Weekly Call w/ Gilbert — Inventory & Google Ads Review (2026-02-04)

Date: 2026-02-04
Attendees: Gilbert Barrongo, Mark Hope
Clients discussed: ^[1], ^[2], ^[3]

Overview

Weekly operations and advertising review covering three areas: (1) improvements to Doodle of Farms' inventory tracking spreadsheet, (2) Google Ads performance analysis for Adavacare and Reynolds Transfer & Storage, and (3) Amazon keyword and sales trends for Doodle of Farms. Mark also previewed a longer-term plan to build an API-connected inventory management app.

Key Decisions

• Include shipped/receiving in Total Inventory. The current sheet excludes inventory that has been shipped from the warehouse but not yet acknowledged by Amazon. This creates a blind spot that can trigger unnecessary reorders. All five inventory locations should be summed: at FBA, inbound to FBA, at AWD, inbound to AWD, and shipped/receiving.
• Set a 2–4 month inventory target. Reorder when stock approaches 2 months of supply; order enough to reach 4 months. Never exceed 4 months (carrying cost risk), never drop below 2 months (stock-out risk).
• Automate warehouse order prep for Carly. Carly (warehouse manager) currently receives unit counts and must manually convert to boxes, pallets, and weights. A new sheet will do this math automatically, reducing error risk.
• Adavacare strategy: scale the surviving campaigns. After pausing poor-performing location campaigns, conversion rates improved from ~2% to 5–7%. The play is to scale the high-converting campaigns rather than mourn lost impressions.

Action Items

• [ ] Gilbert — Update inventory sheet: add shipped/receiving column to Total Inventory calculation; recompute reorder thresholds accordingly.
• [ ] Gilbert — Call Carly to confirm units/box, boxes/pallet, and weight specs; build a box/pallet calculator sheet that outputs ready-to-ship data.
• [ ] Gilbert — Email Carly re: cornmeal gluten-free claim from 2-star review; confirm packaging/labeling policy (note: shared factory with wheat may preclude a gluten-free label).
• [ ] Gilbert — Investigate Reynolds Transfer & Storage Google Ads performance drop since September; reconcile conflicting metrics (conversion rate up, but conversions and impressions both down); send findings to Sebastian.
• [ ] Gilbert — Investigate Adavacare CPC increase via Auction Insights and competitor analysis; confirm competition as root cause.
• [ ] Mark — Send Adavacare MCP/SpyFu findings to Sebastian; ask him to discuss with Gilbert.

Inventory Management — Doodle of Farms

Problem: Undercounted Total Inventory

The existing spreadsheet sums FBA on-hand + inbound to FBA + AWD + inbound to AWD, but omits the shipped/receiving column — units that have left the warehouse but haven't yet been registered by Amazon. This gap can make stock appear lower than it is, prompting unnecessary reorders.

"The problem is that we keep on thinking, oh, we're almost out, but oh no, but there's actually some in a truck, but we're not counting it." — Mark

Fix: Add shipped/receiving to the Total Inventory formula. The five canonical inventory locations are:
1. At FBA
2. Inbound to FBA (Amazon-acknowledged)
3. At AWD
4. Inbound to AWD (Amazon-acknowledged)
5. Shipped/receiving (warehouse-dispatched, not yet in Amazon system)

Inventory Target: 2–4 Month Band

Top velocity SKUs where this matters most: black beans, popcorn, yellow cornmeal, Old World (four top sellers).

Warehouse Order Automation

Carly currently receives unit counts and must manually convert to boxes and pallets — a manual step that introduces error risk. The proposed solution is a dedicated sheet that:
- Pulls the "quantity to ship" figure from the main inventory sheet
- References product data (units/box, boxes/pallet, box weight)
- Outputs: number of boxes, number of pallets (full + partial), total weight

This gives Carly everything she needs to execute a shipment order without doing any math herself.

Long-Term Vision

Mark is planning an internal app with direct Amazon API access to manage inventory across all channels: Amazon FBA/AWD, physical warehouse, retail orders, and bulk orders. The spreadsheet approach continues in the interim.

Google Ads Performance

Adavacare

Account context: Assisted living facilities in Milwaukee; ~10 facilities, ~3 open beds each, ~30 beds to fill. Average resident revenue ~$5,000/month with ~22-month average stay.

Root causes identified:
1. Competition: Industry-wide CPC for assisted living / elder care rose ~32% YoY (LocalIQ Healthcare Benchmarks). Milwaukee may be running even hotter. Auction Insights confirm a crowded landscape — Adavacare holds ~21% impression share; aggregators like A Place for Mom, Caring.com, and SeniorLivingNearMe.com dominate.
2. Budget tightening: Two poor-performing location campaigns were paused, which reduced impressions and clicks but improved overall conversion rate.

Strategic read: The surviving campaigns are performing well (5–7% CVR). The right move is to scale them, not to restore the paused campaigns. The CPC increase is largely an external market condition, not an optimization failure.

Next step: Gilbert to pull Auction Insights data and competitor analysis; Mark to send MCP/SpyFu findings to Sebastian (account manager) and ask him to loop in Gilbert.

Reynolds Transfer & Storage

Problem: Performance dropped sharply starting September 2025 — impressions, clicks, and total conversions all fell significantly. Cost per conversion jumped from ~$32 to over $100.

Conflicting signal: Conversion rate appears up, but total conversions are down and impressions are down. Mark flagged that these three metrics moving in that direction simultaneously don't add up and warrant closer inspection.

No obvious cause found: Gilbert reviewed the change history and found no significant account changes in September. No campaigns were paused or budgets cut at that time (unlike Adavacare).

Next step: Gilbert to dig into the account, reconcile the metric discrepancies, and send findings to Sebastian.

Amazon Performance — Doodle of Farms

Overall Sales Snapshot (Last 30 Days)

• Trend: Recovering — impressions and organic units both rising.
• ROAS: 3.42 (up from ~3.35 the prior week). Organic sales growth is the primary driver, diluting ad spend cost across more total revenue.
• Returns: Record low of 153 units despite rising sales volume. Top return SKUs: cornmeal and popcorn (mostly accidental orders, not product dissatisfaction).

Customer Feedback Flag

A 2-star review on cornmeal noted the packaging does not indicate the product is gluten-free. Mark noted this may be intentional — the cornmeal is ground in a shared facility with wheat flour, which could preclude a gluten-free claim. Gilbert to share the review with Carly to assess labeling options.

Keyword Performance (Weekly Search Query Report)

Competitive note: Amish popcorn brand appears to have lost its organic search placement — possibly related to prior concerns about unverified organic claims. Their 90-day sales trend is flat.

Related

• ^[1]
• ^[2]
• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[5]