Live From SMX Boston: My Real-Time Takeaways
Good morning from SMX Boston with my Starbucks in hand!
Hey everyone!
I've set up this space as my central hub for all things SMX Boston today.
I’ll be carrying my computer around and updating the blog live, so definitely refresh this page to catch all the latest notes and insights. Think of this as my version of live blogging.
I'll be jotting down quick takeaways and sharing them right here in real time. Stay tuned for all the updates throughout the day!
If you want to see me in video format you can check out my YouTube Channel: Google Ads Strategy Hub where I already made 2 quick videos.
Keynote: Purna Virji, Principal Consultant at LinkedIn
This was a fantastic talk about how to measure and talk about AI. The main point was to present AI as growth vs. a time saver.
If you haven’t heard Purna speak, she is absolutely phenomenal. I first met her virtually during COVID when she spoke at a conference I hosted, but seeing her in person is a whole different experience. Her talk was so genius that I actually called my husband last night to tell him about it—he runs an IT team as an executive, and the insights apply far beyond just marketing.
The Big Takeaway: Presenting AI purely as a "time saver" is a vanity metric that can actually get you out of a job.
Perna brought up Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to become a good measure. If your only metric for success is saving time, eventually leadership will look to optimize you out of the equation.
Instead of time saved, she challenged us to measure Expansion, which breaks down into three buckets:
Quality Lift: Same AI, better questions, better outcomes.
Scope Growth: Expanding what you are capable of delivering.
Capability Unlock: Doing things you couldn't do before.
Framing the Conversation: Time Saved vs. Value Created
Look at how a simple shift in data presentation completely changes the value proposition:
The "Time Saved" Approach (Bad):"AI reduced our proposal drafting time by 55%." (This screams: We don't need as many people writing proposals.)
The "Growth" Approach (Good):"AI helped us submit 40% more proposals and increased our close rate by 12%."
Same data, but the second one positions you as an active driver of revenue growth, not a cost center to be trimmed.
Navigating the AI Pivot in SEO
After the keynote, I spent most of my day embedded in the SEO track. Even though my core background is paid search, it was fascinating to see how much paid search data and consideration are now bleeding into organic strategies.
One particular slide on "The AI Pivot" really stuck with me regarding how marketers are hedging their bets and diversifying budgets to maintain visibility across multiple surfaces:
Strategy% of Marketers PrioritizingPrioritizing Social Brand Presence59%Optimizing for AI Answers54%Doubling Down on Authority44%Focusing on AI Audiences37%
AI rewards brands that people are actually talking about. When analyzing what drives the highest influence and strongest visibility in an AI-driven search world, the data brought receipts:
Highest Influence: YouTube mentions, impressions, and branded web mentions.
Lowest Influence: Ad spend, backlink counts, and raw site page volume.
This really validated why I’m leaning so heavily into video content right now. I’m not doing YouTube just for the sake of having a massive subscriber count; I’m doing it because being on different surfaces fuels my broader digital footprint and supports these blogging efforts. You can't just churn out thousands of thin, unread pages anymore and expect the crawlers to care.
Crystal Carter (Wix): Practical & Fun AI
Crystal Carter from Wix gave an amazing presentation. Beyond being incredibly funny, she shared practical ways to play with AI to understand the technology better.
She talked about feeding her own chat histories into an AI to have it analyze her personality and mirror it back to her. I actually tried it myself this morning! Her core message was about creating loops where your AI learns from itself and builds custom utility over time. It was a great reminder that we should be playing with these tools in our daily lives, not just treating them like rigid enterprise software.
Does Google Actually Like AI Content?
One of my favorite sessions tackled a massive question: What do you do when rankings drop, and does Google actually like AI content?
The speakers brought concrete data and studies, and the short answer is no, they don't.
Google's algorithms are actively filtering out generic, synthesized AI fluff. To survive, you have to add something to the conversation that only you can add.
Take this blog post and the video I shot this morning, for example. An AI cannot replicate me grabbing my Starbucks at the Boston Westin, missing the morning yoga session because I wanted to sit in the lobby and connect with people, or synthesizing the specific session screenshots I took through the lens of a paid search expert. Your unique perspective and personal story are your only moat.
After-Hours: PPC Live & The Paid Search Association
To wrap up the day, I skipped the main "SMX After Dark" party and went to a live recording of the PPC Live podcast. We had a great, deep-dive panel discussion about PMax and Demand Gen (AI Max) accounts.
It was a highly interactive room. When asked, a solid group of people raised their hands to say PMax is absolutely working for them—but we mapped out very specific use cases and guardrails required to use it comfortably without blowing through budget.
After a long day of absorbing information, I did what any tired marketer would do: went back to my room, ordered a burger, and watched Netflix in peace (a rare luxury when you have kids at home!).
What's Next?
Today is a short day for me. I’m heading to the morning paid search track keynote featuring Danny Gavin and Andrea Cruz, and then having a strategy breakfast with Jeremy, the Vice President of the Paid Search Association (where I proudly serve as President). We'll be mapping out some exciting initiatives for the community over the next few weeks.
After that, I’m hopping a flight back home to Columbus through Chicago to throw my sweatpants back on and balance the other side of my life: raising kids while running paid search strategies.
Getting out to conferences like GML and SMX Boston has completely re-energized me, and I've officially decided to make travel and these live events a much bigger part of my business moving forward.
Thanks for following along with this unscripted download of my time at SMX! Make sure to check out the companion YouTube video and further updates.
