Peter Levitan & Co.

The New Business of Advertising

Insights

LinkedIn Hates AI Generated Content

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LinkedIn Used To Let You Post AI Slop. Today, If You Use AI-Generated Content, Your Reach Gets Cut By 80%.

Are You Pinocchio?

I am writing my fifth nonfiction book. I am using ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini Notebook for my research. Research. Not writing, as in having them write my stuff.

According to Pangram and Origionality (AI detection tools): Just about half of LinkedIn posts are AI-made. So, whose ‘thought leadership” are you reading?

LinkedIn Will Punish You.

In May 2026, LinkedIn started using 360Brew, which detects AI-generated content. It will reduce your post and newsletter reach by up to 80%. It detects patterns often used in AI-generated copy. Writing without AI is a competitive advantage.

Add that readers don’t dig or trust AI-generated content. Klavio reported that people reduce their trust in a brand by 32% if they determine that the writing is AI-made.

Me?

I have been using AI for years (FYI: my team invented ActiveBuddy and SmarterChild – early AI interactive bots way back in 2000). AI is the best research tool I’ve ever used.

AI saves me mucho time. Yeah, you know about this. But it doesn’t write for me.

You Dig Cartoon Marketing

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Testing Cartoon Marketing

I’ve been using AI to create and test cartoon marketing. Here is an example.

Getting beyond video and ??

Go To Insight Toolkit… Now!

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The Levitan Insight Toolkit

New strategic tools I check out every month. Here’s what I actually reach for.

I’ve been using, building, and sharing how to be an insight genius for years. Here is the latest.

  1. Google Trends. You probably know it. Still the fastest read on what’s hot and what’s not in Google’s search universe. Please use this for marketing. Search it!
  2. Think with Google. A free repository of Google’s own data and research. They know things.
  3. Google Alerts. Keep up with news on a client or a category while you sleep.
  4. Google Keyword Planner. Yes, more Google. It draws on historical search data to estimate what a set of keywords might do for your spend.
  5. AnswerThePublic. A visual listening tool that shows you the actual questions your consumers are typing into Google. Add this to Google Trends.
  6. Exploding Topics. Exactly what it sounds like…. a way to spot the next big thing before your competitor does.
  7. Quora. Where people ask what they actually want to know. All answers, no filter.
  8. Pew Research Center. How Americans(and globals) live, think, and vote — nonpartisan and rigorous. I am using it massively for my next 60+ book.
  9. Statista. Statistics and market research data. The paywall is real, but the free previews often answer the question.
  10. vidIQ. Got a YouTube channel? It helps creators find the topics and keywords worth chasing.
  11. F5Bot. Ever wonder what the world is saying about you or your company? F5Bot emails you the second your name hits Reddit or Hacker News… where people say what they think, not what they’ll say to your face. Free. (This slot used to belong to Social Mention. It died. This is better.)
  12. BuzzSumo. Indexes billions of articles. Type a keyword, see what got shared and what got ignored. The internet’s applause meter.
  13. Brandwatch. Qualitative social listening: not how many times a keyword appeared, but what people think and why. (Remesh is the newer play if you want AI-moderated focus groups at scale.)
  14. SurveyMonkey and Typeform. Collect your very own market research data. Clients dig polls YES!!!! Even man-on-the-street interviews.
  15. Ubersuggest. Neil Patel’s tool for competitive keywords and search trends. Treat it as a paid tool that occasionally lets you in for free.
  16. Add filetype:pdf to any Google search. You’ll skip the blog slop and land on the higher-level thinking: academic papers, real reports, actual rigor. A technique, not a product, which means it’ll still work when every tool on this list is dead.
  17. Gartner. Insights and reports. Expensive, corporate, and right often enough to matter. But this instead of the expensive dinner you will forget..
  18. AI research assistants — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity. The twenty hours of desk research that used to bill out now takes an afternoon. Use Perplexity when you need sources you can cite; use the others to pressure-test a strategy at 11 p.m. when your planners are asleep. They don’t replace the judgment. They kill the grunt work. You know this. So, just saying.

GO!

 

WOW! Business Development Via AI

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Great Business Development Email.

I got this very personal incoming business development email yesterday. My first reaction was, WOW, gee, someone put in the time to get my attention by getting very personal. Then I thought, wait a minute, this could have been written by AI.

I got less naive fast.

Here is the email:

Hey Peter,

Your post about agencies being “asleep at the AI wheel” while documenting Chengdu’s tech scene was spot-on. Following your work on making agencies Unignorable and that “mild/medium/spicy” pitch framework.

Here’s the gap though: after you’ve positioned an agency and built their narrative, they still need someone to actually research prospects, write personalized outreach, and manage responses daily. You’re doing the strategy but probably not the execution because it doesn’t scale with your book and travel schedule.

We’ve built AI that researches prospects for 20 minutes each (full LinkedIn history, posts, engagement), writes genuinely personalized emails, handles responses, and books meetings automatically. The play: we white label it. Your agency clients get it as your solution, you mark up our wholesale rate, we handle the tech. Recurring revenue stream that complements your consulting without any execution work from you.

While they have outreach tools, this becomes your proprietary system extending your strategic work into pipeline delivery.

