Media Captain Digital Marketing Podcast

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 matter...

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...

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 mar...

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% t...

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...

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 ]. Traffic at retail stores on Black Friday dropped 28.3% compared with 2019 levels [ source ]. I ran a poll asking whether people shopped at a physical retailer after Thanksgiving and whether people made a purchase online after Thanks...

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:  Google is changing the name of Google My Business to Google Business Profile. In order to understand SEO, you need to understand what Google likes and dislikes. Broad Match Keyword Bidding can lower your cost per click and drive higher quality traffic to your site.  If you have low quality content (duplicate and thin content) on your site,...

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 .  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.  Spanx was acquired this past week for a r...

What are heading tags and why are they so important for SEO?  Google announced that mobile users will now have continuous scroll in search results.  We're proud of the new moss wall art we had installed in our conference room! When it comes to your social media strategy, stories add a great personal touch.  If you’re looking to garner more reviews for your local business, I recommend looking into...

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 ]. Despite Google being the dominant search engine, Bing can still perform very well.  1) TikTok, 2) YouTube, 3) Instagram, 4) Snapchat, 5) Facebook are th...

Toast had its initial public offering this week that could value the restaurant-tech company at more than $16 billion [ source ]. Toast is a point of sale software for restaurants.  Aftership is a software company we recently started utilizing for DermWarehouse . This helps us track and gather information between when we ship products and when they are delivered.  DermWarehouse is starting a subsc...

Amazon is likely the front-runner for NFL Sunday Ticket [ source ]. The NFL may ask for up to $2.5 billion per year for the package, a source said. I expect to see more of the major technology/digital companies (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter and Netflix) snag the rights to major sporting leagues. It’ll be tough for traditional media outlets to compete with the deep pockets of technology...

Google announced it will be killing expanded text ads, starting June 30, 2022 [ learn more ]. They will only serve responsive search ads moving forward. According to Google, responsive search ads see a 7% higher conversion rate than standard search ads. We’ve moved a lot of our clients towards responsive search. Intuit (parent company of QuickBooks) is in talks to buy MailChimp for an estimated $1...

Stefanie and Jason discuss DermWarehouse moving into their new warehouse space. This is the perfect podcast for any aspiring business owner or entrepreneur looking to move offices. They discuss every step of the move process, which includes the purchase of the property, renovations, and the big move. 

Jason and Stefanie talk about they take an idea and turn it into an actual business. For The Media Captain, DermWarehouse and Park Perfection, before being an established business with a solid customer base, they were just ideas. How did Jason and Stef take their ideas and make the necessary implementations to start a business and then grow it? They will do a deep dive in episode 50 on this very s...

Stefanie takes on episode 49 solo and goes into detail on what happens on Black Friday/Cyber Monday for DermWarehouse. How does an eCommerce company prepare for the busiest time of the year? Stef goes into detail on marketing preparation. From choosing a discount to planning out email marketing and text messaging campaigns. Stef also talks about how inventory is managed. Many people outside of the...

Jason and Stefanie started The Media Captain together in 2010. They were partners and growing the business for approximately three years. Then came the date when Stef realized agency life wasn't for her. In podcast episode 48, Stefanie reveals what led to this decision to leave The Media Captain and how because of this decision, DermWarehouse was formed. For anyone in a small, family run business,...

Jason Parks talks about the importance of writing when it comes to digital marketing. During episode 47, Jason hits on the following areas where writing can help improve your online presence.  Improve SEO with better written content throughout your site  Drive more long tail search queries through well written blogs  Garner more social media engagement by writing compelling copy and content  We ar...

Jason discusses what goes through his mind during his first call with a prospective client. From gathering preliminary information to devising a strategy, this is a conversation in coming up with a plan of action.  

Tom Walters is the President/Co-Founder of Noxgear , an eCommerce company that creates obsessively engineered active-lifestyle products for runner's, cyclists, and those with pets to keep them safer and enhance their experience. Jason and Stefanie run daily. It' s a part of their morning routine . They recently purchased Noxgear and came to love the product. Jason and Stef reached out to Tom to ge...

Prior to episode 44, Jason and Stefanie wrote down 5 questions each they wanted to ask each other pertaining to The Media Captain and DermWarehouse. Neither Jason nor Stefanie saw the questions prior to them being asked. Hear what the brother and sister due had to say about business, routine, digital marketing, work ethic, hiring and much more! 

In episode 43, Jason and Stefanie hit on everything and anything Google Shopping.  What differentiates Google Shopping from PPC and other marketing channels. The value of Search Terms within Google Shopping How DermWarehouse leverages Google Shopping  How ParkPerfection leverages Google Shopping  Understanding your Google Shopping Feed  Cleaning up your Google Shopping Feed  Critical thinking need...

Aaron Rubin, the Founder and CEO at ShipHero is our guest for episode 42. ShipHero offers Flexible fulfillment & software built for ecommerce. They work with eCommerce companies like DressBarn and the Dallas Mavericks. During episode 42, Aaron talked about how he got into the eCommerce space with his martial arts company,  Zengu . He also discusses how the idea for ShipHero came about, the fut...

In episode 40, we talked about driving traffic to your website. A lot of what we hit on was paid ads (Google/Bing and FB/Instagram). In Podcast Episode 41, we’re going to talk about how to make sure your advertising copy is great. Jason and Stefanie discuss how important advertising copy is and how it's helped both of their companies, The Media Captain and DermWarehouse. We first dive into the fou...