wiki/clients/current/aviary/2026-03-17-performance-review.md · 661 words · 2026-04-05
Overview
Aviary (operating as "Hello") was flagged as a high-risk client during the 2026-03-17 weekly sync between Sebastian and Mark. Performance is flat across all three active channels — SEO, Google Ads, and email automation — with multiple active blockers preventing improvement. The client had indicated they would want a review after four months; the team assessed they need to move the needle quickly.
"We're going to get freaking fired here shortly if we don't get something going." — Mark Hope
Status by Channel
SEO
- Organic traffic is flat at approximately 10–12 clicks/day; peak was 30 clicks on March 9th.
- Impressions running ~250–300/day with no meaningful growth since December.
- Site is ranking almost exclusively for branded terms (company name, founder name); zero visibility for service-related or vertical keywords.
- Root cause: The site lacks content. Homepage has minimal copy; no vertical/use-case pages are live yet.
- Blocker: New vertical pages have been drafted but are awaiting feedback from Justin (client-side contact). Sebastian to push for approval.
- Blog posts are being written; Sebastian planned to send 2–3 posts for review the same day.
Google Ads
- Receiving approximately 20 clicks/day with zero conversions recorded.
- Conversion actions (demo booked, lead form submit) are confirmed set up but show as inactive — no one is completing them.
- Blocker: The account is blocked from full operation due to a pending advertiser verification. Mark has attempted verification ~6 times; rejections cite a document name mismatch ("the name on the document you provide does not match the organizational details you provided"). Deadline noted as April 12th.
- No audit work can proceed until verification clears.
- Next step: Mark to re-submit verification with corrected document. Once cleared, Mark will run a full Google Ads audit.
Email Automation
- Email sends have effectively stalled: 41 sends on March 16th, 5 on March 17th, then nothing.
- Bug identified: An automation rule suppresses email sequences once a lead is converted to an opportunity. The client (Aaron) converts nearly all leads to opportunities, which is halting the entire email pipeline.
- A bot-click filter was added (clicks within 15 seconds flagged as bot activity) to clean up open/click metrics — particularly relevant given that financial-sector spam filters auto-open and auto-click emails.
- Resolution path: Sebastian to ask Aaron whether email sequences should continue after a lead is converted to an opportunity. If yes, Mark will update the suppression rule.
Key Blockers
| Blocker |
Owner |
Status |
| Vertical page copy — awaiting client feedback |
Sebastian → Justin |
Pending |
| Advertiser verification — document mismatch |
Mark |
In progress (6th attempt) |
| Email suppression rule — post-conversion behavior unclear |
Sebastian → Aaron |
Needs client input |
| Blog posts not yet published |
Sebastian |
In progress |
Action Items
- [ ] Sebastian — Email Justin re: vertical page copy feedback; push for approval
- [ ] Sebastian — Send 2–3 Aviary blog posts for review today; boost on LinkedIn/Facebook once live
- [ ] Sebastian — Email Aaron re: email suppression after lead-to-opportunity conversion; relay decision to Mark
- [ ] Mark — Re-submit advertiser verification with corrected document (fix name mismatch)
- [ ] Mark — Audit Aviary Google Ads account once advertiser verification is resolved
Additional Context
- The team discussed boosting blog content via paid social (LinkedIn and Facebook) to drive traffic signals to the site, which may help Google begin to recognize the domain.
- A domain rating (DR) improvement project ($200) was discussed for other clients but not specifically scoped for Aviary in this call.
- Aviary uses a Webflow site; Crawl Scout integration has been problematic. 188 pages are indexed per Search Console, so indexing is not the primary issue.