# Matthew Barksdale

Matthew Barksdale works on digital marketing for construction and manufacturing firms through ZAG FIRST, with a focus on Google Ads, SEO, and planning campaigns around industrial buyers and long sales cycles.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/matthew-barksdale/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbarksdale
- LinkedIn followers: 4,873
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, sales, paid-ads, b2b-marketing, seo, ai-search-visibility
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-07

## Summary

Matthew Barksdale is useful for digital marketing advice on Google Ads and SEO for construction and manufacturing firms.

- Best for: A construction or manufacturing brand building an SEO and paid search programme.
- Not for: A consumer brand wanting a fast, high-reach sponsorship or mass audience campaign.
- Check first: Confirm client results, engagement data, and audience demographics before committing.

### Takeaways

- Industrial searches are answered on the results page, so content has to be citable.
- The person searching usually isn't the person who signs the purchase order.
- Paid search and SEO do different jobs; it's not a choice between them.

## Main ideas

- **Industrial searches are answered on the results page, so content has to be citable**: Barksdale argues that Google's AI Overviews and other AI tools now answer many questions directly, leaving a firm's content less visible unless it is structured to be quoted and attributed. Their prescription: answer the technical questions industrial buyers actually ask in plain, authoritative language, and avoid keyword repetition that can damage rankings.
- **The person searching usually isn't the person who signs the purchase order**: Barksdale's recurring point about industrial demand is that buying is a group decision. An engineer checks specifications, a project manager compares vendors and an executive approves the budget. Each needs different material at a different point in the process, so campaigns should match the message to a role and stage rather than target one decision-maker.
- **Marketing should follow the project cycle; reactive ramp-ups come too late**: Barksdale links weak pipelines to timing, not effort. Firms that increase marketing only when work slows down are already behind, they argue, because industrial sales cycles are long; they cite an 18-month cycle. Their prescription is a content and advertising plan built around a firm's busiest and slowest seasons, keeping demand flowing as the calendar turns unpredictable.
- **Paid search and SEO do different jobs; it's not a choice between them**: Construction and manufacturing firms repeatedly ask whether to invest in Google Ads or organic SEO. Barksdale says the two serve different purposes: paid search reaches buyers ready to act now, while organic work builds visibility that compounds without continued ad spend. They argue most industrial firms get their strongest pipeline by running both.
- **Ad spend is a budget to manage, not a campaign to launch**: Barksdale argues that Google Ads setup is only the start. Results come from continuous refinement: adjusting bids, cutting spend on irrelevant searches and shifting budget toward keywords that produce qualified inquiries. They compare the process to managing a construction project budget, where every dollar must be accounted for — a useful frame for firms focused on cost control.

## Work to read

- [SEO for industrial firms when AI answers the question first](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewbarksdale_industrial-seo-services-activity-7508540862058942464-b8NY)
- [Paid search or organic SEO — the case for running both](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewbarksdale_googleads-seo-constructionmarketing-activity-7513614569416781824-9L0Z)
- [Ongoing optimization is what makes Google Ads work](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewbarksdale_industrial-google-ads-services-activity-7503829923023876096-N_a1)
- [The person searching is not always the person signing the PO](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewbarksdale_what-we-do-industrial-marketing-services-activity-7511077598072930305-pqRp)
- [Marketing on the project cycle, not against it](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewbarksdale_b2b-construction-industry-marketing-activity-7506004444241895424-kmIQ)

## Brand relationships

- **ZAG FIRST** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

Matthew Barksdale's posts do not describe a creator partnership or sponsorship program. All five are ZAG FIRST service posts aimed at construction and manufacturing clients, each pointing readers to a ZAG FIRST service page rather than a collaboration, guest-content, or sponsorship route. The posts position the work commercially: Google Ads management built around continuous optimization rather than a one-time setup, SEO structured to earn citations in AI Overviews and other answer tools, and the two as complementary parts of an industrial pipeline. Ask directly whether Matthew offers a collaboration format.

## Alternatives

- Azhan Shafique: Choose Azhan Shafique when AI search systems describe the company incorrectly, or a new site risks chasing keywords the firm cannot rank for. The first post describes a surgical instrument manufacturer with strong backlinks, ISO certifications, regulatory references, industry memberships and a long history, yet ChatGPT and Google AI still misread the business. The work focused on the information layer rather than links: clarifying who the company is, what it manufactures, where it is based, its product categories, certifications, expertise and business history, then getting key pages indexed again. The second post argues against building a site on an AI-generated list of high-volume keywords, which lacks keyword difficulty, search intent and insight into who already ranks. The alternative: start with low-competition terms, check intent one by one, and build each page around one keyword cluster. This is a closer match than Barksdale when a technical manufacturer's entity information is confused in AI answers, or a new or thin site needs a defensible keyword plan before content is written.
- Mark Schmukler (Sagefrog): Choose the Sagefrog account associated with Mark Schmukler when the obstacle is a skeptical executive team, not channel execution. The post argues that most B2B marketing objections are really about risk: wasted spend, murky ROI, the wrong agency or a strategy that looked good in a deck. It acknowledges those concerns, then argues that standing still carries its own risk while competitors appear in search, publish content that educates buyers, nurture prospects through long sales cycles and build credibility before a conversation starts. The offer is a disciplined system with clear focus, consistent execution and measurement. The second post argues that thought leadership is treated as an executive-only activity, even though account managers, strategists and subject-matter experts hold much of the useful insight. Employee voices, it says, expand reach and make the brand more human. This suits a B2B content and demand-generation programme that needs executive buy-in and internal contributors, rather than search execution by a channel specialist.
- Chris Peer (SyncShow): Choose Chris Peer when a firm wants a named framework and published methodology, or when campaign timing must follow an operational peak. The post ties the approach to the book The Great Eight Pillars of Online Marketing and argues that teams focus on tactics before strategy, producing fragmented effort, wasted budget and missed growth. It presents the framework as a way to turn marketing from an expense into a profit centre, with ROI-driven marketing in industrial and B2B sectors. The second post makes the seasonal case: transportation and logistics firms ramp up operations during summer shipping peaks while marketing sits idle. Its argument is that the busiest operational season should also be the loudest branding moment, because buyers are watching, competitors are spending and the pipeline still needs filling. This overlaps with Barksdale's stated position on planning around a firm's busiest and slowest seasons, making Peer the stronger choice when the buyer wants strategy-first framing or peak-season timing built into the plan.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/