Mandy George

Want to know why your store isn’t showing up in Google? I audited 50 illicit sites last week. Here’s what I found: 🔎 All of them have major Google visibility across Canada’s cities, big and small. TL;DR: They’ve invested in content and brand building that Google rewards. The average page count (not including product pages) was 368 pages. Many licensed retailers? Fewer than 15. Here are the 5 ways illicit sites build dominance: Local Content Pages Hundreds of hyper-local pages targeting every city, neighbourhood, and postal code. They build deep local geographic coverage, discussing cities and neighbourhoods in detail. Cannabis Education & Knowledge Blogs, comparisons, guides, FAQs. They create helpful content and answer customer questions before the sale. Brand Building & Marketing They show up all over the internet on Reddit, industry forums, lifestyle blogs, and guest posts. They’re part of the conversation across the web, not just on their site. Cannabis Products Menus and catalogues with unique product descriptions, optimized categories, and product-level SEO & CRO. They treat every product like an asset, not just a menu item. UX, Trust & Conversion Pages Ordering, policies, shipping/returns, and payment by interac e-transfer. They explain everything, so they appear reliable to both Google and customers, winning trust. Easy to use, mobile, fast, and convenient checkouts. The takeaway: Illicit sites don’t dominate because they’re “better.” They dominate because they’ve built systems around experience, content and brand building that Google trusts. The good news? Licensed retailers can use these exact same strategies and win with better experiences, compliance and legitimacy on their side. 👉 Want the playbook for how to apply this? I share it every week in Revolution Weekly.

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Google Analytics 4 setup mistake costing Canadian businesses millionsGA4's default attribution model is "data-driven" - but it needs 3,000+ conversions in 30 days to work properly. The problem: SMBs with <100 monthly conversions get random attribution that makes optimization impossible. The solution: Switch to "last-click" attribution in GA4 Admin → Data Display → Attribution Settings. Not perfect, but consistent.Why this matters: Your Google Ads "optimize for conversions" bidding relies on GA4 data. Wrong attribution = wrong bidding = wasted budget. Bonus insight: GA4's "Enhanced Conversions" feature requires server-side setup to work properly. Most "easy" implementations miss 30% of conversions due to ad blockers.

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Goodbye tl;dr. Hello mn;dr. 1:1 marketing is already here --- The format that dominated content marketing for a decade assumed you'd read it if the writer just made it short enough. Summarize faster, bullet harder, get to the point sooner. Same logic ran through software: ship features for the median user, let everyone else file a ticket and wait. I've been building context fabrics lately, and the pattern that keeps coming back is this: when something is genuinely built for you, length stops being the barrier and the feature request queue stops being your roadmap. Both problems dissolve at once. A lot of us have already been doing this for ourselves. Personalized briefings, custom workflows, AI outputs tuned to how we actually think and work. The infrastructure for 1:1 is here. It just hasn't been packaged yet. The next wave isn't better summarization or faster release cycles. It's the platform that makes personal-scale content and software possible at company scale. The tools are ready. The pattern is proven. That's what I'm thinking about building. #AI #Marketing #1to1marketing #ProductDevelopment #PersonalizedAI #DataStrategy

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A new Ipsos study found that adults 55+ report fewer encounters with online scams than younger Canadians. That’s encouraging. But it also shows we’re all vulnerable in different ways — especially as scammers begin using AI to sound more human and believable. For example: 📌 84% feel confident spotting phishing emails 📌 But only 57% say they’d know if a smart device was hacked 👉 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gnGGFxtu #OnlineSafety #AIAwareness #DigitalConfidence #ScamPrevention #SeniorSafetyWatch #CyberSecurity #DigitalLiteracy #CaregiverSupport

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How Canadian consumers search for tech in Google vs ChatGPT? We analyzed the same consumer technology search queries on Google and ChatGPT focusing on Canada. Key findings: 1) Google Loves Social Media, ChatGPT Doesn’t 2) ChatGPT is a Wikipedia Fan 3) Brands Appear in Both—But Differently Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/g-Vkk3AY Compared to US consumer searches, Canadians experience 10% less brand suggestions in Google search results. On contrast for ChatGPT results, Canadians experience 15% less suggestions from earned media.

