In this episode of The Charlotte Business Podcast, host George-Alain Boti sits down with Elliot Tousley, owner of Marketing with Elliot and co-founder of two digital advertising agencies, to make sense of digital marketing in 2026. Elliot started as a semi-professional musician who had to learn marketing to sell tickets, and that path turned into agency work with owner-operators like doctors, dentists and local service businesses.
The conversation covers what business owners consistently get wrong with Google and Meta ads, how to spot a real marketing professional versus a grifter, and why Elliot starts most local businesses at the bottom of the funnel, where people are already searching. If you are spending money on ads without a clear return, this episode is for you.
“A bad marketer sells the lifestyle, or the result, or the dream of if this all works, we could do this.”
Watch the full conversation above, or listen on Buzzsprout.
Elliot began as a semi-professional musician in 2010 in the Boston and New England area, when only Facebook existed. He and a friend played ten to fifteen shows a year and had to figure out how to sell tickets and promote original music. Marketing was something he picked up out of necessity, not a plan.
His first agency was a marketing team for musicians, built with a friend who was an entertainment attorney. They learned Meta ads first, then Google Ads, SEO and better video, effectively marketing their own business. That experience of being an owner-operator trying to grow with many moving pieces carried into his second, broader digital agency.
Big brands are exciting, Elliot says, but he makes more impact with smaller teams. He typically works with owner-operators, such as a doctor who is throwing a marketing plan together with five different vendors and no clear view of what works. Sometimes he is hands-on in each channel, and sometimes he coordinates the people involved.
There is no cookie cutter plan. Some clients need quarterly strategy and analytics, some are in full scaling mode, and some arrive from another agency and need a firefighter.
For a local service business, Elliot starts with Google Ads, because customers with a chipped tooth or a broken air conditioner search Google. What matters is a decent Google Business Profile, reviews and a phone number. He notes that roughly half or more of Google searches carry local intent, and that AI tools still pull from search content.
For ecommerce or something new that nobody knows to search for, he recommends creating demand with content on Meta or TikTok. The two are not either or. Start where demand already exists, and add Meta once Google starts to diminish.
The first is mistrust. Almost every owner Elliot works with has had a bad experience with a marketer who overpromised, so his first job is to earn trust by not overpromising and by fixing a few obvious things quickly. The second is scatter: separate people running Facebook, Google and the website, with the owner left to coordinate. That is where a fractional CMO can step in.
Elliot says much of the AI marketing world is flash with unclear substance, so take it with a grain of salt. Some tools are excellent. His chainsaw analogy: if you know how to use it, it is not that dangerous, and if you swing it around without knowing how, you make a mess. He uses ChatGPT, Claude and other tools for different jobs, and has not found one AI solution for everything.
The biggest red flag is an agency that owns the ad account, analytics or website, or that keeps its own credit card on file. Elliot says you should always own these assets and that this is the industry standard. A second red flag is the lifestyle pitch. A real marketer talks about the work: what they will do in month one, the seven things they will start with, and the outcome they expect.
If you were burned before, he starts with an audit. Broken or missing conversion tracking is the most common issue, followed by wide-open Google campaigns with no negative keywords. The fix is usually to trim to what works, then grow.
Elliot uses a grocery store analogy: someone already looking for crab does not need convincing, they need to be told it is in aisle six. Starting at the bottom of the funnel, where people are searching and ready to decide, is cheaper for a small business. After you capture that demand, you can bring in broader content and ads to raise awareness. He compares the approaches to a precise shooter versus a spray of bullets.
His process with a new client begins with research on the company, competitors and ad account, then setting expectations so the plan can be explained simply. From there he starts with Google, may add Microsoft Ads for audiences who search from office computers, and moves to Meta later.
Charlotte keeps growing, and every new resident needs a dentist, gym or accountant. Google is often overlooked because it feels technical or boring, but that is where the customers are. For businesses with no ad budget, Elliot suggests Google Business Profile, free SEO work like blogging, and organic content that does not need to look like a film production.
Later in the conversation the two compare how they each ended up in Charlotte, and Elliot shares how he got into new songwriting after years of writer's block. He closes with his best advice: find a marketer whose strategy you understand and whose reliability you trust.
Elliot Tousley is the owner of Marketing with Elliot and a co-founder of two digital advertising agencies. A former semi-professional musician, he has been based in Charlotte since 2020 and partners with early-stage and growing businesses on marketing strategy, execution and performance across Google, Meta and more.
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