PPC Masterminds

All 5 Star Rated Digital Marketing Agency. Consistently ranking clients on Google page #1, building masterpiece pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns that provide ROI, while continuously enhancing website & traffic conversion rates using top-in-class digital strategies, conversion optimization techniques from data-driven web analytics data.

Founder, CEO

Zaid Ammari

"How do I reach my target audience?”
“What if my ads run out my budget?”
“What if my strategy isn't effective?”

These questions can cause anxiety for any brand.

Whether you're a burgeoning startup, a multinational corporation, or a personal brand...

Your digital strategy is your lifeline.

	•	You need to be accurate with your ad targeting
	•	You need to be smart with your budget allocation
	•	You want to be renowned for your online impact

To do so, you need a robust digital marketing strategy.

I've had the pleasure of aiding brands like Sony and University of California in fine-tuning their digital strategies, delivering engaging content, and driving meaningful online conversations.

Fortune 500 companies.
Fast-growing startups.
Personal brands with substantial visibility.

They trust me with their digital compass. Will you?

Looking to enhance your SEO?
Searching for ways to maximize your PPC campaigns?
Need to improve your conversion rates?
Want to develop or refine your brand's digital strategy?

Just drop a "Hey Z!" in a message and let's get started.

Or just hop into my Calendly and let me know you're serious: https://calendly.com/ppcmasterminds/brand-consultation

Google Ads & Web Analytics Teacher & Consultant

Placements Media

•	Created & presented quarterly analytics reports & data to heads of 3 major global companies. Provided actionable recommendations that provided more than 40% increase in sales/customer acquisition & retention.

•	Created & designed more than 50+ Google Analytics specs to measure web asset performance and digital marketing initiatives with ROI models in mind.

•	Modeled consumer acquisition funnel from marketing touch points to final conversion. 

•	Built tracking dashboards and wrote impact reports for digital marketing campaigns, website optimizations, community interactions, and game updates using data from web, text, and in-game telemetry. 

•	Designed KPIs and reporting dashboards for customer engagement and sentiment analysis with quantitative text data from channels including customer service tickets, surveys, in-game chat logs, and social media. 

•	Wrote A/B testing proposals, reported results of implementation and recommendations for web experience. 

•	Responsible for data analysis, web analytics, forecasting, cross-channel attribution, dashboards, reporting, trending, ROI optimizations, A/B and multivariate testing, conversion tracking validation, budget allocation. 

•	Managed Google Analytics, AdWords, and social media campaigns for small and independent businesses. 

•	Google Certified Professional for over 3 years

Digital Marketing Specialist

Quigley-Simpson

•	Proposed & coordinated site content tagging structure for streamlined Omniture reporting. 

•	Managed Google Analytics, AdWords, and social media campaigns for small and independent businesses.

E Factor Media

•	Wrote analysis reports and built interactive executive dashboards measuring impact of digital marketing  campaigns using metrics from web analytics platforms, social media channels, sales data.
 
•	Designed KPIs and reporting dashboards for customer engagement and sentiment analysis with quantitative text data from channels including customer service tickets, surveys, in-game chat logs, and social media. 

•	Designed Google Analytics specs & tracking procedures to measure web asset performance and digital marketing initiatives.

•	Proposed & coordinated site content tagging structure for streamlined Omniture reporting. 

•	Managed Google Analytics, AdWords, and social media campaigns for small and independent businesses.

Hello there, welcome to my profile!

Think your company can be generating more sales with less time, but your not there yet! Well, that’s why I am here in a nutshell. 

I help brands conquer the digital space. My expertise encompasses digital marketing strategy, PPC, and SEO for companies like Sony and University of California. Want to e-meet and discuss potential opportunities? I'm always open to connect and explore.

The more detailed version:

I specialize in crafting digital marketing strategies, managing effective PPC campaigns, and optimizing SEO for businesses that believe in their mission. 

Whether you're launching your digital presence or looking to amplify your reach, I can guide you in the right direction.

Over the past 11 years, my strategies have helped my clients reach their revenue goals.
Many of the brands I've partnered with have earned numerous accolades in their respective industries. While I can't claim full credit for these achievements, it's immensely gratifying to contribute to their success stories.

I live by the motto "work smarter, not harder".

If you asked my past clients or colleagues about me, you'd likely hear "robot" and "workaholic". I wouldn't dispute these labels, though I prefer "passionate digital strategist", to be more precise.

If you're interested in collaborating, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Fair warning: if you try to sell me something within 5 seconds of my 'Accept' click, I'll swiftly guide you towards the LinkedIn abyss. No jokes!

On a more positive note...

If you're considering working together, know that I offer free initial consultations. I respect your time and your business and expect mutual respect. 

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

√ Consult on PPC campaigns & provide you with actionable recommendations from data.

√ Rank your website & your other properties on Google page #1. Ask me for proof! 

√ Create & rank videos on Google & YouTube page #1.  Ask me for proof! 