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Canadian consumers are sending marketers a complex message: we want personalized experiences, but we're concerned about privacy. This creates a challenge, as well as an opportunity for marketers willing to embrace responsible AI implementation. Recent consumer research reveals that this trust paradox isn't a contradiction, it's an evolution. Canadian consumers have become sophisticated enough to engage in value exchanges when brands demonstrate transparency, deliver genuine benefits, and implement responsible data practices. Marketers must develop AI strategies that lead with value, explainability and opt-in consent models. This creates a massive opportunity for marketers who can leverage AI to meet these elevated expectations while building meaningful trust. To resolve the personalization-privacy paradox, our playbook leans on findings from the CMA's 2025 Consumer Privacy Report. This resource reveals why 87% of Canadians are bothered by irrelevant marketing, provides transparent AI implementation strategies, and delivers actionable frameworks for building the trust-driven personalization that converts privacy-conscious consumers into loyal customers. Download here (no login required): https://lnkd.in/erD-7Ke9 #AI #AIInMarketing #ResponsibleAI #AIGovernance #Marketing #CanadianMarketing #Privacy

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I’ve been diving deep into the search patterns across Ontario (via Google Trends & Google Ads keyword planner), and the data is telling a fascinating story for local businesses and digital marketers. While national brands are burning budgets fighting over expensive broad keywords, there is a massive "sweet spot" happening right in our backyard. Here are the specific patterns I’m seeing: 📍 The Local Surge: It isn’t just general growth; it’s hyper-local. Search interest for "Flower delivery Kitchener" is currently in a Breakout phase (5,000%+ growth). Nearby, Cambridge has spiked 2,200%, and St. Catharines is up a staggering 4,300%. We’re even seeing high-growth niches like "weed delivery Kitchener" climbing 1,300% in the last 30 days. 💰 The Efficiency Gap: The cost of "broad" intent is punishing. A top-of-page bid for "same day flower delivery" hits $12.77, yet the high-volume "florist near me" (which pulls 50,000 monthly searches!) sits at just $3.77. That is a 70% discount for a customer that is arguably further down the purchase funnel. 💐 The Valentine’s Effect: We are in the middle of a massive spike in intent, but the winners aren't just those with the biggest budgets; they are the ones winning the "Near Me" game. Localized SEO is currently outperforming national ad spend in terms of pure ROI. The takeaway? Don't try to outspend the giants on broad terms. Out-smart them by capturing localized intent where the competition is lower and the volume is surging. Are you seeing similar shifts in your industry's local search? Let’s talk about it in the comments. 👇 Sources: https://lnkd.in/daTfdJgb https://lnkd.in/dMgJfstw #OntarioBusiness #KWC #DataStrategy #DigitalMarketing #SEO #LocalBusiness #WaterlooRegion

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Kantar North America Monthly Trends Report - November 2025: Our exclusive, bite-sized collection of data and insights for marketing leaders. Trend 4: Canadian Brand Patriotism Surge 🍁 https://loom.ly/kT-O6xA Loyalty and purchasing of Canadian brands were growing strongly even before the jump in boosterism precipitated by U.S. tariffs. The opportunity for brands is clear: country-of-origin has become much more persuasive for consideration and buying, creating powerful positioning advantages for Canadian brands. The brands winning today aren't downplaying their Canadian heritage, they're amplifying it as a key differentiator. Learn more about leveraging national identity as a competitive advantage and building effective origin-based strategies: https://loom.ly/kT-O6xA

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Personalization isn’t about channels or platforms. It’s about giving customers what they actually want. In this episode of Here’s the Deal, Daniella Harkins shares the marketer’s checklist for data activation, from unifying your data to optimizing campaigns in real time.

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⚙️ Programmatic in 2025: Built Local. Ready for National. At Breathe Digital I design campaigns so small and mid-sized brands can act like national players. And the truth is simple: if it performs in Thunder Bay, it scales anywhere. What I run today (and can scale tomorrow): 1) Follow the viewer CTV for attention, Search for capture, Remarketing to finish. Creative and timing move together so awareness turns into demand. 2) Match inventory to behavior CTV pause units, premium news, high-quality display, native. Deals are packaged to fit the audience, then validated in GA4 with assisted conversions. 3) Buy as one plan Radio and TV working alongside programmatic and search. Windows and frequency aligned so the plan behaves like a single system. 4) Adapt on site and in creative Landing content and chat flows change by source (CTV vs search vs news). Refreshes happen when fatigue and frequency say so — not when the calendar does. 5) Keep control Brand safety rules, diversified spend, independent measurement. Automation helps; accountability wins. 6) Build with first-party data Consented pixels, server-side tagging, privacy-safe audience joins. Performance and trust on the same page. 7) Report to drive the next month Dashboards that answer “what changed and why”: • CTV to Search lift and time-lag • Frequency vs CPA by stage • Creative fatigue alerts before results slide I turn this into one-pagers and talk tracks so sales can carry the story. Local ➝ National, practically speaking • Swap geo sets and inventory tiers (regional CTV, national news, market clusters) • Keep the same playbook: audiences, pacing, creative logic, attribution • Add scale, not complexity If you want a plan that proves itself locally and holds up nationally, this is the framework I bring to the table. Which lever would you scale first — CTV, audience, or reporting? #Programmatic #CTV #MarketingAnalytics #DigitalStrategy #StackAdapt #illumin #GoogleAds #GA4 #LookerStudio #MediaPlanning #LocalToNational #BreatheDigital

