The Digital Marketing Podcast by Exposure Ninja

Tim Cameron-Kitchen
  • 4.9 (30)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Learn powerful and profitable high-ROI marketing tips from Tim Cameron-Kitchen, founder of the relentlessly high-impact digital marketing agency, Exposure Ninja. Visit https://exposureninja.com/podcast for show notes and links.

  1. 1d ago

    COPY Vanguard’s 6M+ Organic Traffic Strategy

    Vanguard manages over $10 trillion in assets, but their dominance in search and AI visibility isn't just because of their size. Most big brands their size are leaving millions of visits on the table. Vanguard isn't. This video breaks down the Vanguard digital marketing strategy behind 6.2 million monthly organic visitors, an AI visibility score of 85/100, and 74,500 AI mentions, and the lessons any marketer can steal from it. Here's what I cover: Why Vanguard built their entire website around customer goals, not products, and why that single shift is the foundation of everything else they're doingThe topic cluster content strategy generating 6.2 million US organic visits a month, and how they've structured it to cover every stage of the buyer journeyHow their educational articles are structured to get cited in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Gemini, including the exact formatting choices that make AI tools want to pull from their contentWhy their retirement income calculator has attracted 462 linking domains and 74,000 monthly visits to a single page and how to replicate this for your industryThe internal linking and CTA strategy that turns content readers into customers (and why most brands get this badly wrong)The 7 lessons any marketer at any size business can apply immediately to build this kind of search and AI visibilityVanguard isn't winning because they're Vanguard. They're winning because they're doing the work. Here's exactly what that looks like. Book a consultation call for a live review of your website and marketing 👉 https://exposureninja.com/review/ Read the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/vanguard-marketing-strategy/ Listen to these episodes next: Rippling's $16B Marketing Strategy https://exposureninja.com/podcast/rippling-marketing-strategy/ How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026 ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/372/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Copy The 3 Pillars of £50m+ SEO Campaigns ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/371/

    19 min
  2. Google I/O 2026: The 5 Updates Every Marketer Needs To Know

    May 26

    Google I/O 2026: The 5 Updates Every Marketer Needs To Know

    Google just called this a new era for AI Search, and after seeing these five updates from Google I/O 2026, it's hard to disagree. In this executive briefing, Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja), covers: The new AI Search box that lets users write full briefs, attach files, and search like they would in ChatGPT Information agents that search on behalf of users 24/7 in the background AI Mode going fully conversational, with persistent context across an entire search session Agentic coding in search, building custom dashboards and mini apps on the fly Personal intelligence and agentic calling, where Google literally phones businesses to check availability and book on your behalf Google is no longer just a search engine. It's becoming an interactive, agentic interface, and businesses that aren't thinking beyond ten blue links are already falling behind. Here's exactly what these updates mean for your marketing strategy. Future-proof your brand with our AI Search Audit 👉 https://exposureninja.com/services/ai-search-optimisation/ai-search-strategy/  Read the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/google-i-o-2026/ Subscribe to Charlie Explains AI Search on LinkedIn for the latest updates in AI Search Optimisation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemarchant/recent-activity/newsletter/

    19 min

  3. May 25

    How To Track AI Traffic in GA4 (Step-by-Step)

    AI traffic is growing fast, but most businesses have no idea how much of it they're getting, where it's coming from, or how well it converts. This video shows you exactly how to track traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot inside Google Analytics 4, including the quick method you can use today, and the proper setup that makes AI referral traffic a permanent channel in your reports. Here's what's covered: Why AI-referred traffic converts 4–5x better than Google organic and why that makes it worth tracking separately even when the volume is still smallThe quick filter method for isolating AI referral traffic in your existing GA4 reports in under two minutesHow to create a dedicated AI referral traffic channel group so you never have to click through filters againThe one ordering mistake that causes GA4 to misclassify your AI traffic as generic referral traffic and how to fix itWhy a large slice of AI-driven visits will never show up as AI traffic at all and what to track instead to get the full pictureThe tools we use to measure AI search visibility alongside GA4, including Semrush, Peak, and Profound AI traffic is still a small percentage of overall visits for most sites, but the conversion rates tell a different story. Ahrefs reported 12.1% of signups from AI search despite it driving just 0.5% of traffic. That gap is worth paying attention to. Read the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/blog/how-to-track-ai-traffic-in-ga4/ Listen to these episodes next: The BEST SEO Strategies for 2026 ⁠⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/368/⁠⁠⁠ How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026 ⁠⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/372/⁠⁠⁠ Copy The 3 Pillars of £50m+ SEO Campaigns ⁠⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/371/

