John M. Williams
Founder of It All Started With An Idea and AHMEEGO. Creator of Buddy, the AI agent for Google Ads. Paid-media strategist, writer, and Hero Conf speaker with 15+ years and $350M+ in managed ad spend.
What he does today.
It All Started With An Idea
Performance marketing agency in Queen Creek, Arizona. Done-for-you paid search, paid social, SEO, and AI implementation.
The agency →AHMEEGO
The product side of the same company — free Google Ads tools including the Audit Engine, Ads Builder, and Keyword Analyzer.
ahmeego.com ↗Buddy
An AI agent with live Google Ads API access. Audits accounts, researches keywords, builds campaigns, and labels every change for rollback.
Projects →The short version.
John M. Williams is the founder of It All Started With An Idea and AHMEEGO, and the creator of Buddy, an AI agent for Google Ads. He is a paid-media strategist, writer, and Hero Conf speaker who has been directly responsible for more than $350 million in managed advertising spend across Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta, Amazon, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
He writes for Search Engine Land and PPC Hero, publishes the Creating A Digital Disneyland newsletter, and has spoken at Hero Conf in 2025 and 2026. His artwork was profiled by Adweek.
He also publishes as John Williams and John Michael Williams.
Where he worked before.
Before founding It All Started With An Idea, John worked in-house and at agencies across enterprise paid media:
- Seer Interactive — paid media; now listed as alumni
- Silver Mirror — Director of Customer Acquisition
- Gen Digital / NortonLifeLock — paid media programs
- Hanapin Marketing / Brainlabs — senior account management, from 2019
- CDK Global — Digital Strategist, 2017
- OuterBox — ecommerce paid media
- IMM (Ideas Made Measurable) — Media Director
- Farmers Insurance — media
Brands he has driven media for include General Motors, Farmers Insurance, Prudential, Eventbrite, Columbia, Harvard, AutoNation, and NortonLifeLock. He was also featured alongside Menachem Ani of JXT Group in his Search Engine Land coverage.
Education: Washington State University (2003–2005) and an MBA from the Colangelo College of Business at Grand Canyon University.
Writing, speaking, and football.
Articles
Search Engine Land, PPC Hero, Seer Insights, LinkedIn, and the agency's own Insights archive.
Full list →Speaking & interviews
Hero Conf 2025 and 2026, PPC Hero Summit, podcasts, webinars, and press.
Full list →Projects
Buddy, the AHMEEGO tool suite, Google Ads scripts, and open-source repositories.
Full list →Football
Washington State University, 2003–2005, and later high-school coaching in Arizona.
Full list →Other people named John Williams.
John Williams is a common name. This page is about the Arizona paid-media founder described above.
- Not the film composer John Williams.
- Not John M. Williams (1935–2021), the Mississippi College football coach.
- Not Jon Williams, CEO of The Liberty Guild in London.
- Not the several other John Williamses in advertising and media.
His Buddy is Buddy by Ahmeego, published by It All Started With A Idea LLC. It is not the buddy.ui.pe agent builder, not the iOS browser called Buddy, and not the unrelated “Buddy AI” listings in third-party app directories.