What’s Broken

What’s Broken — Ernest Gilmore × MWA

Section 02

What’s
Broken

I’m not going to call these “challenges to explore.” These are things that are broken right now, each with a diagnosed root cause and a specific fix. Two of them are bleeding budget. One of them is a people and process problem that affects everything else. All three have a plan that starts Day One.

“When multiple systems fail at the same time, the temptation is to fix them all at once. The discipline is knowing which one to fix first — and which one to stabilize while you fix the others.”

— Ernest Gilmore

● Critical Priority

Organic Is Down 33%

● Immediate Action

PPC Failing Across All Three Practice Areas

◎ Stabilize First

The Transition Gap

● Critical Priority

Organic Is Down 33%.
And It’s Not What You Think.

This is the problem that will define the first 90 days. The firm still ranks. The keywords are still there. The impressions in Google Search Console are holding. What’s collapsing is click-through rate — and that tells me exactly what’s happening. Google SGE, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are reading MWA’s content and delivering the answer directly inside the search interface. Users are getting what they need without ever clicking through to DisabilityDenials.com. That’s not a rankings failure. That’s AI interception — and it requires a fundamentally different response.

Root Cause Diagnosis

— AI overviews are intercepting traffic upstream. Google SGE surfaces answers from DisabilityDenials.com without sending the click. Users read the summary and stop.

— Content is structured for human readers, not AI crawlers. Pages that rank well are getting cited but not clicked — the content answers the question too completely in a format AI can easily summarize.

— No interactive assets that require a site visit. AI can summarize articles. It cannot run a disability eligibility calculator, fill out a case evaluation form, or play a video. Those are the assets that survive AI interception.

— Brand mention volume is not keeping pace with competitor spending. In the AI era, brand search is the channel AI cannot intercept. When someone types “Marc Whitehead disability lawyer,” there is no SGE summary — just the firm. TV and PR investment becomes more valuable, not less.

The Fix — Three Tracks Running in Parallel

— Track 1: Restructure content for AI citation. Lead every high-traffic page with a direct, authoritative answer in the first 100 words. Deploy FAQ schema, HowTo markup, and Speakable schema so AI models cite DisabilityDenials.com as the source — instead of just borrowing from it.

— Track 2: Build assets AI cannot replace. An interactive disability eligibility tool, a case evaluation quiz, condition-specific video explainers — these force the user to the site. AI summarizes static content. It cannot replicate interactive tools.

— Track 3: Accelerate brand search demand. Every Bianca Bucaram media placement, every Marc Whitehead speaking slot, every TV flight — in the AI era, these are not just PR wins. They are branded search signals that AI cannot intercept. This reframes the entire PR investment.

— Measurement shift. Stop reporting on rankings alone. Add AI mention share — how often DisabilityDenials.com appears as a cited source in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE responses — as a new KPI tracked monthly.

The Insight Most Candidates Will Miss

“The firms that win in the AI era aren’t those who fight the algorithm — they’re the ones who become the authority the algorithm is trained to recommend. DisabilityDenials.com already has the content depth to win that position. It just needs to be restructured for how AI models consume and cite information.”

● Immediate Action Required

PPC Is Failing Across
All Three Practice Areas.

When one campaign underperforms, it’s a targeting problem. When all three practice areas exceed their cost-per-lead targets simultaneously, it’s a structural problem. The $454K Hennessy Digital contract is managing three separate campaign ecosystems — LTD, SSD, and VA — and all three are bleeding. That’s not bad luck. That’s a systemic failure that lives somewhere in the account architecture, and I’m going in on Day 1 to find it.

Current vs. Target — Cost Per Lead

LTD

Above $200

↓ Target

$125–200

Hardest to acquire segment. Professional targeting is expensive but the case value justifies it — when the targeting is right.

SSD

Above $40

↓ Target

$25–40

Most scalable practice area with the clearest digital targeting — which makes underperformance here harder to explain and easier to fix.

Above $35

↓ Target

$25–35

Compounded by the pre-filing conversion problem — even when CPL improves, VA conversion stays low until the HubSpot drip sequence is rebuilt.

What I’m Looking For First

— Bid strategy drift. Automated bidding (Target CPA, Maximize Conversions) that has drifted from its original configuration and is now optimizing toward the wrong signal — or toward phantom conversions from misconfigured tracking.

