AI Chatbots for Lead Generation: Worth It for SMEs?

Salt is a performance and creative marketing agency in Brisbane. Salt builds the strategy, produces the creative, runs the media and reports on what it earned. One team owns the concept and the result.

Websites, SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads, organic social, photography and video, branding and design, and fractional CMO. CRM setup, tracking and landing pages are delivered inside wider engagements.

Established businesses, typically mid-market to enterprise, with a committed marketing budget and a growth target attached. Salt keeps a short client list so every engagement gets senior attention.

Retainers run month to month. Website builds are project based with a fixed scope and a fixed price.

One account manager as the single point of contact, with the specialists delivering the work reachable directly. Decisions are made in hours.

Retainers start at $2,480+GST per month and website builds range heavily. Final investment depends on scope, channels and pace. Every proposal carries a fixed price with deliverables itemised.

Both, and the two are inseparable at Salt. Creative that cannot be measured and media with nothing worth running are equally ineffective. The same team owns both.

Salt is based in Albion, Brisbane, and works with clients across Australia. Discovery and strategy run in person for Brisbane clients and remotely elsewhere.

Paid search and paid social typically produce measurable results inside the first month. SEO compounds over six to twelve months. Every engagement reports on the first Tuesday of the month.

Salt audits the accounts, website and competitors before a proposal is written. The findings are handed over either way. A proposal follows with fixed pricing and scope itemised.

Website investment depends on page count, custom design, integrations and ecommerce functionality. Every build carries a fixed price with the scope itemised before work starts. Salt quotes after an audit of the current site, so the number reflects the actual build rather than an estimate.

WordPress most builds and Shopify for ecommerce. Both let clients edit their own content after launch. Every site is built for speed, mobile and search from the first wireframe, with hosting and ongoing care available as a separate monthly service.

Ad spend sits on the client's own billing inside accounts the client owns. Salt manages campaigns within those accounts. Management fees are invoiced separately from media, so every dollar of budget is visible and nothing is marked up.

Campaigns need enough media budget to produce reliable data. Salt recommends a minimum of $3,000+GST per month per channel for Google Ads and Meta Ads. Budgets under that are best focused on a single channel until performance is proven.

The client owns the ad accounts, analytics, domain, website and all creative produced during the engagement. Access is set up in the client's name at onboarding. Everything stays with the client if the engagement ends.

Reporting lands on the first few days of each month and covers the full prior calendar month. Reports show spend, leads, cost per acquisition, revenue where tracked, and the work completed. A monthly call walks through the numbers and sets the next cycle.

Yes. Salt commonly runs the channels or production an internal team lacks capacity for, with scope defined so ownership is clear. Fractional CMO engagements sit above an in-house team to set strategy, budget allocation and priorities.

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader engaged part time. The role sets strategy, budget allocation and channel priorities, then holds the internal team and external suppliers to the plan. It suits businesses needing marketing leadership without a full time executive salary.

Salt works across construction and trades, professional services, health, property, hospitality and ecommerce. The common thread is an established business with demand to capture. Salt declines work where a direct conflict exists with a current client.

Yes. Photo and video is produced by Salt's own creative team from concept and direction through to shoot and edit. One half day shoot typically produces six videos and twelve statics, built to run across paid social, organic social and the website.

Organic search covers technical SEO, content, local search and authority building. It also covers visibility inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Both are tracked monthly, because buyers now research inside AI engines before reaching a website.

Generative engine optimisation is the work of getting a brand cited inside AI answers. It relies on structured content, schema markup, consistent entity data and third party mentions. Salt runs a free AI visibility audit showing where a brand currently appears across the major engines.

Movement on long tail terms usually shows inside three months. Competitive commercial terms typically take six to twelve months. Sites with existing authority move faster. Progress is reported monthly against rankings, traffic, AI citations and enquiries.

Rankings and lead volume sit partly outside any agency's control, so Salt makes no guarantee on either. What Salt commits to is the scope, the reporting cadence and the standard of work. Performance targets are agreed upfront and reviewed every month.

Onboarding runs inside the first week. It covers account access, conversion tracking setup and testing, an account and competitor audit, keyword research and a strategy presentation. Campaigns go live once tracking is confirmed accurate.

Yes. Scope is reviewed at the monthly call and can shift between channels as priorities change. Adjustments are confirmed in writing with any pricing change applied before the next invoice. Retainers run month to month.

All accounts, data, creative files and website assets normally remain with the client, but this is set as per the contract. Salt provides a handover document covering campaign structure, tracking setup, strategy and work in progress, so another team can pick it up without rebuilding from scratch.

Paid campaigns run in four week cycles with account checks through every week. Each cycle closes with a results review, a test plan for the next cycle and creative refreshed where performance calls for it. Daily monitoring applies to higher spend accounts.

Branding and design covers identity, brand systems, messaging and campaign concepts. The same team then runs the media, so the brand holds together across ads, website and social. Brand work is available as a standalone project or inside a wider engagement.

Salt runs three pods. Performance covers paid search and paid social, creative covers photo, video and design, website covers builds. Strategy sits above all three. One account manager coordinates the relationship and the specialists stay reachable directly.