57
out there across different
00:02:58
platforms.
00:02:59
Definitely, even if we talk
00:03:04
about that consumer
00:03:05
behavior is changing, it is
00:03:07
important to know that
00:03:08
Google is still Google.
00:03:09
Google's not going
00:03:10
to disappear next year.
00:03:12
They have a lot of smart
00:03:13
people trying to figure it
00:03:14
out but their share will
00:03:17
definitely deteriorate and
00:03:18
then they're going to lean
00:03:19
on some of their other
00:03:19
products that they're not
00:03:21
going to lose share on.
00:03:22
Like, such as YouTube.
00:03:23
But yeah, even I think
00:03:25
it was noted earlier this
00:03:27
year was like the first time
00:03:29
that Google search market
00:03:31
share started to decline.
00:03:33
Now it only declined from like
00:03:35
90% to like 89% but that 1%
00:03:39
times global population.
00:03:40
That's a lot of
00:03:42
searches that are happening.
00:03:43
And if that's a sign of what is
00:03:45
to come that is a little
00:03:47
nerve-wracking for them.
00:03:49
And where are
00:03:50
the folks going to.
00:03:51
I mean Microsoft
00:03:53
still hangs in there.
00:03:54
Bing and their search alliance
00:03:56
with bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo
00:03:59
has been an engine that's
00:04:01
increasing popularity but hats
00:04:03
off to Microsoft because I
00:04:05
feel like once people started
00:04:06
like "Microsoft who go, who
00:04:08
uses bing"
00:04:11
they made it relevant through
00:04:13
the partnership with OpenAI
00:04:15
and ChatGPT and put a lot of
00:04:19
new life into them.
00:04:20
And not only from their
00:04:22
search product but Then also
00:04:24
within ChatGPT
00:04:26
and all the other tools.
00:04:27
And at our practice we for
00:04:30
every one of our SEO
00:04:31
clients we track referral
00:04:33
traffic of where's all this
00:04:34
traffic coming from?
00:04:35
And we are starting to see
00:04:38
referral traffic from these
00:04:39
AI tools increase month over
00:04:41
month at a high clip.
00:04:43
Granted small base to start.
00:04:44
So it's nothing too exciting
00:04:46
but it is exciting
00:04:47
of the growth
00:04:48
and we're even seeing business
00:04:49
impact from this.
00:04:51
What does that mean?
00:04:52
E commerce.
00:04:54
Real purchases, leads.
00:04:55
Real leads.
00:04:56
And I can speak
00:04:57
firsthand experience.
00:04:58
You know we actually got
00:04:59
a client last fall that found
00:05:02
us on chatGPT on
00:05:03
the other side of the country.
00:05:05
Turned out to be
00:05:06
a great client.
00:05:06
We're still working with
00:05:07
him today but he prompted
00:05:08
his whole project,
00:05:09
said who should we work with?
00:05:10
And he said talk
00:05:11
to Ben at Rise.
00:05:12
I'm like I don't know how
00:05:14
that happened at the time
00:05:15
but not complaining.
00:05:17
That's an incredible
00:05:18
referral story actually
00:05:19
to talk about that.
00:05:20
I don't think most people
00:05:22
understand of course,
00:05:23
you know, there's that
00:05:24
level set with, you know,
00:05:25
the way Bing operates.
00:05:26
And I have to admit part of
00:05:28
my 20 years in a nonlinear
00:05:30
digital marketing career
00:05:31
and a marketing career
00:05:33
across large
00:05:34
companies was spent at
00:05:35
Microsoft working on the
00:05:36
Bing ads product.
00:05:38
And it's incredible to see,
00:05:40
and understand
00:05:41
how maybe Bing doesn't
00:05:42
come to the forefront of
00:05:43
the conversation
00:05:44
necessarily, but they're
00:05:45
powering things like, like
00:05:48
ChatGPT, like Siri.
00:05:50
They sit behind the scenes
00:05:51
in so many of these scenarios.
00:05:53
But let's, let's shift
00:05:54
it back a little bit
00:05:55
to Google as well.
00:05:56
I know you were just recently
00:05:57
on a Google marketing
00:05:58
call where they were talking
00:05:59
about launching
00:06:01
their next gen AI updates.
00:06:03
From your perspective, what's
00:06:04
actually changing behind the
00:06:06
scenes with these tools
00:06:08
rather than just thinking
00:06:09
about say the consumer end
00:06:11
where the search engine
00:06:12
results page now gets that
00:06:16
dynamically updated AI answer
00:06:18
which sits above where the
00:06:20
paid ads sit rather.
