Google's March 2026 spam algorithm update rolled out in under 24 hours, the fastest in history, and the local pack is changing in ways that could affect how customers find your business. Jason and Stefanie Parks break down what it all means and share 11 real marketing insights from working with 100+ businesses.

In this episode: how PPC data can sharpen your SEO strategy, why review velocity matters more than review count, the quiet death of the call button on Google Maps, and how AI automation is saving their agency 20 hours a month. Plus, a smarter way to screen job applicants that cuts through AI-generated answers.

We run a digital marketing agency working with hundreds of businesses across the country, and every two weeks we share what we are actually seeing in the trenches. In this episode, we break down 11 marketing items that are top of mind right now, and honestly some of these surprised even us.

Google Ads showing up inside AI Overviews are up 394%. Live chat on your website is becoming a thing of the past. One of our attorney clients was burning $60K a month on ads with conversion tracking so broken it was optimizing for basically nothing. And we have a landscaping client who had 15 separate websites that were all quietly working against each other.

We also get into the AI tools our team is using every day, how to get your business showing up in AI search results, and why Claude just hitting $19 billion in revenue feels a little personal to us since we have been using it since basically day one.

If you are spending money on ads, trying to figure out where AI fits into your marketing, or just want to know what is actually working right now, pull this one up.

In this episode, Jason and Stephanie Parks sit down with Will Crall, President of On3 Sports, one of the fastest-growing college sports media brands in the country.

Will shares how On3 built its empire through passionate fan communities, elite newsbreakers, and a dominant social media strategy, including their acquisition of Rivals from Yahoo in 2025.

The episode also covers the latest digital marketing trends, agency insights on AI automation, why direct mail is making a comeback, and what Jason and Stephanie are personally excited about right now.

Whether you're a college sports fan, business owner, or digital marketer, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

Google and Meta just released their Q4 earnings, and the numbers are staggering. Google pulled in $113B in revenue while Meta hit $60B, but the profit margins tell a different story. We break down what these earnings mean for advertisers, plus why Google's algorithm is causing chaos right now.

In this episode, we also reveal how we're using AI to transform e-commerce SEO (one client went from 8% to 30% visibility), why iPhone videos are outperforming professional content on Meta, and the project management tool that completely changed our agency.

After a 6-year hiatus, sibling co-founders Stefanie and Jason Parks are back with their marketing podcast. They own Media Captain (a marketing agency serving 100+ clients since 2010) and DermWarehouse (an e-commerce company with 200,000+ customers selling 60+ skincare brands). Each 30-minute episode covers marketing news, agency insights, and personal updates.

Marketing News & Trends:

• Google's dominance continues - Alphabet's market cap surpassed $4 trillion, overtaking Apple for the first time since 2019. Only Nvidia is larger.
• AI hasn't killed search - Despite ChatGPT predictions, Google remains critical. The agency emphasizes you can't have an AI strategy without SEO, as AI tools still rely heavily on Google's infrastructure.
• Vibe coding disrupts software stocks - New AI coding assistants allow people to write software using plain English instead of manual coding. This trend has hammered software stocks: Salesforce down 25%, HubSpot down 51%, monday.com down 44% year-over-year as Wall Street predicts increased competition and DIY software development.
• Google's AI commerce revolution - Google is launching AI agents that can handle entire purchasing processes automatically, finding products, comparing prices, and completing purchases without customers visiting websites. Major retailers (Walmart, Target, Shopify) and payment processors (Visa, Stripe) have joined Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. McKinsey estimates this represents a $3-5 trillion opportunity by 2030. Stef and Jason share their thoughts on this.

Agency Insights & Best Practices:

• Authentic storytelling is critical - In an era of AI-generated content, brands showcasing genuine personality and stories stand out.
• LinkedIn personal vs. business accounts - Business owners posting from personal accounts get 10x more engagement than company pages. Personal accounts reach more targeted audiences like CMOs and decision-makers when properly cultivated.
• Multi-channel content strategy - Create high-quality content once and deploy it everywhere. Example: Client video content appears as social posts, paid advertisements, email campaigns, and website embeds for maximum ROI.
• CallRail integration transforms tracking - This $100/month tool provides comprehensive phone call and contact form tracking across all marketing channels.
• Case study: Allergist client success - Created personality-driven content including educational videos about ILIT (a replacement for traditional allergy shots) and an MTV Cribs-style office tour. Content distributed across social media, paid ads, email sequences, and website for multi-channel impact.

Key Takeaways:

• Authenticity beats AI-generated content in building customer connections
• Personal LinkedIn accounts dramatically outperform business pages
• Robust tracking tools like CallRail enable smarter budget decisions
• Create content once, deploy everywhere for maximum efficiency
• Google's ecosystem continues expanding despite AI disruption predictions

Personal Highlights:

The hosts shared their experience hosting a Blue Jackets luxury suite event for clients, including riding the Zamboni as an example of "unreasonable hospitality" that creates unforgettable customer experiences.

1. US Consumers spent $8.9 billion online on Black Friday, down from the record $9 billion in 2020, the forest ever year-over-year decline for eCommerce sales [source].
2. Traffic at retail stores on Black Friday dropped 28.3% compared with 2019 levels [source].
3. I ran a poll asking whether people shopped at a physical retailer after Thanksgiving and whether people made a purchase online after Thanksgiving. 
4. It was the fifth Black Friday sales for our in-house eCommerce company, DermWarehouse! Go behind the scenes! 
5. $2.9 billion. That’s the total sales of Shopify Merchants on Black Friday. That’s up 21% from 2020 and more than double their sales from 2019 [view source].
6. The skin care line my family developed, Park Perfection, is ranking in the top five positions on Google for the coveted search query, “Instant Eye Lift.” How'd we accomplish this? 
7. If you own an eCommerce store, it’s important to optimize your product pages. I wrote a blog on how to optimize your eCommerce product page.
8. What differentiates our eCommerce marketing and development versus other agencies? You'll find out in this podcast!
9. I recorded a podcast on Facebook and Instagram best practices for eCommerce brands [listen here]. Make sure you check out episode 59! 
10. One of the biggest eCommerce misconceptions of the holiday season is that it’s a great time to acquire new customers.
11. Did you know that Amazon took 19% of total spend during Black Friday weekend last year? [source]. They expect to do even more sales in 2021!