√  Optimize & fix tracking and web analytics data points to better measure your SEO & PPC traffic and optimize your websites for maximum revenue generation. 

√ I am also a contributor to tech.co, business.com, business2community.com and 30 more high authority websites, where I can help spread the word about your business and provide you with qualified leads. Ask me for samples! 

So, dear LinkedIn connections, brands, coaches, corporations... If I sound like the digital strategist for you, let's chat. My virtual coffee machine is always on standby.

Thanks for reading until the end. You're fantastic!

Zaid

Zaid A.

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

In 2026, your logo is the least interesting thing about your business.

Shoppers aren't looking for a badge anymore. They're looking for a result.

If you’re selling a health supplement that fixes sleep, the customer doesn't care if your brand was founded in 1920 or 2024. They care about not feeling like a zombie at 7:00 AM. 

This is the 'Benefit Economy'.

The old way of advertising was building 'brand equity' through repetition. The 2026 way is building 'relevance' through utility. 

Google and Meta’s algorithms have caught up. They now prioritise the creative that solves the user's immediate problem over the one with the biggest marketing budget. 

If your ads lead with your logo, you’re paying a 'vanity tax' in the form of higher CPAs. 

Stop trying to be famous. Start being useful. 

The brands winning right now are the ones that realise they aren't selling products( they're selling outcomes.) 

Founder

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

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Google Performance Max has always been a bit of a black box. You chuck your budget in, the algorithm does its thing, and you’re left guessing why half your spend vanished on junk traffic.

But Microsoft Ads just opened the lid.

Their new transparency tools are showing us exactly what Google likes to hide. We’re getting search term insights and placement data that PMax keeps under lock and key. 

Here’s the thing:
The logic is the same. If an audience or a keyword is rubbish on Microsoft, it’s probably rubbish on Google too. 

We’re now using Microsoft’s data to build better negative lists and placement exclusions for our Google campaigns. It’s essentially a "cheat code" to stop paying the automation tax.

The brands that grow predictably aren't just trusting the algorithm. They're finding the data to verify it.

Microsoft might be the smaller player, but they’ve just handed us the keys to the kingdom.

Phil Byrne
Founder

Stop treating AI like a calculator.

Most brands think Google and Meta are just crunching numbers. They treat the platform like a fancy spreadsheet. "I put £1 in, give me £5 back."

Doesn't work like that anymore.

The AI is a signal engine. It's an inference machine. It doesn't calculate results; it reacts to signals. If you feed it rubbish data, it'll find you rubbish customers. Simple as that.

The job of a media buyer has shifted. We're not "optimising" buttons or playing with bid caps all day. We’re managing the quality of the signal.

That means:
- Proper tracking (no guesswork)
- Feeding high-intent conversion data
- Using creative that actually qualifies the lead

Feed the engine the right fuel, and it'll drive itself. Feed it junk, and it’ll stall. Stop looking for the magic button and start cleaning up your data.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

AI is a Signal Engine, Not a Calculator

Stop sacking your media buyer for a month.

If your ads are getting the clicks but your ROAS is in the bin, the ads aren't the problem. Your landing page is.

You wouldn't invite a VIP guest to a party and then make them climb through a window to get in. Yet that's exactly what most e-com brands do. They spend thousands on world-class creative, only to dump users onto a page that loads like a 1990s dial-up connection.

Here's the reality:
- 1 second of lag kills conversion by 7%.
- Confusing headlines kill trust instantly.
- Friction at checkout kills the sale.

A brilliant ad with a rubbish landing page is just an expensive way to lose money. Fix the "where" before you double down on the "how."

That's why we audit the whole funnel, not just the dashboard. The brands that grow predictably are the ones that respect the click. 

Stop throwing good money after bad.

Founder

Google finally gave us Campaign Total Budgets. But is it the control we actually asked for?

For years, short-term promos have been a daily budget guessing game. You set a cap, Google overspends by 2x on a Tuesday, and then throttles your ads on Friday when the conversion rate is actually peaking. It’s a mess.

Total Budgets change the maths. You set a hard ceiling for a specific window: say, a 14-day flash sale: and let Google handle the pacing. 

The Reality:
-> Benefit: No more "overspend" panic on day 2 of a sale.
-> Benefit: Google won't throttle you early if a specific day is performing.
-> Risk: It’s another "black box" where Google decides how to optimise your spend pacing.

Here’s the thing. This is brilliant for fixed-date promotions where the budget is non-negotiable. It stops you from leaving money on the table because a daily cap was hit at 10 AM.

But for evergreen scaling? Stick to daily budgets. You want to be the one deciding when to push, not an automated pacing tool.

Don’t just tick the box because it’s new. Use it when the deadline is hard and the budget is fixed.

Phil Byrne, Founder

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

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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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The AI doesn't care about your audience settings anymore.

It doesn't give a toss if your customer lives in Manchester or likes mid-century furniture. 

The era of manual targeting is over. We’ve entered the era of 'Signal Feeding'.

