Masters of Search – Details, episodes & analysis

Luis Rodriguez has 12+ years of international SEO experience and led organic growth at Uber and most recently Miro. He let me pick his brain for 60 minutes about scaling organic growth in PLG companies. Here are my 4 favorite takeaways. 1) Snake oil is actually useful All the panic and noise in SEO right now is helping the industry. It's forcing SEOs to go deeper, connect with experts, and prove their value. The smoke and mirrors push people to understand what's real versus what's hype. His advice: don't drink the Kool-Aid, but use the chaos to get closer to what actually drives business results. Check your data, look at your bottom line contribution, and let that be your answer to "is this the end of times?" 2) Templates aren't just acquisition tools, but retention engines Most PLG companies think templates are just entry points for signups. But templates are collaboration points that bring more people in, create virality, and drive retention. A user can start their journey with a template, but they can also restart it, continue it, and bring more people with them. This opens up organic growth beyond just the acquisition funnel into actual retention loops. 3) Traffic has never been enough as a metric What generates value for your company is revenue, subscriptions, conversions. The goal isn't to get more visitors, it's to provide growth and business value. For measurement, he focuses on three things: holistic visibility within your category (not just prompts or keywords), sessions as a leading indicator (people still need to come to your product), and retention (are you acquiring repeatable users, not just one-time visitors). 4) SEO profiles need a recalibration He's attracted to people with automation experience who aren't afraid of tools like Lovable, not just traditional content writers. Someone who started their career with ChatGPT has completely different timelines for keyword research across multiple languages, it's a medium task now, not a huge lift. ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Luis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisrodriguezc/

Most people will tell you SEO takes too long for early-stage startups. That it's a waste of time when you're at zero. Today, you’ll hear proof why this is a limiting belief, and we’ll show you exactly how to start. My guest today is Irina Maltseva, a Barcelona-based Growth Advisor who's helped companies like Aura, Sphere, Artisan, Hunter, Riverside, and Nextiva build their organic growth motion from the ground up. I found Irina's work particularly interesting due to her focus on early-stage companies like YC alumni. They come to her with a brand-new website, zero domain authority, and a fresh product. In other words, she's solving one of the hardest problems in SEO: how do you drive meaningful growth from the ground up? ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Irina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinamaltseva/

Federico Cutillo is Head of SEO at home24, one of Europe's leading home & living e-commerce platforms competing with giants like IKEA and Wayfair. What makes Federico particularly fascinating is his 7+ year tenure leading SEO at home24. He joined about a year before the IPO and helped shape the global SEO strategy for 6 markets. ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Federico on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicocutillolinkedinprofile/ Home24 on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/home24/

Kirk Williams is the founder and owner of ZATO PPC Marketing, a US-based agency completely focused on Paid Search. Kirk has been the named the #3 Most Influential PPC Expert for 2025, his 9th year on this list. 📌 Check out https://zatomarketing.com/ ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Kirk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ppckirk/ ZATO on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zatomarketing/

Mike Rhodes has become one of the most influential voices around PPC and AI. After building and selling four businesses, Mike has spent a lot of time building products like the famous PMAX Insights Script and teaching people how to do the same. 📌 Check out https://8020agent.com and https://adstoai.com ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikerhodesideas

Bob Meijer has spent over €100M on Google Ads, is a 2x Top 50 Most Influential PPC Expert, and built a 1,900+ member community, but he almost never does interviews anymore. Until I asked him to join mine. Together with Miles, Bob co-founded PPC Mastery and started The PPC Hub. One of the largest (if not THE largest) PPC communities on the planet. While most PPC "experts" are busy selling courses with theory, Bob has been quietly building something real. 1,900+ members learning from someone who actually walks the walk. €2M+ in monthly ad spend under management. 200+ Google Ads accounts rebuilt from the ground up. When someone with Bob's track record rarely does podcasts anymore, but says yes to yours, you know it's going to be special. This is the guy who: - Spent over €100M on Google Ads across hundreds of accounts - Co-built one of the world's largest PPC communities from scratch - Taught thousands of specialists how to actually drive results - Became a 2x Top 50 Most Influential PPC Expert while staying humble We'll dive deep into: → How he and Miles built PPC Mastery into a global powerhouse → What he's learned from spending €100M+ on Google Ads → How AI is changing the PPC game (and what's not changing) → His frameworks for managing €2M+/month in ad spend ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Bob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmmeijer PPC Mastery on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ppc-mastery-com/

