Alex Melen is the co-founder of SmartSites, a 400+ person digital marketing agency, and the author of Automotive Search Marketing: A Car Dealer's Guide to Google & AI Search. He has given more than 100 talks across 12 countries on where search, advertising, and AI are heading.
Recently: Advertising Inside the Answer: Preparing for ChatGPT Ads and the AI Search Ad Economy @ Technology for Marketing / eCommerce Expo London 2026 · London, UK
How ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews decide which brands to recommend, and what to change on your site, your content, and your ads so you show up when buyers ask AI what to buy.
How ads work inside ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, where early adopters are winning and where brands are wasting spend, and a practical testing and measurement framework for a channel with no traditional SERP.
A practical tour of how a 400-person agency actually uses AI day to day: where it saves real hours, where it fails, and how to roll it out without wrecking quality or brand voice.
Drawn from the book. Where dealership marketing budgets leak, how to win the searches that actually produce buyers, and how vehicle listing ads and AI search are rewriting the playbook for franchise and independent dealers.
The unglamorous decisions behind growing SmartSites from two brothers to 400+ people: hiring, pricing, retention, reputation, and what still works when everyone else is chasing the next channel.
A Car Dealer's Guide to Google & AI Search
The only book written for dealers about how buyers actually find cars online, updated for a world where the first place many shoppers ask is ChatGPT.
A must-have for car dealers looking to increase the effectiveness of their digital marketing. Alex Melen uses his nearly three decades of digital marketing expertise to provide car dealers with the knowledge they need to get found in both traditional and AI-powered search—and sell more cars in a highly competitive market.
Dealer groups and conferences: ask about bulk orders and signed copies for attendees.+66% year-over-year jump in "Direct" sessions across ~1,500 GA4 properties, 92% of the year-over-year organic click decline came from one content type, and nine more first-party datasets.
ExplainerGenerative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of optimizing your website and your broader web presence so that generative AI engines such as Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity include and cite your business in their answers.
ExplainerSEO (search engine optimization) is the work of getting your pages to rank in traditional search results.
SmartSites, co-founded by Alex and Michael Melen, ranked No. 27 in the medium-sized category of NJBIZ's 2026 Best Places to Work in New Jers…
ReadMicrosoft Advertising named Alex Melen a finalist for Trailblazer of the Year in its 2026 North America Partner Awards, and SmartSites a fin…
ReadWe were lucky to catch up with Alex Melen recently and have shared our conversation below.
ReadKeynotes, breakouts, and workshops on AI search, digital marketing, and scaling a business. Tell him about your audience and he will come back with a talk built for the room.
