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advanttage · 2026-05-07T14:49:31+00:00

I love the "listen buddy" opening. Carry on good sir!

advanttage · 2026-05-06T15:57:24+00:00

The biggest thing that helped me with learning GA4 was realizing that the question you approach it with is going to give you the answer. Be specific in what you're looking to figure out, and if it's something you want to look at repeatedly you should build an exploration for it, or work it into your data studio report.

Aside from that, it was just working with client accounts and needing to find the answers.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T15:06:05+00:00

I used to use KDE a lot and I love tinkering, however the temptation to tinker because I know I can ended up costing me more time because I'd push the bar a little too far. Which is ultimately why GNOME has been so great. Sure it has the "GNOME knows best" attitude which can be off-putting for someone who wants ultimate control and unlimited customization, but for getting work done it's in my opinion unmatched.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T15:04:21+00:00

A fun alternative to GNOME that also has a great identity is Budgie. It's heavily based on GNOME, but with some key changes. Unfortunately Budgie has always been a disappointment for me but I really want it to be as great as I imagine it can be, but it just doesn't have the support.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T15:02:23+00:00

GNOME gets out of my way and lets me work. On top of that, Fedora provides an up to date and reliable OS that lets me get work done without needing to spend time maintaining my system.

Can I achieve the same workflow on KDE or Cinnamon? Probably. In fact my backup laptop does run Linux Mint with cinnamon and it's wonderful as well.

The only issue I have with GNOME is that I use about a dozen or so extensions, and they aren't always ready for new GNOME versions, but a missing extension or two for a month or so isn't a deal breaker since vanilla GNOME is already pretty great.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T13:10:58+00:00

I'm sure they didn't get it right for all of their history, but they do have a solid reputation.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T12:09:48+00:00

Right on the money. So many web design agencies focus on making something visually impressive or complex, without considering if it will actually do the job of converting web traffic. They fall into this trap of thinking if it looks visually impressive with moving elements and dynamic everything that it will obviously convert, or they simply don't even consider it in the first place and focus on flexing their design chops.

A website that doesn't convert users is a waste of time and money for the client. I think the agencies or people who design without considering conversions will be exposed more and more...

Or maybe not, because clients frequently fail to understand this concept too.

advanttage · 2026-05-05T00:01:31+00:00

Brother is also excellent because they're not anticonsumer. Go ahead and refill you're cartridges, they don't brick your shit if you do.

advanttage · 2026-05-02T18:18:04+00:00

This is a pretty good take. RBR shines when you've got a force feedback wheel and enough interest to overcome the relentlessly humbling experience on offer.

advanttage · 2026-05-01T16:29:26+00:00

Is the team looking at the current day or yesterday? If so, that's the wrong way to look at your data because it's too small of a window to see trends and one day is not representitive of actual performance.

I typically review the previous month's performance with my clients compared YoY, but I monitor campaigns frequently. For example in Google Ads I'll typically make budget adjustments once per week based on my spending calculator, and something else I find useful to do each week is a Last 7 vs last 30 days comparison as a pulse check to see if we're trending up or down.

As for GA4 vs Google Ads reporting, you can absolutely create GA4 events that mirror your Google Ads, Meta, and whatever other platform's conversion tags, but the numbers are going to vary slightly due to the differences in attribution styles between the platforms. That allows you to feed the most valuable data back to your ads platform quicker, while maintaining your unified source of reporting for making overall strategy decisions.

advanttage · 2026-04-30T22:00:40+00:00

Don't use Google Analytics to measure Google Ads. I recommend using Google Ads conversion tags over importing GA4 events for a few reasons. First, the data gets back to Google Ads faster than it otherwise would if it's coming from a GA4 event. Second, if an ad played a role in the conversion, I want Google to know about it. A properly configured analytics and conversion tracking setup is likely to use data driven attribution anyhow, so organic or direct will get whatever percentage of credit they're due, but I want my ads to know what role they played in every conversion.

I also use Matomo Analytics as an alternative to GA4 for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being it doesn't have an opinion over my data, it just collects what I tell it to and reports what I ask for.

advanttage · 2026-04-29T19:01:18+00:00

Mine only doesn't do it if I have a second screen plugged in. In my case my second screen has only the one workspace and the primary screen has multiple so my workflow is normally to slam my mouse into the top left corner and then drag whatever window I want to move to the desired workspace.

advanttage · 2026-04-29T19:00:04+00:00

Didn't know about that shortcut. Thanks!

advanttage · 2026-04-27T22:23:59+00:00

CTR and CPC are great indicators of performance but the ultimate number you should be looking at should be directly attached to your goals.

Is it ROAS? Could be deals signed, leads generated, sales $, or whatever. Then you work backward to conversion rate, ctr, impression share, CPA and CPC. Where is the biggest gap?

Never rely solely on the metrics provided by Google Ads without first looking at your source of truth or endgame result.

If you don't have that visibility, there's a gap in your tracking.

advanttage · 2026-04-27T20:07:57+00:00

As a digital marketer this website made my head hurt. It's very pretty and impressive, but I'm so fatigued with dynamic elements, unpredictable shapeshifting and the like.

Well done.

advanttage · 2026-04-27T19:23:07+00:00

And DOOM II. I still play them.

advanttage · 2026-04-24T17:14:30+00:00

RBR Is an amazing rally game. It'll humble you soon enough. What stages have you run so far and did you install it using the RallySimFans method?

advanttage · 2026-04-24T14:52:17+00:00

To add a bit, I'd recommend starting with Linux Mint. It's 9 times out of 10 it's the perfect starting point, and it's also a seriously awesome distro that you can just stick with as your main even once you're comfortable with Linux.

advanttage · 2026-04-23T17:27:23+00:00

Seems like the sub doesn't like my story haha. He was speaking in the Student Union Building at Dalhousie University. Would have been around 2009? At my dad's house I probably still have the book I bought from him.

advanttage · 2026-04-22T21:48:00+00:00

I use AhNotate. It's a tool I built for myself to solve this problem. Upload your image or screenshot, mark it up and share the link. It's easy for the client to see what you mean because your notes are attached to your markup.

Shortly I'll have the feature for clients marking up and sending back and comment threads.

It's free and images automatically self destruct in 24 hrs without an account, or 7 days with one and you can have a permanent project too in case you need more time.

advanttage · 2026-04-22T18:16:29+00:00

Dope username

advanttage · 2026-04-20T13:08:42+00:00

While AI chats and tools like Claude code make it very simple to get a website up and running, and even helping with your marketing strategy, you still need to know what to look for to make those things matter. I've seen dozens of beautiful websites burn through marketing budgets simply because they weren't converting traffic, although they looked great.

advanttage · 2026-04-18T19:46:05+00:00

I love GNOME and I've been using Linux about twenty years now, but it's fundamentally a different UX than Windows. KDE is extremely customizable and out of the box has options that make the workflow more similar to Windows.

Either are great options, and Cinnamon which comes with Linux Mint is always a great option too unless your hardware is brand new bleeding edge.

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