Mike Coombe

Elevate Edge

Empower Your Ambition: AI-Driven Growth for Success Driven Business Leaders

At Elevate Edge AI we understand the drive and determination of driven business owners aiming to scale up rapidly. That's why we've harnessed the transformative power of AI to redefine growth. Our innovative AI and automation solutions are tailor-made for your unique business needs, enabling you to generate significant revenue with unprecedented ease and speed. Imagine a future where your business scales effortlessly, where every decision is data-driven, and every strategy is optimized for maximum output.

With us, this future is not just a possibility—it's your new reality. We offer a seamless, frictionless path to business expansion, reducing the time and effort traditionally required to scale. Our AI-driven approach is designed to work in the background, intelligently analyzing your business environment, identifying growth opportunities, and executing strategies that align with your aggressive expansion goals.

Partner with us to transform your entrepreneurial vision into tangible success. It's time to maximize your business output, minimize operational friction, and elevate your revenue generation to heights previously unimaginable. Let's redefine what's possible for your business together. Your ambition, our AI expertise—unleashing a new era of smart, scalable growth for your organisation.

Founder, CAIO

OPTe, Inc.

- Develop and implement strategic marketing plans to enhance brand presence and drive customer engagement.

- Lead product development initiatives, ensuring alignment with market demands and company goals.

- Foster partnerships, manage stakeholder relations, and engage in fundraising activities for business expansion.

- Guide teams in delivering market-leading products with a focus on user experience and operational efficiency.

VP R&D, Applied AI Specialist

I consult media buyers, agencies & brands ranging from $100,000 P/A - $10,000,000 to help them through critical growth stages which I've identified through my experience working with well over 200 businesses. Operations, sales, media buying team training, system construction advisory and much more to help businesses reach the next level.  
- Passion for the entire marketing Industry
- Experienced in managing 2-30 Staff For 11 Years

AI, Advertising & Marketing Consultant

- Business Growth Strategy & Implementation
- Facebook Ad Management Services
- Email Automation & Campaign Strategy
- Large-Scale Project Management
- 1 on 1 Consulting With Agencies, SMBs & Media Buyers
- TikTok Ad Account Management
- Snapchat Ad Account Management
- Creative Strategy Services
- Psychology Based Marketer

MCMAgency.co.uk

Director

First Trace

I founded First Trace to bring value to local businesses that needed marketing but couldn't afford to hire in house. With a small team we worked with over 15 companies to double their revenue, onboard in house staff and lift them to the next level of their business journey.

Managing Director

Trailblazers Travel

Digital Marketing Manager

Mears Group PLC

- First line manager for 20-30 staff
- Directly coordinating & managing up to multi-million pound projects
- Direct relationship building with large clients across London

Project Manager

With over 11 years of experience in marketing and over 2 in AI, I have helped  well over 350 businesses across various sectors and sizes to grow their revenue, optimise their operations, and train their teams. I have a passion for the entire marketing industry and a knack for finding innovative solutions that leverage the power of artificial intelligence and automation.

As a marketing and AI consultant, I offer strategic AI implementation plans, product development initiatives and marketing Ai implementation activities to drive business growth through efficiency. I have also been rated as a top voice in advertising on LinkedIn and featured by companies such as ClickUp, Apollo.AI, GeekEx and Lemlist. My expertise includes AI Consulting, Advertising, Marketing, and project management.

My Mission:

To be the catalyst for businesses embracing the digital age, offering innovative AI strategies and marketing expertise that drive growth and operational efficiency.

To mentor and lead teams in understanding and leveraging AI, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and knowledge to excel in the ever-evolving digital landscape

Founder

Elevate is split into two businesses. Elevate Pro which is our learning platform where you can learn from some some of the best marketers in the industry. Everything from sales to a FULL marketing and advertising course that features myself and Nicole Crowell, you'll learn advanced marketing and advertising from point A to point Z. It's an up to date programme that uses Ai and automation to generate a higher quality output at half the time. ElevateProMarketing.com

Elevate Edge is a side arm, service based business that works with organisations to help them implement AI and automation into almost every part of their business. We specifically work with consultants and agencies, delivering services from basic automation to streamline your processes, to creating custom built staff onboarding apps, company FAQ knowledge base apps, custom built lead generation systems etc.

