Weekly Call w/ Gilbert — Amazon Performance & AI Google Ads Workflow (2025-10-29)

Overview

Weekly performance review between Mark Hope and Gilbert Barrongo (Director of Performance Marketing), with Jacob Jones observing. Covered Cellarize Amazon account health, Old World Popcorn's stalled growth and packaging problems, an emerging inventory crisis for 5lb Black Beans, and a live walkthrough of a new AI-assisted Google Ads analysis workflow using Gemini applied to the Bluepoint ATM account.

Attendees: Mark Hope, Gilbert Barrongo, Jacob Jones

Amazon Performance

Cellarize (Overall Account)

• Organic sales are growing faster than ad spend — a positive trend.
• Strategy to close the margin gap: reduce bids and budgets on campaigns with ROAS <2 rather than pausing them outright, to preserve any residual contribution.
• Lowest-performing products: Canary Beans and Wheat Flour. Canary Beans campaigns were already scaled back due to low monthly sales (~$188). Wheat Flour ROAS has improved from below 1 to above 2.

Old World Popcorn (Doodla)

• Sales plateau: Strong growth from July through August launch, continued through September, then flatlined in October. Product is too new to be plateauing.
• Review score decline: Dropped from 4.4 → 4.1 overall. 30-day average sitting at 3.5 stars.
• Root cause confirmed: 1-star reviews include photos of broken bags spilling product in transit. Amazon fulfillment is not adding protective packaging. Issue cannot be fully resolved until the next production run uses improved packaging.
• Keyword strategy: Gilbert bid up aggressively on "Organic Popcorn Kernels for Popping" (2,600 search volume) in mid-October to secure the #1 sponsored position. Expectation: organic rank improvement within 1–2 months as PPC rank signals feed into organic placement.
• Coupons: Gilbert had deactivated coupons when inventory dropped below 6 months. Mark directed him to reactivate them to restore sales velocity.

Inventory & Replenishment

• Critical situation: The velocity tracking sheet shows several SKUs below 1 month of stock, including 5lb Black Beans at 267 units (0.7 months) despite a recent large shipment.
• Root cause: Sales velocity (366 units/month for 5lb Black Beans) is outpacing replenishment cadence.
• Discrepancy flagged: Inbound shipments may not be reflected accurately in the tracking sheet. Gilbert to reconcile against Seller Central Inventory Ledger report.
• AWD: Fulfillment errors have decreased compared to prior months.
• Seller Central invite: Mark Dudla has been re-invited under a new email address but has not yet accepted. Mark Hope to follow up.

New AI Workflow for Google Ads

Tool Comparison

Mark introduced Gemini and Claude as more reliable alternatives to ChatGPT for performance marketing analysis, particularly when working with uploaded report files or live URLs.

Workflow Steps

1. Start a dedicated chat — one chat per client/topic to preserve context and avoid cross-contamination.
2. Set context first — open with: "I want to talk about Google Ads for [Client]. I'm going to upload some documents. Wait for my questions."
3. Upload reports — drag and drop CSV exports (Campaign report, Search Term report, etc.) directly into the chat.
4. Provide campaign context — specify campaign type (e.g., "B2B lead gen") so the AI interprets metrics correctly (e.g., don't evaluate ROAS when conversion value is intentionally set to $1).
5. Ask targeted questions — evaluate performance, request recommendations, run "what if" scenarios (e.g., "What happens if I raise bids from $1 to $3?").
6. Return to the same chat weekly — the accumulated context makes analysis progressively smarter. Upload fresh reports each week and reference prior recommendations.
7. Export key insights — paste important findings into a Google Doc for durable reference.

Tip from Mark: You can also paste Fathom call transcripts into the chat and ask specific questions about what was discussed — not just for summaries, but for targeted recall.

Bluepoint ATM — Live Analysis Findings

Campaign report and search term report for the last 30 days were uploaded to Gemini during the call.

Campaign Report Findings

• The "Traditional" campaign's rank problem is the most urgent issue. A new landing page was recently deployed (replacing the homepage). All ads must be confirmed to point to the new URL, then given time to percolate before further intervention.
• The "Cashless" campaign is performing well and could benefit from a modest budget increase.

Search Term Report Findings

• PMax campaign is generating significant wasted spend on irrelevant queries (e.g., "how to increase sales in retail footwear") — clearly misaligned with ATM/cashless B2B targeting.
• Search campaigns show good term quality overall.
• Action: audit PMax search terms and add negatives for irrelevant queries.

Key Decisions

• Reactivate Old World Popcorn coupons to restore sales velocity while packaging issue works itself out over the next production cycle.
• Do not pause low-ROAS Cellarize campaigns — reduce bids and budgets instead to preserve contribution margin.
• Adopt Gemini as the primary tool for Google Ads report analysis; use Claude for deeper marketing reasoning.
• Weekly ad-performance syncs with each account manager (Carly, Melissa, Sebastian) to be scheduled by Gilbert.

Action Items

• [ ] Restore Old World Popcorn coupons on Amazon (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Reconcile 5lb Black Beans inbound shipments via Seller Central Inventory Ledger; update velocity sheet; report back to Mark (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Call Carly re: reorder black beans; place production order (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Send 5lb Black Beans to FBA (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Remind Mark Dudla to accept Seller Central invite (@Mark Hope)
• [ ] Fix Bluepoint ATM Google Ads conversion value — set to $1 per conversion (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Confirm all Bluepoint ATM ads point to new landing page (not homepage) (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Clean Bluepoint ATM PMax search terms; add negatives for irrelevant queries (@Gilbert)
• [ ] Schedule weekly ad-performance syncs with Carly, Melissa, and Sebastian (@Gilbert)

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