00:06:22
Yeah, definitely.
00:06:23
And a lot of SEOs don't like
00:06:25
that move because it's less
00:06:27
referral traffic.
00:06:29
But you just have to play
00:06:30
the game, you have to stay
00:06:32
with it and then try
00:06:33
to get featured on that
00:06:34
and all that good stuff.
00:06:36
But yeah, and like behind
00:06:38
the scenes, you know,
00:06:38
obviously they're, they need
00:06:40
to compete with this new
00:06:42
experience that people like.
00:06:43
They like the AI overviews
00:06:45
and things like that and
00:06:46
also give options for people
00:06:48
to do their own research and
00:06:49
due diligence by sending
00:06:50
referral traffic which I
00:06:53
feel like they're hearing
00:06:54
loud and clear that that is
00:06:55
important to do.
00:06:58
Because if you don't do that
00:06:59
eventually you don't know
00:07:00
where this AI is sourced from.
00:07:02
And I just read an article
00:07:03
just a couple days ago that
00:07:05
the AI content engine
00:07:08
is already starting to show
00:07:11
signs that it's declining.
00:07:14
Because if everyone's using AI
00:07:16
for content, you're
00:07:17
just making clones of clones
00:07:19
of clones of clones because
00:07:20
that's all AI does, it
00:07:21
just picks up whatever.
00:07:22
And if anyone saw the old
00:07:24
school movie Duplicity with
00:07:26
Michael Keaton or so you can't
00:07:28
make a clone of the clone, it
00:07:29
just doesn't work that well.
00:07:30
And then if you do it multiple
00:07:31
times over then you're
00:07:32
just going to get garbage.
00:07:34
But kind of behind
00:07:35
the scenes a little bit.
00:07:36
What we're seeing and hearing
00:07:38
from Google is they're
00:07:39
actually penalizing sites that
00:07:42
primarily use AI content as
00:07:44
the main content source
00:07:46
because they know if that's
00:07:48
the main source of content,
00:07:49
their AI crawlers are using it
00:07:51
and it's just going to be a
00:07:52
really bad experience.
00:07:53
And in that case it makes me,
00:07:56
you know, kind of happy that
00:07:57
Google's taking that stance
00:07:58
to it because otherwise, you
00:08:00
know, if there's anything, if
00:08:01
anything's too easy or too
00:08:03
good to be true, it probably
00:08:05
is.
00:08:05
And it comes down to like
00:08:07
a real, you know, having
00:08:08
real marketers and really
00:08:10
copywriters providing
00:08:11
real value driven content.
00:08:14
And then on the ad side,
00:08:15
you know, Google's
00:08:16
making a lot of updates.
00:08:17
On the back end, they're
00:08:18
really pushing towards AI,
00:08:19
which they've done years ago
00:08:21
with the advent of
00:08:24
Performance Max, which is an
00:08:25
algorithmically derived
00:08:27
campaign serving ads across
00:08:29
all of their platforms.
00:08:31
Search display,
00:08:32
YouTube, email, etc.
00:08:34
Targeting a specific
00:08:35
conversion event.
00:08:36
But now they're rolling out
00:08:38
Search AI, which
00:08:40
we're excited to try, which is
00:08:42
very similar to that.
00:08:43
But search product, where
00:08:44
you just give it
00:08:45
the parameters and it's just
00:08:46
going to go crazy.
00:08:47
Google's pushing that.
00:08:48
They think they can
00:08:49
monetize that really well.
00:08:52
You know, time will tell.
00:08:53
I think, I think we're even
00:08:55
at a point, I mean, where,
00:08:56
00:08:57
has gone over the last few
00:08:58
years for people who aren't
00:09:00
under the hood, launch
00:09:01
things not only like
00:09:02
Performance Max, but
00:09:03
responsive search ads.
00:09:05
I think we're at a pivot
00:09:07
point possibly where even
00:09:08
the, the idea of a keyword
00:09:10
and the definition of
00:09:11
a keyword is going to shift.
00:09:13
We've always, across our
00:09:15
careers, I think, talked about
00:09:16
the need from a paid ads
00:09:18
perspective within Google that
00:09:20
you always needed to connect
00:09:21
the dots of keyword to ad copy
00:09:25
to landing page, which then
00:09:27
led into that black box of
00:09:29
quality score.
00:09:31
But now it's more
00:09:32
about letting it fly.
