Real Good Labs

About Miles · Hawthorn, Melbourne

Marketing got complicated, and nobody mentioned it.

I’m Miles. I’ve spent over six years running ads at News Corp, Bauer and Are Media, and I still run them every day in-house for a local family retailer. Real Good Labs is built without the agency theatre.

Previously
  • News Corp
  • Bauer Media
  • Are Media
Background
  • BA Media & Communications, Digital Advertising Technology
  • BA Business, Innovation

The background

Why Real Good Labs exists.

I started Real Good Labs because small businesses deserve that experience without the agency theatre: someone who’ll tell them the truth, explain it properly, and who they can actually talk to.

What I don’t do

Five things you won’t get here.

Stupid graphs.

Every hour on a chart is an hour not spent on your account. You get three things: what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s next.

Jargon as a moat.

You don’t need to understand it all. That’s my job. But I’m happy to sit down over a coffee and talk it through, so we make the calls together.

Vanity numbers.

Impressions up, clicks up, nothing sold. A chart that doesn’t connect to money is a hobby.

Promised results.

It’s a lab, not a casino. Nobody can guarantee your numbers, so I won’t. We test small changes, measure them honestly and keep what works. Some will flop. Steady gains beat moonshots.

Pretending I do everything.

I’m good at ads, tracking, landing pages and product data. For the rest I’ll send you to someone better, and say so.

Working together

Small steps first. Here’s what happens once you get in touch.

  1. 1
    Day one

    A quick chat

    A call or email to see if we’re a good fit.

  2. 2
    Week 1

    Deep dive

    I go through your ad accounts, customers and website. Expect plenty of questions.

  3. 3
    Next few weeks

    Build

    Campaigns, creative, landing pages, tracking. Whatever the deep dive says matters most.

  4. 4
    Launch + 2 weeks

    Let it settle

    Campaigns find their feet. We see if we’re on the right track.

  5. 5
    Launch + 6 weeks

    Budget check

    Where to spend more, where to pull back, and who to target.

  6. 6
    2 months later

    Full review

    What worked, what didn’t, and what’s next.

The deep dive

Where we start looking.

People often get in touch a bit scared they’re out of their depth. Fair enough. Nobody gave you a manual, and half the people selling you advice are guessing too. You don’t have to understand the platforms. You know your customers. I’ll do the rest, and I’ll explain it as I go.

  • The adsWhat’s running, what it costs, and who’s actually seeing it.
  • The numbersWhat your tracking calls a win, and whether that’s true.
  • The websiteWhat someone sees after they click, including on a phone.
  • The productsHow what you sell is described, grouped and priced for ads.
  • What happens nextWho answers the enquiry, how quickly, and whether it becomes a customer.

Then we fix the right thing first, and work through the rest in order.

About the person

Small business is personal.

Small business is personal, so here’s the person. Some days I’m minding my nieces and nephews, and a lot of the people I work with have families too. That’s why I’m flexible about how we work.

Lives in
Hawthorn, Melbourne
Reading
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. Haunting sci-fi about anti-information, ideas that erase themselves from your memory.
Recently watched
Megalopolis. The best-worst film since The Room. It’ll be a cult classic.
Wants to
Finally get the dishwasher I bought a year ago installed. Then study more media theory: how communications tech shapes the way a society sees things and behaves.

Questions

Questions about working with me.

Who actually does the work?

Me. Not an account manager, and not a junior working from a template.

I don’t understand any of this. Is that a problem?

It’s the usual starting point. You know your business and your customers, and I’ll handle the platforms and explain what I’m doing as I go.

What hours do you work?

Flexible ones. Some days I’m minding my nieces and nephews, and a lot of the people I work with have families too, so rigid structures don’t always work. We’ll talk about each other’s priorities up front and work around them. If something’s urgent, say so.

What if I’ve been burned before?

Then you’ll have questions, and you should ask them. A free expert who changed half your settings, an agency that sent a report and not much else: I’ll show you what I’m changing and why.

Where are you based, and who do you work with?

Hawthorn, in Melbourne. I only work with Australian businesses.

Do you only work with certain industries?

No. I’ve worked with retail and eCommerce, fitness, and medical and health businesses, but the problems are rarely industry-specific. If you’re an Australian business with a marketing problem, get in touch. The one hard no is businesses that use animals in their marketing.

A conversation is a good start

A conversation is a good start

Tell me what you’re selling and where you’re stuck. No pressure, no pitch deck.

Usually within a day.
Usually within two days.