wiki/clients/current/doudlah-farms/2026-03-18-inventory-performance-marketing.md · 1472 words · 2026-04-05

Weekly Call — Inventory & Performance Marketing (2026-03-18)

Overview

Weekly team call reviewing record-breaking Amazon performance, defining the Pop Popcorn launch logistics, resolving Google Merchant Center data quality issues, and demoing an AI agent that audited and fixed critical structural errors in the Cordwainer Google Ads account in real time.

Attendees: Gilbert Barrongo, Karly Oykhman, Mark Hope, Sebastian Gant
Source: Fathom Recording


Key Decisions


Amazon Performance

March Projection: Record $136k

Metric Value
Daily revenue (consistent) $5,000+
Daily revenue (spike) $6,400
March sales through Day 17 $75,000
Projected March total ~$136,000
Previous record (January) $135,000
Margin Consistently in the 40s%

Organic units are rising sharply while ad cost is falling — a strong signal that ranking and brand awareness are compounding. Subscribe & Save is also up.

Top Products (30-Day Sales)

Rank Product Revenue
1 Organic White Popcorn $26,000
2 Yellow Cornmeal (5 lb) ~$14,900
3 Organic Yellow Popcorn $14,000
4 Black Beans
5 Old World Popcorn (Yellow)

Popcorn now accounts for 43% of total sales (~$52k of $121k). This is with some popcorn variants out of stock — upside remains if inventory is fully stocked.

Organic Rankings

Product Organic Rank Sponsored Rank
Doodla White Popcorn #2 #1
Old World Popcorn #17 (up from ~#40) #3

Old World's rank improvement is significant but fragile — inventory stockouts directly cause rank to drop. Daily rank tracking is being implemented.

Inventory Status


Google Merchant Center — Doodle Farms & Old World

Problem

The Doodle Farms product data spreadsheet was outdated and incomplete, causing feed errors in Google Merchant Center. Issues included missing product sizes, incorrect UPC/GTIN formatting, and out-of-stock products missing price data (which triggers feed errors even when OOS is acceptable).

Resolution

Mark worked through the Merchant Center API directly (the WooCommerce plugin did not handle everything). Fixes applied:

Current Status

Feed Status
Doodla Farms ✅ Healthy — 63 products, 7 out-of-stock (all expected), store quality "awesome"
Old World ⏳ Pending — 1 product under review, 1 with "limited" discoverability (under investigation)

Old World feed should be fully live within a day or two pending Google's two-stage review process.

Structural Rule

A single master spreadsheet must be the source of truth for all product data across Amazon, the website, and Google feeds. Lucy's separate sheet should be merged into the master — not maintained in parallel.


Pop Popcorn Launch Strategy

Decision Detail
Bag order 25,000 (minimum order quantity)
Production run Minimum quantity — manage 6-month shelf life risk
Shelf life question Foil bags may extend shelf life beyond 6 months — Mark to confirm with Justin
Amazon fulfillment Ship directly from TS Foods → FBA
Website fulfillment Ship 1 pallet from TS Foods → DFO warehouse (enables bundled orders with other products)
MCF for website? Not preferred — mixed-product orders get complicated without warehouse stock

Competitive context: Skinny Pop, Boom Chicka Pop, and Garrett are dominant brands in this category. Realistic first-month expectation is 1,000–5,000 units, scaling over 3–6 months. The 25k bag minimum is manageable at that pace.


Mark demoed a locally-run AI agent that performs full Google Ads audits and executes fixes autonomously. The Cordwainer account was used as a live example.

Audit Findings (Pre-Fix)

Issue Detail
Bidding strategy Target ROAS on a lead-gen account with zero conversion values — algorithm was effectively blind
Conversion tracking All 8 conversions marked "Primary" — Google had no signal for what to optimize
Negative keywords None active on main campaigns — budget wasted on irrelevant queries
Landing pages Traffic sent to generic homepage → poor quality scores
Sitelink One sitelink pointing to a 404 page

AI-Executed Fixes

Fix Detail
Bidding Switched all campaigns to Maximize Conversions
Negative keywords Added 16 competitor terms + 5 brand terms as negatives
Brand campaign Created new exact-match brand campaign
Remarketing Created audiences and attached to all campaigns
Budget Optimized to ~$1,490/month (aligned with $2k/month total Google + Meta budget)
Conversion values Assigned monetary values to key actions (e.g., Form Submit: $100)
Broken link Fixed sitelink pointing to 404

Remaining Issues

Conversion Value Framework (General Principle)

For lead-gen accounts, conversion values must reflect realistic lead economics — not default to $1. Formula:

Lead Value = (Average Deal Size × Close Rate) × Margin

Example for Cordwainer: ~$7k/month contract × 12 months × 10% close rate = $8,400 lead value. Setting this correctly allows Google to bid aggressively enough to generate meaningful volume.

See also: [1]


Action Items

Owner Task
Gilbert Consolidate Lucy's sheet into Doodle Farms Product Data master (ASINs, SKUs, UPCs, dims, pricing)
Gilbert Start daily Amazon organic rank tracking for Old World; share trend with team
Gilbert Schedule setup call with Mark to install and configure Google Ads audit agent
Gilbert Launch Doodle Farms Google Shopping campaign ($100–$200/mo)
Gilbert Monitor Cordwainer Maximize Conversions for 2–3 weeks; pause homepage campaign if no improvement
Gilbert Monitor Cordwainer remarketing audience growth; launch remarketing ads when lists are large enough
Karly Email Lucy: order 25k bags, minimum production run, arrange 1 pallet to DFO warehouse
Karly Confirm Cordwainer landing page owner; coordinate with Sebastian
Karly Implement call tracking for Cordwainer; coordinate with Mark
Karly Confirm exact Cordwainer Meta ad spend with Sebastian
Karly Task design team with display creatives for Cordwainer remarketing campaign
Mark Research popcorn shelf life in foil bags (confirm with Justin)
Mark Research Old World Google Merchant Center "limited" discoverability issue
Mark Run Q2 OKR audits for all clients
Mark Research Aviary 2 email tracking; report findings to Karly

Sources

  1. Conversion Value Strategy
  2. Index
  3. Index
  4. Organic Rank And Inventory Risk
  5. Bidding Strategy Selection
  6. Google Merchant Center Feed Hygiene