00:09:35
Right, and kind of trusting
00:09:36
the Google engine.
00:09:38
So I know you've said it before
00:09:40
that agencies aren't dead,
00:09:43
but they just need to train
00:09:44
the algorithm properly.
00:09:46
How do you coach your team
00:09:47
and your clients to think
00:09:49
like AI whispers and not just
00:09:52
like their button pushers?
00:09:54
Yeah, definitely.
00:09:55
So there's a lot there.
00:09:59
Yeah, there's a lot
00:10:01
there, unfortunately.
00:10:02
Like, yeah, it was really nice
00:10:03
when you had the exact match
00:10:05
keyword or the appropriate
00:10:06
copy and best landing page.
00:10:07
And you know, it's like if
00:10:08
anyone does this search,
00:10:10
this keyword is worth $5
00:10:12
a click because I'm gonna
00:10:13
make $15 in or whatever
00:10:16
in revenue from it.
00:10:17
And that was just great.
00:10:18
And then, yeah, Google's,
00:10:20
since then they made exact
00:10:22
match, now phrase match
00:10:23
and then now phrase match
00:10:24
is more broad match
00:10:25
and broad match, who knows?
00:10:28
Good luck.
00:10:29
The good old match type dance
00:10:31
that I know to have to lead
00:10:34
clients through that
00:10:35
conversation and explain time
00:10:36
and time again how types are
00:10:39
different and match types are
00:10:41
even going away.
00:10:41
Right?
00:10:42
So they're going away.
00:10:43
So eventually you're right.
00:10:44
Like with Aimax, it's not going
00:10:46
to be match type derived
00:10:49
campaigns or potentially even
00:10:50
really search keywords.
00:10:52
It's going to be Here are
00:10:53
my URLs, here's this.
00:10:55
Go crazy.
00:10:56
So you know, what we focus
00:10:58
on is we have to feed
00:11:00
the algorithm We have to feed
00:11:02
the AIs and give Google
00:11:04
the best information possible.
00:11:06
So underpinning it, which
00:11:07
we've always been really
00:11:08
good at even before the ad
00:11:10
push, is setting up proper
00:11:11
measurement and tracking
00:11:13
which means every action
00:11:15
that's valuable on the
00:11:16
website that is funneling
00:11:18
through ga, that's funneling
00:11:19
through Google Ads because
00:11:21
ultimately you're going to
00:11:22
tell Google Ads and
00:11:23
performance max works just
00:11:25
like this.
00:11:25
They're not CPC bids, it's hey,
00:11:28
this is my conversion action.
00:11:29
Either maximize these
00:11:31
conversions or pay up to $20,
00:11:33
$100 whatever it is, cost per
00:11:35
conversion and it will, it
00:11:37
will hit those metrics but
00:11:39
you need to have the data in
00:11:42
real time coming in and also
00:11:45
sufficient budgets to support
00:11:47
that learning.
00:11:48
It's going to be really hard
00:11:49
for small businesses that
00:11:52
adopt these AI advertising
00:11:54
products that need a lot of
00:11:55
data when they just don't have
00:11:57
that marketing budget.
00:11:59
So they might, you know, that's
00:12:01
a little tough for them.
00:12:02
But yeah, it's, it's
00:12:05
different but it's exciting,
00:12:06
it's an opportunity.
00:12:07
And so we always try to be
00:12:10
the first at everything and
00:12:12
just kind of get a good
00:12:13
understanding and lead our
00:12:16
clients to success early
00:12:18
before everyone else
00:12:19
catches on.
00:12:20
It's not being, it's, it's
00:12:21
about not being scared of it.
00:12:23
Right.
00:12:23
And embracing the change
00:12:24
which is the thing that
00:12:25
when it comes to marketing
00:12:28
in general, digital
00:12:29
marketing overall, but paid
00:12:31
marketing, especially paid
00:12:32
advertising, it's always an
00:12:34
evolution, it's always,
00:12:36
always changing.
00:12:37
And I know you touched
00:12:38
on this quickly,
00:12:39
how reporting is finally sort
00:12:41
of catching up here.
00:12:43
What would you say?
00:12:44
Just when we talk about broad
00:12:46
strokes, whether it's B2B, B2C
00:12:49
small business enterprise
00:12:50
scale company, which metrics
00:12:53
are the most critical to, to
00:12:55
AI strategy feedback loops to
00:12:57
focus on?
00:12:58
Yeah, definitely.