I am a Pay Per Click Marketing and Web Analytics Professional with over 20 years of experience in the online world. I founded Positive Sparks Marketing Ltd, a commission based PPC agency that works with e-commerce brands across the world to generate more sales and optimise their conversion rates. 

My passion is to help businesses grow and scale online via a share of the revenue generated by our PPC campaigns, rather than ongoing fixed fees. I also a past host of the Digital Sparks podcast, where I previously interviewed established voices in web marketing, online productivity, and digital entrepreneurship. I have multiple publications on remote working and digital nomadism and am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to collaborate with like-minded professionals and clients.

Phil Byrne

Amazon is finally leaving a bit of oxygen in the room.

We’re seeing a shift in the Google Shopping auction weights. For years, the retail giant has sucked the air out of the room, outbidding everyone on pure volume. 

But there’s a vacuum forming.

As Google pushes deeper into its AI-driven "Merchant Center Next" era, the algorithm is prioritising relevance and high-intent data over raw spend. 

If you’re a D2C brand, this is your window to scale without getting bullied off the page. 

Here’s how you fill the gap:

1. Stop fighting for every click. You’ll lose on margin.
2. Focus on "Signal Architecture". This is about feeding Google the exact conversion data that matters: not just "purchases," but high-value customer segments. 
3. Protect your guardrails. If you let the automation run wild, Google will just spend your surplus on low-quality traffic to hit their own goals.

The brands winning right now aren't the ones with the today's biggest budgets. They’re the ones with the best data infrastructure.

Build the signals, capture the vacuum, protect the profit.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

Commission Based PPC Advertising Pro. Digital Entrepreneur. Founder of Positive Sparks, Digification & The Digital Sparks Podcast

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Stop bragging about your 15x ROAS. It might be a lie.

If most of that return is coming from your brand campaigns, you aren’t "winning" at advertising. You’re just paying Google a tax on customers who were already coming through your door.

I see it every week. Brands think they’re scaling because the account-wide ROAS looks healthy. But look under the hood and the cold traffic: the actual growth engine: is sputtering.

Here’s the thing:
- Brand ROAS is an ego metric. It inflates performance and hides inefficiency.
- Google’s "smart" features love brand traffic because it makes their numbers look good, even if it erodes your margins.
- Without guardrails, you’re just bidding against your own organic listings.

True growth happens in the trenches of cold traffic. It’s harder, the ROAS looks "worse," but it’s the only way to find new customers.

Switch your focus to New Customer ROAS or Contribution Margin. Stop letting "the tax man" take a cut of your existing success.

Define the rules. Protect the margin. Grow the business.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

AI didn't break your Google Ads. It just showed you where the cracks were.

In 2026, everyone’s using the same automation. The "magic" is gone. Now, AI is acting as a massive spotlight on the foundations most brands ignored while they were chasing the next shiny feature.

Here’s the reality: AI optimizes for what you tell it to. If your conversion data is a mess, it optimizes for mess. If you don’t set hard profit guardrails, it optimizes for the platform’s bottom line, not yours.

The brands winning right now aren’t the ones with the "best" AI. They’re the ones with:

-> Clean, first-party data signals.
-> Ruthless control over margins.
-> Rules that stop the algorithm from overspending on low-intent traffic.

Automation without control isn't a strategy; it's an expensive hobby. If your performance is dipping, don't blame the tech. Look at the data you’re feeding it.

Stop letting the platforms grade their own homework. Define the rules, protect your margins, and get back to basics.

DM me if you're ready to fix the foundations.

Attribution Apps

For anyone seeking some guidance within the complex world of attribution, feel free to send me a DM, or reply here, and I'll share with you the best 3rd party attribution apps we have found the most success with. 

