Peter Benes is a digital marketing consultant who helps small retailers and independent brands grow — and stay visible as search shifts from blue links to AI-generated answers. His approach is rooted in years spent inside an independent retail business his wife owned and ran, which gives him an operator's instinct for how marketing actually has to pay its way on a small-business balance sheet. Through his performance-marketing venture kPixies, Benes runs Google Ads on a model where fees are tied entirely to return on ad spend above a 5X threshold — if campaigns don't clear that bar, he isn't paid. Under his personal brand, Benes the Menace, he consults more broadly on SEO, Shopify, and content strategy, with a particular focus on Attention Optimization, his GEO/AEO methodology for gett...