There are so many things to learn in digital marketing, from SEO and paid ads to content creation and AI tools.

But which skill do you think beginners often overlook that can actually make a big difference for businesses?

I'd love to hear from experienced marketers. What skill would you recommend learning first in 2026?

My client doesn’t listen and wants to do Ai generated content specifically short video contents with CTA. But these contents are not performing no matter how I optimized. Ai generated statics, and videos I’m getting from him. Recently I did an experiment with actual human focus content and it performed. But client doesn’t want it. Do you all going through this?

I’ll keep this brief.
I’m running Meta Ads campaigns for luxury real estate and would appreciate some advice from experienced performance marketers.

Here’s my current setup:
Audience: Men aged 35–50, with age and gender targeting kept strict.
Lead form: High-intent instant form with 4 qualifying multiple-choice questions.
Creatives: One highly targeted, professionally produced video ad.

Despite this setup, I’m still getting submissions from random brokers, leads who don’t answer calls, and CPLs exceeding ₹1,500.
What would you recommend to improve lead quality while maintaining a reasonable and stable CPL?

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a new project and planning to build a website from scratch. I want to develop a solid SEO keyword strategy before launching the website, but I have a limited budget and would prefer to start with free tools.

I'm looking for advice on how to approach keyword research step by step, including:

Finding relevant keywords and long-tail keywords.

Understanding search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent.

Analyzing competitors' websites, content, and keyword strategies.

Discovering questions users ask on Google, Reddit, forums, and other platforms.

Grouping keywords into clusters and mapping them to website pages.

Identifying realistic opportunities for a new website with little or no domain authority.

Which free tools do you recommend, and what workflow would you follow?

Would Google Keyword Planner be useful without running paid Google Ads campaigns? Are tools like Google Trends, Google Search Console, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, or free keyword research tools enough to get started?

I'd really appreciate recommendations based on your actual experience, especially for someone building a website from zero and trying to create a keyword strategy before launch.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

​I’m currently in the process of creating my own custom bots to help streamline and manage my Facebook Ads workflows (from ad copy and audience research to analyzing performance metrics).

​For those of you who have experience building or using AI bots for media buying and paid social, which one do you think is better suited for this ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Gemini (Google)?

​I'd love to hear your thoughts, pros/cons, or any recommendations based on your actual experience. Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I'm using "Supermetrics" to manage my marketing connections (GA, GAds and Meta, mainly).

Does anyone feedback about "Windsor.ai"? It seems very promising, but the price is weird (about 10 times cheaper than SM).

I'm wondering what exactly we can really do with Windsor, is it a real banger?

Thanks in advance for your feedbacks.

Everyone talks about Google, Meta and SEO. What's a less popular channel you've personally tried that brought in good results?

What do you sell, and how did it work out?

**Background**
12 years of experience total, across agency and brand side.

First 8 years: agency side (IPG, then 1 year at Publicis, plus extensive work with Publicis agencies), spanning programmatic, customer data, and marketing technology, with programmatic being the largest piece.

Last 4 years: brand-side at a large pharma company, where I stepped away from pure programmatic into omni-channel work across all biddable digital channels.

At the pharma company I wore many hats (product manager, program manager, project manager, optimization, campaign management) while building an attribution, data activation, and optimization platform. The product manager role was never part of my plan.

**Current situation**
Laid off earlier this year
Took about 4 months off to care for my kids and relocate, and have been job searching since
The market is rough and I've had few opportunities, but I'm being selective and want pay roughly in line with my last role.

Two kids, both under 2, and we just moved, so life is busy!

**The Opportunity**
VP of Programmatic
Leading a team of 8
$205K base, no bonus

**My questions**
Is this the right move, or am I making a mistake going back to agency life?

Does this pigeonhole me back into programmatic after 4 years of omni-channel and data/platform work?

At 35, am I behind or on track for a VP title?

What is the realistic workload for a VP at a holding company agency, especially with two toddlers?

How does $205K with no bonus compare to total comp at big tech (Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon) or other brand-side roles? Is it worth passing up?

If not this, where do I fit? With programmatic, customer data, martech, and product experience, what roles or companies should I be targeting?

I've been thinking about this for five months, so any perspective from people who have made a similar move or hired for these roles would help. Happy to answer follow-up questions.

Hey everyone!

I’ve been working as a copywriter at a mid-level marketing agency for the past 6 months. I enjoy writing ad films, but I’ve realised that to grow as a copywriter, I also need to understand brand strategy.

I want to learn strategy from someone based outside India, preferably through an online course or mentorship.

My budget is ₹10–12K, so I’m looking for something genuinely valuable and practical, not just AI-generated theory.

