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Welcome to Volume 240 👋
Happy Thursday!
In this week’s newsletter, we cover:
- 📈 Ahrefs: Over 70% of New Content is Created with AI
- 🖱️ Wix vs Squarespace: The Battle Between $5M Monthly PPC Budgets
- 👀 The Latest in B2B SaaS This Week
- 🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
- ➕ The Best Content Across the Web
Let’s get into it.
Ahrefs: Over 70% of New Content is Created with AI
Earlier this week Ahrefs CEO Tim Suolo all but confirmed the new reality of content creation:
The majority of new web content you read is created with the help of AI.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell. In others, it’s painfully obvious.
But of the 900,000+ new pages that Ahrefs analyzed in April 2025, nearly 72% of them were modified using AI.
Specifically, Ahrefs’ research found that 71.7% of new pages are created with AI assistance, while just 25.8% are purely human-written, and, surprisingly, only 2.5% are completely AI-generated without human involvement.
What stands out most to me is that 15.5% of these pages involved “dominant AI use” where the bot creates nearly all of the copy.
The fact that marketers use AI to help create web pages is nothing new, but it represents an interesting paradox for the industry.
On the one hand, AI tools are productivity multipliers. They’re creative partners that improve ideation, refine messaging, and even help strengthen arguments. And like any true partnership, they need our best effort as well. The low percentage of pure AI content tells me that most marketers recognize the limitations of completely automated creation.
On the other hand, complacent use of these tools leads to the kind of “AI slop” that dilutes trust, damages brand perception, and just flat out sucks to read. And don’t forget, with each passing day people are getting better at spotting AI-isms. That includes your customers.
This is where the creators responsible for 100% certified-human content may have an edge. It may take longer to create than the AI-assisted or fully-offloaded versions, but content that carries authentic experiences, nuanced perspectives, original insights, and a human voice will stand out.
The Reddit Marketing Guide You Need in 2025
The front page of the internet is now the front page of Google results too.
Ross Simmonds, who’s been eyeballs-deep in Reddit marketing since 2014, reveals exactly what has changed over the last decade and what it means for your 2025 marketing strategy.
After analyzing 50,000+ Reddit threads and 30,000+ SERPs, Simmonds reveals why Reddit now influences every stage of the B2B buyer’s journey:
“I’ve seen threads get shared in Slack channels… I’ve seen Reddit comments quoted in stakeholder meetings… I’ve seen million-dollar vendors win or lose based on what’s said in r/sysadmin.”
With Google now prioritizing Reddit content over traditional review sites, marketers need a clear strategy for how to engage on the platform. This comprehensive guide provides the strategic framework to turn Reddit from a liability into your most powerful marketing lever.
Ready to turn Reddit from a liability to a lever?
Check out Ross’s Reddit Marketing Guide for 2025.
The $5 Million Paid Ads Showdown: Wix vs Squarespace
There’s a lot going on right now in the search engine marketing space.
SERPs are more crowded. Cost-per-clicks are climbing. Marketing budgets are getting slashed.
But that doesn’t mean it’s time to abandon paid search. It’s time to reassess and reinvest.
In fact, major brands like Wix and Squarespace have increased their monthly spend over the last few years to the tune of $5-million per month.
I recently spent some time analyzing how these two leading website-building brands spend similar 7-figure monthly budgets on PPC strategies that mirror their contrasting business models.
- Wix’s volume play: After slashing their keyword portfolio from 130,000 to 57,000 terms over the past two years, Wix now pays triple the CPC they did in 2023 ($30 vs $10) but focuses more on high-intent queries. Their landing pages prioritize email capture and conversions before product exposure, feeding their freemium funnel.
- Squarespace’s value proposition: Targeting just 30,000 keywords but willing to pay up to $45 per click, Squarespace bets heavily on design-first messaging and immediate product exposure, confident their premium experience converts without extensive nurturing.
What does this say about the state of paid search?
At a time where organic reach is increasingly compressed by AI overviews and Reddit threads, paid search is still a powerful way to win leads and convert users (even at eye-watering CPCs).
Whether your strategy emphasizes volume or value, Wix and Squarespace show that succeeding in paid search requires ruthless keyword selection, crystal-clear audience segmentation, and landing pages engineered specifically for your conversion journey.
For more insights on their keyword strategies and a glimpse at their marketing funnels, check out the full breakdown on the Foundation Lab.
👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week? 👀
- 🧱 Databricks to Buy Startup Neon for $1 Billion | The Wall Street Journal
- 🛍️ Perplexity partners with PayPal for in-chat shopping as AI race heats up | CNBC
- 📝 AI notetaking app Granola raises $43M at $250M valuation, launches collaborative features | TechCrunch
- 📃 OpenAI just fixed ChatGPT’s most annoying business problem: meet the PDF export that changes everything | Venture Beat
- 🗑️ There is a growing spam problem in Google AI Overviews | Search Engine Land
Pressing Publish Isn’t Enough. Here’s How to 10x Your Distribution in Minutes
You spent hours creating your best content yet.
