SPECIAL SERIES ==> 🚨 Why Your Attribution Data Is Lying To You <== | BATHROOM Break #115 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

6 Jul 2026 · 13 min · 4 chapters

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In short

Blended CAC (blended customer acquisition cost) for marketing optimization, and why attribution data can mislead channel performance.

Guests

Jay Schwedelson (Do This Not That podcast; subjectline.com; keynote speaker, best-selling author, “number one podcaster in the world”) and Daniel Murray (The Marketing Millennials).

Key claims

Attribution often makes Meta/Google look better because branded keyword searches and cross-channel effects are credited to those platforms; marketers should track a blended CAC target across channels, then diagnose performance in silos.

Notable examples

Meta/Google may “win” due to branded keywords; turning off a channel can raise blended CAC because that channel was supporting branding search. Testing: reserve ~20% budget for new channels (e.g., ChatGPT ads) before fully blending.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Theme Parks and Personal Experiences

0:39 to 3:19

Discussion about experiences at theme parks and carnivals.

“We are back with another bathroom break.”

Understanding Blended CAC

3:19 to 8:23

Exploration of blended customer acquisition cost and its implications.

“So what we're talking about today is not just theme parks.”

Testing New Marketing Channels

8:23 to 10:21

Advice on integrating new marketing channels into blended CAC.

“But Blender Character lets you play marketing activities that will help you build longer term pipeline in the future, not today.”

Carnivals vs. Theme Parks Revisited

10:21 to 12:45

Light-hearted discussion about food and experiences at carnivals.

“Forget about theme parks for a second here.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:07Jay Schwedelson:Welcome to a new special series called The Bathroom Break. That extra 10 minutes, you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom or both. But I don't recommend both, but that's your choice. This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from The Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwedelson, from the Do This Not That podcast and subjectline.com. each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back with another bathroom break.

0:42Jay Schwedelson:I am here with the keynote speaker, best-selling author, number one podcaster in the world, Jay Schweders. Do This Not That podcast. And I am Gamer, the Mark Milengos. And I actually have a question for you because I've actually never asked you this question. Like, are you a theme park guy? Like, do you like roller coasters? Do you like go to theme parks? Do you usually pay your kids to theme parks? Well, it's an excellent question. First of all, I can't go on any ride that goes in any formation of a circle because I'll throw up. I can't go on a merry-go-round. I can't go on anything that goes, a loop-de-loop, forget about it.

1:20Vomit instantly, vomination. but I really do like going and playing carnival games. I like winning stuffed animals that are both awkward, weird, smelly, and are poorly designed. I just like winning them. I also like funnel cake. Do you like going to theme parks?

1:39Jay Schwedelson:We went from theme parks to carnivals. Yeah, carnivals. I like carnivals. That's what I like. I used to like theme parks. I think theme parks are a good time, but I did have this experience I went to Six Flags in Texas with my cousins when I was living in Texas and it was like really hot and I like forgot to eat in the morning and I went on a roller coaster and I square I like blacked out for two seconds and then after that ride I thought I was gonna faint and I was like it was so hot I didn't know where to go and I went into this restaurant and the line was so long so i was like to my cousin please go get me something and i sit down the chair these people leave their fries on the table take their fries i was about to i swear i was about to pass that so now i'm not afraid to go to theme parks after that on roller coast you ate somebody else's fries at a theme park that is gross i have another random question with you because you're like six five you're you're a big tall dude have you ever tried to get on a ride they're like you're too big no but i've had the little like jam in there i ain't just i remember also another story about i you know those like the drop rides oh i would not do that there's your man there's like a tower of terror you say no way i'm doing that yeah i went in there i was like 10 years old and my clip didn't go but my my dad was saying and i was at windlock So I was flying around.

3:08Jay Schwedelson:I see my dad's like holding me down. No way. And I'm never going to ride like that again. So PTSD from theme parks. I just want to ask. Wow. Yeah. Next level. All right. So what we're talking about today is not just theme parks. We're talking about something called blended CAC. You know, ever since I got to know Daniel, been talking about marketing stuff, I don't think every third conversation, Daniel somehow slips in there. Yeah. But blended CAC is where it's at. That's my whole thing is blended CAC, whatever. and I want to talk about what does that mean what does it mean for marketers why is it something that's always on your mind can you like first break down what it means yeah so blended cac is like the customer acquisition cost of all your channels like combined uh so each you people are probably measuring it if you are like your customer acquisition costs of meta google whatever channels, I believe that you should have a blended number that you come up with in your organization that if we hit this blended CAC, we're okay.

