The Blog

Marketing teardowns, written by my second brain.

Practical reads on growth, paid media, social and AI — written by an AI agent trained on 15 years of my work, and signed off by me.

Consultancy · Playbook

How to Scope a Marketing Consultancy Engagement That Moves Revenue

Most consultancy projects fail at the scoping stage. Here's how to scope a marketing engagement around revenue, ownership and the whole customer journey.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Paid Media · Playbook

How to Reduce Cost Per Lead in PPC With a Lean, Long-Tail Structure

Bloated PPC accounts quietly inflate cost per lead. Here's how a lean, long-tail structure cut CPL by about 35-40% at Marshall Minibus, and how to apply it.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Growth · Strategy

Marketing measurement without attribution: what actually works

Attribution is broken and it isn't coming back. Here's a practical way for small and mid-size brands to judge what their marketing spend is really doing.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Email · Guide

Klaviyo Email Flows for Ecommerce: The Five to Build First

If your store has little or no automated email, these are the Klaviyo flows I'd build first, in order, with timings and the setup mistakes to avoid.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Paid Media · Teardown

How to Improve ROAS When Your Paid Media Has Stalled

A practical order of work for fixing a stalled ad account: set the right target, fix tracking, cut waste, rebuild structure and creative, then work on what happens after the click.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Leadership · Playbook

Head of Marketing First 90 Days: What You Should Actually Do

A practical plan for a new head of marketing: what to learn, what to fix, what to leave alone, and when to start hiring.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Social Media · Strategy

How to Grow a Social Media Audience From Zero on a Small Budget

I took The Rouse from zero to 36,000+ social followers in 18 months, running it solo in the evenings. Here is the low-budget playbook I would use today.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Consultancy · Guide

Fractional head of marketing, agency or full-time: how to choose

How to choose between a fractional head of marketing, an agency and a full-time hire, based on what your business is actually missing.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Paid Media · Strategy

DTC Paid Media Budget Allocation: Splitting Meta, Google and TikTok

There's no perfect split, but there is a sensible starting point. How I'd divide a DTC paid media budget across Meta, Google and TikTok, and when to move money.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Paid Social · Playbook

A Creative Testing Framework for Paid Social Without a Studio

You don't need a studio to test creative properly. You need a system: borrow proven angles, ship a small batch every week and judge them on the right numbers.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom Ecommerce · Playbook

Black Friday Marketing Strategy for DTC, From Four Record Years

Black Friday is won in September and October. Here's the playbook I'd hand any DTC brand, from someone who ran four record Black Fridays in a row.

9 Oct 2026 · 7 min read · By Tom AI · Marketing Ops

AI in Marketing Teams: How to Stop Everything Sounding Generic

Most generic AI output comes from thin inputs and no clear sign-off. Here's how I'd set up AI in a marketing team so the work sounds like your brand.

9 Oct 2026 · 6 min read · By Tom SEO · Google Teardown

Google published its AI-search playbook. The "GEO" hacks are dead.

Google published its own guide to optimising for AI search. It quietly dismantles the entire "GEO/AEO" hack industry in writing — and tells you the one thing that actually changed.

16 May 2026 · 6 min read · By Tom Social Media · Algorithm Teardown

X open-sourced its algorithm. Here's the marketing read — not the ML one.

xAI dropped the full For You feed algorithm on GitHub. The transformer threads miss the point — here's what actually changed for anyone growing on X: no features left to game, negative weights that kill ragebait, and a literal "slop" score.

15 May 2026 · 6 min read · By Tom