Jessica Dolnick

In 2026, ABO is no longer the best way to test creatives. I didn’t want to believe it either. But after testing CBO since September across five different accounts, the data was very clear. CBO was ~27% more efficient on average. Here’s the CBO testing structure I’m running now: - Exclude all existing customers (Klaviyo + Pixel) - 100% Broad targeting - Set a minimum spend per ad set to force learning - Use Flexible Ads when I’m testing very similar creative variations What happens next is key 👇 Winners move into CBO Scaling Top performers also get pushed into Whitelisting & Partnership campaigns That said… I still see ABO outperform CBO in some accounts, especially smaller ones. So make sure to test both and see what works best for your account.

26

13 Comments

hot tips for agency biz dev folks: 1. keep an eye on the news. 2. consider the industry and supply chain of your potential client, and what they might be dealing with at this exact moment. 3. take 2 minutes to tweak your generic message to show empathy / understanding. it might work. Otherwise, I cannot explain how tone deaf you sound!

26

6 Comments

Guy's doing $180K/month. Spending five figures on ads. Asked when he last emailed his webinar list. He couldn't remember. Not like "oh, it was probably September." Like... genuinely had no idea. Had to log into Mailchimp mid-call to check. Turns out it was July. 6 months. 4,100 contacts. Just sitting there. Meanwhile, he's paying Meta $47 per lead to find new people who don't know him yet. I see this constantly with founders who are already winning. ✅ They've built the list ✅ They've got offers that convert ✅ They've got proof their stuff works What they don't have? 15 minutes to write an email to people who already raised their hands in the past. They're always busy with: New product launch → old list gets ignored Partnership opportunity with new customers → past customers forgotten Ad campaign crushing → webinar attendees from 2025 left with no further communication You keep looking forward. Which makes sense. But you're walking past hundred-dollar bills to pick up quarters. Reactivating old leads is stupidly easier (and CHEAPER) than finding new ones. They already know who you are. They already consumed your content. They already decided you weren't a scammer. You don't need some elaborate 9-email nurture sequence. You need: → One good reason to re-engage → An offer that matches where they are now (not where they were 18 months ago) → To actually hit send Did this with a client three weeks ago. Pulled 153 leads who hadn't opened an email in 6+ months. Sent one message with a fresh angle on his main product. $48,400 in 12 days. No ads. No webinar. No new traffic. STOP ignoring the people you already have in the database. It's a revenue reserve you keep forgetting exists.

4

Stop Guessing, Start Ranking! 🚀 Tired of missing out on local customers in Texas? Your buyers are searching for you right now. Here’s how to turn those searches into real, high-quality leads using Local SEO. 👇 The 60-Second Local SEO Game Plan: ✅ Claim & Optimize Your Google Business Profile Accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone) Right categories + high-quality photos Regular posts & Q&A ✅ Target Local Keywords “Service + City” (e.g., “Plumber Dallas TX”) Capture commercial & transactional intent ✅ Optimize Your Website City-specific landing pages Local schema markup Mobile-friendly & fast ✅ Build Local Trust Get & respond to reviews Secure local backlinks & partnerships ✅ Track What Matters Map & search impressions Calls, directions, form fills Lead quality & conversion rates Local SEO isn’t just about visibility—it’s about being found by people ready to buy. Found this helpful? ✅ Save this post for later! 🔔 Follow me for more actionable SEO tips. 💬 DM me for a deeper dive into local lead generation. #LocalSEO #LeadGeneration #GoogleBusinessProfile #SmallBusinessMarketing #SEO #DigitalMarketing #TexasBusiness

10

I told a Houston clinic their $18k website was leaking $9k/month. They thought I was crazy. Then I showed them the data. They'd just launched a beautiful redesign. Gorgeous photos. Clear messaging. Smooth mobile experience. Three months later? Patient numbers flat. I ran a diagnostic. Here's what I found: The Schema Leak Their 8 physicians weren't linked to their specialties in the code. When patients asked AI for a "cardiologist near me," their heart doctor didn't exist. The Insurance Leak They accept Cigna and Blue Cross – but it was buried in a downloadable PDF. AI can't read PDFs. Patients with those plans never found them. The Location Leak Their address was plain text, not hard‑coded GeoCoordinates. AI was fuzzy on exactly where they were, so they lost the "near me" battle. Total cost of these leaks? I calculated it: $9,000/month in missed patient revenue. Your website isn't a brochure. It's a data node in the AI's knowledge graph. If that node is empty, you don't exist. Before you spend another dollar on marketing, let's patch the leaks. If you could ask AI to check one thing on your clinic's site right now, what would it be? 👇 I'll reply to every comment personally. #MedicalSEO #AISearch #EntityAuthority #DigitalHealth