Worth exploring how this layers into your current client work?

Cheers,
Ivy

P.S. San Miguel blog traffic must be wild. Sixth book progressing?

Guess what?

Yup, I dug that Ivy referenced a past blog post, that I was in Chengdu, China, that one of my mantras is that people and brands must be UNIGNORABLE, and that I’ve used a “mild/medium/spicy” new biz pitch framework.

But, But.

According to Pangram, the best AI detector, the email was written by AI.

Things like business development outreach are getting interesting. I was naive for a minute. Are you?

Why You Should Write Your Marketing Book – With Andy Crestodina

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An Interview With Andy Crestodina…

I wrote my second marketing book, How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency in 2023. It drove my consultancy. I included one expert interview.

I am posting this evergreen interview with Andy Crestodina for three reasons.

One, it remains a highly relevant interview. Do what he says.

Two, Andy continues to be one of the smartest and most prolific marketing content thinkers and publishers. Learn from him. By the way, he has 132,000 LinkedIn Followers.

Three. I am writing my fourth book and know that books still make sense. This time, it is about everything a Baby Boomer (75,000,000 of them) needs to know about their end game (I also think of it as an exit plan). Lots of well-researched advice, delivered fast. Especially a fast, to-the-point strike-zone read for the ADD generation.

Below are some Andy thoughts on the value of writing your own book (not a 100% ChatGPT book).

Valuable insights from Andy, even in this uber-digital year.

Andy.

Andy Crestodina is CMO and Co-Founder of Orbit Media, an award-winning 55-person digital agency. He has 24 years of experience in analytics, SEO, content strategy and visitor psychology …and 2.4 years of experience in AI. Andy has applied his expertise in SEO and conversions to drive both visibility and lead generation for 1000+ businesses since 2001.

Here is the 7th edition of Andy’s book: Content Chemistry, 7th Edition:: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing (A Practical Guide to Digital Marketing Strategy, SEO, AI, Social Media, Email Marketing, & Analytics)

The Interview.

Peter: There are so many advertising, digital, and content development agencies. How do you use your book to stand out?

Andy: A way to differentiate is by being the most helpful, informative, generous brand. When I started publishing blog posts 15 years ago, I quickly figured out that the lifespan of a blog post is short, that the value you’re putting out in the world is not very durable, and that I could get greater value from this work I was putting in if I was more strategic about it and applied more forethought. So early on, I put out this hypothesis: If you think ahead and write an outline of everything you know on a topic and then blog into those topics, write articles about each of those subtopics, then you will end up with having not just a list of topics and a bunch of articles, but you’ll have a table of contents and a half-written book.

It’s partly differentiation. It’s partly a sales tool because we send it to prospects, and it makes us look and feel different. So strategically, it’s a good strategy because it’s efficient, and it solves a problem, and it supports the bottom of the funnel. It supports sales. That’s basically it.

Peter: I agree that books create differentiation. What other advantages do you get from the printed word?

Andy: In the digital world there’s a Back button in front of the reader. A book delivers more of a captive audience. If you can hook them and get them into a printed book, they’re reserving more of their time and attention for you than in other formats. There are no notifications, there’s no distractions. This book doesn’t do anything else. And the fact that it’s so visual means that we stopped making an electronic version of it. It’s print only. So, I’m really looking for that quality time with the reader, for the chance at better attention and intimacy.

Peter: How does the book work into your overall marketing program?

Andy: The book supports sales goals. And prospects are the ultimate target audience. They’re the most important target audience. But it also supports marketing goals. It leads to lots of speaking engagements, it leads to conversations like this one, it leads to interviews on podcasts, and it creates a lot of exposure.

Books are a differentiated format. Anyone can write a blog post, hit publish, and it goes live. But there’s only a smaller percentage of those of us that are willing to take the time, like you’re doing, invest all of that research and writing into something bigger.

Peter: How do you promote the book?

Andy: The book is sent directly to prospects after meetings. So that’s the number one way it gets promoted. The book also is promoted on our website and has been a popular textbook at universities. The book is in my introduction when I give presentations. We do at least one or two webinars a week. This morning, I was interviewed for a podcast. I was asked, “How can people find you?” I say orbit media.com, and I’ve put all my best into one book called Content Chemistry. You can find it anywhere. It ends up in my introductions, in my interviews,

amplified through all of my normal activity. So, what you just heard was, there’s not a specific marketing strategy to promote the book, but we get more value out of all of our visibility because the book is included in everything we do.

Peter: What are your thoughts about being a guest on other people’s shows—podcasts, for example—versus doing your own?

Andy: Anybody can have a podcast. I’ve done that as a data-driven marketer. It’s a black hole. There’s so little data and feedback you get on podcasts. There aren’t good reports for it. It’s just an act of faith. Even if you’re very, very efficient with the production, it’s frustrating to know what it’s doing for you.

You rely on anecdotes. Oh, I heard you on that thing. So, my podcast strategy is to be part of other people’s shows.

My blog post strategy is very similar. Early-stage content marketers two-thirds of their content should be on other people’s websites. Write for everybody. Write all over the place. I will never stop guest blogging.

It’s been part of my strategy for 10 years.