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In this issue: the dog days of ecomm summer show some marks of early back-to-school performance. 

ICYMI: Northbeam Apex is now live. Optimize your Meta ad algorithms with first-party data. The dream of performance marketers is now a reality, and the results from our beta test are astounding. Apex is now available at no cost to qualified Northbeam customers - click the link below. 

This week's data: 

July is over and back-to-school is starting to ramp up. More than 50% of U.S. school students are back in school between August 7th and 18th. Parents are on the hunt for shoes, notebooks, pens, iPads, migraine medication... How are you capitalizing on the shifting winds?

Intent is building, evidenced by improved CTR and CPCs - but conversion behavior isn't there yet. Low CvR and ROAS plagued the industry last week. This signals a movement in a "thinking about buying" direction. Something about the post-vacation late days of summer have us thinking about the future. 

Looking forward: Now's a great time to strategize, create, and test your Black Friday creative. Seed audiences now and build awareness. Test your ads in a low-season gauntlet. If you're like many marketers we know, Q4 will be critical for hitting your yearly targets. Be proactive - don't end up chasing it.  

🏅 Olympics ads aren't working as well as they used to. Are we reaching peak Olympics saturation? Scott Galloway sure thinks so.

👠 Even so, here's the beauty industry's Olympics marketing playbook. Because we know you like to copy, even though you shouldn't. 

👻 Snapchat+ hit 11m paying subscribers. Lessons from the future of paid social media. 

❌ X, on the other hand, is misdirecting people about their performance. That's not how I want my ad platforms to behave.  

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