    9 min

  4. May 18

    The Metrics That Actually Matter in 2026

    Sponsored by Semrush. Try Semrush One for 14-days (exclusive Exposure Ninja deal) 👉 https://exposureninja.com/semrushone Most marketers aren't short on data. They're short on clarity.In 2026, marketing teams are tracking more metrics than ever and still can't answer the most important question: what's actually driving leads, revenue, and growth? This episode shows you exactly which digital marketing metrics are worth your attention, which ones you can safely ignore, and the tools you need to track them properly. Here's what I cover: Why conversion events, not traffic, should anchor your entire measurement strategy and how to set them up correctly in GA4How to analyse traffic channels, landing pages, and devices, and cross-reference them to find your biggest growth opportunitiesThe lead gen metrics that live outside GA4, including lead-to-opportunity rate, revenue per lead, and conversion-to-customer rateHow to read the purchase journey report in GA4 for e-commerce, and why a dropping conversion rate isn't always bad newsThe SEO metrics that actually matter in Semrush, and why tracking keyword volume without watching page-one positions is quietly misleading youHow to measure AI Search visibility and brand sentiment across LLMs, and why branded organic traffic is becoming one of your most important signalsWhy 58% of marketers say AI Search traffic converts at a higher rate than regular organic, and how to build a dashboard that tracks it properlyThe businesses winning right now aren't tracking more. They're tracking smarter. Request a review of your website and marketing 👉 https://exposureninja.com/review/ Read the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/blog/website-metrics/ Listen to these episodes next: The BEST SEO Strategies for 2026 ⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/368/⁠⁠ How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026 ⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/372/⁠⁠ Copy The 3 Pillars of £50m+ SEO Campaigns ⁠⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/371/

    21 min
  5. Rippling’s $16B Marketing Strategy (You Can Actually Copy)

    May 11

    Rippling’s $16B Marketing Strategy (You Can Actually Copy)

    Rippling has grown from over $16 billion, and their website traffic went from 20,000 monthly visitors in 2021 to over 1.5 million today. This didn't happen by accident. It happened because of a three-part digital marketing playbook that any business — software, services, or anything else — can copy. Here's what I cover in this breakdown of Rippling's marketing strategy: How Rippling ditched generic messaging and rebuilt their entire website around laser-targeted customer segments — and why this drove higher-quality leads from real decision-makersThe content strategy that grew their blog from 5,000 to nearly 200,000 monthly visits — and the exact topic clusters they used to do itWhy Rippling built out state-by-state labor law content across every US state, and what this teaches you about hyper-specific audience targeting- What "Rippling Plus" is, why it's a smart play to insulate against AI search disruption, and whether it's worth attempting for your businessHow Rippling uses original research and digital PR to get coverage in the exact publications their target audience reads — and why this is now critical for AI search visibilityWhere Rippling's AI search visibility currently stands, and the one area they need to improve before competitors chip away at their leadThe three-pillar playbook behind Rippling's rise is something any business can learn from — whether you're starting from scratch or trying to scale what's already working.The key lessons from Rippling's approach: Tell a specific story for each customer segment — not a generic one for everyoneBuild content around the topics your different audiences actually search forUse original data and digital PR to earn coverage in the publications AI tools citeRead the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/rippling-marketing-strategy/ Listen to these episodes next: The BEST SEO Strategies for 2026 ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/368/⁠ How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026 ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/372/⁠ Copy The 3 Pillars of £50m+ SEO Campaigns ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/371/

    19 min
  6. Google's Revenue is EXPLODING. But Are Brands Winning Too?

    May 1

    Google's Revenue is EXPLODING. But Are Brands Winning Too?

