Sam Barnes is the founder of New Wave Digital Marketing, a Gold Coast digital marketing agency focused on helping service businesses generate more leads through Local SEO, Google Ads, better websites, automation and AI.
His path into marketing was not exactly traditional.
Sam qualified as a plumber in 2013, worked in the trade, then left Australia in 2014 to travel.
After around three years overseas, he landed a job with Shopify in Canada during one of the company's biggest growth periods.
He started as a Shopify Guru, helping business owners troubleshoot and grow their online stores, before quickly moving into a Shopify Pro Success Manager role, where he worked more closely with larger Shopify merchants and helped advise them on growth, ecommerce and platform strategy.
That experience is really where the marketing obsession started.
View LinkedIn profile →After returning to Australia, Sam joined Eco Sustainable House, a local building supplies company.
His focus was growing the ecommerce side of the business.
Using a mix of Google Product SEO, Google Ads and a website redesign, Sam helped grow ecommerce sales by roughly 5X in less than two years.
That was also where he started seeing how closely websites, search rankings, paid ads and follow-up systems all work together.
In 2023, that eventually led to starting the agency that became New Wave Digital Marketing.
Since then, Sam has worked with or advised around 150 businesses, with much closer involvement across more than 50 businesses and client accounts.
Sam spends most of his time around Local SEO, Google Ads, website strategy and CRO, marketing automation, and AI for business.
The easiest way he describes New Wave's ideal client: any business people search for with "near me" on Google. Think plumber near me, buyers agent near me, dentist near me, electrician near me.
That usually means trades, home services, property businesses, healthcare, professional services and other local businesses.
The goal is not to treat SEO, ads, websites and automation as separate little services. They all need to work together.
Get found. Get the enquiry. Follow it up properly.
Simple in theory. Surprisingly easy to get wrong.
Sam is also the co-founder of Gold Coast Accom, trading as Airbnb Management Gold Coast. His role in that business is mainly focused on marketing and automation, not the day-to-day operations.
The business has become a bit of a real-world testing ground for the same Local SEO strategies Sam uses with New Wave clients. Airbnb Management Gold Coast ranks at or around the top of Google Maps for high-intent searches like "Airbnb Management Gold Coast".
That Local SEO strategy has generated roughly $3 million in potential management leads. Important distinction: that is not $3 million in sales. His business partner does not accept every enquiry that comes through. But it is around $3 million in potential client value generated through inbound search.
And that is probably the best way to explain Sam's approach to SEO.
Ranking is nice. Leads are better.
Visit Airbnb Management Gold Coast →One thing kept becoming obvious while working with marketing clients: getting the lead is only half the battle.
Businesses would spend money on SEO, Google Ads and websites, then lose opportunities because enquiries were followed up too slowly, manually or inconsistently.
That is why Fourth Wave Hub exists: the automation software and services arm built out of problems New Wave kept seeing with clients.
Lead comes in. Someone forgets to follow it up. Customer disappears. Not ideal.
Fourth Wave Hub helps businesses manage things like lead capture, follow-up, booking, communication, nurturing and other repetitive processes.
It was not created because Sam randomly wanted to start another software business. It was built because the marketing was working, but the systems after the marketing often were not.
Explore Fourth Wave Hub →Sam also hosts the podcast Sam Barnes Questions Everything.
The idea behind it is pretty simple. Sam is curious and likes learning from interesting people, usually business owners, entrepreneurs and people who have done something worth asking questions about.
That same mindset carries into business and marketing. Do not just accept that something is "best practice" because someone said it was. Ask why. Test it. See if it still works. Try to find a better way.
That mindset feels even more important now with AI changing search, marketing, websites, automation and pretty much everything else.
Question everything. Test what works. Keep what does.
Listen to the podcast →Before all of this, Sam was very into footy. He grew up playing AFL and reached the TAC Cup pathway, which is now the Coates Talent League.
At one point he was even carpooling to football with Tom Lynch.
His excuse for not making it further is hip injuries. The more accurate version is probably that he did not give the rehab 100%. We will let him have the injury excuse anyway.
These days, his main sporting obsession is padel tennis. If you play on the Gold Coast, he is probably up for a game. Anyone want to play?
He also loves snowboarding and wakeboarding, although it has been a few years since either has happened. Business and life tend to get in the way.
In 2026, Sam also became a dad to a baby girl, which has added another fairly important role to the list.