00:12:59
So there's a couple things
00:13:01
obviously like if you're lead
00:13:03
gen, having like that main
00:13:06
conversion event to be that
00:13:07
lead that comes through, even
00:13:10
better is if you can follow
00:13:12
that those leads through to
00:13:14
the sales cycle through a CRM
00:13:17
platform like HubSpot or
00:13:18
whatever it might be and
00:13:19
imported those into Google.
00:13:21
So Google's like,
00:13:22
okay, I'm optimizing
00:13:23
towards these leads.
00:13:24
But over time it might say,
00:13:26
oh wow, these leads became
00:13:27
customers and then you place
00:13:28
different value amounts.
00:13:29
So that way Google is
00:13:30
not only just, you know,
00:13:32
years ago, just focused
00:13:33
on the click, right?
00:13:34
Last five years focus
00:13:36
on that lead and now
00:13:38
future, like actually like
00:13:39
getting real business.
00:13:40
And then that shows real
00:13:42
dollar signs that any company
00:13:44
can see and CFO can see.
00:13:46
I'm like, oh, okay,
00:13:47
yep, I see it.
00:13:48
You are making money off of
00:13:49
this and this is good thing.
00:13:51
But the challenge is
00:13:52
budgets have to support it.
00:13:54
So if you have a campaign
00:13:56
that, you know, you can't have
00:13:58
a campaign spending, you know,
00:14:00
$20 a day and say optimize
00:14:02
towards real customers.
00:14:04
Because maybe your sales cycle
00:14:05
is 90 days and you're going
00:14:08
to get like one conversion
00:14:09
event every month, maybe
00:14:12
it's never going to learn.
00:14:13
So in those cases you have
00:14:15
to be flexible, like,
00:14:16
okay, I can't have it
00:14:17
focus on that sale event.
00:14:19
Maybe it's just driving leads
00:14:22
or it could even be, which
00:14:24
we do sometimes is optimized
00:14:27
towards site engagement.
00:14:29
So it's like, okay, if anyone
00:14:30
who's clicked on my ad has
00:14:31
been on my site for at least
00:14:32
a minute, that's a positive
00:14:34
sign and maybe we can get
00:14:35
enough conversion volume,
00:14:36
off of that for it to
00:14:37
optimize.
00:14:38
So there's a lot of ways
00:14:39
to think about it.
00:14:39
But again, the whole spirit is
00:14:42
training the bots
00:14:44
with your budget based off of
00:14:45
your goals and kind of moving
00:14:47
in that direction.
00:14:49
And then that opens
00:14:49
up that wonderful world
00:14:51
of retargeting.
00:14:53
Right.
00:14:54
So retargeting is always
00:14:56
a piece of the puzzle here.
00:14:59
How do you sort of, from a rise
00:15:00
marketing perspective, explain
00:15:02
the value of the strategic
00:15:04
oversight that you provide to
00:15:06
clients versus the clients who
00:15:07
just believe in this old
00:15:10
school adage of say set it and
00:15:12
forget it.
00:15:13
Oh yeah, you cannot
00:15:14
set it and forget it.
00:15:16
And if you do like, yeah,
00:15:20
campaigns will just
00:15:21
deteriorate and heaven forbid
00:15:23
if you have Google auto
00:15:25
recommendations enabled, I
00:15:27
would actually be really
00:15:27
curious, that'd be quite
00:15:29
funny to see how an account
00:15:30
could just be like, oh, we're
00:15:31
increasing budgets, we're
00:15:32
changing match sites, we're
00:15:33
doing this.
00:15:34
And what would happen, and
00:15:36
even like working, you know,
00:15:38
I worked at Google and I had
00:15:39
a great experience and I
00:15:40
still have friends over
00:15:41
there and there are great
00:15:43
Google reps over there, but
00:15:44
there's also reps that
00:15:46
aren't as knowledgeable or
00:15:48
maybe put their interest way
00:15:50
ahead of clients.
00:15:52
And to a client that
00:15:54
doesn't have a consultant or
00:15:55
an agency, they'll just
00:15:57
finally say, oh yeah, Google,
00:15:58
I'm talking to Google.
00:15:59
I'll do whatever they say.
00:16:01
But Google really prioritizes
00:16:02
themselves over the client.
00:16:04
You need someone there
00:16:04
to be like, okay, all right.
00:16:06
Of your 10 recommendations,
00:16:08
I like three of them.
00:16:09
Two I'm on the fence
00:16:10
on and these other five
00:16:12
I can see right through this.
00:16:13
No thanks, not at this time.