4:14Jay Schwedelson:So I say this, like it costs$20 to acquire, costs more,$30, however much a product costs, come up with that number. And if you stay under your blended CAC, you're pretty much safe to go and keep spending um and the reason why i think about this is and we talk about this in all a lot of podcasts is attribution lies attribution doesn't tell you the truth um it will say that meta and google are doing better usually like meta google looks better because they have you have branded keywords that you are betting against that have a way higher cac because people know who you are but that's not even, they didn't get, they knew your name somewhere else.

5:00Jay Schwedelson:So I also believe you need to separate blended CAC on Google. I'm not blending CAC, but CAC on branded search keywords and just keyword search in general when you're bidding on Google, that's a whole another conversation. But I like this number because it gives you room to know I can go do another channel to spend more if my blended CAC's okay. And if it rises above, then we reevaluate what channels aren't performing and not performing pull back somewhere but i like that number just as a way to keep my marketing in check and also not be beholder to one channel all the time so so i would say and i fall in this camp which is probably not a good thing what i do is very siloed i look at each channel or each platform unto itself this is i even separate out within meta here's how facebook's doing here's how instagram's doing here's how linkedin's doing here's how email's doing.

5:52Here's how this is doing. You look at them all separately. And then what I do, which is a bad idea probably is, oh, okay. You know, Reddit's not doing that great. I'm going to take budget from Reddit. I'm going to put it more towards over here, which is doing really well. So do you not look underneath the hood and you kind of give each of these platforms and channels kind of more legs to run a longer period of time? Do you think it's a mistake to kind of be looking at everything

6:18Jay Schwedelson:siloed no i think you need both i think blend and guys number is the number you're aiming for but i think you need to measure every channel in a silo um just but just to know that what the number is and if like because you where you're in the silo and you know like if meta goes up too high like something's happening in meta if ig goes up too high something's happening in Instagram, if Reddit goes up, you have to get a baseline of what those channels are for who you are. But we were taught, we talk about this all the time. Like you run a brand campaign and then someone sees your meta ad, they convert a meta and then your meta looks better.

6:59Jay Schwedelson:Or you could do a Reddit ad. They see a Reddit ad on Reddit, they come by on Google or they type your name on Google and those channels just start uplifting. Sometimes you turn off the faucet of another channel and And then you see blended cat go up and you like start turning off another channel and another channel. But it's probably because you turned fully off a channel that was meant, that was helping you get branding search keywords, meta keywords. I mean, meta conversions, email conversions, whatever you're looking at. So that's why I like to look at blended cat because blended cat gives a whole number of your whole marketing picture.

7:39Jay Schwedelson:and it makes you think, okay, I don't have to fully shut off Reddit right now, even if it's higher than I expect, because I know maybe Reddit's a longer-term channel for me. I don't have to pull back here that much, but the silos help because if Metacac goes higher, you can start self-diagnosing each channel and say, okay, Metacac the last three months was this, and now it's gone up 20, 30%. Maybe something's happening in meta. Maybe my ads are, there's ad fatigue. Maybe there's, we need a prospect better. Maybe our retargeting ads aren't doing good. Whatever, you can diagnose each channel by that.

8:23Jay Schwedelson:But Blender Character lets you play marketing activities that will help you build longer term pipeline in the future, not today. So let's say, for example, right now, you know, ChatGPT now allows you to run ads. right? And you're like, listen, we're going to bring that on as a new silo, a new platform, a new whatever. Out of the gate, if it's something that new like that, will you just have that be part of your blended CAC? Or would there's something that's net new, like your organization has never done Reddit or ChatGPT or ads on whatever, do you have it live on its own before it joins the party in the blended CAC land?

9:00Like, do you have a separate thing just for testing?

