Meet the man behind the screen.
I am a northern Wisconsin (dubbed “The North Woods”) native who grew up fishing, camping, and riding dirt bikes through some of the densest forests you could imagine. I was always curious about how things worked and what made people do what they do. As a kid, I was a hustler. I cut and sold firewood. I would fish fancy golf balls out of ponds at the golf course I worked at and resell them at the driving range. I figured out early that good things come to those who take action and that I had a natural ability to figure out what people needed to hear for them to buy what I was selling. 1995 Ford Rangers didn’t fill themselves up with gas…
College and grad school were my way of exploring the frontiers of this innate ability to sell, persuade, and see the world through another person’s perspective. This hunger for knowledge is the lifeblood of my career and keeps me at the forefront of the ever-shifting digital landscape.
Fast-forward to today, and I’m proud to have made an honest career helping brands connect with consumers online and grow their businesses.
I’m currently the Senior Director of Digital Marketing at HarperCollins Publishers and run my consulting business, where I help brands scale their digital advertising and find more (and better) customers.
Data science & creatives, what could go wrong?
Ethos: Half art, half math, & straddling the line between the two
The best digital marketers straddle the line between art and math, design and execution, creativity and analysis. Understanding the relationship between the two allows me to create visually arresting campaigns and creative while allowing data to drive execution.
Lots of people ‘do’ digital marketing and advertising. One thing that differentiates me is being able to straddle that line between data analysis and building creative. I understand and work in both worlds. The days of ‘only running ads’ or ‘only designing’ are over. To be effective, you have to be able to understand and execute on both.
Digital advertising affords us unlimited chances to ‘get it right,’ but those chances must be balanced with robust creative and analysis.
Five, even ten years ago, digital advertising was driven by targeting and retargeting capabilities. Creative, in my opinion, was perceived as less important. I have fallen victim to thesis periodically throughout my career. ‘Just get the product in front of the right people’ was the mantra, and it worked until it didn’t work anymore.
Today, creativity — and the creative — is the most crucial component of digital advertising and marketing campaigns because digital ad platforms are moving away from a ‘tell us who to target’ model to ‘let us find your audience/customers/consumer for you.’ A switch from micro targeting to scale using AI.
Creative is the only real differentiator you have anymore. Paired with robust data analysis.
15 years of experience, 15 topics, one sentence each. Go.
Every role I’ve ever held came with tons of client questions. Consulting, ad agencies, authors & agents. I’m constantly being asked to give my thoughts on digital marketing and ad topics. Years of experience boiled down to less than a Tweet. Simplicity in communication.
Strategy & Planning
Perfect results are more important than perfect planning.
Data, Tracking, & Measurement
There’s no point in measuring something if it doesn’t inform your decision making.
Bullet point formula
It [blank] so you can [blank] which means [blank].
Design and UX
The very best designers are problem solvers; they help people make decisions.
Working with difficult clients
The art of smiling while you say things you don’t mean so you can get what you want (and what’s best for them).
Most important element of a campaign
A good product.
Product reviews
Good reviews address the most common objections a person might have to purchase.
Generative AI
AI is a grizzly bear, you need to run faster than the people around you.
Amazon vs. Google: PPC
In terms of ROI? Amazon, I’ll die on that hill.
Copywriting
If you can describe a person’s problems better than they can, they’ll believe you have the solution.
Boil the campaign down to it’s essentials and ask “what are we absolutely sure is true?” and fix from there.
Under-performing campaigns
Product & landing pages
How many sales are we missing because people can’t tell exactly what we offer in the first five seconds?
Ad creative
The most important, least important element of every digital campaign.
Advice for newbies
Marketing has enough people who can talk about marketing; be someone who can talk AND execute.
The future of digital advertising
Automation and scale.
“Advertising is a craft executed by people who aspire to be artists, but is assessed by those who aspire to be scientists. I cannot imagine any human relationship more perfectly designed to produce total mayhem.”
— Luke Sullivan, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This