Douglas Karr's Articles on Martech Zone
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Advertising Technology
Picsart: Create Scroll-Stopping Ads in Minutes with AI-Powered Workflows
Creating high-performing ads across multiple channels can be time-consuming and expensive. Marketers are expected to be copywriters, designers, analysts, and campaign strategists—all at once. What’s more, the pressure to launch quickly, scale effortlessly, and outshine competitors is only growing. That’s where an intelligent and flexible ad creation platform can be a game-changer. Picsart Ad Maker Picsart Ad Maker is an…
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Content Marketing
WordPress Plugin: Advanced Admin Search With Title, Slug, Content, or Tag
Finding content in the WordPress admin panel can quickly become a chore, especially for sites with hundreds or thousands of posts. By default, the search box in the All Posts screen is limited in capability—it only checks post titles, and there’s no built-in way to search specifically by slug, content, or tags. If you’re a developer, editor, or content manager…
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Artificial Intelligence
The Evolution of Personalization: From Merge Tags to AI-Powered Experiences
What began as Dear {FirstName} has transformed into dynamic, predictive, generative, and increasingly immersive personalization. Organizations with personalization programs supported at the C-level are 2x more likely to report high ROI. Forrester Sophisticated retailers and businesses now operate within a layered experience ecosystem: identity resolution, predictive decisioning, generative messaging, immersive AR/VR entry points, and AI-powered virtual assistants (VA) that accompany…
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Artificial Intelligence
CustomGPT: Replace Your Static Knowledge Base with Conversational AI in Minutes
Creating and maintaining a knowledge base (KB) has always been more challenging than it should be. Traditional KBs required specialized software, cross-departmental coordination, and ongoing maintenance, often resulting in outdated documentation, poor search experiences, and missed opportunities for engagement. For many businesses, the KB became a burden rather than a strategic asset. The new approach is turning the knowledge base…
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Advertising Technology
Google Ads Location Assets: A Powerful Tool for Marketers with a Local or Retail Footprint
I’m not sure there’s a spot on the SERP that isn’t being filled with ads nowadays. It reminds me of the newspaper industry, where news ultimately became the filler between ads. Personally, this is disappointing. Organic search promised to provide good visibility for companies based on their reputation, not their ad budget. But alas… pay-to-play is where everything is evolving,…
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Martech Zone Apps
App: DNS Propagation Checker
DNS propagation is the process by which changes to DNS records are distributed and updated across the Internet. When a domain name’s DNS records are modified, such as updating the IP address associated with a domain’s A record, these changes need time to be reflected universally. DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on…
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Martech Zone Tools
App: Measure Your Website’s Response Time with This Simple Metrics Tool
When a website loads slowly, it’s not always clear what’s to blame. Is it the DNS provider? The server itself? Or something in between? To help web professionals pinpoint where delays occur, I’ve published this tool on this site that measures the full lifecycle of an HTTP request, from domain resolution to content delivery. This browser-based tool uses server-side diagnostics to simulate a…
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Artificial Intelligence
Global Loyalty Trends 2025: What’s Working, What’s Failing, and What’s Next
Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2025 delivers a sweeping analysis of how loyalty is being redefined in the age of personalization, automation, and AI. Based on data from over 2,600 business professionals and 10,000 global consumers, the report captures the shifting priorities and strategic realignment of loyalty programs across industries. It is especially timely as brands face economic uncertainty, rising…
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Content Marketing
WordPress: Why the JSON API User Endpoint is a Risk and How to Secure Your Site
WordPress has long prioritized extensibility and openness, which is why it introduced the REST API (also referred to as the JSON API). This feature makes it easier for developers to build applications that interact with WordPress content in a standardized way, whether to fetch posts, update settings, or integrate with other platforms. However, not all of these capabilities are ideal…
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Advertising Technology
illumin: Unify Programmatic, Social, and Email in One Ad Platform
Fragmented advertising tools and channel silos make it nearly impossible to deliver seamless customer experiences. Marketers are constantly juggling multiple platforms, struggling to extract insights, and racing to adapt campaigns to ever-changing behavior. The challenge isn’t finding data—it’s turning it into decisions, fast. illumin illumin is a journey-based advertising platform that empowers marketers to unify their programmatic, email, and social…
