📦 - Two Hundred, Seventy Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred Minutes 📅

DTC 561 - AI Overviews Impact, BFCM Prep, and Psychology Monday, May 20, 2024 Good morning, Whew, there have been many Google AI updates in the past few days. ICYMI, the search giant announced at the Google I/O developer conference that it will launch a new multimodal AI assistant called Project Astra. This assistant will make it easier to summarize emails, find memories in your photo archives, and even help you find your lost glasses. They also made a massive update in Google search with AI Overviews, which is now live in the U.S. Keep reading to learn about how AI will impact your search experience. 👇 Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: 🔍 Google disrupts the search experience with the launch of AI Overviews. Here’s how it’ll affect your search traffic. 🛍️ Yes, it’s still May but here’s why you need to start planning for BFCM now! 🧠 And…why you need to understand psychology to be a great marketer. You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Marriott, goba Sports Group, and Burn Cottage Vineyard. 👋 YOU’RE INVITED 🚨 Last Chance: Register Now to Supercharge Your Meta and TikTok Ads In less than 48 hours, your peers will be attending the most in-depth creative strategy session the DTC world has EVER seen. 🌎🎨 This is your LAST CHANCE to [secure your free ticket]( and not miss the first session. Plus, get your name on the list for exclusive bonuses. This is not your typical event. This is a 5-week intensive training from DTC operators who have managed hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spend. Topics include: - 1️⃣ Creative operations and planning - 2️⃣ Ramping up ad production - 3️⃣ Mastering creative hooks - 4️⃣ Tracking ad performance - 5️⃣ Scaling and creative testing Ready to make more money from ads that convert? 👇 [Get Your FREE Ticket]( Can’t make every session? No stress! [Register TODAY]( to get recordings, the Make Ads That Convert Workbook, and secret bonuses. 👀 *Sponsored SEO UPDATE 🤖 AI Overviews Is Now Live on Google Search [AI Overviews are now placed at the top of Google results for U.S. users] Google search is about to look very different. The search giant announced at its developer conference last week that it will roll out [AI Overviews]( in the U.S. for a limited amount of queries. The new AI search experience will arrive in other countries in the coming months. Google’s goal is to reach a billion users by the end of the year. What are AI Overviews? AI Overviews are part of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) as they move towards incorporating more AI-generated results into the search tool. U.S. users who type in a query will see an AI-generated summary at the top, followed by regular search results. AI Overview will help users navigate more complex queries and can help with multiple use cases, as shown in [this video](. Google has also added a new feature to its visual search tool Lens. [Users can upload videos along with a written prompt](. Instead of telling Google about your problem, you can show it, which means users can leverage text and video to find answers quickly. But there’s still some kinks to work out. During the rollout some users were doubtful about AI Overview’s accuracy, citing its [tendency to make up facts, misinterpret questions or pick low quality sources](. How will AI Overviews impact your business? For informative sites, you may see a drop in organic traffic. If Google’s AI Overview answers the user’s query well enough, they may not need to click through and seek another opinion. However, Google claims that links featured in AI overviews get more clicks than a traditional search listing, but they did not share any stats to back up these claims. Right now, [there will be no click data for AI Overview links available in Search Console]( to see if that claim is accurate. What you can do to prepare for these AI search changes: - Businesses should look at their content strategy and ensure they focus not only on content production but on content quality. - Relevant, engaging, and credible content will have a better chance of ranking well. - If your content does appear in AI Overviews, analyze what made it stand out to Google and create best practices for future posts. Right now, businesses must learn to work with AI rather than against it if they don’t want to lose out on search visibility. Q4 PLANNING 🎧 It’s Never Too Early To Plan For BFCM Black Friday is only 193 days, 4632 hours, or 277,900 minutes away. Guaranteed that time is going to fly. ⏰ It’s never too early to start thinking about BFCM planning and how to make this year the biggest, most profitable year yet. 💰 The Pilothouse team has started chatting high level strategy with a few DTC brands, and we wanted to share a few tips to get you in the Q4 planning headspace: - Evaluate media mix and determine if there are other channels you’d like to test/prove out in Q3 - Testing in Q3 gives you time to determine how profitable the new channel is and how much of a budget you should dedicate to it in Q4. - Review performance on last year’s offer - Map out offer testing that you can try in Q3 to find a sweet spot for volume, conversion rate, and profitability. 📈 [Learn more about offer testing here](. - Make sure all tracking pixels are firing correctly - Meta can retarget up to 180 days, so you’ll want to capture user data in Q3. - Increase contrast creative testing in the next 3-4 months to find new winners on which to iterate in Q4 - By testing now, you have time to iterate using different headlines, offers, products, etc. to find the perfect combo to scale in Q4. - Check that email opt-in forms are working across your site - List building happens year-round but becomes a more significant part of BFCM strategy mid-summer and into Q4. - [The Pilothouse Meta team]( suggests adding opt-in forms in these areas and make sure they’re capturing user information correctly: Pop-up opt-in on all pages, website footer opt-in, exit intent pop-up, blog pages, and about page. Save these tips for a record breaking Q4! You’ve got this. 💪 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE Understanding what makes your customers tick is the key to killer marketing. Applying a common psychology strategy can make your messaging more persuasive and get those conversions going! Can't view the image? [Click here]( ⚡ QUICK HITS 🖼️ Need better product photos? Create fast, consistent, and photoshoot-quality product images that convert with Claid.ai. [Use code DTC20 and get 20% off here](. * 📰 NEWS - OpenAI [partners with Reddit to bring the forum’s content to ChatGPT](. - Walmart [beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates and grew its ecommerce business by 22% in the U.S](. - Delivery app GoPuff [faces backlash for ‘Ozempic Week’ promotion to sell more low-calorie snacks](. SPONSOR DTC 📥 Got a B2B Biz? Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 160k brand leaders and founders this year. [Talk to our team to learn more](. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 📈 The Marketing Millennials on [Cracking the DTC Success Formula]( - 💰 [AKNF 403:]( Early Indicators of Amazon Success - 👕 How True Classic [Turned Customer Support Into a Profit Center]( - ❌ [AKNF 401:]( Common Google Ad Mistakes - 🤠 Bart Szaniewski Shares [How Dad Gang Sold 100K Hats]( - 🛒 [AKNF 399:]( Mastering Meta Shops and Ad Instability Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Frances Du](. Edited by [Eric Dyck](. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Unsubscribe](