2

The Right Way to Do Outreach for Guest Posting & Link Building Let’s be honest… most outreach messages suck. They’re either too pushy, too generic, or way too long. No one wants to open a message that feels like spam — and if you’re still sending “Dear Webmaster” emails… it’s time for an upgrade. Let’s talk about how to do outreach the right way — the kind that gets replies, links, and real relationships. 🔍 1. Research Before You Reach Out Stop spraying and praying. If you’re not even taking 2 minutes to check what the site is about, why would they take 2 minutes to reply? Know their audience Read one or two posts Find their real name if possible A personalized message always beats a template. ✍️ 2. Keep Your Email Short & Real The best outreach emails are written like a normal conversation. Avoid robotic intros and fake flattery. Try this instead: “Hey [Name], I came across your post on [Topic] — really liked your angle on [Something specific]. I’d love to contribute something useful for your readers. Is guest posting still open?” Short. Friendly. Straight to the point. 🤝 3. Offer Value, Not Just a Link If your goal is just to get a backlink, they’ll smell it a mile away. Instead, focus on what you can give: A helpful, well-written post Expert quotes Data or examples they haven’t covered yet Make them want to say yes. ⏳ 4. Follow Up (But Don’t Be Annoying) People are busy. Sometimes they miss your email. A polite follow-up 3–5 days later can make all the difference. But keep it human: “Just checking in — no worries if now’s not a good time.” 💬 Real Talk: Outreach = Relationship Building It’s not about “scaling fast” or sending 500 emails a week. It’s about making real connections with real people who care about quality. That’s how you build links that last — and relationships that lead to more opportunities down the road. How do you approach guest post outreach? Any wins (or horror stories) to share? Let’s chat in the comments 👇 #GuestPosting #LinkBuilding #OutreachStrategy #SEOtips #ContentMarketing #BloggerOutreach #BacklinkBuilding #MarketingTips

1

We spent a lot of time debating if A/B testing should even be "visual." Most of the tools we’ve used in the past treat experiments like hidden settings. You find a page, open a settings menu, and hope you configured the traffic right. It feels more like filling out a tax return than building a funnel. In Firebuzz, we’re moving toward a visual waterfall logic: - Your campaign is a canvas of nodes and edges. No more "guessing" who sees what—if the line is connected, the traffic flows. - You branch a variant, use the AI chat to mutate the design in seconds, and drop it into the flow. - The app handles the p-values and win probability in the background, showing you the "winner" directly on the canvas. The goal is to reduce the "Distance to Data." If it takes 60 minutes to set up a test, you’ll only do it once a month. If it takes 60 seconds, you’ll do it every day. Are we missing something? If you were building a funnel, would you prefer this visual map or the classic list view? I'd love to hear from anyone who does this daily.

4

1 Comment

PBNs can boost rankings. But for how long? Only until Google catches you. And Google’s SpamBrain flags 40 billion spam pages. Every. Single. Day. Think your PBN is invisible? It’s not. Here’s the problem: PBNs aren’t authority. They’re an illusion of it. They violate Google’s spam policies. They strip away trust. They invite penalties. And when a penalty hits? Your traffic doesn’t dip. It disappears. Because SEO isn’t about link quantity. It’s about link quality. Real authority comes from: → Content people want to share → Links you earn, not buy → A reputation you protect, not gamble Shortcuts feel fast. But rebuilding from zero takes years. So before you buy that next PBN link, ask yourself: “Would I still want this link if Google didn’t count it?” If the answer is no… That’s your warning. ♻️ Share this with someone who’s one shady backlink away from disaster. #SEO #techSEO #SEOservices #SEOconsultant #B2BSEO #LocalBusibessGrowth #LocalBusinessMarketking

46

68 Comments

📍 6-week update on our HyperLocal SEO experiment (before/after screenshots attached) 6 weeks ago we deployed hyperlocal service pages for a real electrician in Tulsa. Quick reminder on why this is a tough test case: this guy has no physical office. No storefront. No address on his Google Business Profile. That means proximity — the #1 ranking factor for Maps — is working against him every single search. Here's where we are now: → Average GBP ranking improved from ~18–20 to ~10–11 → Only 1 page flagged as duplicate content (it was genuinely a duplicate — removed it, done) → He's now the highest-rated electrician in Tulsa without a physical address, and he's actually showing up Before: 12/6/2025. After: 2/6/2026. Screenshots attached. The color shift tells the story. But here's what I'm most excited about — what's coming next. Now that we have 6 weeks of real performance data to work with, we went deep on prompt engineering and testing to push our content quality even further. The system now actually researches each city before generating anything. Landmarks. Neighborhoods. Weather patterns. Housing booms. Local history. All stored in our database and available for the AI to pull from. So when a homeowner in Broken Arrow searches for an electrician, they land on a page that genuinely knows something about Broken Arrow — not just generic electrical content with a city name swapped in. We've already republished two cities worth of pages with the new approach and will monitor their progress over the next few weeks. This matters because of something most SEO people get backwards: Stop trying to rank on Google. Start trying to help the person searching. Google's entire business model depends on their customers having a great experience. That means once your technical SEO foundation is solid, everything else should be designed to genuinely help the consumer — not game an algorithm. Help the homeowner find the right electrician. Give them useful local context. Answer questions they didn't know they had. Google will notice. And Google will reward it. That's the approach. No tricks. No shortcuts. Just better content for real people, and let the rankings follow. If you're building in local SEO or running a service business, I'll keep sharing real numbers as this evolves. Happy to dig into specifics in the comments.

