The paid media lab

Why T-Shaped marketers will win the future of Google Ads (w/ Miles McNair) | S3 EP6

"AI will take our marketing jobs". How many times have you heard that in recent years? Miles McNair (Founder of The PPC Hub & Co-Founder of PPC Mastery) joined us for the finale of Season 3 to explain why the future of marketing doesn't belong to AI - but marketers who can adapt and expand their skillset to offer more value than AI ever could. Miles spoke about his framework - becoming a "T-shaped Google Ads Specialist" in detail, explaining what you need to do to futureproof yourself and your marketing career going forward. Timestamps: 0:00 - Coming up 1:33 - Intro 5:20 - Additional resources 6:46 - What is a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist? 13:47 - How Miles became a T-Shaped specialist 18:42 - Optimizers vs. Maximizers 21:26 - Broadening your value proposition 29:09 - The AI risk for marketing jobs 32:12 - Key books & resources for marketers 37:00 - Should you be worries about the 'AI apocalypse' 44:56 - Zuckerberg's fully-automated marketing future 48:28 - One piece of advice for marketers right now 50:28 - Final thoughts Don't have time to watch? Get the written highlights from the session here: https://www.lunio.ai/blog/futureproofing-yourself-as-a-t-shaped-marketer Follow Miles on LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/milesmcnair The PPC Edge Newsletter: https://www.ppcmastery.com/blog The PPC Hub Community: https://www.ppcmastery.com/hub Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

Growth Beyond Google: Diversifying Spend Without Losing ROI (w/ Matt Shenton) | S3 EP5

Google has dominated the digital advertising landscape for a long time now, and despite increasing legal scrutiny, it remains the ad platform of choice amongst marketers, with studies showing that advertisers spend more on Google Ads than both Meta and Amazon Ads combined. ...But do they still deserve the majority of your ad spend in 2026 and beyond? To find out, we spoke to Matt Shenton (Biddable Director at Croud and host of the Paid Search NYC podcast) to find out whether you should divert more of your paid media spend towards other platforms - and how to do it in a way that's both effective and low-risk. Timestamps:  0:00 - Coming up 0:15 - Intro 2:09 - Matt’s insights from Paid Search NYC 3:31 - US vs. UK: Marketing mindsets 4:22 - Key advice for platform diversification 10:52 - Budget reallocation mistakes 13:44 - Ad platforms with the most potential 19:17 - Matt’s thoughts on Perplexity / AI ads 21:17 - Testing channels/platforms fairly & cheaply 25:15 - Marketing efficiency ratio & MMMs 26:10 - Maintaining marketing spend efficiency  29:06 - Testing brand campaign value effectively 31:12 - Matt’s attribution strategy 36:35 - Will Google still dominate PPC in 2 years?  39:29 - Final thoughts * * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtyJASw15BD_E_aq6hX-FJA * Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

What elite B2B Marketers do differently to support Sales teams (w/ Pam Didner) | S3 EP4

Sales and marketing alignment is essential for slick lead generation at B2B and SaaS businesses. According to Hubspot’s 2025 State of Sales report, 41% of salespeople say sales and marketing alignment improves lead quality, while 29% say it can increase revenue and improve customer experience. To help leaders and teams bridge the gap between marketing and sales, we spoke to B2B marketer, speaker, and author Pam Didner.In this episode, Pam spoke about how marketing metrics determine lead quality, how to make marketing content more sales-friendly, and how to adapt your paid media strategy to capitalize on top-of-funnel opportunities as well as bottom-of-funnel conversions. Plus, get some bonus marketing insights from Pam - including some brilliant ways to optimize your content for AI.Timestamps:0:00 - Coming up0:10 - Intro2:15 - How does Pam rank so highly in LLMs? (Icebreaker question)11:34 - Why is there a disconnect between marketing and sales?13:50 - Key Sales/Marketing alignment mistakes17:13 - How Marketing can help Sales use content19:52 - Structuring paid media to speak to top/mid funnel24:24 - What should count as an MQL?26:24 - Should you automate lead vetting?31:19 - Marketing’s role after the initial sale36:23 - The key ABM mistakes40:22 - How many companies should you target with ABM?43:56 - Final thoughtsDon't have time to listen? Get the written highlights from the session here: https://www.lunio.ai/blog/align-marketing-and-sales-teamsFollow Pam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamdidner/Get deeper insights from Pam by checking out her series of books: https://pamdidner.com/books/Subscribe to the Lunio YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss an episode of the paid media lab podcast - or find us wherever you get your podcasts:Watch on YouTube: ‪@lunio_ai‬ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5K858fJ...Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Listen on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7...Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

