Marketing forecast fundamentals every growth team needs A marketing forecast estimates future marketing results, such as leads, pipeline, and revenue, using historical data and conversion assumptions. Marketing forecasting connects planned activity to expected outcomes, helping teams understand what performance is likely to look like before campaigns are executed. This approach supports clearer planning, more predictable growth, and stronger alignment between marketing inputs and revenue targets. Growth-focused teams operate in an environment shaped by AI-driven discovery, fragmented data systems, and increasing pressure to prove impact across the funnel. Marketing forecasts provide a structured way to navigate this complexity by translating data into forward-looking decisions. This article explains how marketing forecasting works, the methods used to build accurate models, and the factors that improve reliability over time, enabling more consistent and measurable outcomes. Table of Contents What is a marketing forecast? Why does a marketing forecast matter for growth teams? Marketing Forecast vs. Sales Forecast: What is the difference? What components are required for an accurate marketing forecast? What are the main marketing forecasting methods? How do you build a marketing forecast step by step? How can you improve marketing forecast accuracy? How Digital Marketing Forecasting Applies Across Channels How HubSpot Enables Marketing Forecasting at Scale Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Forecasts What is a marketing forecast? A marketing forecast is a structured estimate of future marketing performance based on historical data, conversion rates, and planned activities. It projects...

Zero-click searches and the future of your marketing funnel Search results used to be a doorway. You ranked, someone clicked, and they landed on your site. But today, that model is eroding faster than most marketing teams are equipped to move. Bain & Company research found that about 80% of consumers now rely on “zero-click” results in at least 40% of their searches. For some businesses, this means more impressions, but across the board, it’s reducing organic web traffic by an estimated 15% to 25%. What does this mean for your team and how it measures and achieves success? This guide breaks it all down, including what zero-click searches are, why they matter, and how to turn zero-click visibility into conversions using answer engine optimization (AEO). Table of Contents TLDR Executive Summary What are zero-click searches? How Zero-Click Disrupts the Marketing Funnel How to Adapt SEO in a Zero-Click World When to Pursue or Avoid Zero-Click Keywords How to Measure Zero-Click Impact Zero-Click Searches Playbook by Funnel Stage FAQs About Zero-Click Searches AEO is SEO Evolved TLDR Executive Summary Zero-click searches occur when a user gets their answer on the search results page through an AI overview or other rich results, without clicking on a website. AI Overviews increase the likelihood of zero-click behavior for informational queries, while featured snippets satisfy simple question intent directly on the SERP, and People Also Ask (PAA) boxes expand answer paths without...

Is AI Killing Web Traffic? How AI Overviews Impact Organic Website Traffic Every few years, marketing headlines announce the demise of one foundational strategy or another. First, email; then blogging; then search engines. Now, with the rise of AI comes the question, “Is AI killing web traffic?” — But the curiosity is actually warranted. As of December 2025, AI Overviews chop organic click-through rate (CTR) for position-one content by an average of 58%, and that's no coincidence. We’re in the middle of a huge shift in how search engines surface information, and it’s rewriting the rules for marketers and content teams across every industry. One, Google's AI Overviews are answering queries directly on the results page, intercepting searches that previously drove clicks to websites. And two, a growing portion of searchers are skipping Google entirely and turning to AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers. Both trends slice the traffic search engines send to your site, but it’s not gone entirely. I've spent the last year navigating the ebbs and flows of traffic with HubSpot, and fine tuning to balance AI behavior and website traffic expectations. Here’s what you need to know. Table of Contents TLDR: Executive Summary What AI Overviews Change on the SERP How to Measure AI Overviews' Impact on Your Traffic Is AI Killing Web Traffic More for Certain Queries? FAQs About AI Overviews and Web Traffic Website Traffic is Reincarnating TLDR: Executive Summary AI Overviews change how...