13

Your website traffic is dropping, but your reputation is growing. 📉 Here is the "Zero-Click" reality in Texas. A homeowner in San Antonio has a leaking roof after a hailstorm. They don't scroll through 10 websites anymore. They ask Gemini: "Who is the best-rated roofer near me who handles insurance claims?" The AI answers them directly. It gives the name, the phone number, and the reason why. The homeowner calls that contractor without ever clicking a single link. If your website isn't built for AEO, you aren't just losing clicks. You are losing the conversation entirely. Traditional SEO was about getting someone to your website. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is about getting the AI to speak your name. I see elite Roofing and Solar crews in Dallas and Houston making one fatal mistake. They think "more blogs" will save them. Blogs don't feed AI. Structured data does. Entity-based signals do. At LoneStar Local Growth, we don't just "rank" you. We make sure that when the AI is asked for a recommendation, yours is the only name it trusts. The "Search" era is ending. The "Answer" era is here. Is your business ready to be the answer? #TexasContractors #AEO #ZeroClick #LocalSEO #LoneStarLocalGrowth #HoustonRoofing #DallasSolar #AustinConstruction #SanAntonioSmallBusiness #DigitalTransformation

1

If you're serious about content marketing, New Media Summit is coming up here in Austin next year and is a must-go. Just saw prices go up at midnight tonight, so want to call this out... First, when I say "serious," I mean that you're investing at least six figures worth of money or personal time into your content strategy next year. If you're just thinking about starting a newsletter, this is probably too advanced. But if a newsletter, podcast, etc are a serious part of your growth strategy for the next year, and you've committed to that with time, money, and consistent publishing, you will not find a better opportunity to meet people in ATX next year. I'm not affiliated. I make nothing from recommending this (and frankly, I don't typically go to content-industry events). But I actively go-to and recommend this one because... 1. The caliber of the attendees is extremely high, and 2. Speakers are shockingly open about their numbers, and share tons of useful info Again, if you're just casually thinking about doing content, this probably isn't for you. But if you've been putting in the time, and you're serious about being a voice in your industry, the lunch-hour alone will be more valuable than most other things you spend money on next year. https://lnkd.in/gkc_BCwN

19

10 Comments

We sat down with Crystal Carter, Head of SEO Comms at Wix, for an inside look at what’s winning as AI reshapes search. Organic traffic is down. CTR is slipping. But that doesn’t mean your content isn’t working. It just means the old playbook isn’t tracking the right signals. Lots of SEO teams still live in a CTR world. But LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity don’t care about clicks. They care about structure, citations, and semantic fit. Same keywords. Totally different results. Crystal nailed this shift: Bridge the gap by tracking both, like we’re seeing from top teams: → Tracking branded mentions + referral lift from tools like Perplexity → Tagging “ChatGPT” or “AI” in your ‘How did you hear about us?’ forms → Monitoring “Pages known to LLMs” This isn’t the death of SEO. It’s the expansion of it into places traditional analytics can’t reach. We can fight for fewer clicks or win by showing up where influence is happening. To earn citations in AI Overviews, content needs to look like a source, not just a blog post. That means structured data, schema, and unmistakable clarity. Crystal breaks it all down in this webinar: ✔️ The RAPP framework for LLM visibility ✔️ Schema markup that’s must-have ✔️ How to track AI influence without guesswork Full recording here: https://lnkd.in/gKCmCxCt

