Pushing back on AI campaigns with humans in the loop, with Lyndsey Maddox
Funnel Reboot podcast
Episode 229 We need to talk about what’s been happening with the use of AI on Google and Meta’s ad platforms. A few years ago, we were surgeons. We had the scalpel. We chose the exact keywords, the specific bid modifiers, the precise placements. Now? Google and Meta are basically telling us, "Hey, don't worry your pretty little human head about it. Just give us your credit card, a few grainy images, and a vague 'goal,' and we’ll take it from here." Performance Max (PMax) and Advantage+ are the ultimate "Trust Me, Bro" of the marketing world. They’ve turned "manual control" into a...
info_outline
Paid Traffic for Non-Profits, with Sean Moher
Funnel Reboot podcast
How do you amplify a message when you can’t lean on traditional justifications like “because we’ll make a profit out of this”? In the for-profit world, the justification for marketing spend is straightforward: you put money in to get more money out. But how do you amplify a message when you can’t lean on traditional bottom-line justifications? For non-profits, associations, and social enterprises, the "profit motive" is replaced by a mission, yet the fundamental challenge remains identical—you must find and keep your "customers," whether they are donors, members, or...
info_outline
Depositioning, with Todd Irwin
Funnel Reboot podcast
Episode 226 Positioning is an element that’s so foundational to Marketing, it’s taught in every introductory class alongside the "Four Ps" of marketing. Positioning is meant to describe the choices a brand makes to maximize how the market sees it. Positioning is very powerful because it can set perceptions that drive customer loyalty, strong demand, and the willingness to pay a premium price. But if all this is true, then why is the landscape littered with examples of where brands have flopped—cases where brand positioning actually caused a product to fail? Take...
info_outline
Tried and True Marketing Reads
Funnel Reboot podcast
Episode 225 At the time I’m recording this it’s a new year. This is a typical time when people plan what they’re going to achieve fitness-wise, financially and professionally. If you’re working on that last one and wonder about what marketing reads you should try, I have some marketing books that could do just the thing. There are Five in all. - Let’s dive right in. Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.
info_outline
Mastering constraints of Healthcare Marketing, with Cindy Grabowski
Funnel Reboot podcast
Thinking up a new product and commercializing it is not easy. All products face Financial, Technological and of course Competitive market barriers. But doing this in the field of Healthcare is not like any other industry. In healthcare, there exist extra regulatory hurdles that make product innovation even more difficult. Before every medical device is introduced, they must find academics who will research them and publish articles that are heavily scrutinized by peers. Then they have to endure clinical screening before receiving government approval, which applies tight...
info_outline
The Classical Marketing book, with Anthony "Tas" Tasgal
Funnel Reboot podcast
The world we inhabit today is, in countless ways, an extended echo of breakthroughs made by two extraordinary cultures that came from a compact corner of the mediterranean between the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century of the current era. I’m talking about Greece and Rome, whose influence on contemporary language, thought, and culture is so deeply woven into the modern world that we navigate it every day without noticing. Taking just language, be it English, French, Spanish or Italian, they all use words with origins that tie back to ancient law, institutions, arts and sciences. The...
info_outline
Keeping the Revenue Engine Running, with Karl Ortmanns
Funnel Reboot podcast
We often hear marketers talk about how vital their work is to sales. What we don’t hear nearly as often is the reverse: how essential sales is to a well-functioning marketing team. If marketing creates the content, sales provides the context. And that context is what makes campaigns relevant, credible, and grounded in the real world. Sales teams feed marketing the on-the-ground truth—what prospects are actually saying, how they react to new pricing, and how they interpret a company's positioning in different segments. That’s especially clear when a business serving the SMB market tries...