TruC

There are a number of visitor behaviour and engagement apps out there that can help you literally watch your customers on their "journey" through your site. Feel free to DM me, or reply here,  and I'll let you know the ones we most recommend. 

1st party data tracking

Whatever you use to help you uncover your attribution going forward, you need to ensure it works off first-party data. Message me, or reply here, for our recommendations on the best first-party data tracking tools out there. 

TRoas

If you are an ecomm brand looking for more attribution insights, we are currently offering a free month's trial on our favourite ecomm tracking app. It will help you uncover the true impact of your ads. It will help you uncover the impact of all of your marketing channels and how they work together. DM me, or reply here, if you would like to give our fav app a go.

FreeAudit

If you're wondering if the way your ads are setup is the right fit for your business, why not take advantage of our free ad audit? We'll look at your campaigns and let you know where we see opportunity for growth and/or opportunity for optimisation, all at no cost to you. Feel free to DM me, or reply here, if you would like our complimentary opinion on your ad campaign performance and structure. 

Long customer journey attribution

Want to know how to approach long customer journey attribution for your business? Comment below, or DM me. We know what to do. 

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phil-byrne-ltd

Google’s AI checkouts have flipped the script.

Most brands are still fussing over landing page buttons and font sizes. Meanwhile, the real sale is happening before the customer even clicks.

Here’s the thing: Your product feed is the new storefront.

Google’s AI is pulling your data and letting folk buy directly. If your feed signals are a mess, you’re invisible. It’s that simple. 

But there’s a catch. Without proper guardrails, these AI platforms will spend your budget to hit their own targets, not your profit margins. You need systems that protect your bottom line while the AI does the heavy lifting.

The winners aren’t the ones with the prettiest sites anymore. They’re the ones with the sharpest data.

Sort your feed. Protect your margins. 

DM me if you want to see how we do it.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

Right, Meta’s gone and done it. They’re pulling the rug from under DTC brands with their new credit card policy. April 1st is going to be a proper wake-up call for high-spending accounts.

No more credit card points. No more 30-day float. If you’ve been using that buffer to scale, your cash flow is about to get a serious squeeze. Meta is pushing monthly invoicing and direct debit, which means the platforms get paid faster while you’re left scrambling for working capital.

This is exactly why we bang on about guardrails. If you’re letting automation run wild without protecting your margins, you’re just a line item on Meta’s balance sheet. 

Here’s what you need to do: 
- Audit your profit cycles now (don't wait for April).
- Re-calculate your CAC with the loss of rewards in mind.
- Set strict rules on your ad spend so you don’t hit that invoicing limit when you need it most.

Don’t let a billing change tank your business. Get your numbers sorted before Meta sorts them for you.

DM me if you need a proper strategy to survive the squeeze.

Phil Byrne, Founder

Ad buying has changed for good. 

If you’re still trying to out-bid your competitors manually, you’re chasing ghosts. In 2026, the platforms have won. The manual levers are mostly gone. 

You aren’t a media buyer anymore. You’re a Signal Architect. 

The platforms have the engine, but you provide the fuel. If that fuel is low-quality data and generic creative, you’ll stall out before you hit the motorway. 

The only real levers left are:
- High-quality conversion signals
- Relentless creative testing
- Tight guardrails on automation

Most brands think they can just hit 'Automate' and walk away. That’s how you erode your margins. You have to define the rules, protect the profit, and let the algorithm do the heavy lifting within those boundaries. 

Your assets are the only thing separating you from every other brand using the same machine learning. 

Stop clicking buttons. Start architecting signals.

DM me if you want to see the framework we use to protect client margins while scaling. 

Phil Byrne
Founder

Imagine walking into a steakhouse, heading into the kitchen, and cooking the meal yourself. 

You sit down, eat, and just as you’re finishing, a waiter pops up and asks for a 20% tip. 

You’d think he’d lost his marbles, wouldn't you?

Yet, most e-commerce brands are doing exactly this with their ad spend. It’s the Greedy Waiter Problem.