— Match type erosion. Broad match keywords pulling in unqualified traffic — the same people who call, don’t qualify, and inflate CPL without improving pipeline. The search term reports will tell me this within 48 hours.

— Quality Score degradation. If landing pages haven’t been updated to match current ad copy, Quality Scores drop — and CPCs go up regardless of bidding strategy. This is often the silent killer in accounts that haven’t had strong oversight.

— Attribution misconfiguration. If conversion tracking is broken or double-counting, automated bidding optimizes toward events that aren’t actually generating cases. I’ll cross-reference Google Ads data against CallRail and HubSpot within the first week.

The 60-Day Gate

— Days 1–7: Full account audit. Campaign structure, match types, Quality Scores, search term waste, audience targeting, conversion tracking accuracy. No recommendations before the data is clean.

— Days 8–28: Root cause presented to Hennessy. A written performance gate with specific CPL benchmarks per practice area, a remediation plan with milestones, and agreement on measurement methodology. Everything in writing.

— Days 29–60: Measure against the gate. At least one practice area showing CPL improvement is the minimum bar. Flat or worsening performance at Day 60 triggers the vendor replacement conversation with Marc.

— Parallel protection. While PPC is being fixed, I shift budget toward the attorney referral channel — which is already converting at higher rates — to protect lead volume. We don’t wait for PPC to heal before protecting the pipeline.

The Decision Framework — Hennessy Digital

Stay if Hennessy can show —

A clear, specific root cause diagnosis — not “we’re optimizing”

A written remediation plan with CPL milestones by practice area

At least one practice area trending toward target within 30 days

Proactive reporting — they flag problems before I do

Attribution infrastructure that matches CallRail and HubSpot data

Replace if Hennessy shows —

No specific diagnosis — only vague optimization language and promises

No measurable CPCase improvement at the 60-day mark

Resistance to account access or attribution audit

Account structure showing years of accumulated mismanagement

The same performance issues still present at Day 60 as Day 1

How I Approach This Conversation with Hennessy

“I collaborate before I escalate. I’ve replaced two underperforming agencies in the past 18 months — both times through data-first performance gates, not confrontation. Hennessy gets a fair shot with clear expectations and a specific timeline. What they don’t get is the benefit of the doubt past Day 60 if the data doesn’t move.”

◎ Stabilize First

The Transition Gap.
This One Gets Fixed Before Anything Else.

Jennifer Caldwell’s departure created an operational gap that compounds every other problem on this list. If the newsletters miss a cycle, the gifting lapses, or the HubSpot sequences drift — the referral channels that are currently holding the firm’s lead volume start to erode. Before I fix the organic strategy or issue the Hennessy gate, I make sure nothing breaks. That happens in the first two weeks.

What I take over in the first 14 days

✓

Obtain master marketing calendar — every newsletter date, gifting cycle, postcard run, and podcast deadline Day 1

✓

Meet all four vendors — Hennessy, Roux, The Vault, Bucaram — establish relationship and current status Day 3–5

✓

Audit all HubSpot drip sequences — confirm every automation is live and correctly enrolled Day 10

✓

Confirm Q2 newsletter schedule with The Vault — client quarterly and Barrister bi-monthly both locked Day 10

✓

Attorney gifting program — confirm next cycle inventory, timing, and The Vault fulfillment schedule Day 12

✓

Present Q2 master marketing calendar to Marc — zero operational gaps confirmed Day 14

Why this comes before the strategy work

The attorney referral channel generates 25–30% of new business. It runs on relationship — and relationships run on consistency. A missed newsletter cycle, a late gifting package, a podcast episode that doesn’t go out on schedule — none of these feel like crises in isolation. But they all send the same signal to the 4,500 attorneys in that network: something changed.

The 20% growth target requires a functioning referral channel. The referral channel requires operational consistency. Operational consistency requires someone who knows exactly what’s due and when. That’s Day One work, and it doesn’t wait for anything else.

On Working Through a Transition

“The team already knows how to execute — the Marketing Assistant and BDM are both in place. What they need from a new Director isn’t a reorganization. It’s clarity on priorities, consistent communication, and someone who shows up knowing what’s expected of them. That starts before the first Level 10 meeting.”

The Sequencing Principle

Stabilize. Diagnose. Fix.
In that order. Every time.

The transition gap gets closed before the PPC gate gets issued. The PPC gate gets issued before the growth initiatives launch. You don’t build on a foundation that’s still settling.

Get In Touch →