--- title: Weekly Call w/ Gilbert — Doudlah Inventory & Google Ads Strategy (2025-11-12) type: article created: '2025-11-12' updated: '2026-04-05' source_docs: - raw/2025-11-12-weekly-call-w-gilbert-101102516.md tags: - meeting - amazon - fba - awd - inventory - coupons - doudlah-farms - old-world-popcorn - google-ads - conversion-tracking - ai-max - adavacare - gilbert layer: 2 client_source: Doudlah Farms industry_context: food-beverage transferable: false --- # Weekly Call w/ Gilbert — Doudlah Inventory & Google Ads Strategy (2025-11-12) **Attendees:** Gilbert Barrongo, Mark Hope **Client:** [[wiki/clients/current/doudlah-farms/index|Doudlah Farms]] **Date:** 2025-11-12 ## Overview Weekly check-in covering two main areas: (1) Doudlah Farms' Amazon inventory situation — specifically the fallout from AWD unreliability and a new aggressive coupon policy to clear aging stock — and (2) Google Ads performance, including conversion tracking discrepancies and a planned AI Max pilot on underperforming accounts. November sales were trending strong at ~$131k (vs. $116k in October), but inventory mismanagement from the AWD experiment is forcing disposal of expired product and demanding tighter controls going forward. --- ## Key Decisions ### 1. Abandon AWD; Ship All New Inventory to FBA Amazon's AWD service has been unreliable — replenishment failures, full warehouses, and expired stock flagged for disposal. The decision is to route all new shipments directly to FBA and keep inventory levels at **≤4 months** on hand. AWD may be revisited later for fast-moving SKUs like popcorn, but not until things stabilize. > *"We'll stay away from AWD for a few months, try to get everything stabilized, and then maybe for the really fast-moving stuff like popcorn, we'll try it again."* — Mark ### 2. Aggressive Coupon Policy to Clear Aging FBA Stock A tiered coupon policy is now in effect to liquidate excess inventory before it expires: | Inventory Age | Coupon | |---|---| | 6–12 months | **20% off** | | >12 months | **25% off** | | <6 months | No coupon (unless new product launch) | Products immediately affected include 1-lb Pinto Beans, 1-lb Kidney Beans, 25-lb Great Northern Beans, 25-lb Yellow Popcorn, and Whole Wheat Flour. > *"We'd rather sell it at a 20% or even a 30% discount than throw it away."* — Mark ### 3. Old World Popcorn: Target Organic Competitors Only Old World Popcorn ads will be refocused exclusively on organic popcorn competitors. Targeting non-organic brands (e.g., Orville Redenbacher at ~10¢/oz vs. Old World at ~31¢/oz) is not viable given the 3x price gap. The goal is to own the organic popcorn segment rather than compete on price with conventional brands. > *"If you target those guys that are a third of your price, it's going to be difficult."* — Mark ### 4. Google Ads AI Max Pilot on Adavacare Gilbert will test Google's AI Max optimization tool on [[wiki/clients/current/adavacare/index|Adavacare]] — an underperforming account — before rolling it out to high-revenue accounts like Doudlah or Firestone. This de-risks the experiment while still generating learnings. --- ## Action Items - [ ] **Gilbert** — Increase coupons on 1-lb Pinto Beans and 25-lb Great Northern Beans to 20–25% per the new tiered policy - [ ] **Gilbert** — Audit all Doudlah SKUs; apply 20% coupon to any inventory 6–12 months, 25% to any >12 months (including 25-lb Yellow Popcorn) - [ ] **Gilbert** — Update Old World Popcorn ad targeting to organic competitors only; remove non-organic competitor targets - [ ] **Gilbert** — Press Anup to permanently fix Google Ads conversion tracking discrepancies (e.g., 6 conversions in Ads vs. 10 in Analytics over 30 days) - [ ] **Gilbert** — Launch AI Max pilot on Adavacare Google Ads account - [ ] **Gilbert** — Increase Google Ads optimization cadence to bi-weekly to monitor conversion goals more closely - [ ] **Mark** — Confirm Carly's upcoming Doudlah order ships directly to FBA (not AWD) --- ## Topic Notes ### Doodla Amazon Inventory - AWD warehouses are full; Amazon has flagged several SKUs for disposal due to expiration: - **1-lb Pinto Beans** — ~1,000 units at AWD, will not sell through in time - **1-lb Black Beans** — already expired per Amazon's 2-month threshold; disposal imminent - **25-lb Kidney Beans** — 26 units flagged for disposal - Root cause: over-shipped into AWD during initial stocking; AWD then became unreliable for replenishment - Going forward: FBA only, max 4 months inventory on hand - November sales trending to ~$131k (11-day extrapolation); October was $116k - Account margin currently 31–37%; target is **40%**. Gilbert to look for ad spend efficiency gains. ### Old World Popcorn - Sales have plateaued since coupons were removed (coupons were pulled due to low inventory, not by choice) - Review score has dropped from **4.4 → 4.0** due to packaging issues with current production run - Current FBA stock: ~162 units white, ~79 units yellow — approximately 2–3 months of inventory - Fix: next production run needs improved packaging; Carly has been notified to expedite - Ad strategy pivot: organic-only competitor targeting (see Key Decisions above) - No coupons needed on popcorn currently — selling well at full price ### Google Ads Performance - Conversion tracking discrepancies persist across accounts — Google Ads and Google Analytics reporting different conversion counts (example: 6 vs. 10 over 30 days) - Gilbert is messaging Anup weekly with specific fixes; increasing optimization cadence to bi-weekly - AI Max is a Google optimization tool Gilbert wants to pilot; strategy is to test on low-revenue / underperforming accounts first (Adavacare selected as first candidate) - General optimization work ongoing: negating poor search terms, promoting high-performers, adding dynamic images to responsive search ads --- ## Related - [[wiki/clients/current/doudlah-farms/index|Doudlah Farms Client Index]] - [[wiki/clients/current/adavacare/index|Adavacare Client Index]] - [[wiki/knowledge/amazon/fba-vs-awd-inventory-strategy|FBA vs. AWD Inventory Strategy]] - [[wiki/knowledge/amazon/coupon-policy-for-aging-inventory|Coupon Policy for Aging Inventory]] - [[wiki/knowledge/google-ads/ai-max-pilot-approach|Google Ads AI Max Pilot Approach]]