250+ programmatic vehicle pages
Make, model and year pages ("2018 Honda Civic", "2016 Toyota Corolla") built to catch long-tail Canadian searches. They now bring in about 88% of the site's search impressions.
Growth marketerSEO / AEOPaid socialWaterloo, ON
I build the product. Then I go get it users.
I'm Brayden. I launched CarLens.ca on my own and ran every part of its funnel: the landing page, Meta ads, programmatic SEO, AI-search content and email. I'm looking for a growth, SEO or paid social role where I own campaigns and the pages they point to.
Email
braydenb945@gmail.combberm.work/brayden-berman
Candidate reportNo. BB-2026-11
Brayden Berman
Growth marketer · Waterloo, ON · Open to work
- Verdict
- Pass Worth a 20-minute call
- In market since
- 2023 · in-house, agency, founder
- Strong points
- Ships his own landing pages and site fixes
- Reads Search Console and GA4, not just ad dashboards
- Every number on this page has a source
- Red flags
- Early career · learns fast, shows his work
- Writes code with AI · and says so
- Question to ask
- "CarLens gets thousands of impressions. Why so few clicks?" His answer ↓
Case file · carlens.ca · 2025 to now
CarLens: one person, the whole funnel.
CarLens is a free AI tool for Canadian used-car buyers. Paste a Kijiji, AutoTrader or Marketplace listing and it flags what the seller left out, checks recalls and estimates what the car will really cost. I built it and did all of its marketing.
- Role
- Founder, product & growth
- Channels
- SEO · AEO · Meta · Email
- Built with
- Claude Code · Cloudflare · Klaviyo
- Status
- Live
The product was the easy part. The hard part was getting people to find it, trust it and actually paste a listing.
So I treated it like a growth job: search for discovery, paid social for reach, the landing page for conversion, email for activation. Here's what moved and what didn't.
Avg. Google position26 → 12August vs October monthly average. Lower is better.Source: Search Console
Search impressions6,538In 3 months, across 699 queries. Up 33% from August to October.Source: Search Console
AI search impressions415Appearances in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode over the same 3 months.Source: Search Console
Organic video reach160KViews on one Instagram product video. Reach, not conversions.Source: Instagram insights
Average position went from #33 to #12.6 in three months
Weekly · Aug 2 – Oct 31, 2026Impressions per weekAverage position (top = better)
Answer-first content for AI search
Pages and guides written so AI Overviews and assistants can quote them, like how to negotiate a used-car price in Canada. That page alone earned 261 impressions at an average position of about 10.
Meta and Instagram ads
Wrote the copy, made the creative and moved budget between audiences based on results, on about $1.5K of total spend.
Killed the sign-up wall
Signups weren't turning into scans, and the account gate before the first scan was the biggest drop-off. I removed it, rebuilt the landing page around one paste-a-listing action and set up Klaviyo flows to bring new users back.
Known issues
What hasn't worked yet
- Impressions, not clicks. 41 clicks in 3 months. Most pages rank around position 10 to 15, the bottom of page one and top of page two, where almost nobody clicks. The next step is pushing the best pages into the top 5.
- The brand name is taken. A pro soccer player is also named Carlens, so branded search is crowded. I stopped fighting for the name and went after long-tail queries instead.
- Signups aren't habits. People sign up and don't come back for a second scan. Buying a used car is a once-every-few-years job, which is why I'm now looking at dealer-side uses for the same engine.
Real post
160K organic views on a product video built around one buyer problem: the listing doesn't prove what the seller claims. Big reach, modest engagement. Next test is a sharper first-second hook.
Other work
Agency, in-house and client work.
Before and alongside CarLens: websites, campaigns and outreach for real businesses, mostly in automotive and home services.
2025 – nowFreelance
SEO / AEO consulting
GTA home-services businesses
- Sent 300+ personalized pitches to trades businesses, each with a custom landing-page mockup as the hook.
- Response was low, so I prototyped GetSurfaced: a free audit that shows a business where it's missing from Google and AI answers, as a better opener.
2025 – 2026Agency
Current Media
Web designer & content producer · Waterloo
- Designed and built the agency's site: creative direction, identity, scroll animation, mobile-first.
- Set up a Sanity CMS so non-technical staff publish work and case studies without a developer.
- Produced and edited 4 promo videos for the site, social and client decks.
2023 – 2025In-house
Zauber International Leasing
Digital marketing & web coordinator · Vaughan · company has since closed
- Built and ran the WordPress site for a lead-gen auto leasing and finance business.
- Ran 3 multi-platform campaigns with the sales team and tuned targeting for better leads.
- Wrote the positioning and site copy that moved a referral-only business online.
History
Service record
- 2025 – nowCarLens · Founder, product & growthBuilt and marketed a used-car listing checker for Canadian buyers.
- 2025 – nowFreelance · SEO / AEO consultantLocal search and AI visibility for GTA trades.
- 2025 – 2026Current Media · Web designer & content producerAgency site, CMS and video.
- 2023 – 2025Zauber International Leasing · Digital marketing & webWebsite, campaigns and brand copy.
- June 2026Conestoga College · Advertising & Marketing CommunicationsCertificate
- Sept–Oct 2026Google Ads Search · Google Analytics · HubSpot InboundCertifications
Marketing
Meta AdsGoogle Ads (Search)SEOProgrammatic SEOAEO / GEOSearch ConsoleGA4KlaviyoLanding-page CROCopywritingShort-form video
Build
Claude CodeHTML / CSSWordPressShopifySanity CMSCloudflarePremiere Pro
How I work
I don't wait on a developer. If a landing page needs a new section or a fix, I ship it the same day with Claude Code, then check the numbers.
I'd rather show a weak number than hide it. Reach isn't revenue, and impressions aren't clicks. I'll tell you which one we're looking at.
Next step
Hiring for growth?
Let's talk.
I'm open to digital marketing, growth, SEO and paid social roles in Waterloo, the GTA or remote. Email is the fastest way to reach me.
braydenb945@gmail.com