Smart Marketer
E-commerce marketing blog offering proven strategies in digital advertising, email marketing, and store optimization. Led by Ezra Firestone (who built multiple 7–8 figure brands), it shares tips and training based on real-world results – from Facebook ad tactics to conversion best practices
How to Get Your Brand Recommended by AI: AEO with Julian Lopez
In this episode, Anthony hosts Julian Lopez, a leading expert on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), to explain how brands can surface as recommended solutions within AI-driven answer engines and generative search experiences. Julian outlines the shift from traditional SEO awareness to relevance in AI answers, emphasizing that while SEO still underpins indexing, the real battle is getting your content cited by AI models. He shares a three‑point framework—maintaining solid SEO fundamentals, treating your site as a data source for AI, and focusing on citation placement—to help marketers adapt to the black‑box nature of AI search. The discussion also touches on the broader AI ecosystem, future interfaces like wearables, and practical steps marketers can take today to stay visible as AI becomes the default discovery tool.
The Paid Ads Machine: Creative Systems That Scale in the Age of AI
In this episode, Anthony hosts Ben Bennett, Director of Creative, and Melvin Cotton III, Creative Operations Manager, to reveal their "Paid Ads Machine"—a systematic approach to planning, producing, and analyzing ad creative in the era of Meta’s AI engine, Andromeda....
How One Brand Made TikTok Shop Their #1 Sales Channel in 6 Months
Clean‑eez, a family‑owned cleaning products brand, turned TikTok Shop into its top sales channel in six months, delivering a 180× revenue surge and capturing 53% of its Shopify earnings. The growth was driven by 600+ affiliate creators, 8,099 new customers,...
How to Use AI to Write Better Meta Ad Copy Without Losing the Human Touch
In this episode, SmartMarketer’s senior paid performance specialist Dominique Noble walks listeners through a repeatable, AI‑driven process for crafting Meta ad copy that retains human insight and brand voice. She emphasizes three core rules: feed AI detailed brand context, be...
She Accidentally Built a 7-Figure Info Business. Here’s What Ecom Brands Can Learn From Her.
Alison, a bilingual kindergarten teacher, turned her self‑made curriculum into a seven‑figure info business, Learning at the Primary Pond, by leveraging Teachers Pay Teachers, a blog, social media and a membership that now accounts for roughly half of revenue. She...
Scaling to $300M+: Paid Media, Attribution & Building Teams That Win
In this live mentor‑table session, Smart Marketer CEO Molly Pittman chats with serial entrepreneur Rob Schmidt, whose two telemedicine brands—Winona and Willow—are on track to generate over $300 million annually with roughly $300 K spent daily on paid media. Schmidt breaks down...
He Moved Into a Trailer, Then Built a $300M Company. Here’s What Rob Schmidt Learned Along the Way.
Rob Schmidt went from living in a trailer and juggling debt to co‑founding two telemedicine brands that now project $300 million in annual revenue. A six‑month self‑imposed study sprint gave him the marketing foundation that sparked a venture studio, leading to...
The Video Ad Playbook That Wins on Axon (and Everywhere Right Now)
Brands that treat video as an afterthought risk poor performance, especially on Axon where users are immersed in games and give uninterrupted attention. The article argues that the video itself is now the campaign, recommending a Problem‑Agitation‑Solution framework combined with...
Meta Ads Q&A: Creative, Budgets, and What’s Actually Working Right Now
In this live Q&A, Smart Marketer CEO Molly Pittman and Advertising Director Dennis Paskalev field real‑world questions about Meta advertising, covering creative volume, budget sizing, campaign structure, and what tactics are delivering results today. They emphasize that small businesses can...
Axon Ads – How to Diversify Beyond Meta and Find New Customers
In this episode, Anthony and guests Molly Pittman and agency CEO Pep Hoeven explore Axon (AppLovin) ads as a strategic alternative to Meta for diversifying paid traffic. They explain how Axon’s gaming‑based ad network reaches 150 million U.S. daily users—skewing toward...
The One Creative Metric That Changes How You Test Ads
Recent analysis of 572 ads spending over $1 million reveals that the majority of new creative never receives enough budget to be evaluated. While 66.8% of fresh ads get less than $100 spend, only 10.7% break the $1,000 threshold needed for...
Meta Ads Q&A – What’s Actually Working in 2026
In this episode, Smart Marketer’s Molly Pittman and Director of Advertising Denis Paskalev field live questions about what’s actually working with Meta Ads in 2026, covering campaign structure, creative testing, and scaling strategies for various business types. They emphasize that...
The New Andromeda Playbook: The State of Meta Ads
In this episode, SmartMarketer CEO Molly Pittman breaks down Meta’s new AI‑driven system, Andromeda, and explains how it has reshaped ad delivery and scaling in 2026. She debunks the myth that Meta ads are broken, outlines the high‑level framework her...
The Merchandising Calendar Blueprint: Turn Email & SMS Into 30–40% of Your Revenue
In this training episode, Ezra Firestone explains how e‑commerce brands can turn email and SMS into 30‑40% of total revenue by implementing a strategic merchandising calendar. He differentiates major campaigns from micro‑offers, shows how to layer content, product launches, and...
The Next Big Ad Platform? How AppLovin Is Quietly Scaling eCommerce Brands
In this episode, Pep Hufen, CEO of Smart Marketer Agency, breaks down AppLovin’s Axon Ads platform, a mobile gaming network now open to eCommerce that boasts over a billion daily users, primarily women in their 30s‑40s. He explains how Axon’s...