Page Authority: How to Build Pages That Rank When I first started working in content and weaving SEO into my strategy, I treated Page Authority like a report card: the higher the score, the better I was doing. It took a few humbling ranking losses to a competitor with a lower PA score to make me reconsider. Turns out, Page Authority is more of a compass than a finish line. In this post, I‘m breaking down what it actually is, how it’s calculated, what a good score looks like, and what you can do to improve it — so you can use it to guide your strategy, not just grade it. Table of Contents What Is Page Authority? Is Page Authority a Google Ranking Factor? Page Authority vs Domain Authority vs PageRank What Is a Good Page Authority Score? How to Check Page Authority How to Increase Page Authority Without Gaming the System Frequently Asked Questions About Page Authority What Is Page Authority? Page Authority (PA) is a third-party metric created by Moz that estimates the relative ranking potential of a specific webpage on a 0-100 scale. A higher score suggests the page is more likely to rank competitively in search engine results pages (SERPs). Source PA is scored on a 0-100 logarithmic scale, which means improvements become progressively harder to achieve the higher the score climbs. Moving a page from a PA of 20 to 30 takes...

Brand optimization: What it is and why your AI visibility depends on it Consistency is key to achieving any goal. Want to learn to play the piano? Practice consistently. Trying to get in shape for a sibling's wedding? Exercise and eat healthily consistently. Want your brand to be seen and positioned as the premier choice in its industry by both your target audience and AI? Enter brand optimization. While the phrase may sound new and exciting, brand optimization has been around for years. It’s all about brand consistency, a topic I first wrote about in my second-ever blog article back in 2013. However, though the idea is age-old, the strategies and tactics we use to optimize a brand have evolved. In this article, we’ll dive into what brand optimization is, how you know when you need it, how it differs from a rebrand, and more. Table of Contents TLDR Executive Summary What is brand optimization? Brand optimization vs. digital marketing optimization Do you need brand optimization? How to Optimize Your Brand: Brand Optimization Checklist and Strategy How to Measure Success from Brand Optimization Frequently asked questions about brand optimization Stay optimized. Stay relevant.   TLDR Executive Summary Brand optimization is an ongoing practice to improve positioning, messaging, and customer experience across channels and teams. It differs from rebranding by focusing on small, iterative improvements instead of a full identity reset. Brand optimization is usually triggered by events that hurt brand...

AI content optimization: How to get found in Google and AI search in 2026 I've spent most of the last 10 years writing, managing, and improving content to reach internet audiences. But even for an ol' marketer like me, AI content optimization was hard at first. Thankfully, I’ve done a lot of the work, so it doesn't have to be for you. AI content optimization is the practice of structuring and improving online content so it performs well and gets seen in traditional search, AI-generated answer summaries, and the LLMs that synthesize answers for millions of people every day. Google ranks aren’t the end-all, be-all anymore. Let’s explore what AI content optimization is, why it matters, and the best practices every marketer should know, and more. Table of Contents What is AI content optimization? Why AI content optimization matters for growth How to do AI content optimization: AI content optimization techniques AI SEO Optimization Checklist Best AI Content Optimization Tools Frequently Asked Questions About AI Content Optimization Optimize for the future TLDR Executive Summary AI content optimization improves content performance across search engines and AI answer engines. In other words, AI search optimization includes both AEO and GEO tactics. While traditional SEO focuses on ranking signals like relevance, crawlability, and on-page optimization, answer engine optimization (AEO) optimizes on-page answers for extraction in AI summaries and Q&A results, and generative engine optimization (GEO) optimizes content strategy to increase citations and inclusion...

ChatGPT Product Recommendations: How to Make Sure You Are One in 2026 Whether I’m looking for a new car, email marketing software, or pair of shoes, sometimes I wish I had a personal shopper — Someone to share a second opinion, make suggestions when I’m indecisive, and help find the best deal. In recent years, ChatGPT product recommendations and its Shopping Research feature have become this for many. Increasingly, shoppers are skipping search engines and going straight to ChatGPT with queries like “best CRM for startups under 50 people” or “what are the best gifts for chai lovers?” In fact, according to G2’s 2025 Buyer Behavior Report, generative AI chatbots are now the #1 influence over vendor shortlists, ahead of review sites, vendor websites, and salespeople. That’s a huge shift in how people shop, and marketers and ecommerce teams need to adapt if they want to stay visible. This guide breaks down exactly how ChatGPT decides which products to surface — and, more importantly, what you can do today to be one of them. Table of Contents What’s Changed in ChatGPT Shopping for Businesses? Why ChatGPT Product Discovery Matters for B2B and SaaS How ChatGPT Product Recommendations Work How to Help ChatGPT Discover Your Products FAQs About ChatGPT Product Recommendations Structure for ChatGPT Shopping Success What’s Changed in ChatGPT Shopping for Businesses? In a 2025 survey of 1,000+ B2B software buyers by G2, half of the respondents said they now start...