Felix spent 10 years building the marketing that led sevdesk from startup to a €400m exit. In this episode of the Masters of Search, he’s revealing how search (especially SEO) played a key role in it. While most marketing leaders jump companies every 2–3 years, Felix stayed the course at sevdesk for a full decade. And it paid off big time. He told me that search marketing was one of the key pillars of their growth strategy throughout the entire journey. So key, that when I asked their CFO (yes, I really did that) if he’s happy about the ROI of their search efforts, he said “absolutely.” When the finance team gives search marketing a thumbs up at a €400m exit company, you know they cracked the code. This is the guy who: - Built sevdesk’s search strategy from zero to acquisition-ready in 10 years - Made search marketing so profitable that even the CFO is a believer - Navigated multiple algorithm updates while maintaining consistent ROI - Developed search strategies that actually moved the revenue needle We’ll dive deep into: → How search became a key growth pillar at sevdesk → Which search strategies delivered the ROI that made the CFO happy → How he built a search engine that survived 10 years of changes → What role AI search is playing in their current strategy → How they think they can continue their success in an AI search world ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Felix on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-zipf/ sevdesk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sevdesk-gmbh/

Matthäus built one of Germany's top SEO agencies in less than 10 years, working for A-level clients like HelloFresh, Henkel, or KfW. This Thursday, he's sharing his learnings and how he navigates his 80-person agency through the GEO transformation. While most SEO consultants are still working solo or with small teams, Matthäus co-founded Claneo with Magdalena and Martin and scaled it to 80 people. He told me that he's currently in one of the most interesting phases of the company, because they're steering an entire organization through the biggest shift in the search ecosystem for 20 years. This is the guy who: - Built Claneo from zero to 80 SEO professionals in under a decade - Won enterprise clients like HelloFresh, Henkel, KfW, WHU, and DMEXCO - Navigated multiple Google algorithm updates with dozens of client portfolios We'll dive deep into: → If he fears losing the position Claneo has earned over the last decade → How he navigates the agency and his clients through the GEO shift → How big the impact of AI overviews and zero click is across their portfolio → How big AI Search already is across their portfolio → Why he is launching his own GEO conference in October ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Matthäus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthaeus-michalik/ Claneo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/claneo/

David Konitzny has probably spent 100+ hours figuring out how AI Search really works. While most SEO professionals are still guessing about AI search, David has been reverse-engineering the actual systems. As Product Owner Organic Search @ KKP (Kosch Klink Performance GmbH), he's not just theorizing but dissecting Google's and ChatGPT's code, extracting internal AI prompts, and analyzing real performance data. This is the guy who: - Analyzed Google's "folsrch" system and mapped out how AI Overviews are actually built - Figured out how to extract Gemini's internal search prompts - Analyzed thousands of AI Overview impacts with hard data - Debunked the biggest myths about AI search optimization When someone spends most of their days literally looking under the hood of AI search systems, you should tune in. We'll dive deep into: → How AI Overviews really work (the technical breakdown) → How LLMs actually perform live search → What query fan-out means and why it matters → The uncomfortable truths about AI search optimization → What this means for your SEO strategy moving forward ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkonitzny/ KKP on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/koschklinkperformance/

Malte Landwehr just quit his 6-figure corporate job (VP SEO @ idealo) to bet everything on AI search. So I went live with him on the 1st episode of "Masters of Search", to ask him everything about it. Malte spent 5 years leading one of Europe's strongest SEO machines. And he walked away from it all to join a 10-person AI startup. Why? Because he believes we're about to witness the biggest shift in digital marketing history. When someone with Malte's track record bets his career on it, you should pay attention. We dove deep into: → How he thinks about the "Google is dead" claims → What he believes really drives visibility in AI search → How he thinks about the shift from SEO to GEO → Why he left his VP role for a startup → What this means for your marketing strategy ▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Malte on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landwehr/ Peec AI on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peec-ai/