    Google just posted a monster quarter — search ad revenue up 19% year on year, cloud breaking $20 billion for the first time, and products built on Gemini growing over 800%. But behind the headline numbers lies a more nuanced story for brands and marketing leaders trying to figure out where to place their bets. The "doomish narrative" that ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews are gutting Google Search simply isn't supported by the data. Google Search is still growing. Queries are at an all-time high. And AI Overviews are actively driving that growth, not cannibalising it. But that doesn't mean everything is rosy for the brands appearing in those results. In this episode, Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) and Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) break down: • Why Google's 19% ad revenue surge may actually be fuelled by brands panicking about organic traffic losses — and whether that panic is justified • How AI Overviews are reshaping click behaviour, with impressions staying stable but clickthrough rates shifting in ways that don't always hurt conversions • The rise of "personal intelligence" in search — where two users searching the same query could see entirely different results — and what that means for keyword rank trackers • Why Google's long-term vision looks far more like AI Mode than traditional blue links, and how quickly that transition could happen • The emerging "agentic commerce" trend where Google becomes a marketplace that completes transactions without users ever visiting your website • How AI chatbots like Claude are creating entirely new brand ranking systems — with only three recommendation slots instead of ten organic positions • What the earnings call doesn't tell you: the DOJ antitrust case, competitive pressure from ChatGPT and Claude, and whether Gemini is an underdog in its own right Charlie shares her framework for how marketing leaders should allocate budget in this shifting landscape — the 80/20 rule that prioritises what's already working while leaving room for strategic experimentation. As Charlie explains in the episode: "If people are still scared in 2026, it's because they haven't yet shifted their SEO strategy to understand how AI Overviews and other AI platforms are part of that search journey." Whether you're weighing up organic versus paid, trying to figure out how agentic search affects your eCommerce strategy, or simply trying to make sense of what Google's numbers actually mean for your business — this episode gives you a clear-eyed breakdown of where search is heading and what to do about it. Get the podcast show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-74/ Listen on your favourite podcast player instead: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/googles-revenue-is-exploding-but-are-brands-winning-too/id1161818237?i=1000765508727 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1KIX7OCYzx9DCe7qUg4pBm?si=uxQkVJ20QR-7mnghSFAY6w Listen to these episodes next: ChatGPT Sends 21% of Its Traffic to Google. Here’s Why That Matters. https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-73/ What Does AI Really Think of Your Brand? https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-71/ Do Rankings Still Matter with AI Search? https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-66/

    33 min
  7. ChatGPT Sends 21% of Its Traffic to Google. Here's Why That Matters.

    Apr 24

    ChatGPT Sends 21% of Its Traffic to Google. Here's Why That Matters.

    A new Semrush study — analysing over a billion lines of clickstream data across 17 months — has revealed something that changes how we should think about ChatGPT as a search channel: 21% of all ChatGPT referral clicks go straight to Google. That's not a quirk. It's a pattern — and it's growing. ChatGPT referral traffic to websites grew 206% year on year (January 2025 vs January 2026), even as ChatGPT's own traffic has plateaued near a billion monthly visits. The platform is no longer just a chatbot. It's becoming a doorway to the open internet — and Google is its biggest beneficiary. But here's what makes this data so important for marketing leaders: ChatGPT is absorbing more and more of the research phase. Users are making purchase decisions inside their AI conversations before they ever click through to a website. If your brand isn't showing up in those conversations, you're invisible at the most critical point in the buyer journey. In this episode, Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) and Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) break down the full Semrush report and explain what it means for your search strategy: 💡 Why 21% of ChatGPT's outbound clicks going to Google means your SEO foundation matters more than ever — not less 💡 The 206% year-on-year increase in ChatGPT referral traffic and why the "ChatGPT doesn't send traffic" objection is now dead 💡 How 30% of all ChatGPT referral traffic goes to just 10 domains — and what the remaining 70% means for your business 💡 Why only 35% of ChatGPT queries trigger a live web search (down from 46%) and what that means for how quickly your optimisation efforts show results 💡 The critical difference between ChatGPT prompts and Google keywords — and why your content strategy needs to account for both 💡 How to use your Google Analytics data to identify which AI platforms are actually driving referral traffic and conversions for your business 💡 Why businesses with clear positioning and well-defined customer personas will dominate in AI search — and why generic brands will struggle As Charlie explains: "ChatGPT is a new search channel. People are searching within ChatGPT. It's now part of the search journey to finally find the business or the product that they actually want. We need to optimise for all of the channels where we know that our customers are having touchpoints." The businesses building their AI search strategies now — not waiting for the dust to settle — are the ones that will hold the advantage as ChatGPT's referral traffic continues to grow. This episode gives you the data and the framework to act on it. Watch this on YouTube instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP8V1BBhPcU Read Semrush's report: ⁠https://www.semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/ Get the Show Notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-73/ Follow Charlie Marchant on LinkedIn for the latest in AI Search Optimisation: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemarchant/⁠ Request a free marketing review: ⁠https://exposureninja.com/review⁠ Try Semrush for FREE: ⁠https://thankyouninjas.com⁠ Listen to these episodes next: If My SEO Traffic Dropped, Here's Exactly What I'd Do ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/378/⁠ What Does AI Really Think of Your Brand? ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-71/⁠ How To Write a Marketing RFP (That Actually Gets Results) ⁠https://exposureninja.com/podcast/377/

