Media Captain Digital Marketing Podcast

This episode covers how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini describe your business (and how to fix it when they get it wrong), why every website needs an AI instructions page, Google’s new emphasis on effort and originality, why Yelp matters more for AI citations, and what happens when AI agents start calling your business on behalf of customers. If you own or market a local business, this e...

Today, we cover everything from upcoming SEO content strategies and the shifting landscape of social media platforms to a mind-blowing case study where deleting 200 blogs actually multiplied organic traffic! Stay tuned until the end to hear how AI tools like Gemini are transforming travel and ticket booking. Timestamps: 01:30 - Item 1: Building Content Pillars and Spoke Pages for SEO 04:17 - Item...

"You can't trick Google." That's the line this week, but plenty of business owners are trying anyway. One client quietly rolled out AI to auto-generate a blog post every single day. Jason and Stefanie explain why that's a fast track to getting your whole site flagged as AI slop, then dig into 10 more marketing moves you need to know about. Plus, an actual civil war has broken out inside the Media...

Claude just started adding invisible watermarks to everything it writes. LinkedIn just launched a tool that lets users flag AI slop the same way they'd report spam. Neither of those happened by accident, and the agencies still winning right now are the ones writing like actual humans instead of prompting like robots. A few small changes are making a real difference lately. A tighter LinkedIn profi...

In the premiere episode of our newly designed studio, we break down 11 crucial marketing insights, software shifts, and agency strategies that are driving results for our clients. From major updates in Google Ads to using conversational AI for technical SEO, we discuss what is working right now in the marketing landscape. Timestamps: 01:47 – Google Local Service Ads Merging into Google Ads 04:07 –...

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.