An article. A podcast. Or maybe a video interview.
You hit publish, and then… nothing.
- No shares
- No traffic
- No results
The truth?
Your content isn’t the problem. Your distribution is.
The brands that win don’t just create.
They share content obsessively. They get seen.
They squeeze every ounce of value from every single post.
And now, you can too.
With Distribution.AI, your content shows up everywhere. No extra effort needed.
One upload becomes a LinkedIn thread, a blog post, show notes, X posts, and more.
Minutes later, you’re everywhere your audience hangs out.
- More reach
- More impressions
- More ROI
All from the content you’ve already made.
No more publish and pray.
No more watching your best work go unnoticed.
Just traction, visibility, and results, all on autopilot.
Ready to fix your broken distribution and 10x your output without rewriting a single word?
🧠 This Week’s Brain Food 🧠
Today I’ve been thinking about the impression we make online. Not the LinkedIn professional brand-building kind. The other one.
You don’t have to be a marketer or software engineer to know that everything we do online is recorded in some way. Even the things we do or say offline, have a habit of making their way into our social media feeds in the form of an ad.
But these are just the things we see. The tip of an iceberg that runs very deep.
Every time you open a website or app you set off a cascade of data point dominos. Between cookies and tracking pixels, that page visit can trigger anywhere from dozens to hundreds of tracking events. Now multiply that by all those browser tabs you have open right now (don’t worry, I do it too).
And then there’s the apps.
A few years ago, Surfshark released data showing that by using just 9 apps, the average smartphone user creates 188 digital footprints per day. These data points include everything from your IP address and location data to details like device model, OS, and browser type. Even screen resolution and battery level.
Practices like digital fingerprinting make our online picture even clearer. It’s a method that uses your browser configuration, installed plugins, font preferences, and signifiers to create an insanely accurate profile that can distinguish you from millions of others.
Is it more than a little creepy? Yes.
But it’s also fascinating to think about just how accurate a picture we can create by adding up each mouse click and press of a button.
🎧 New Episode Alert — Create Like the Greats 🎧
A new episode of Create Like the Greats is hot off the press.
This week we go behind the scenes with Ross, a journal-style interview. He pulls back the curtain on his business journey and biggest lessons learned before ending with a major announcement about a new strategic partnership for Foundation Marketing.
If you’re curious about how content creation can lead to industry-spanning opportunities and meaningful partnerships, this is an episode you don’t want to miss. Here are some of the highlights:
- From basement blogging to business breakthrough. Ross shares his humble beginnings creating content with little more than instant coffee and determination.
- The power of speaking and showing up. Discover how consistently delivering value in every room you enter (even outside your target industry) can lead to unexpected opportunities.
- Partnership over scarcity. Learn Ross’s personal experience with the “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” business philosophy.
- Content as a competitive edge. Hear how Ross’s expertise in using SEO as a moat attracted partnership opportunities even in industries he wasn’t targeting.
- Expanding horizons in higher education. Foundation’s traditional B2B and SaaS focus meets Carnegie’s deep experience in higher education digital marketing, creating a powerful collaboration.
Catch the episode on Apple or Spotify to learn how Ross’s perseverance, consistency, and authenticity were key ingredients for creating a business with impact across industries.
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🎖️ LinkedIn Post of the Week
I’m going to destroy a marketing truism. There is no funnel. by Lauren Walker
🎖️ Reddit Post of the Week
Want a genuine disruption in SEO to talk about? This is it. In r/SEO
🏅 Twitter/X Post of the Week
How to get better results from the marketing prompts you’re giving AI tools by Rand Fishkin
🤳🏽 Nice Finds You Should Binge
- DeepMind claims its newest AI tool is a whiz at math and science problems | TechCrunch
- Microsoft Cuts Off Access to Bing Search Data as It Shifts Focus to Chatbots | WIRED
- SaaS Landing Pages: Must-Have Pages For Every SaaS Company | Foundation
- As Klarna flips from AI-first to hiring people again, a new landmark survey reveals most AI projects fail to deliver | Fortune
💻 Job Postings Worth Checking Out
Looking for a new opportunity?
Here’s a round-up of some exciting job openings in the B2B SaaS space.
- Foundation: Reddit Specialist
- Foundation: B2B Content Marketing Strategist
- Foundation: Account Manager
- Foundation: Content Creator
- Foundation: Content Marketing Manager
- Foundation: Applied Research Specialist
- Foundation: Director of Digital Marketing
Are you hiring?
Reply to this email, and we’ll share how you can find your next unicorn, game-changer, or first marketing hire from among the industry’s top-performing marketers.
🎧 What We’re Wired Into This Week
This SaaS news smattering is brought to you by Ethan Crump!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you want to see in this newsletter, feel free to email Leigha Henderson at leigha@foundationinc.co. We always look for ways to improve and provide the best B2B SaaS marketing resources.
Have a great weekend!
