👋 Hello fellow Ladderers!
Today: Big Tech is writing $40B cheques to make sure AI doesn't eat them first, Meta is quietly rewriting your ad creative whether you asked or not, and Instagram finally gave marketers the metrics dashboard they've been screaming for. Plus: the music industry's fake-fan psyop, a RevOps reality check, and three tools worth your attention.
If you missed our latest edition on ‘Why the AI Era Belongs to the Restless Generalist’, you can catch up here ⏪
🗞 In The News
🤑 Google Just Wrote a $40 Billion Cheque to Make Sure It Doesn't Lose the AI Race (Ars Technica)
📊 Instagram Finally Gave You the Metrics Dashboard You've Been Asking For (Social Media Today)
🚫 Meta Is Ignoring Australia's Ad Watchdog — And Stax Burger Co Is Loving It (Mumbrella)
📱 The Death of Social in Social Media (In Retrospect)
🎵 The Music Industry's Fake-Fan Psyop Is Just How Marketing Works Now (Link in Bio)
💼 Case Studies: Case Closed
🛠️ Your RevOps Tech Stack Is Probably Hurting You More Than Helping (Marketing Ops) - 250+ RevOps pros surveyed. 75% cite data inconsistency as their #1 problem. Nearly half rate their stack's ROI as average or worse.
🎯 The Four Fits Growth Framework, Rebuilt for the AI Era (Brian Balfour) - Classic Four Fits (Product-Market, Product-Channel, Channel-Model, Model-Market) updated for AI-era dynamics.
📧 How Email Chose the Open Web Over Bureaucracy, and Won (Buttondown) - “X.400 said what must be possible. SMTP said what must be done." A sharp history of open vs closed standards.
📈 What 100 Viral Posts Taught One Creator About What Actually Works (Viral Examples) - Three viral post breakdowns with replication templates for X and LinkedIn.
🧰 You Won’t Blame These Tools
🤖 Orange Slice — AI-powered GTM workflows that find, enrich, and action leads from a plain-English prompt. Trusted by 5,000+ RevOps teams.
👁️ Qvery — Measures and grows your brand's visibility inside AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
🎬 Waitlister — No-code waitlist builder with referral mechanics and email automation. Go live in 10 minutes, arrive with an audience ready to buy.
Thanks for climbing today,
🙋 Got a Question? I Might Just Have Some Answers.
Each week I'm here to answer any question you might have in the space of marketing, strategy, leadership, digital and everything in between.
Just hit 'reply' and let me know what's on your mind, and I'll share my answer with the community the very next week, including a special shout out (if you're into that, otherwise we can keep it anon) 🥸