9:01Jay Schwedelson:No, but I do think like 20 % of your budget should always be for testing. And I would mark it as a test budget and let it run for a longer period of time but i will see because it is still overall spend to acquire a customer like you spending like blended cac is like taking your overall marketing spend and then how much it costs like how much it costs to acquire that customer and you channel so like if you're siloing that then you're like missing like the whole picture and then some people measure cac differently like they measure like the employee costs in the marketing department the the software like the tools whatever i like to do the channel part and then you could do another calculation of like that too of your department but yeah i would always put any channel i put in and blend the cac and but i don't think that because the spend is so although I don't think that would affect Blendicac that much because if you're spending 5K in chat GBT and 100K in meta, that's not really going to throw.

10:07Jay Schwedelson:It might raise the Blendicac by a little, but it shouldn't do much. That's why keeping in the numbers is not going to really affect it. If you decide to blow 50 % of your budget, that you'll see a big change in Blendicac. All right, well, let me go back to the original topic. Let's go to carnivals. Forget about theme parks for a second here. are you um will you eat food at carnivals will you go will you get funny cake will you eat a hot dog or do you think the carnival food is disgusting we use a carnival bathroom what carnival game are you good at do you like throw the little circle thing and you win a fish like what is your deal at a carnival i i like carnival food i think they belong like once a year um because it's you might get a heart attack but i do like i like i do like a funnel cake i do like i know you're probably gonna hate this but like one of those big turkey dogs like this for turkey legs what but what is the turkey leg thing i don't understand how did that start first of all nothing is worse than walking around disney world and you see something a big turkey leg i'm like what are you doing it's not thanksgiving it was never than a carnival though like a carnival is like it's worse than a carnival i know i think it's better at carnival where do you think they're getting a turkey leg from it's getting from like someone's toilet i mean where do you think it's coming from but i i do like a funnel cake i do i do like trying something that's exotic but i won't touch like a a deep fried snickers or something like that like a fried oreo that's the best oreo is different but like a fried snicker what is the difference fried butter would you eat a deep fried i want to try that i want to try that i saw that i want to try that but we when i went to the roller coaster combo you went straight to carnival in your head i don't know what you like you live in florida and you have like disneyland and you have you're captain harry potter you want to go get whatever is beer butter i did go to i have been to universal i'm sure you have had i had the butter beer i've had it what's fun i think that's fun it's too crowded too many people you hate around it's like a marketing conference for you Yeah, avoid people at all costs.

12:16Jay Schwedelson:What if we're getting conferences had like deep fried Oreos and turkey legs? That booth would probably be the most popular booth ever. Deep fried butter. I mean, that's my ICP right there. Well, once again, we've covered the most important topics in the world. I don't know what they are, but go and follow the Marking Millennials. Go and follow Do This Not That podcast and go crush it this week. Daniel, come on, man. I got to get back to work. Get out of there. All right. While he's still in there, this is Jay. Check out my podcast, Do This, Not That, for marketers. Each week, we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing.

12:55And I hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

12:58Jay Schwedelson:Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and Millie podcast. But also tune into this series. It's once a week, the bathroom break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email, subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out. Later.

From the publisher

Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact

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Pre-order Jay Schwedelson's new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out June 9, 2026).

All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206

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Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out!

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Somewhere between confessions about theme-park vomit and stolen fries, Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray land on the number that's quietly running their whole marketing budget: blended CAC. It's the metric Daniel can't stop bringing up, and here he finally breaks down why it matters more than watching any single channel in isolation. Stick around past the carnival talk, because the real answer to "should I panic about Reddit's rising cost per acquisition" is in here.

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Follow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray’s newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights.

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Best Moments:

(01:07) Jay explains why he can't survive anything that spins in a circle

(03:15) Jay calls out Daniel's favorite obsession: blended CAC

(03:45) Daniel breaks down what blended CAC actually measures

(04:33) Why attribution lies and makes channels like Meta and Google look better than they are

(06:20) The case for tracking channels both blended and in silos

(08:33) How to fold a brand new channel, like ChatGPT ads, into your blended CAC without skewing it

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SPECIAL SERIES ==> 🚨 Why Your Attribution Data Is Lying To You <==Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson · 13 min
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