Google and Meta love taking credit for the "sale" when a customer was already standing at your front door. If you’re paying a commission or a percentage of spend on traffic you already own, you’re not scaling. You’re being taxed.

This is why we bang on about guardrails. Without strict rules and manual control, platform automation defaults to the path of least resistance. It optimizes for its own goals: hitting a "target ROAS" by cannibalising your organic sales: rather than finding you new customers.

The result? Your reports look world-class, but your actual bank balance tells a different story.

Stop paying tips for meals you cooked yourself. 

Founder, Positive Sparks

Stop chasing today’s ROAS like a dog after a car. You might catch it, but then what?

Most brands are obsessed with "instant" results. They see a 4x return on a dashboard and think they’ve cracked it. But if those customers never buy again, you aren’t building a business: you’re just recycling cash.

That’s dashboard fluff.

The real brass in the bank comes from predictive modeling. It’s about looking at your cohort data to find the customers who actually stick around.

Think of it as Hunting vs. Harvesting.

Harvesting is easy. You pick the low-hanging fruit until the tree is bare. But Hunting? That’s the proper graft. It’s identifying specific segments today that will be worth 5x more in six months.

Predictive modeling isn't some crystal ball nonsense. It’s a framework. We look at the first 30 days of behavior to project the next 300.

If you only optimize for the immediate sale, you’re leaving your long-term margins to chance.

Stop gambling on one-offs. Start investing in cohorts that grow.

Most e-comm owners are still obsessed with being 'Top of Page 1'. 

In 2026, that’s officially a legacy metric. 

Here’s why: Google’s AI Mode has fundamentally changed how customers find you. 

Being at the top of a search page is meaningless if the conversational AI doesn't actually recommend your brand. The AI isn't just looking for keywords anymore; it's looking for authority and intent. 

The shift is from SEO to 'Signal Architecture'. 

You need to feed the LLMs (Large Language Models) the right data to ensure you’re the recommended solution, not just a link in a list. 

If your brand doesn’t have the right signal quality, the AI will bypass you for a competitor who does: even if they’re ranked 'lower' than you. 

Stop chasing vanity rankings. Start building your Signal Architecture. 

Founder, 
Phil Byrne

Most brands are flying blind while the platform tells them they’re winning.

You see a clean 4.0 ROAS in the dashboard and think you're printing money. But then you check the bank balance. It doesn't add up.

Here’s the thing: The scary part I see is that junk signals often look fine in-platform. High ROAS, low CPA, green ticks everywhere. But only when you tie to profit or cohort data do you see the damage.

Google and Meta don't care about your net margin. They care about conversions. If you feed them low-intent signals, they’ll find more of them. The result is a dashboard that looks "clean" while your business bleeds out.

The only way to stop the rot is to tie your ads to actual profit and cohort performance. You need guardrails that tell the machine exactly what a valuable customer looks like.

Automation without control is just an expensive way to erode your margins.

Stop trusting the dashboard. Start trusting the bottom line.

Phil Byrne
Founder

If you’re still letting Meta and Amazon grade their own homework, you’re essentially handing over your wallet and hoping for change. 

Meta is hungry for retail data. They want to know exactly what’s happening inside the Amazon ecosystem so they can ‘optimise’ your ads. Sounds helpful, right?

Wrong.

Here’s the thing: The second you stop owning your customer data, you lose your only real moat. Platforms are designed to optimise for their own goals, not your profit margins. They’ll chase the easy wins that look good on a dashboard but leave your bank account looking thin.

The ‘Moat Strategy’ is simple:
• Collect your own first-party data. Every email and click is yours, not theirs.
• Set strict guardrails on automation. Don’t let the ‘AI’ run wild with your budget.
• Define the rules. If the platform can’t prove the margin, it doesn’t get the spend.

The brands that grow predictably in 2026 aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets: they’re the ones who own the signal. 

Don’t get lazy with your data ownership. Build the moat before the tide comes in.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

Most e-comm founders are losing sleep over attribution. They’re looking at the wrong ghost.