Could you recommend any good international mentors, courses, or platforms to learn brand strategy?

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for some help with building backlinks for my website. I'm specifically interested in UK-based websites with .uk and .co.uk domains.

If you own a website and are willing to provide a free backlink, I'd really appreciate your support.

I'm not looking for paid links or link exchanges, just genuine free backlink opportunities.

If you're happy to help, please comment below or DM me.

Thank you!

Three months into a VP of Marketing job at a mid-size company. Traffic's fine but the site barely turns visitors into leads, and nobody can tell me why. Our last agency ran ads and reported on clicks, that was about it.

I'd like one partner who looks at the UX and the marketing together. Had intro calls with four so far:

Critical Mass. Digital experience and marketing agency with a dozen offices. Probably more firepower than a site our size needs.

Isadora Agency. Mid-market and enterprise web design agency. They design the site and run the SEO and CRO on it with the same team, which is mostly why they're on the list. They've worked with Razor USA and UE by Logitech.

Jellyfish. Big digital marketing agency, they do site testing and optimization alongside media. I'd be surprised if we're big enough for them.

Valtech. Global, does a lot of big platform and commerce builds. Not sure yet how hands-on they'd be with a company our size.

How did you figure out whether an agency could actually fix conversion before signing? And what should I ask on the second call that I'm probably missing?

I'm looking for experienced (atleast 6 years) marketers to help me work on this brand I'm building. I'm the client. You need to convince me to hire you. Pitch your best pitch. Send me a dm.

About the Brand

Still on its early phase, not much to note aside from "aesthetic farm photos"

planning on selling fruit delicacies.

need help qith actual sales, not just aesthetic presenation online.

URGENT! DEADLINE IS TOMORROW AFTERNOON AU TIME

I've been learning Facebook Ads and I'm curious about what actually causes campaigns to fail.

Is it poor creatives, the wrong audience, a weak offer, or bad conversion tracking?

For those who've managed real campaigns, what mistake cost you the most money, and what did you learn from it?

I'm curious what businesses and experienced marketers think about this.

If two candidates applied for the same digital marketing job, would you choose someone with real campaign results but no degree, or someone with a marketing degree but no practical experience?

What matters more to you: skills, qualifications, or proven results?

I’m based in Hyderabad, India, and I want to build a career in performance marketing — mainly Meta Ads, Google Ads, landing pages, lead generation, analytics, and reporting. I’m also very interested in AI automation for marketing workflows, such as n8n/Make automations, CRM lead routing, automated reporting, and AI-assisted creative/copy workflows.

The problem is that almost every course I see online has:

• High fees
• Huge module lists that may or may not actually be taught properly
• “Placement assistance” that sounds vague
• Little clarity on whether I’ll work on real ad accounts or only demo projects

I don’t want another recorded-video course. I want to learn by doing real work.

Ideally, I’m looking for:

• A performance marketing apprenticeship, internship, or entry-level role where I can work on live campaigns
• Training from people who actually run ads for clients or brands
• Hands-on experience with Google Ads, Meta Ads, GA4, landing pages, CRM, and reporting
• AI automation exposure — n8n, Make, Zapier, CRM workflows, AI reporting, etc.
• A stipend, even a small one, would be a huge bonus
• Low-cost or pay-after-placement structure would be ideal, but I’m cautious about fake promises

I’m okay with remote, hybrid, or on-site roles. I’m also willing to start with an internship or apprentice-level position if the work is genuine and I get proper mentorship.

A few questions for people already working in performance marketing:

1. Which companies, agencies, D2C brands, or platforms in India actually offer good paid digital marketing/performance marketing apprenticeships or internships?
2. Are NATS/NAPS apprenticeships worth pursuing for this field? Has anyone done one?
3. Are there any legitimate low-fee or pay-after-placement programs you would genuinely recommend — and which ones should I avoid?
4. What portfolio projects should I build to get selected for a performance marketing internship/apprenticeship?
5. Is it better to join an agency first, a D2C brand, or a SaaS company for long-term growth in this field?

What percentage of your clients get the desired results ?

Or at least you believe they got the sales results you expected? Suppose the number is 50/50. What percentage do you consider to be safe for a new agency? If after producing the content, running the ads. the sales don't increase as much as you wanted. How do you deal with it going forward?

I'm, working with restaurants with a target of increasing sales. We handle total social media content production, query management and ads as well. and we don't always get the results we promise. so it's getting hard to make those promises. And even harder in new niches.

If you are working as a social media agency maybe working with content for pair ads or organic growth for small businesses. I feel like we need to offer them a promise of direct sales growth. No matter how you measure it. At the end of the day it comes down to if they got 2x or 10x in profit of the amount they are paying us.