Master TikTok Ads: UCG, Search Ads & 2026 Strategy (w/ Fiona Bradley) | S3 EP3

TikTok is currently the fifth largest social platform in the world, and certainly one of the fastest growing - especially amongst younger audiences.  With TikTok’s exponential growth comes massive advertising opportunities. Statistics show that TikTok has more than 3.5 times the ad reach of X, with potential ad reach of almost 2 million users every month.  To help marketers capitalize on this, we caught up with Fiona Bradley (Founder of FB Comms) on the Paid Media Lab podcast to get her insights on what makes TikTok advertising tick(tok), mastering UCG, and more.  Timestamps: 0:00 - Coming up 0:13 - Intro 3:58 - Meta’s ‘No Ads’ subscription 6:38 - ‘AI enhanced’ Facebook ads 8:13 - Fiona’s approach to Black Friday 9:13 - What are TikTok Search Ads? 10:36 - What are GMV Max campaigns? 11:44 - The big opportunities for marketers 12:59 - Keyword targeting on TikTok 14:29 - How people search on TikTok 16:03 - Will TikTok Search overtake Google? 17:27 - Measurement & attribution in TikTok Search 18:43 - Common TikTok marketing mistakes 20:27 - Working with creators on TikTok 23:34 - Brand guideline advice for TikTok 26:34 - Does B2B / Lead Gen work on TikTok? 27:38 - Do YouTube Shorts work for B2B / Lead Gen? 28:53 - Key advice for marketers using TikTok 30:55 - Final thoughts & advice Don't have time to watch? Get the written highlights from the session here: https://www.lunio.ai/blog/master-tiktok-ads Follow Fiona on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-content-marketing/   Subscribe to the Lunio YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss an episode of the paid media lab podcast - or find us wherever you get your podcasts: Watch on YouTube: ‪https://youtu.be/jQcJERO-_DE Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at: https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library

AI Hype vs Reality: What actually works in marketing (w/ Rand Fishkin) | S3 EP2

AI hype is everywhere. But what does an AI future look like for marketers? Is AI genuinely the future, or just an over-hyped bubble that'll eventually burst, causing chaos in the process?In this episode of The Paid Media Lab, Rand Fishkin (Co-Founder/CEO of SparkToro and many, many other companies) joins us to cut through the noise. Rand shares fresh data on how people really use AI tools like ChatGPT, what’s driving the “AI bubble,” and whether claims of Google’s supposedly inevitable death at the hands of AI hold any truth. We also cover:• What SparkToro’s data says about Google vs ChatGPT usage• The real reason your organic traffic is falling• How to adapt to the rise of zero-click marketing• Whether the AI economy is the dot-com bubble repeating itself, or whether it's something else entirely• Why attribution is broken (and what to measure instead)• How to make your brand visible inside AI models and search resultsIt’s an honest, data-driven look at what works in marketing today, minus the hype.Timestamps:0:00 - Coming up01:25 - Intro 04:45 - Is Rand an AI optimist or pessimist?06:26 - Are we in an AI bubble (in marketing?)08:48 - Is it the same as the Dot-Com crash?10:13 - ChatGPT 5 & AI overhype12:22 - Is Google dead? (+ Research)17:48 - The attention economy21:07 - Why web traffic has declined26:04 - The marketing mindset shift31:29 - Is attribution broken?36:22 - Should you advertise on AI platforms?39:47 - ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout42:37 - AI platforms will screw you43:45 - How to cheat LLMs48:15 - What marketing leaders need to focus on now52:19 - Final thoughtsFollow Rand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/Get Rand's book, Lost and Founder: https://sparktoro.com/bookSubscribe to the Lunio YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss an episode of the paid media lab podcast - or find us wherever you get your podcasts:Watch on YouTube: ‪@lunio_ai‬ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5K858fJ...Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Listen on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/7...Get more free PPC tools, webinars, and resources at:https://www.lunio.ai/resource-library