In 2026, it’s not about where the click came from; it’s about what clicked. AI-driven bot fraud is the real margin killer. These aren't just spam bots anymore; they're sophisticated scripts designed to mimic human behaviour and drain your budget while you're busy arguing over 7-day click windows.

If you let Google or Meta's automation run without guardrails, they'll happily optimise for these high-intent "ghosts" because they look like conversions. Your ROAS looks great on paper, but your bank balance tells a different story. Automation without control is just a fancy way to burn cash.

We work on commission. If we send you junk traffic, we don't get paid. Simple as that. We bake traffic verification into every account to protect the signal: and our margins. Stop worrying about the "last click" and start worrying about the "fake click".

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

Performance Max is a black box. And if you’re not careful, it’s a black hole for your budget.

Most e-com owners see a 4x ROAS and think they’re doing a grand job. But peel back the layers and you’ll usually find Google is just patting itself on the back.

The truth? It’s likely burning your cash on two things:

1. People already looking for you (Brand traffic).
2. Cold, low-intent junk on YouTube that’ll never convert.

You’re essentially paying Google a fee to show ads to people who were already walking through your front door. 

Here’s the no-nonsense fix:

-> Brand Exclusions: Switch them on. Make the algorithm work for its dinner by finding new customers.
-> Signal Feeding: Upload your first-party data. Tell Google exactly what a "good" customer looks like.
-> Margin Segmentation: Stop letting low-margin "zombie" products eat the budget for your best sellers.

PMax isn't "set and forget." It’s "set and supervise." 

Stop letting the algorithm mark its own homework.

Phil Byrne
Founder

Most brands think their Google Ads are failing because of "the algorithm." Total rubbish.

Usually, the problem is much simpler: Your product feed is a mess. 

If your data quality is poor, you’re basically asking the AI to find customers while wearing a blindfold. You can have the best bidding strategy in the world, but if your titles are vague and your GTINs are missing, you’re just pouring brass down the drain. 

Bidding on a bad feed is like trying to tune an engine that’s leaking oil. It doesn't matter how fast you want to go; you’re going to stall. 

Before you touch that target ROAS, do some proper graft on the foundations:

→ Optimise Titles: Front-load brand, size, and colour keywords. 
→ Clean Categorisation: Don't let Google guess. Use specific categories.

→ Custom Labels: Segment by margin. Protect your profit.

Stop chasing dashboard fluff. Fix the feed, find the right buyers, and get real brass in the bank.

Automation works best when it has decent guardrails. Leave it to its own devices and it’ll optimise for the cheapest junk it can find.

Ad platforms are built to spend your budget, not preserve your net profit. If you leave the algorithms to mark their own homework, they'll always give themselves an A* while your margins go south. 

Most brands treat 'smart' campaigns like a set-and-forget solution. It's not. Without strict parameters, the machine hunts for low-intent traffic to inflate conversion numbers that never actually hit your bank account.

Here’s how we keep the machines on a leash:

-> Define clear bid caps to prevent overspending on junk.
-> Use negative keyword lists to block low-intent noise.
-> Implement traffic verification systems to ensure real intent.

We bake traffic verification into our commission model for a reason. It’s rare because it creates real accountability. If the traffic is garbage, we don't get paid. It forces us to care as much about quality as the platform cares about volume.

Stop letting the machines run your business. Define the rules and protect your profit.

Keywords are officially dead. Buried deep under the digital patio.

In Google’s new ‘AI Mode,’ the machine doesn't care what someone types into the box. It cares who they are and what they’re worth to your bottom line.

If you’re still tweaking manual bids on 'running shoes', you’re fighting a war that’s already over. It’s signals or nothing now.

This is where the ‘Moat Strategy’ comes in. 

Most brands are terrified of the ‘black box’. They think automation means losing control. But the brands winning in 2026 aren’t the ones with the best keywords: they’re the ones with the best first-party data. 

