2011
First paid media role
Graduate role at a Melbourne digital agency. Google Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing (remember that?), and display networks. Learned to read data before I learned to write copy.
the story / founder / melbourne, australia
I'mRachel.
Senior marketer with a Masters in Marketing and 15 years building advertising campaigns for local Australian businesses and global brands. Now productising the playbook for AU small businesses who can't afford a $2,000 a month retainer but deserve the same quality of thinking.
02/the pivot
The retainerwasn'tbuilt for her.
For twelve years I ran paid media and content for brands most Australians have heard of - and a handful of global names you would too. National retailers, furniture brands, D2C ecom, hospitality groups. The monthly retainer worked beautifully for them. At $2,000 to $10,000 a month, it should.
Then I started taking on smaller clients - a Melbourne cafe, an allied health clinic, a tradie in the northern suburbs. And the retainer model broke. Not because the work was different. The work was almost identical. Same frameworks. Same prompts. Same campaign structures.
What broke was the maths. Paying $2,000 a month for strategy felt insane for a business turning over $200K. Paying $150 a month for ten hours of AI-assisted DIY? That maths works.
So I spent all of 2025 rebuilding. Stripping the agency down. Productising every asset I'd ever shipped. Teaching Claude (and sometimes ChatGPT) to think the way I do. Testing on real Australian small business owners. In April 2026, I stopped taking retainer clients. Maeve Media as you see it now is the answer.
- Rach
03/fifteen years, briefly
The career thatbecamethe playbook.
2011
First paid media role
Graduate role at a Melbourne digital agency. Google Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing (remember that?), and display networks. Learned to read data before I learned to write copy.
2014
Senior on national accounts
Furniture retailers, hospitality groups, FMCG. Six-figure monthly spend. Delivered 80% year-on-year sales growth for EFI Furniture across Google and Meta.
2018
Cross-channel strategist
Added SEO, EDM and content to the toolkit. Shipped brand campaigns alongside performance - finally understood why good brand work makes paid media work twice as hard.
2021
Independent consultant
Stepped out of the agency. Ran retainers directly for 10-15 Australian brands a year. Alfie & Evie's 3x ROAS from a Meta audit lives here.
2024
Maeve Media, the agency
Formalised the practice. Boutique paid-media shop for Melbourne small businesses. Doing great work. Turning away more clients than I took.
2026
Maeve Media, productised
The pivot. Same playbook, now shipping as digital products, prompt libraries and audits. Built for the 90% of AU small businesses who were priced out of good marketing.
04/four pillars
What everymaeveproduct earns.
01
Practical
No theory. No fluff. No AI 101 filler. Every product ships with exact prompts, exact steps, and an action you can take tonight - not a reading list.
02
Proudly Australian
Built for AU small business. Australian English, AU tax and GST, AU platforms, AU audiences. Nothing here was translated from a Brooklyn creator's playbook.
03
Strategy-led
We sell templates but we're not a template shop. Every asset includes the reasoning behind the recommendation - the why, not just the what.
04
Time, back
The hero benefit is always hours returned to your week, not features of the product. If it doesn't save you 60 minutes in the first use, we shouldn't be selling it.