    29 min
  8. Is AI Replacing Google for Beauty Shoppers?

    Apr 17

    Is AI Replacing Google for Beauty Shoppers?

    37% of beauty and cosmetics consumers are already using AI platforms — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and others — to search for products. 27% of UK shoppers are already making purchases via AI agents. And 80% abandon traditional Google searches in this sector because they simply can't find the specific, personalised answers they need. The $450 billion beauty industry is being reshaped by AI search faster than most brands have realised — and the window to get ahead of it is closing. Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) and Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) dig into the findings from Exposure Ninja's new Beauty AI Search Report and what it means for any brand competing for visibility and purchases right now: 💄 Why 37% of beauty consumers are already searching in AI — and why that number is likely to keep rising rapidly 💄 How personalisation is driving AI adoption in this sector, from skin photo uploads in ChatGPT to quiz-based regimen builders, and what that means for how you structure your content💄 The budget question every beauty marketing leader is asking: do you invest in owned tools like regimen builders, or in getting your brand into AI recommendations — and how to decide 💄 Why AI Overviews now appear on 36% of beauty queries, what that means for organic traffic, and how appearing in them is a different challenge to ranking in ChatGPT or Gemini 💄 How the "lipstick effect" means beauty spending is proving recession-resilient — with UK shoppers spending £324 on average in 2025, up from £291 in 2024 — and why that makes AI search optimisation a priority even in uncertain economic conditions 💄 Why 29% of shoppers go into physical stores just to read product descriptions they couldn't find online, and the easy win most brands are missing 💄 The long-term future: agentic AI shoppers projected to account for 10–20% of US e-commerce purchases by 2030, and what that means for how beauty brands need to be structured today 💄 Charlie's practical recommendations for getting started: how to track AI traffic in Google Analytics, which product categories to prioritise, and why third-party PR is the biggest lever most brands aren't pulling "If you're not in the recommendations, you're not pushing any traffic through from those sites. You're not getting referral traffic from ChatGPT or Gemini, and you're not covering that part of the top of the funnel — of those 37%, that's for now." Whether you're an established beauty brand navigating the shift away from traditional search, or a challenger brand trying to punch above your weight in AI recommendations, this episode gives you a clear picture of where the category is heading and the actions to take before your competitors catch up. Download the full Beauty AI Search Report for the complete data and sector-specific recommendations: https://exposureninja.com/beauty-ai-search-report/ Follow Charlie Marchant on LinkedIn for the latest in AI Search Optimisation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemarchant/ Request a free marketing review: https://exposureninja.com/review Try Semrush for FREE: https://thankyouninjas.com Get the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-72/ Listen to these episodes next: I Bought a £7M Company to Test My Marketing Playbook https://exposureninja.com/podcast/365/ If My SEO Traffic Dropped, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do https://exposureninja.com/podcast/378/ How To Dominate AI Search Results in 2026 https://exposureninja.com/podcast/372/

    31 min
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4.9
out of 5
30 Ratings

About

Learn powerful and profitable high-ROI marketing tips from Tim Cameron-Kitchen, founder of the relentlessly high-impact digital marketing agency, Exposure Ninja. Visit https://exposureninja.com/podcast for show notes and links.

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