info_outline
Brandjitsu, with Michael Dargie
Funnel Reboot podcast
Is your Brand truly memorable? Would a person who bought from you a year ago be able to recall your name or say what they found compelling about you? The reality is that a lot of brands are instantly forgettable. You don’t have to wallow in a world of Meh - you can turn your brand into something memorable - we’re going to hear a process that’s been codified in a book that came out in 2025 called BrandJitsu. . Listen in as we delve into the book’s process, which begins not with a funnel but with a Loop we’ve got to Embrace. We’ll hear how to plumb the depths of our brand...
info_outline
Human Centered Marketing, with Ashley Faus
Funnel Reboot podcast
Here’s a question a lot of us are asking ourselves today. How do marketers build genuine, durable trust when the cost of generating massive volumes of AI content is basically zero? How can you argue for making humanly-crafted content in small quantities When it’s so easy to have AI pump it out in big quantities? The hard truth is that humans are wired to notice what other humans do. Meaningful communication with buyers contains elements that just don't scale - this takes more than a trivial amount of work. But that is precisely why you need to do them. A new book came out...
info_outline
Analytics that's Metrics Centred, with Allan Wille
Funnel Reboot podcast
Up to the 18th century, making and trading things was harder than it needed to be. You had to deal with a bewildering patchwork of local constants and norms. It was actually the French Revolution & administrators who came out of it that started to codify how we measure things. The standards they adopted were ultimately formalized in 1875 at a Convention whose name you may recognize, the Metre - or should I say Meter - Convention. The Standard set at the convention spread beyond France to most of Europe, removing friction in commerce and everyday life. Engineers could spec...
info_outlineHow do you amplify a message when you can’t lean on traditional justifications like “because we’ll make a profit out of this”?
In the for-profit world, the justification for marketing spend is straightforward: you put money in to get more money out. But how do you amplify a message when you can’t lean on traditional bottom-line justifications? For non-profits, associations, and social enterprises, the "profit motive" is replaced by a mission, yet the fundamental challenge remains identical—you must find and keep your "customers," whether they are donors, members, or beneficiaries.
Marketing in the non-profit sector isn't just about "pulling heartstrings"; it is about solving a business problem using the same tools as the private sector. Whether you are a plumber looking for a lead or a foundation looking for a donor, revenue is the common denominator that keeps the lights on.
In this episode, we explore how organizations can move beyond "waiting to be found" by using paid traffic as an accelerant. We will dive into why Mission-Based organizations should look at paid Traffic. Specifically The Google Ad Grant program.
Whether you are a for-profit marketer looking to apply your skills to a "3-dimensional" cause or a non-profit leader ready to fill your funnel, it’s time to stop treating marketing as an afterthought and start treating it as a vital utility.
Our guest is a marketing consultant who supports both for-profit and non-profit local service organizations. Through his agency, Harvest Demand, he blends smart digital strategies with practical storytelling to help these organizations grow. He also brings experience in search and AI optimization, as well as leveraging digital advertising, including managing ad grants for non-profits. In other words, Sean’s all about making a real impact for a variety of organizations.
Let’s talk with Sean Moher.
Timestamps/chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:41 Sean defines the Nonprofit Landscape
02:24 What Is Marketing Without Profit? “Finding and Keeping Customers”
03:13 The 3-Party Value Exchange: Mission-Based Value Beyond Transactions
07:06 Emotion vs. Action: Telling Stories That Still Drive Donations
08:02 Measurement Reality Check: Analytics, Funnels & the Awareness Gap
10:39 Why Paid Traffic Matters: Stop Waiting to Be Found
11:34 Google Ad Grant 101: $10K/Month in Search Ads (and Why It’s Not Magic)
14:01 Rules, “Loopholes” & Eligibility: What You Can (and Can’t) Advertise
15:54 Grant Limitations & Strategy: CPC Caps, Leftover Inventory & Testing in Parallel
18:20 AI as a Utility: Faster Research, Better Campaigns & Knowing Your Donor Avatar
23:34 Doing Pro Bono the Smart Way: Aligning with Interests, Boards & Real Impact
26:28 Where to Find Sean + Final Takeaways
Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.