The Best of SparkToro
10+ most popular SparkToro articles, as voted by our community.
We're an audience research tool that helps you discover people's sources of influence: who+what they follow, visit, read, watch, & listen-to.
SparkToro on Content Marketing
AI-Generated Content is the New Floor
Anyone can make it. Most of it is at least OK. Some of it's pretty good. A few folks are already sharpening their skills at prompting AIs to generate
Your New KPIs to Gauge Content Quality
Rand hates the phrase “high-quality content.” Quality is entirely subjective. And because it’s subjective, it’s impossible to measure, let alone find
SparkToro on Creator Economy
SparkToro’s Year 2 Retrospective: Can Chill Work, Alternative Funding, and an Indie Approach Scale?
Two years ago today, at the nerve-wracking start of a global pandemic, we launched SparkToro. Since then, we've learned a lot, and uncovered plenty of
The Incentives to Publish No Longer Reward the Web’s Creators
It's been almost two months since my last post here. For those of you who pay attention to the digital marketing world, the infrequency of updates may be
SparkToro on Google
Less than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click
We've passed a milestone in Google's evolution from search engine to walled-garden. In June of 2019, for the first time, a majority of all browser-based
In 2020, Two Thirds of Google Searches Ended Without a Click
In August of 2019, I published research from now-defunct clickstream data provider, Jumpshot, showing that 50.33% of all Google searches ended without a
SparkToro on Marketing
Provable Marketing Attribution is a Boondoggle; Trust Your Gut Instead
You've heard the marketing analytics spiel before. It goes something like: Marketing journeys are long, complicated, multi-channel paths. Tracking them is
8 Counterintuitive Marketing Strategies That Actually Work
Cold outreach is typically seen as a numbers game: hit as many inboxes as you can, assuming 5% or fewer will convert. But I’ve never agreed with that
SparkToro on Personas
You Don’t Need a Buyer Persona. You Need Multiple Audience Personas.
I have a bone to pick with buyer personas, but it’s only because I like them (in contrast to Rand who doesn’t like them; yes, we can disagree). My
SparkToro on Public Relations
How to Measure “Hard-to-Measure” Marketing Channels
I've ranted endlessly about how marketing leaders refuse to invest in hard-to-measure marketing channels like PR, media, native social, events, many types
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Zero-Click Content: The Counterintuitive Way to Succeed in a Platform-Native World
It could be a chicken or egg situation: Maybe the platforms have made us lazy, or we’ve trained their algorithms to reward platform-native content — as
SparkToro & Followerwonk Joint Twitter Analysis: 19.42% of Active Accounts Are Fake or Spam
TL;DR - From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of 44,058 public Twitter accounts active in the last 90
Google, Apple, and Amazon Stifle Innovation When They Favor Their Own Products
The SparkToro team got an exciting surprise on Sunday evening: a mention of our research on Last Week Tonight by John Oliver. The full episode, Big Tech
Marketing Right Now Is #$%*ing Hard.
Over the last couple weeks, I've talked to dozens of startup founders, small business owners, and web marketers of all kinds. Folks are scared, and
Where Should You Start Marketing a New Business or Product?
There's no question I get more when presenting on startup marketing than this: "I feel so overwhelmed... Where do I even start?" It's a fair response, one
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SparkToro on Social Media Marketing
How to Invest in Episodic Content that Promotes Itself
I've long been bullish on episodic content; in fact, I think it's likely the best kind of long-term content investment most online brands can make. The
Why Marketers Should Follow Their Audiences, Not Predict the Future
It's 2017, and you convince your executives to be early adopters of the #Web3 trend. Blockchain-based product investments, marketing with NFTs, perhaps