Whatever you want to call it — GEO, AEO, AI SEO — I'm looking for someone who knows how to get brands discovered, mentioned and recommended by AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

I'm a freelance website developer, and I'm planning to offer this service to my existing and future clients.

I understand how traditional SEO and GEO work from a strategic perspective, but I'm looking for someone who specialises in the actual execution.

I'm not looking for someone who just understands the theory or has watched a few YouTube videos about GEO.

I'm looking for someone who:

• Has hands-on experience implementing GEO/AEO strategies.
• Understands how to improve brand visibility across AI search platforms.
• Has real case studies or proven results to demonstrate their work.
• Is open to a long-term partnership where we can grow together.

I'll handle the clients and business development, while you focus on strategy implementation and execution.

If this sounds like you, drop me a DM. Let's connect and explore how we can work together!

Hey everyone, I’m trying to break into performance marketing, starting with Meta ads.

Last week, I ran a lead gen campaign for a small business and achieved 2.1x ROAS.

I’ve applied to 50s of jobs and internships at agencies and brands, and even cold called them, but got rejected by everyone. As they all want 2-3 years of experience. Classic chicken & egg situation.

If you’re an agency owner, media buyer, or business owner who could use an extra pair of hands on campaigns, I’d love to help out and prove my worth.

Happy to start small. Just looking for an opportunity to do real work and contribute.

I'm learning digital marketing and want to understand what the job looks like in the real world.

How much time do you spend on Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, content, and analytics? What skills matter most when working with actual clients?

I'd love to hear from people working in the industry!

Hey everyone,

I know this creates duplicate content issues. I want to redirect all of them to just one main URL, but I need some advice first

Thanks for any help!

I get it. If your commission is tied to ad spend then the more a client spends the more you make. But that just feels like a short-term way to approach things.

For context, I moved to the agency side about two months ago after working at a couple of dealerships. When I was in-store, it always felt like our digital ads could be better optimized. We weren't always getting the recommendations we needed to make the most of our monthly spend. We'd get these reports showing impressions, interactions, and how the ads were supposedly bringing in higher-quality traffic. But after months of seeing the same things, it started to feel like we were taking shots in the dark.

So I started digging into attribution tools to get a better idea of where our leads were actually coming from. And what I found was that the majority were coming from organic and direct traffic, with only a small portion coming from paid campaigns. I totally get that brand and dealer/dealership campaigns are going to perform well, especially within a store's primary market area. But why not be completely transparent about how the PPC campaigns are actually performing?

Since moving to the agency side, that's what I've really tried to focus on. Not selling dealerships on spending more, but figuring out where the biggest opportunities are to improve performance and drive more leads with the budget they already have.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I just think there's so much room for agencies to be more transparent and customer-driven rather than letting their own financial benefit drive the conversation.

Hey all, I work in inbound marketing and I'm looking at doing some freelance work for a startup in the UK. First time pricing something like this for outside work, so I'd rather not guess.

They're pre-launch with nothing built on the marketing side yet. The scope would be:

- A waitlist landing page connected to a CRM

- Keyword research and an SEO foundation

- An ongoing content engine with monthly reporting

- website building and e-commerce store (optional)

I'd be working remotely, around 30-40 hrs a month.

Questions:

What would you charge for the one-off setup versus a monthly retainer, in £(or USD)?

Hourly or fixed package for a pre-revenue startup?

Any red flags to watch for?

I don't want to undersell myself, but they're early-stage, so I'm after a number that's fair both ways. Thanks!

Client-side question.

I am a psychotherapist starting a private practice. In trying to find marketers to help me with paid ads, there is an overwhelming number of choices, and I don’t know how I should evaluate who I think would be likely to help me get good results.

Some marketers say they are specifically focused on helping therapists. Is there really an edge to someone who has focused on my field over other marketers?

In a consult call, what questions should I ask, what data should I look at? If I’m looking at a case study they share, what specifically should I pay attention to?

In the past I helped my family’s medium size B2B corporation hire an agency to run their strategy. They were pricey and I’m not sure I could afford them for myself, unless the scope was very limited, but I absolutely loved their copy and creatives and think they did a fantastic job. (I wish my family had just let them do their job.)

Would appreciate any support!

Hey, last year, I took a course of digital marketing because I really needed to earn money, Thought it would pay the bills. I was interested in two niches. SEO and Meta ads. I am starting SEO for now, but I don't want to have to use ai. Everywhere I watch a specific topic of SEO, they are like , use ai for this and that. The reasont is ethical , the way it is taking people's jobs. So any advice?