The algorithm is a beast that needs high-quality fuel. If you feed it junk, it’ll find you junk customers with terrifying efficiency.

Most brands are still stuck in 2018:
❌ Micro-managing age brackets.
❌ Obsessing over interest clusters.
❌ Restricting locations based on 'gut feel'.

The brands scaling predictably in 2026 focus on one thing: Data Quality.
✅ Robust server-side tracking (CAPI).
✅ Feeding back actual profit data, not just revenue.
✅ Using offline conversion imports to train the AI on what a 'good' lead looks like.

Here’s the reality:
Your manual settings are a suggestion. Your data signals are an instruction.

Stop trying to outsmart the machine with toggles. Start outsmarting your competition with better data.

Targeting is dead. Tracking is the new targeting.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

The "black box" isn't the enemy. It’s just hungry.

If you’re still tweaking manual bids by 5p or obsessing over keyword match types, you’re not an ad strategist. You’re a human calculator. And honestly? The machines are better at maths than you are.

The era of the "PPC Manager" is dead. We’re in the Era of the Signal Architect now.

The job isn't about pushing buttons anymore. It’s about building the infrastructure that feeds the algorithm. Most brands feed the machine scraps: low-quality traffic, surface-level revenue, and messy tracking. Then they wonder why the machine barks at everything.

Signal Architects feed the machine steak.

We’re talking profit data, not just revenue. 
We’re talking customer lifetime value, not just one-off sales.
We’re talking offline conversions and first-party data loops.

The goal isn't to fight the automation. It’s to steer it. You provide the strategy, the creative, and the high-quality signals. The machine provides the scale. 

If you aren't architecting your signals, you're just a passenger in someone else's black box.

Time to grab the steering wheel.

Founder,
Phil Byrne

Ever feel like you’re playing a game of Whack-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

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 brands are addicted to brand search.

It makes your dashboard look incredible. A 20x ROAS? Easy. But it’s a vanity metric killing your actual growth.

If a customer searches for your brand, they’ve already decided to buy. You're effectively paying Google a tax to talk to existing fans.

The reality:
→ It cannibalises organic traffic.
→ It inflates blended ROAS, masking poor prospecting performance.

There are only two reasons to keep it:
1. Defense: If competitors bid on your name, protect your patch.
2. Real Estate: Ads + organic links build trust and push others down the grid.

Predictable growth comes from incrementality. You want new eyes, not high-fives from people who already know you.

The test:
1. Turn off brand search in one region for a week.
2. Watch total revenue (PPC + Organic).
3. If it doesn’t drop significantly, you were wasting money.

Stop paying for what you already own. Focus that budget on cold traffic and genuine growth.

Phil Byrne
Founder

Stop Paying for Your Own Name: The Brand Search Trap

ROAS is the ultimate ego metric. 

You can have a 10x return and still be skint by the end of the month. 

I’ve seen too many brands celebrate 'record revenue' while their bank account is gasping for air. The problem? ROAS doesn’t give a toss about your fulfilment costs. It doesn’t see that 25% return rate or the fact that shipping just got 10% dearer. 

A high ROAS looks brilliant on a slide deck, but you can’t pay your mortgage with it. 

The brands that grow predictably have stopped chasing the mirage. They’ve moved to POAS (Profit on Ad Spend). 

It’s the grown-up metric for grown-up businesses. It’s about focusing on what you actually keep, not just what you collect. 

Most brands think a high ROAS means they’re winning. The reality? If you aren't factoring in margins and net profit, you’re just subsidising Mark Zuckerberg’s next hobby. 

Stop reporting on vanity. Start reporting on what keeps the lights on.

Phil Byrne, Founder

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 and Meta have had it easy for too long. They owned the eyeballs, so they owned the budget. 

OpenAI just crashed the party. 

The shift from 'search and scroll' to 'ask and answer' is the biggest shake-up in a decade. Here’s why your e-comm brand needs to wake up:

1. Intent is King
Google guesses what you want based on a keyword. OpenAI knows what you need based on a conversation. 

2. No More Garbage Traffic
Interruptive ads are losing their sting. Being the helpful answer in a chat is the new premium digital space.

3. Contextual Commerce
We’re moving from 'buying a product' to 'solving a problem' in real-time. 

Most brands are still obsessing over CPMs on Meta while the smart money is figuring out how to be the 'Answer' in the AI age. 

If you're still relying solely on the old duopoly, you’re building your house on shifting sand. 

Adapt or get left in the history books.

Phil Byrne
Founder, Positive Sparks

Excited to be speaking at tomorrow’s SHIPMAX 15x5 DTC Hacks Webinar!

In just 2 focused minutes, I’ll be sharing “The Great PPC Escape” — uncovering powerful new ad opportunities beyond Google, Meta, Microsoft, and the usual suspects.

Plus, 14 other great speakers, each delivering their own high-impact insights. See you tomorrow!

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The Battle

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