In Episode 59, Jason Parks of The Media Captain talks about the Facebook eCommerce Retargeting Strategy he set-up for DermWarehouse. This includes how to structure your retargeting based on purchasers and non purchases plus lead generation campaigns being integrated into Klaviyo. If you are an eCommerce store owner looking to improve your Facebook advertising, this podcast should help! 

Below are the 11 marketing items we cover in episode 58: 

1. Google is changing the name of Google My Business to Google Business Profile.
2. In order to understand SEO, you need to understand what Google likes and dislikes.
3. Broad Match Keyword Bidding can lower your cost per click and drive higher quality traffic to your site. 
4. If you have low quality content (duplicate and thin content) on your site, this can cause more harm than good. 
5. We do a deep dive into Klaviyo and combining email and text message flows 
6. The best things in life don't have to be the most expensive. Nike's swoosh was created in 1971 for $35. 
7. We discuss our love of SEMRush and where their stock price is as of this recording. 
8. We discuss Park Perfection, the skincare line we acquired and developed and the importance of branding. 
9. Jason reveals his two favorite podcasts (Outside of The Media Captain podcast, of course).
10. Should you be bidding on your competitors keywords? 
11. Internal linking experiment that worked for someone else that makes complete sense. 

Below are the 11 marketing items of the week that Jason covers in detail. You can read the entire email blast for the week HERE. 

1. Saks Fifth Avenue spun off their rapidly growing eCommerce division. In doing so, the company tripled its valuation at nearly $6 billion. Will this prompt a spinoff for Macy's? Activist investors are hoping the answer is yes. 
2. Spanx was acquired this past week for a reported $1.2 billion. Jason Parks talks about the amazing gesture the Founder, Sara Blakely, did for employees after the announcement. 
3. Mutts & Co. is a client of The Media Captain. Learn how TMC helped this eCommerce brand increase revenue by 143%. 
4. Snapchat’s stock fell nearly 25% after the company warned of slowing growth due to the recent changes in Apple’s iOS. Jason talks about the negative impact Apple's iOS 14 update is having on technology stocks. 
5. Interbrand revealed the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands. Jason walks through the 10 most valuable. 
6. There are rumors that Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name. Jason discusses whether or not this is a good idea. 
7. I love looking at websites from the past to see how far the digital world has progressed. Jason does an analysis of the NHL's website from 1998 and how it compares to sites nowadays. 
8. Getting mentioned in the right media publications can increase your brand’s credibility and visibility. Jason discusses the importance of strong PR for your brand. 
9. From DermWarehouse's 1-year anniversary of purchasing warehouse space to speaking to Ohio State's Business School, Jason walks you through what happened over the past week. 
10. Media Captain recently got a positive review and Jason walks through this and talks about the importance of positive reinforcement. 
11. Text-to-Speech plugins are something you should consider implementing on your site, especially if you have a blog or article rich content.

1. What are heading tags and why are they so important for SEO? 
2. Google announced that mobile users will now have continuous scroll in search results. 
3. We're proud of the new moss wall art we had installed in our conference room!
4. When it comes to your social media strategy, stories add a great personal touch. 
5. If you’re looking to garner more reviews for your local business, I recommend looking into GatherUp.
6. We dive into the key local SEO ranking factors that move the needle with your GMB page. 
7. What is Google My Business keyword stuffing and why is it against Google's guidelines? 
8. Holiday retail sales and eCommerce sales are expected to surge in 2021 vs. 2020.
9. How much money did Joe Montana make off GitLab's recent IPO? 
10. Which YouTube star rented a $43,000 mansion in Los Angeles to record video content? 
11. What are internal links and why are they so important for SEO? 

1. Do you know the most popular search query on Bing? It’s “Google” [source]. In June 2021, online search engine Bing accounted for 5.56 percent of the global search market, while market leader Google had a market share of 87.76 percent [source].
2. Despite Google being the dominant search engine, Bing can still perform very well. 
3. 1) TikTok, 2) YouTube, 3) Instagram, 4) Snapchat, 5) Facebook are the top 5 apps on the Apple App Store as of this podcast recording. 
4. New layout for Google My Business detected 
5. DermWarehouse, our in-house eCommerce brand, is rolling out an early Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion this week.
6. The New York Times wrote a fantastic article on TikTik titled, “Will TikTok Make You Buy It?”
7. The majority of our team here at TMC uses Grammarly to make our emails and internal and external communication more professional. We love the tool and encourage you to check it out!
8. Want to improve your website and sales process simultaneously? Build a success stories section.
9. Internal links play a key role in developing a successful SEO campaign. I wrote a blog post on the importance of internal linking, which you can read HERE.
10. When it comes to your pay-per-click advertisements, you can lower your cost per click by achieving a high quality score.
11. HERE is a list of the 20 fastest growing DTC (direct to consumer) brands. This week, Rihanna Fenty and the Kardashian sisters own four of the 20 positions. This list is courtesy of Web Smith, Founder of 2PM.