00:16:15
Right, that's when the BS
00:16:17
meter goes up, right?
00:16:18
Yeah, exactly.
00:16:19
Yeah.
00:16:20
I'd love to understand from
00:16:21
your perspective, what do you
00:16:22
think breaks first though?
00:16:24
Is it the agencies who over
00:16:26
automate or is it
00:16:27
the platforms that over
00:16:28
promise on the quote unquote
00:16:30
magic that AI is delivering?
00:16:33
Yeah, definitely.
00:16:34
I think it comes down to
00:16:35
the agency to make the right
00:16:36
decisions for the clients.
00:16:38
And and then yeah, it just
00:16:41
comes down to.
00:16:42
And I, I see this
00:16:44
in agency land all the time
00:16:46
where you know, agencies
00:16:47
will come and go and,
00:16:49
and rise and whatnot.
00:16:52
But the agencies that I have
00:16:55
that don't really do a good
00:16:57
job for their clients are
00:16:58
those agencies that they go
00:17:00
after a specific niche and
00:17:02
then they over process
00:17:03
everything and then just put
00:17:05
like a junior marketer to
00:17:06
run everything.
00:17:07
So at this point there's
00:17:08
an agency for everything.
00:17:10
You could say, oh, give me
00:17:11
the best agencies for H Vac.
00:17:14
I'm making this up now.
00:17:15
But it could be best agency for
00:17:16
bowling alleys and like, oh,
00:17:17
we're the specialized and you
00:17:19
know, they put together
00:17:20
amazing processes but they
00:17:22
don't have a real marketer at
00:17:24
the helm.
00:17:25
And I hear this from our
00:17:26
clients or clients that come
00:17:27
to us because I hear it, I'm
00:17:29
like, okay, well benefit is
00:17:32
they do have a decent system,
00:17:33
but they just have someone
00:17:35
that's following a playbook
00:17:37
versus a real marketer to
00:17:39
navigate them through the
00:17:41
change of lens and can provide
00:17:43
real meaningful advice.
00:17:45
In that case, I think it
00:17:46
really falls down on the
00:17:47
agency to be that true
00:17:49
trusted partner to navigate
00:17:51
the clients and not just
00:17:52
rely on over processed,
00:17:55
deliverables.
00:17:57
I have to laugh because that
00:17:58
brings me back about 20 years
00:18:01
to my first role in marketing
00:18:03
where our client was
00:18:04
lawyers.com and literally law
00:18:07
firms across the country could
00:18:08
buy packages of 10, 15, 25 or
00:18:13
50 keywords at different
00:18:14
investment levels.
00:18:16
Talk about a specialized
00:18:18
approach that didn't work
00:18:19
from an effectiveness level.
00:18:20
Also lawyers, who are you
00:18:23
going to track back to?
00:18:24
Right.
00:18:24
From an hourly billable
00:18:26
rate, you can't really lead
00:18:27
to a conversion It's
00:18:28
a complicated, complicated way
00:18:31
to work towards that.
00:18:33
Yeah.
00:18:34
In that sense, though, Ben,
00:18:35
outside, of course, what
00:18:37
you're doing from your
00:18:37
expertise standpoint there
00:18:39
at Rise Marketing, is there
00:18:41
someone else in your circle
00:18:42
who's getting it really,
00:18:43
really right right now that
00:18:45
you might want to recommend
00:18:46
or mention here?
00:18:48
Oh, that's a really
00:18:48
good question.
00:18:51
Yeah, no companies
00:18:53
come to mind.
00:18:54
Everyone.
00:18:56
Sorry, that's a bad answer.
00:18:59
But, you know, like,
00:19:00
there's not like one marquee
00:19:02
company of like, oh, my
00:19:03
gosh, in the age of AI,
00:19:04
they're just knocking
00:19:05
it all out of the park.
00:19:07
I think everything
00:19:07
is on a scale.
00:19:09
You know, some agencies are
00:19:11
probably like, you know
00:19:12
what, they got AI down,
00:19:14
really well as it comes to
00:19:16
E commerce feed optimization.
00:19:18
Awesome.
00:19:19
And other agencies might do,
00:19:21
you know, provide some
00:19:22
good ideas for SEO, which
00:19:25
is now called Generative
00:19:26
Engine Optimization.
00:19:27
There's like five
00:19:28
other names for it.
00:19:30
And then.
00:19:31
But what I would stay away
00:19:33
from is if you're talking
00:19:34
to an agency and if you're
00:19:36
on the market for one, ask
00:19:37
them, what, what are you
00:19:39
doing for your clients on
00:19:41
AI?
