Using Googles NotebookLM

In this webinar, host Nicola Quail and guest Guneet Singh demonstrate how Google’s NotebookLM can revolutionize a marketer’s workflow by efficiently synthesizing and organizing vast amounts of information into actionable insights.

They showcase real-time demos, explain key features like data privacy and team collaboration, and answer live questions to help marketers leverage the tool effectively.

[0:09] Nicola:
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening—and for some, an early morning. My name is Nicola Quail. On behalf of my colleagues at the AI Marketers Guild—De Suity, Anady, and Helen—we are excited to have everyone here for our second webinar. We have marketers and the AI curious joining us from all over the Asia Pacific region, from New Zealand and Australia to Singapore, India, and even from New York. This shows how important it is to build a strong community in our part of the world.

[0:41] Nicola:
As many of you know, a new AI tool appears almost every day. It’s challenging to decide which tool is worth your time or if it will remain relevant next month.

The fast-changing AI landscape makes it essential to have guidance. That’s why we are honored and excited to introduce our speaker today.

Guneet Singh is a visionary leader with over 20 years of experience at tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Samsung. His expertise lies in understanding consumer needs, connecting them with brand benefits, and crafting stories that drive business.

He is the mastermind behind Google’s first award-winning brand campaign in India and one of the most successful global search campaigns. He is also recognized as one of the top 50 CMOS of India and AI Marketer of the Year.

[1:05] Nicola:
I’ll now let Guneet introduce himself and share more about his journey. Once we’ve listened to him, feel free to jump into the chat with your questions. We’ll also have dedicated Q&A time at the end. Let’s give a warm welcome to Guneet.

[1:29] Guneet Singh:
Thank you, Nicola. Hi everyone—it's great to be here. I’m here as a marketer experimenting with new tools and sharing what they can do.

I’ve been lucky to work in a range of environments, and what excites me most is the chance to continually try out new things. Recently, I met some brilliant students at NUS who mentioned that soon, AI will handle many routine tasks.

My advice? Stay curious—curiosity is a skill that never goes out of style. I’m not here as a representative of Google, but simply as a marketer playing with a tool.

[2:16] Guneet Singh:
Every day, new AI tools emerge. It’s important to get grounded in a few that will stand the test of time, and NotebookLM is one of them.

I’ve been experimenting with it since its early, scratch-board phase, and it’s impressive to see how much it has evolved. It appears to be among Google’s first solid wins in this space, and I’m sure they’ll continue to push its capabilities.

[2:41] Guneet Singh:
Learning a new tool every day isn’t practical. It’s better to master one tool to around 70% rather than dabble in several at 10%. Today, we’re going to explore NotebookLM together. Please open your browser—this session is interactive, and I want you to try things along with me. We’ll do a hands-on walkthrough rather than just talk about it.

[3:02] Guneet Singh:
I already see chat messages coming in. If you had a smart, free assistant today—imagine it as a very capable intern—what would you want it to do for you? Write a business plan? Create content? I’m eager to see your responses in the chat. While the tool might not cover every expectation, it can perform many tasks really well and help speed up your work.

[3:21] Guneet Singh:
Let’s begin discussing NotebookLM. I’ll explain what it is since not everyone here has experienced it yet. NotebookLM is a language model built from your notes. We’re all familiar with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and similar models that rely on vast internet datasets. But when you need to focus specifically on your business or particular content, those models work like a giant vacuum cleaner—sucking up everything. NotebookLM, by contrast, works like precise tweezers, extracting exactly what you need.

[3:44] Guneet Singh:
Simply put, you input your notes into a notebook, and it becomes an expert on that information. The best part? It’s designed for everyone—you don’t need to write any code or learn complex prompt engineering. It’s as simple as using a web note.

[4:05] Guneet Singh:
The tool leverages both your personal notes and the general internet knowledge from Gemini to work for you. A key feature is data privacy: your data is never used for training if you’re on an Enterprise, Education, or Workspace login. With a consumer login, only feedback you provide might be reviewed by humans, but otherwise, your data remains private.

[4:29] Guneet Singh:
Another brilliant feature is its shareability. Instead of copying and pasting notes into emails for collaboration, you can share the entire Notebook with your team. Imagine that one exceptionally bright student in class who took thorough notes and then shared them with everyone. That’s NotebookLM for you.