19

1 Comment

10 equestrian words that make me pause, blink twice, then go... “ohhh, right.”** Because when one boot’s in the barn and the other’s in a stand-up meeting, language gets weird. I split my time between running a horse ranch and working in tech. Out here, “AI” has nothing to do with large language models. It means artificial insemination. “Stable” isn’t about software reliability, and if someone says “buggy,” we’re probably talking about something pulled by a gelding, not a bad release. Living in both spaces creates some moments, especially when I slip horse terms into tech convos or vice versa. But it’s also a fun reminder that context is everything; whether I'm trying to wrangle redheaded fillies or engineering backend systems. Here are ten words that mean very different things depending on whether I'm holding a lead rope or debugging a dashboard: AI • Horse World: Artificial Insemination • Tech World: Artificial Intelligence Branding • Horse World: A symbol burned into livestock • Tech World: A company’s identity (and yes, it *did* come from ranching) Lead • Horse World: A loping lead, the front leg in control • Tech World: To manage a team or initiative Bit • Horse World: A tool for communication, placed in the horse’s mouth • Tech World: The tiniest unit of data Hack • Horse World: A casual ride, just for fun • Tech World: A clever shortcut (or... a breach) Node • Horse World: A lump or bump, usually on a leg • Tech World: A connection point in a network Bitless • Horse World: Riding without a bit • Tech World: Uh... doesn’t compute (yet) Stable • Horse World: Shelter for your horses • Tech World: Code that won’t crash Release • Horse World: Removing pressure as a reward • Tech World: Launching a feature Buggy • Horse World: A lightweight cart • Tech World: A messy, glitchy app What words trip your brain when you’re not deep in tech? #horses #techlife #contextmatters #seo #engineeringhumor #ranchandrelease #womenintech #equineadjacent #workingranchlogic

1

Most folks light their ad budget on fire. And it's not ads ain't work... It's because they jump in with generic targeting + all kinds of stupid messages about how cool is their product. (like the potential customers care more about the product instead of their needs) So if you’re running ads (especially with a limited budget), better do this:

3

2 Comments

I'm pumped for this: Every tool in your tech stack just became a direct mail trigger. We just launched a new open API, and it's a big deal. Until now, true direct mail automation lived inside a handful of native integrations - Shopify, Klaviyo, and a number of others. Now it lives everywhere. If it can make an API call or trigger a webhook, it can fire a direct mail campaign through PostPilot. Braze-powered personalized offers on a postcard? Done. Punctuate a Gorgias CS interaction with a handwritten note? Easy. Customer pauses their Recharge subscription? Automatically trigger a win-back card before they're gone for good. Attentive. Iterable. That janky internal tool you vibe coded at 2am. Doesn't matter. Oh, and did I mention you only need an email address? Even if you don't have the physical mailing address, we've still got you covered with MailMatch. Your entire connected ecosystem can now power physical touchpoints, with the same real-time automation, A/B testing, incrementality measurement, and live ROI tracking we're known for. Connect all of your digital workflows directly to your customer's homes and hands. And it works. Really, really well.

27

7 Comments

I was looking for a domain. I got Rick from White Lotus... not what I ordered. I don't actually think this is Walton Goggins, but it kinda looks like him. GoDaddy's 404 page made me laugh AND re-emphasized: EVERY touchpoint is a brand touchpoint. and ESPECIALLY the moments that could lead to frustration. Disarming with laughter can make an otherwise stressful situation palatable. Unsubscribe pages are another great opportunity to inject humor and further your brand experience goals. If you only consider how your brand is experienced in the shopping moments, you're missing half the story. #branding #cx #marketingstrategy #copywriting #uxdesign

9

1 Comment

This happens all the time 🤣 My own story involves some font based icons and a developer adamant on using a sprite instead. The problem they perceived was that the font based isons was wasteful because we shipped 80% unused icons, whereas the sprite shipped only the icons we needed. But no matter how hard the Dev tried, the sprite would always be 2x or more in size, or compressed so heavily even the tiny icons were distorted and blurry. Then unknown to me, the Dev spent the next 3 weeks creating a script to build a stripped back font set, to saved a few KB (from a file that was barely 1mb to start) and gave excuses to the product manager on the real project work That day I learned 2 things that have stayed with me all my career; Project management need to be able to read commits, or the team structure must permit a reporting line where project outcomes sit with someone who can actually stay on top of what is being worked on (like a foreman came from the trades), because in tech, we love putting inexperienced people in middle management - that would never be allowed in any other profession The second thing I learned is stop trying to be the one convincing people, they either fail to learn from failures, or they are respectful and curious to learn from others. both are valid, I feel I was the learn from failures kind until I matured and sought mentors

1

🔥 Hot take: the bar for pre-sales effort is way lower than it should be. Met with 5 design + build Webflow agencies over the last week and... Only *one* came prepared. He'd seen my LI post mentioning the project (which every agency meeting I took was directly a result of), reviewed our sitemap, mapped out migration + unique config we need, included timeline + costs, and brought sharp specific questions. The result? On our very first call I felt that we had already started working together on the project 🧠 *Without having spent a dime btw Every other call felt like I had dropped out of the sky into their Zoom meeting. High-level questions, no prep, no specificity. Just... “So tell me about the project.” 🤨 I get that if you're absolutely flooded with inbound / certain size team, bandwidth for solid pre-work might not always be there. But to win deals in competitive categories, it needs to be. Not even mentioning how much of this work can be handled by integrating AI into your GTM stack. Booked meetings / demos shouldn't feel like a cold call. Come in hot 🔥 #sales

22

5 Comments