00:19:42
And I hear this out on the
00:19:43
field, like, we go to trade
00:19:44
shows and the worst answer you
00:19:47
ever want to get is, oh, you
00:19:49
know, I don't think it's
00:19:50
really going to impact our
00:19:51
clients that much.
00:19:52
And I've heard that
00:19:53
twice over the past month
00:19:54
of agency leaders.
00:19:55
They're like, you know,
00:19:56
we're a local shop.
00:19:58
And I just don't, I don't
00:20:00
really see it's going
00:20:01
to impact us that much.
00:20:02
Is like, okay, I just smiled
00:20:05
and kind of walked away.
00:20:06
But that's an example
00:20:07
of an agency or shop where
00:20:09
it's like, they probably
00:20:11
know it does impact.
00:20:11
They just don't want to invest
00:20:13
the time and the resources
00:20:14
to make it work.
00:20:15
They're like, you know, we
00:20:16
have our tried and true.
00:20:17
So let's just sit on that.
00:20:19
So that's a roundabout way of.
00:20:21
I'm sure there's a lot
00:20:22
of shops that are doing
00:20:23
certain aspects well.
00:20:24
Just stay away from those that
00:20:26
aren't doing anything with it.
00:20:27
It's about always, always
00:20:29
being learning though, right?
00:20:30
It's always learning
00:20:31
and being moldable.
00:20:33
Ben, where can people
00:20:34
learn more about your work
00:20:36
and Rise Marketing
00:20:37
Group's approach here?
00:20:38
Yeah, our website is
00:20:39
risemkg.com otherwise
00:20:41
just Google or ChatGPT
00:20:43
Rise Marketing Group.
00:20:45
Check out our website.
00:20:47
We publish a lot
00:20:48
of content on it.
00:20:49
Most recently a lot of AI
00:20:51
type content just
00:20:52
to help navigate our clients
00:20:53
or prospective clients.
00:20:55
And if anyone's listening
00:20:56
and wants to schedule a quick
00:20:58
call to talk about their
00:20:59
business, more than happy to.
00:21:01
Cool.
00:21:01
Perfect.
00:21:02
And then let's end with, If
00:21:04
someone's feeling
00:21:04
overwhelmed by the AI Wave
00:21:07
in this space, what's one
00:21:09
no BS Piece of advice to
00:21:11
help them pivot smarter or
00:21:13
adjust smarter?
00:21:14
Yep.
00:21:15
If they're feeling overwhelmed,
00:21:17
they're not alone.
00:21:18
Nobody knows the answer.
00:21:20
So just kind of, like,
00:21:21
set the record straight.
00:21:22
Like, they're not behind.
00:21:23
They're actually ahead.
00:21:24
If they're actually
00:21:25
concerned about this,
00:21:26
they're well ahead.
00:21:28
And then the best thing
00:21:29
that you can do is just.
00:21:30
Just read.
00:21:31
Go.
00:21:31
You know, I have my list
00:21:33
of sites that I go to.
00:21:34
Search Engine Land,
00:21:35
Search Engine Watch,
00:21:36
Search Engine Roundtable.
00:21:38
They have a lot of coverage
00:21:39
and just,
00:21:40
you know, get to know it.
00:21:42
But if you actually feel
00:21:43
a little anxious of are you
00:21:45
on top of everything?
00:21:46
You're probably ahead
00:21:47
of most people.
00:21:48
I love it.
00:21:49
I love it.
00:21:49
Awesome.
00:21:50
Well, thank you, Ben.
00:21:52
That's a wrap on this episode
00:21:53
of Is Anything Real?
00:21:54
And paid advertising.
00:21:55
Massive thanks to Ben
00:21:57
and Rise Marketing Group
00:21:58
for join here today.
00:21:59
If you're looking for some
00:22:00
of that AI Clarity,
00:22:02
definitely reach out to him.
00:22:04
You can hit the show notes
00:22:05
for links to Rise Marketing
00:22:07
Agency and Ben below.
00:22:09
And if you're ready to
00:22:10
rebuild or build with AI
00:22:12
in the forefront, definitely
00:22:14
reach out to him.
00:22:15
And then, until next time,
00:22:16
stay curious,
00:22:19
stay skeptical, and stay real.
00:22:20
Awesome.
00:22:21
Thanks, Adam.
00:22:22
All right.
00:22:22
Cheers, Ben.
00:22:23
Thank you.