What We're Building with Starter Story   We have some big news: HubSpot Media is acquiring Starter Story, one of the most trusted and beloved media brands in the entrepreneurship space. If you've spent any time in the world of bootstrapped businesses, online startups, or the indie founder community, you already know what Starter Story is. But if this is your first introduction, buckle up, because this brand has a story worth telling. Table of Contents What Is Starter Story? Why HubSpot Media Acquired It HubSpot Media: A Track Record Worth Talking About A Note on Why This Matters What Is Starter Story? Back in 2017, a software engineer named Pat Walls was burning the candle at both ends. His first startup had just failed to get into Y Combinator. He was spending his days at work and his nights trying to build something that would stick—a story most entrepreneurs know all too well. Refusing to give up entrepreneurship, Pat started a side project — something low-cost, scrappy, and built from genuine curiosity. He wanted to know how real founders actually built their businesses from the ground up. So he started calling them up and asking. He built the first version of Starter Story from a Starbucks, posting his early founder interviews to Reddit and Hacker News to see what would happen. People loved it. He kept going. By October 2017, Starter Story was live, and it grew from there in...

Profound vs Scrunch AI for AEO: Which tool delivers better ROI? As businesses adjust to the new AEO landscape, marketers are seeing increasing convergence with marketing automation—HubSpot's recent acquisition of Xfunnel signals this shift, bringing AI search optimization directly into the CRM ecosystem where attribution and revenue tracking happen. As a result, Marketers need the right AEO tools to reach their audience, who are flocking to AI search engines in droves. Two platforms gaining traction are Profound and Scrunch for AEO. Both platforms boast useful tools meant to boost discoverability and reach, but which between the two is best for your business? Keep reading for a breakdown of Profound vs Scrunch for AEO and to see which would work best for you. Table of Contents What is Profound? What is Scrunch? Profound vs Scrunch for AEO: Comparison at a glance Profound vs Scrunch compared Which should you choose for AEO: Profound or Scrunch? Frequently Asked Questions about Profound vs Scrunch for AEO What is Profound? Profound is an enterprise-grade Answer Engine Optimization platform that helps brands boost discoverability across AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews Profound combines comprehensive monitoring across 9+ AI engines with powerful content creation tools called Agents that enable teams to produce AI-optimized content at scale. My research shows Profound is particularly known for its Prompt Volumes feature—the first tool to reveal actual search volume data for AI conversations—and its specialized ChatGPT...

8 generative engine optimization best practices your strategy needs Despite what the headlines would have you believe, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t new. The term and early technology date back to the 1950s, but generative AI (which emerged in the 2010s) is undeniably new terrain. With both leaving their mark on consumer search behavior, marketing strategies like generative engine optimization (GEO) are not just becoming popular but essential. But that doesn’t mean generative trauma ensues. Let’s unpack how your business and marketing team can navigate the changes, unknowns, and competition with generative AI SEO best practices. Table of Contents What is Generative Engine Optimization? Why generative engine optimization matters now Generative engine optimization best practices you can implement today Common generative engine optimization pitfalls to avoid Frequently asked questions about generative engine optimization best practices Generating Generative Success What is generative engine optimization? Generative engine optimization (GEO) is about making your website and content easy for AI-powered search tools (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) to find, understand, and cite. When someone asks one of these tools a question, the AI systems scan content across the web to create an answer. It doesn’t give you a list of resources that could be helpful, like search engine optimization, but it aims to directly answer your question while citing websites it thinks are reliable. GEO helps your content get chosen as one of those lucky resources. TLDR: SEO gets you on the party guest list (SERP)....