Digital advertising is a necessity for most modern businesses, and that usually means bidding for impressions on Google Ads. But as AI takes over the internet, will those impressions remain so impressive?

“Over 140 major brands are paying for ads that end up on unreliable AI-written sites, likely without their knowledge,” warns a new report from MIT Technology Review. These sites post as many as 1,200 articles in a single day, possibly with “AI-generated photos and bios of fake authors.”

A Google spokesperson responded that the company blocks such content farms, but it can be a game of whack-a-mole as “bad actors are always shifting their approach … to circumvent our policies and enforcement systems.”

While humans would still view your ads, an untrustworthy site could reflect poorly on your own trustworthiness. Business owners might want to check the placements report in their Google Ads console to be certain … or, uh, ask ChatGPT to do it for you.

Today’s Edition...

Think outside the bot: We built a business plan with AI. How’d it go?

Converted: Lessons from Google’s chief measurement strategist.

Video game history: Arcades of yore don’t belong in landfills.

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We Built a Business Plan With AI — So, How’d It Go?

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Business coaches and MBAs, beware: ChatGPT is coming for you – sorta.

We were curious about whether the AI chatbot could outthink a human entrepreneur, so we asked it to help us develop an online business plan from scratch. A few of ChatGPT’s ideas with “high potential to be lucrative” included e-commerce, online courses, affiliate marketing, and dropshipping.

We decided to go with dropshipping (The concept is similar to an e-commerce store, but you outsource product fulfillment to a third-party supplier that handles packaging and shipping.) With dropshipping, you don’t need to purchase or hold inventory, which makes it a great cheap business idea.

ChatGPT advised us to focus on a particular niche. After mulling several of its suggestions, we decided to move forward with the bohemian-style home decor option. It also helped us create a brand name, offering Bohemian Haven, Free Spirit Decor, Nomad Nest and Earthy Elegance as possibilities (who said robots weren’t creative?).

ChatGPT then drew up a list of specific suppliers for our would-be dropshipping empire, such as AliExpress and Oberlo. It advised us to promote “unique and creative” products unavailable in competing stores, as well as affordable prices, sustainability and items with cultural significance.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER:

With our million-dollar business concept in hand, the AI chatbot even guided us through creating a marketing plan, including writing our business’s mission statement and estimating an appropriate price range for our products. ChatGPT absolutely nailed our target market, identifying young adults, city dwellers, creative types, travelers and the eco-conscious as demographics most interested in bohemian home decor.

But how to actually get these people to discover our store? ChatGPT came up with a few actionable advertising steps, including leveraging social media marketing, influencer marketing and email marketing.

The one thing that ChatGPT couldn’t do was execute any of this. Its ideas were great starting points — and it saved us time on tasks such as brainstorming a catchy name for our venture. However, at the end of the day, the chatbot was basically an unpaid consultant … and we lacked the motivation to make Bohemian Haven (or Earthy Elegance, or whatever) a reality ourselves. Like human consultants, ChatGPT was happy to provide recommendations, but it wasn’t about to do any of the grunt work.

As it turns out, AI chatbots are more dreamers than doers. Perhaps consultants will be obsolete soon, but entrepreneurs are probably safe – for now, at least.

Read more about our experience using ChatGPT to develop a business.

Accurate and Fast Payroll Is a Must-Have for Employee Retention

You can be sloppy at work if the BBQ food truck is parked outside your office for lunchtime, or if it rains during a company hiking trip — but you can never be sloppy when it comes to payroll.

That’s because 1 in 6 employees say they would quit their job after a single inaccurate paycheck, and nearly 25% have received one, according to an Intuit survey. What’s more, employees at small businesses report they’re 14% less likely to always be paid on time. Payroll mistakes destroy morale and retention, and that’s before the potential tax penalties.

With QuickBooks Payroll , business owners can confidently make fast unlimited payroll runs and get automatic tax calculations on every paycheck in all 50 states. Employees can even access pay stubs and W-2s, and safely view PTO balances and withholding allowances online.

QuickBooks Payroll delivers big business benefits on a small business budget, and 24/7 callback support means you’ll get answers anytime — even if you’re standing in line for that BBQ food truck. Save 50% for three months when you buy now.

How Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist Converted Data Into Results

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When Neil Hoyne explains how to leverage hard data into fostering enduring customer relationships, we should all listen.

Straight from the mind of a Google exec who has honed digital marketing strategies for the world’s biggest companies, Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts, illuminates how data reveals who your customers are, what they want, and where you can find more just like them. Hoyne accomplishes this in a surprisingly breezy, witty, and casual 240 pages.

Critically, Hoyne deconstructs the notion of singular interactions that seek an immediate “yes,” and instead ushers consistent, ongoing interactions with customers that generate authentic, long-lasting repeat business. It’s an essential manual for thinking beyond the point-of-purchase moment and into a sustainable, relationship-driven future, all while teaching you to develop tool sets that do the heavy lifting.

Play Leisure Keeps Video Game History Alive — and Out of Landfills

(Source: Play Leisure)

Despite being the most dominant form of entertainment art on earth — eclipsing Hollywood’s worldwide revenues — gaming has a preservation problem.

While literature and film have the Library of Congress and the Academy Digital Preservation Forum (and on and on) to preserve them when they go out of print, hundreds to thousands of video games will simply become lost media, outside of legally gray fan preservation.

The England-based company Play Leisure is doing what it can to keep history alive, rescuing more than 1,000 vintage arcade cabinets — from classic hits to obscure titles — since 2019. Many of Play Leisure’s machines are meticulously restored, but never with reproduction parts; they opt for original authenticity wherever possible, even when the result is less polished-looking.

And they simply won’t sell certain delicate, 40- or 50-year-old devices to those not equipped to care for them. Owner Matthew Conridge tells The Guardian, “These machines are like classic cars: they are specialist pieces of equipment and need constant care.”

Buyers range from individual collectors to bar owners. Play Leisure isn’t a nonprofit, but they are bringing back long-discontinued machines full of memories, which otherwise would be doomed to decay. And that’s worth a whole lot more than a couple of quarters.

Ready to play on? Check out 4 marketing lessons from the video game industry.