Your customer data is your moat. If you aren't feeding the AI high-quality signals (actual profit, margins, LTV), you're just letting it guess with your budget.

The trick isn't fighting the automation; it’s giving it the right boundaries. You define the rules, you protect the margins, and you feed it the only data that matters.

Keep your hand on the lever. Automation without guardrails is just a fancy way to let platforms optimise for their goals, not yours.

Simple as.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

The 'Black Box' excuse is dead. If you’re still blaming the algorithm for your wasted spend, you’re just not looking hard enough.

Google and Meta love it when you 'leave it to the machine.' Why wouldn't they? Their job is to spend your budget. Your job is to make a profit. Those two goals are rarely the same.

Automation without guardrails is just a fancy way to burn cash. It’ll find the easiest conversions: often the ones you would’ve got anyway: and claim all the credit. It’s like a waiter taking a tip for a meal you cooked yourself.

Here’s the thing:
- Machines need better signals, not just more data.
- You need hard rules to stop the bleed.
- If you don’t control the 'Black Box', it’ll control your margins.

The tools for transparency are right there. You just have to use them. Stop letting the platforms grade their own homework and start defining the rules yourself.

Protect your profit. Take back control.

DM me if you're tired of guessing where your budget went.

Phil Byrne
Founder

Google’s stopped being a search engine and started being a checkout counter.

It used to be simple: someone searches, they find you, they click, you get the data. Now? We’re heading into the era of ‘Agentic Commerce’. Google isn’t just showing your ad; it’s trying to finish the transaction without the customer ever touching your site.

The convenience is great for them. For you? It’s a margin killer if you aren’t careful.

When the platform becomes the shop, you lose the handshake. You lose the email, the pixel data, and the direct relationship. You’re just a line item on an AI’s shopping list.

Here’s the thing:
- Own your signals. If you’re relying solely on platform data, you’re flying blind.
- Set strict guardrails. Automation is a tool, not a strategy. Without rules, Google will optimise for its own profit, not yours.
- Build a brand, not just a listing. If the AI doesn’t recognize your value, it’ll always pick the cheapest option.

Don’t let your business become just another transaction in Google’s pocket. Protect your data, protect your margins.

Proper systems win. Always.

- Phil
Founder, Positive Sparks

Ever feel like you’re playing a game of Whac-A-Mole with your Google Ads? 

You spot a keyword or a creative that’s bleeding cash. You pause it. You move on with your life. Then, two weeks later, it’s back. Revived by the 'Auto-Unpause' ghost in the machine. 

Google calls it 'optimization.' I call it a trap. 

Here’s the thing: automation isn’t just about saving time. It’s about control. When Google’s AI decides your losers deserve a second chance, it’s often ignoring the critical 'learning signals' you’ve already gathered. You paused it for a reason. The data said it was a dud. 

By reviving these underperformers, Google hides the very signals you need to refine your strategy. It’s like a chef digging through the bin to put a burnt steak back on the grill. 

If you want predictable growth, you need to be the architect, not the passenger. 

Don’t let the black box boss us around. Audit your auto-recommendations and kill the 'Auto-Unpause' before it kills your margins. 

Keep it simple. Keep it profitable. 

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

You’re dead right on this.

If you aren't pressure-testing your returning customer mix, you aren't scaling: you're just recycling.

Performance Max is brilliant for scale, but it’s a black box that loves a bit of dashboard fluff. It’ll sniff out folk who are already in-market or sitting on your email list, claim the conversion, and mark its own homework.

The Result?

A ROAS that looks fantastic on paper, but stagnant growth and zero extra brass in the bank. You’re effectively paying Google a commission for sales you would have made anyway.

To fix the rot, you’ve got to do the proper graft on your data:

→ Use New Customer Acquisition goals with strict guardrails.
→ Dig into your cohort data to see the real first-time buyer split.
→ Keep a hand on the wheel with brand exclusions and audience signals.

Automation without control is just a fast way to erode your margins. Define the rules, protect your profit, and stop letting the algorithm harvest what’s already yours.

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