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Your local business ad spend for 2026 needs precision, not guesswork. AI-driven optimization shifts how businesses in Edmonton and beyond approach their marketing budgets. 1. It analyzes vast amounts of data in real-time, identifying the best performing ad placements and audiences. This means your budget goes to campaigns with the highest potential return. 2. AI automatically adjusts bids and creative elements based on performance. You get continuous improvement without constant manual oversight. 3. The result? Measurable efficiency and significantly better outcomes for every dollar invested. Save hours weekly and see clearer results. Ready to rethink your marketing budget strategy this spring? #AIPrecisionMarketing #DigitalMarketingAB #BusinessGrowth #MarketingStrategy

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AI promises faster, smarter government — but Canadians remain skeptical. Ipsos research shows low trust in AI, with fears over fairness and accountability. Citizens want seamless digital services, but with human checks and balances. Read more: https://lnkd.in/geKNikGy Paul Acerbi

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Marketing data should guide decisions. Often, it creates confusion instead. Numbers look promising. Results feel inconsistent. Teams debate which metrics to trust. This usually happens when data lives in too many places or lacks context. In Saskatchewan, businesses making confident marketing decisions take time to examine: • How data is collected across channels • Which metrics actually reflect performance • Where attribution breaks down • Whether insights are clear or misleading Better decisions don’t come from more data. They come from cleaner, more reliable signals. If you’re planning your next marketing move and want confidence in the numbers guiding it, our Free 3-Day Business Audit offers practical insight without pressure. https://lnkd.in/gU-btmdS

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CANSIM (aka 'NDM') is Canada's socio-economic data repository. Basically FRED + BLS + Census Bureau and everything else assembled into a gigantic data cube. There are something like 60k+ tables. StatCan covers a handful at a time in The Daily, but it's impossible to document every update and release across all these series. But what if the marginal cost of coverage was (nearly) zero? The D-AI-LY is an autonomous harness that trawls CANSIM, checking for recently updated or otherwise neglected data series and generates statistical bulletins with visualizations, metadata, and reproducible code (in English and French). As with everyone's holiday projects, it was built with Claude Code, but specifically I wanted to learn how to build custom `SKILL md` files and how to be more deliberate and thoughtful with data provenance and tracking to reduce data errors and hallucination. There are three detailed custom skills that guide data retrieval, generation, and publishing. Skills are an improvement on prompting because they allow you to essentially deeply fine-tune instructions with guided examples without needing to explicitly put that detail into a prompt -- and because of their progressive disclosure, they save context space until the skill is directly invoked by Claude. This allows you to get very specific in your instructions, which is crucial for a system that generates hundreds of articles in a consistent and deliberate visual and narrative style. The most interesting challenge was overcoming persistent and insidious data errors and hallucinations. My approach was to simultaneously layer: 1. SKILL files to carefully fine tune instructions, expectations, skepticism and reasoning 2. Giving CC access to and forcing reliance on specialized tools like the cansim R package 3. Over-engineered data provenance tracking to trace each data point While obviously a toy system, overall I'm pretty happy with the result and it was easy to generate hundreds of these bulletins at scale. Moreover, it's clear to me that SKILLS are the next big thing everyone will get hyped over. SKILLS allow for externalization and commodification of nuanced expertise and I assume we'll start to see some kind of marketplace economy develop around them soon. I wrote up a post describing the SKILLS setup in a lot more detail and another one about the challenge of fighting fake data. Links in comment below. Please let me know what you think!

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Media impressions do matter. They help tell an impact story about reach, presence, and share of voice. But they can’t tell you whether the campaign drove any actual business results. Cassandra Spudic, Senior Manager of Client Leadership in Canada, explains why sales data needs to be the true north for tracking retail media performance. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gcFK3dKP #retailmedia #salesdata #measurement

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