Weekly Call — Inventory & Performance Marketing (2026-03-04)

Overview

Weekly review covering two primary topics: (1) Amazon FBA inventory stockouts suppressing ROAS, and (2) a full Google Ads account overhaul for Quarrowstone, including a live demonstration of ^[1] diagnosing and fixing the account in real time via the Google Ads API.

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

Key Decisions

• Switch Quarrowstone bidding from Maximize Conversions → Maximize Clicks with a $4 max CPC cap. Maximize Conversions requires ~30 days of conversion history to function; using it on a new account with zero conversions is a no-op.
• Raise search campaign budgets to $16/day (from $7/day) to generate ~4 clicks/day at $4 CPC. Retargeting budget set to $10/day. Total exposure ~$58/day; to be monitored and reviewed next week.
• Maintain Google Ads optimization score ≥ 80. Scores below 80 incur algorithmic penalties from Google. Applied Responsive Search Ads recommendation to bring score from 78 → 83.
• Create a dedicated brand campaign for Quarrowstone and remove brand terms from non-brand campaigns. Brand clicks cost ~$0.30 CPC vs. ~$5.00 for non-brand; spending non-brand budget on brand terms is waste.
• Reduce conversion goals from 16 → 2 biddable actions. Duplicate and auto-created goals were confusing the bidding algorithm. Only contact form submissions and Google-hosted lead forms remain as biddable; others set to observation only.

Action Items

• [ ] Monitor new Google Ads budgets ($16/day search, $10/day retargeting); review next week (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Present AI inventory-shipment model demo to Mark next week (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Maintain Google Ads optimization score ≥ 80 (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Create dedicated brand campaign; move brand terms out of non-brand campaigns (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Email Carly re: low Quality Scores (2–4); request landing page improvements (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Verify retargeting audience list is populated; add if missing (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Create Google Ads-only Claude Code workspace; set up cron jobs for automated audits (@Gilbert Barrongo)
• [ ] Post Google Ads changes report to Slack/Drive (@Mark Hope)
• [ ] Fix ClientBrain login/auth for Gilbert (@Mark Hope)

Inventory & Performance Impact

Current Stockouts

Shipments scheduled for March 9 are delayed due to unresolved pickup issues Carly is managing.

Performance Metrics (Last 30 Days)

• ROAS: 3.35 (up from 3.3 the prior week)
• TACOS: Decreasing → improved profit margin trend
• Organic units: Growing
• Subscribe & Save sales: Growing

Inventory stockouts are the primary suppressor of ROAS. Mark's position: resolve the stockout problem permanently and stop discussing it week-over-week.

AI Inventory Tool (In Development)

Gilbert is building an AI-driven shipment quantity calculator using:
- 30-day sales velocity per SKU
- Lead time (typically 2–3 weeks)
- Current FBA stock levels

Demo planned for next week's call.

Google Ads Campaign Overhaul (Quarrowstone)

Root Cause Analysis

The Quarrowstone account had zero conversions across all campaigns. Claude Code's API-based diagnosis identified the following:

Fixes Applied (This Session)

1. Bidding strategy: Changed all search campaigns to Maximize Clicks, $4 max CPC
2. Budgets: Search campaigns → $16/day; retargeting → $10/day
3. Conversion goals: Reduced from 16 → 2 biddable actions (contact form, Google lead form)
4. Negative keywords: Added 839 negatives via Claude Code, including:
   - Brand terms (to be isolated in dedicated brand campaign)
   - Irrelevant materials: bronze, fiberglass, granite, marble
   - Competitor terms (~95 exact match)
   - Fine art / foundry queries (~71 exact match)
   - Restoration-specific terms (~180)
   - Residential / transactional modifiers: "for sale," "buy," "shop"
5. Keyword purge: Removed irrelevant keywords from ad groups (127 → 104 remaining)
6. Optimization score: Applied Responsive Search Ads recommendation; score raised 78 → 83

Remaining Items (Not Yet Done)

• Create dedicated brand campaign
• Fix landing pages to improve Quality Scores (requires Carly)
• Verify/add retargeting audience list
• Monitor impression share improvement from budget increase

Claude Code Live Demo

Mark demonstrated ^[1] connecting to the Google Ads API via ~100 pre-built MCP server tools. Key observations:

• Diagnosis speed: Pulled full account data, identified all major issues, and produced a structured findings table in minutes (slowed this session by Claude server degradation)
• Real-time execution: Changed bid strategies, modified conversion goals, added 839 negative keywords, and purged irrelevant keywords — all without opening the Google Ads console
• Self-correcting: When API calls returned syntax errors, the agent identified the issue and retried with corrected syntax
• Scriptable: Sessions can be saved as named scripts and run on cron jobs for automated weekly audits
• Agent swarms: Multiple agents can run simultaneously across accounts

Next step for Gilbert: Set up a Google Ads-only Claude Code workspace (isolated from Mark's multi-tool environment) and configure cron jobs for automated weekly audits.

"It's like a hacker. An AI hacker." — Gilbert Barrongo

ClientBrain Demo

Mark briefly demonstrated ^[2] (clientbrain.asymmetric.pro), an internal tool aggregating all client communications (email, Slack, Fathom transcripts, ClickUp tasks, Google Drive) into a searchable, AI-queryable interface. Features shown:

• Per-client activity dashboard (emails, meetings, Slacks, Drive docs, ClickUp tasks)
• AI-generated 7-day communication summaries
• Sentiment analysis on client relationship health
• Natural language Q&A against all client data

Gilbert's login is broken; Mark to fix auth issue before next session.

Related

• ^[3]
• ^[4]
• ^[1]
• ^[2]
• ^[5]