[4:42] Guneet Singh:
Now, let me walk you through some of the product specifications before we dive into demos. NotebookLM is powerful and free. You can create up to 100 notebooks per account—with the ability to delete old ones when you hit the limit. Each notebook supports up to 50 sources, each containing up to 500,000 words or 200 MB of data, and you can add up to 1,000 notes in a notebook. This gives you plenty of space to organize content for different teams, media channels, or customer segments.

[5:48] Guneet Singh:
It accepts inputs from PDFs, images, website links, Google Docs, slides, YouTube links, and even audio files. (It currently doesn’t support spreadsheets or automatically generate images.) The engine, powered by Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, is continuously updated. It supports up to 35 languages and is available in nearly 180 countries.

[6:10] Guneet Singh:
Now, let’s have some fun. I call this “playtime.” Open your browser and go to notebooklm.google.com. Click “New Notebook” and then “Upload Sources.” For example, open your LinkedIn profile, copy your profile URL, and paste it into the designated area. This will load your LinkedIn profile as a source. Once that appears, go to Notebook Guide where you’ll see a “Generate Audio Overview” button. Click it and then name your notebook. I’m calling mine “I’m Remarkable.”

[7:13] Guneet Singh:
Let’s shift back to the slides while NotebookLM does its work. As marketers, NotebookLM addresses three big challenges: staying on top of overwhelming information, turning insights into actionable tasks, and improving teamwork. It can, for instance, condense a 60-page research report into a concise summary you can quickly digest and act upon.

[8:19] Guneet Singh:
Here’s an example: I received a long YouTube video on branding and marketing in the age of AR. I didn’t have an hour to watch it, so I dropped the link into NotebookLM. It generated an interview summary with key themes such as branding, the power of storytelling, and authenticity. It even produced a briefing document that you could read in under five minutes—a real time-saver for busy marketers.

[9:02] Guneet Singh:
From that summary, I can ask follow-up questions. For instance, I inquired further about “permission marketing,” and the assistant provided a detailed explanation with citations linking back to specific parts of the original video. I saved this as a note for future reference.

[10:01] Guneet Singh:
NotebookLM also lets you draft emails or other communications from the insights it generates. I composed an email to my team regarding permission marketing—my initial text was rough, but the assistant professionally refined it. It’s a quick way to generate actionable content so that you spend more time acting than reading.

[10:20] Guneet Singh:
Next, NotebookLM is excellent for managing research documents. For instance, I uploaded a detailed Snapchat report on Gen Z in India—a 60-page PDF. The tool summarized each source, highlighted key topics, and even suggested questions based on the report, which is helpful for brainstorming creative campaigns.

[10:42] Guneet Singh:
You can also merge multiple sources. I uploaded a website link for a luxury D2C fragrance brand along with the Snapchat report. Then I asked it to draft a brief for my social media team, suggesting three action items that integrated insights from the two sources. It’s a powerful way to turn research into practical strategy.

[11:02] Guneet Singh:
NotebookLM can analyze data as well—for example, a Google Analytics PDF from a company called Overleaf. I uploaded a simplified version of their analytics and asked for the top three insights. It identified key factors like organic search performance and popular homepage elements, which I could then use to generate SEO recommendations.

[11:24] Guneet Singh:
It can also help in creating effective search ad copy. I asked it to suggest low-cost, high-traffic keywords for search ads. It returned a range of targeted ideas that you can refine further with your own ad account data—great for developing a robust SEM strategy swiftly.

[11:51] Guneet Singh:
Another valuable application is handling survey data. My team conducted a survey with influencers and converted the Excel data into a single-page PDF. NotebookLM summarized the survey and extracted actionable insights, such as drafting a social media plan, suggesting post ideas, and even recommending visuals for content.

[12:10] Guneet Singh:
Let me now address some questions coming in from the chat. One viewer asked if we can create a presentation using NotebookLM. Yes—you can ask it to generate a slide outline from the data, which you can then import into tools like Gamma to design actual slides. Another question was about renaming existing notes. You can easily edit the note title.

[12:42] Guneet Singh:
We also had a question about how small marketing teams can leverage NotebookLM collaboratively. The platform supports sharing: you can grant teammates view-only access or full edit rights so they can add sources and create additional notes. This makes it excellent for team meetings, agile product development updates, and creating a comprehensive product knowledge database.

[12:53] Guneet Singh:
Thank you so much for your questions and for joining this session. It’s been an insightful master class on using NotebookLM. Special thanks to Nicola, Helen, and Anady for their contributions. We’ll share the recording link shortly along with a QR code to join our WhatsApp community for marketers. Thank you, everyone!