FAQ
The questions we hear most.
Everything Alex gets asked on intro calls. Pricing, scope, what AI does and doesn't do, what we'll and won't take on. If your question isn't here, just ask.
- What does Mastodon Marketing do?
- We're a Houston-based AI implementation and digital marketing agency. We build and run AI systems across marketing, sales, customer service, and operations for SMBs. We also do traditional digital marketing services: SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads, web design, content marketing. The combination is the point: AI + marketing under one roof, one team that knows your numbers.
- Where are you located?
- Our office is at 1853 Pearland Pkwy Ste 123 PMB 1083, Pearland TX 77581. We serve Greater Houston metro on-site and Texas-wide remote with quarterly on-site visits to Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio.
- What's your phone number?
- (832) 979-8426. Voice and SMS.
- Who is Mastodon Marketing's founder?
- Alex Rocha founded Mastodon Marketing in Houston. 15+ years of digital marketing experience across agency, in-house, and direct-to-customer. Built the firm to be operator-to-operator, not strategy-deck consulting.
- Do you work with my industry?
- Strongest experience in home services (HVAC, plumbing, roofing, restoration, construction, cleaning), healthcare practices (dental, medical, PT, behavioral health), professional services (law, accounting, consulting), real estate, and B2B operators (SaaS, services, distributors). If your industry isn't on the list, ask. We'll tell you honestly if we're the right fit.
- Do you work with businesses outside Houston?
- Yes. We have engagements across Texas (Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio) and select out-of-state work. Greater Houston gets on-site discovery; other metros get on-site discovery + training, remote build, quarterly on-site reviews.
- What's the smallest business you work with?
- Solo-operator service businesses under $500,000 ARR if the AI economics work (typically the owner is spending 8+ hours per week on a task AI can take over). Smallest firm with a full multi-pillar implementation: $1.5M ARR.
- What's the largest business you work with?
- We've engaged with companies up to ~$50M ARR. Above that, structural fit gets weaker; our SMB-focused model overlaps less cleanly with enterprise procurement and governance.
- Will AI replace my team?
- We have never recommended a staff cut as part of an engagement. We've been asked to. AI takes the busywork off your team so they can spend time on what your customers actually pay for: judgment, relationships, and trust. Teams that deploy AI well usually maintain headcount and 2-3x their output.
- How much does an engagement cost?
- Single-playbook projects: $1,500 to $15,000 setup, $200 to $1,500 monthly. Single-pillar builds: $10,000 to $30,000 setup, $1,000 to $3,000 monthly. Full implementation: $40,000 to $120,000 in year one. Full pricing on /pricing/.
- What if AI is the wrong answer for my business?
- We tell you on the first call. We've recommended competitors more than once. If AI is the wrong answer, we'll point you at the right one (sometimes that's just better SEO or a different CRM).
- How long does an AI implementation take?
- Single playbooks ship in 14 to 30 days. Single-pillar builds in 60 to 90 days. Full implementations in 6 to 12 months phased.
- Do you sign NDAs?
- Yes. Standard mutual NDA on request, usually before the second call.
- Are you HIPAA-aware for healthcare?
- Yes. We work with BAA-signed platforms, encrypt PHI in transit and at rest, never put PHI through general-purpose LLMs, and add 30 to 60 percent to baseline cost vs. non-regulated work to cover the audit pass.
- What CRMs do you implement?
- HighLevel by default for SMBs. HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Zoho, and Clio (for law) when the client already has them. We don't switch CRMs unless the math is obvious.
- What's your refund or guarantee policy?
- Single-playbook setups have a 60-day guarantee: if the system hasn't met its acceptance criteria by day 60 (defined in writing at scope), you get a full refund of the setup fee. Monthly fees aren't refundable but they're month-to-month, so you can stop anytime.
- Do you do SEO and AI search together?
- Yes, by default. Every SEO engagement includes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): structured for passage-level citation in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. FAQPage schema on every post, llms.txt at apex, definition sentences, citable stats. The shape that gets lifted into AI answers.
- What's GEO and why does it matter?
- Generative Engine Optimization. The discipline of structuring web content so AI search engines (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Bing Copilot) can find and cite it. Different from classic SEO: AI search rewards passage-level structure, definition sentences, lists, tables, and FAQPage schema more than long-flowing prose. In 2026, GEO is mandatory, not optional, for SMBs that want visibility in the next 3-5 years.
- Can you fix our existing website's SEO?
- Yes. We do technical audits, fix indexation gaps, deploy schema, optimize Core Web Vitals, clean up internal linking, and rewrite weak pages. Audit fee $2,500-$5,000 depending on site size; implementation scoped from there.
- Do you build websites from scratch?
- Yes. 5-page conversion sites: $6,000-$12,000 in 30-45 days. CMS sites: $12,000-$25,000 in 60-90 days. Custom apps: $25,000+. See /services/web-design/.
- What platforms do you build on?
- WordPress for CMS. Astro for SEO + performance. Next.js for dynamic apps. Cloudflare Workers for edge-compute apps. Shopify for e-comm. Webflow for design-system-heavy brand sites. We pick by use case, not by default vendor.
- Do you run paid ads (Google + Meta)?
- Yes. Google Ads from $1,500/mo management + media. Meta Ads from $1,000/mo management + media. Both AI-assisted creative iteration, conversion tracking, monthly reports in dollars (not impressions). See /services/google-ads/ and /services/meta-ads/.
- Do you produce content (blogs, videos)?
- Blogs yes: SERP-driven briefs, AI-drafted, human-edited, schema-marked, IndexNow-submitted. 4-16 posts/mo. See /services/content-marketing/. Video production not in-house; we partner for high-end work and we do AI talking-head video (HeyGen) for founder-led content at scale.
- Do you do social media management?
- Yes. Organic social: GBP weekly cadence, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts repurposing. 2-3 platforms per client. Starter $900-$1,500/mo, Standard $1,800-$2,800/mo, Premium $3,500-$5,500/mo. See /services/social-media/.
- How do you measure success?
- Business outcomes: attributable leads, revenue recovered, time recovered, conversion rate, map-pack position, AI Overview citation. Not vanity metrics (impressions, sessions, follower count). Monthly reporting in plain English with the numbers that matter.
- Do you work with other agencies (co-engage)?
- Yes. We've co-engaged with IT firms (PennComp), automation specialists (Talos, The Automators), and other marketing agencies when scope dictates. Clear scope boundaries + shared CRM as source of truth makes it work.
- What's your relationship with Anthropic / OpenAI / Google?
- Implementation partner, not reseller. We deploy on whichever model fits the use case (Claude, GPT-5, Gemini, open-source via private deployment). No vendor lock-in for clients; we recommend the best tool for the job at engagement time.
- What if I want to bring this in-house eventually?
- Good. We document everything, train your team, hand over admin access, and step back. Most clients keep us on monthly tuning long after the build because the marginal cost is low and the marginal benefit is real, but we never engineer lock-in.
- Do you have a referral program?
- Informal. We pay 10 percent of first-year fees for qualified introductions that close. Reach out directly.
Related reading.
- Pricing for full transparency across all services
- Our process for how engagements actually run
- All services
- AI implementation overview
- Case studies
- About Alex Rocha (founder)