He's a good guy, loves his Mama. Loves Austria and America too... 2 years ago, Mike Ryan wrote about Google marketing Live conversational campaign technology. "a new UI workflow using AI chat to simplify and accelerate campaign creation right in Google Ads.". Sounds pretty 2025. As a market leading practitioner and commentator, he wrote,

"𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿?

Everyone – probably."

"𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆?

The decisions to be made here will be about can vs. should."

"I want to be purposefully skeptical of this technology – not resistant, but thoughtful.

It’s not magic, though – it’s math."

He then wrote " I hope we’ll all linger and dwell at this point in the technology.

Let’s adopt, test, and adapt."

Fast forward 2 years and I pick up that conversation on the Struggle Bus. Trying to understand where the landscape is and I couldn't think of a better week to drop this episode than this week. Dust is settling on BFCM and we are looking longingly into the eyes of 2026 with care. His team delivered amazing results, with some real time pulse pauses too, as if they didn't have enough to do.

Mike travelled to Austria, powered by the love of his no wife, sounds like a Christmas movie. He lives there now but still works with brands like Miami Heat to name one. His intelligence and love of our industry is only matched by his humor (American spelling just for you Mike) and his commitment to fun through his commentary.

In our epsiode we cover the case for Google - the plucky legacy org.

Since we recorded, some of his wisdom came to pass. Google were seen to be passive in their challenge to OpenAI a mere month ago, but his observations on AI mode and Googles ability to distribute quickly have come to pass.

To follow Mike in general is to be in the midst of a brilliant thinker, curious mind and someone who gives back generosly, without wanting something in return. He is another real treasure in our world.

Mike is someone you want to follow, he is someone you should listen to and you will enjoy it, I have no doubt.

Thanks to Omnisend - still sending out emails without disruption as efficiently as elves in the North Pole.

ParcelPlanet Somewhere in the midst of all the BFCM madness is a pissed off customer not getting their parcel. That's the competition. Not on the Parcel Planet wathc.

Speaking of growth our other new sponsor Trustap have been doing this quietly for some time and have now found their voice. They even bonded with us earlier last week publishing the pod too. This friendship might last more than just for Christmas.

Episode Link here -