We experiment relentlessly.
No guesswork. No set-and-forget. We test, tweak, and optimise until we get results that matter.
About
Not your
typical agency.
Most agencies overcomplicate things. Too many layers, too much fluff, and not enough focus on what actually drives results.
The Digital Alchemists works lean, moves fast and delivers strategies built around what matters. That means your audience, your goals and your bottom line.
No recycled templates. No buzzwords. Just smart digital marketing that is clear, direct and designed to perform.
Who you'd work with
I'm Dan.
You deal with me.
I founded The Digital Alchemists and I do the work myself: SEO, AI search, Google Ads, Meta and the tracking underneath them. I work with e-commerce and lead generation businesses directly, and for agencies under their brand. No account manager in between, no handing you off to a junior.
I studied marketing management at Staffordshire University, then spent my career on the hands-on side: running SEO and paid media for online stores, lead generation businesses and charities, much of it inside agencies. The pattern I kept seeing was budget going where the platform said it worked, not where buyers actually decided. TDA is built to fix that: work out how buyers think and search first, then spend where the pattern points.
I'm a marketer, not a psychologist. When I use buyer psychology, I point to the research it comes from, and I test whether it works for your buyers before trusting it.
- Based
- Central Coast, NSW. Working with businesses across Australia.
- Works with
- Businesses directly, and agencies under their brand.
- Focus
- SEO, AI search, Google Ads, Meta and tracking.
- Experience
- SEO and paid media for e-commerce and lead generation businesses, directly and inside agencies. Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Ads and DOOH, SEO strategy and site migrations, and Google Ad Grants for charities.
- Education
- Degree in Marketing Management, Staffordshire University
- View profile
Last checked 26 October 2026.
Brands I've worked on
Doing things
our way.
Digital marketing should never be rigid. It should evolve with your audience, your data and your business.
The Digital Alchemists approach is simple. Understand what drives action, build sharp assets around it and keep things moving forward. Strategy, content and creative all work together. No clutter, no noise, no wasted effort.
It's a different way of working. And it works.
We're bold, but we're sharp.
We take risks, but smart ones. Big ideas only work when they're backed by strategy.
We think smart, talk straight.
Spend smart, not just big. Precision-targeted ads that actually make you money.
We keep it human.
Because people buy from people, not pixels. Everything we create is built to connect, not just convert.
We mix data with instinct.
Numbers guide us, but instinct and experience turn insights into action. The magic is in the mix.
We actually care.
About results, about our clients, and about making marketing better. This isn't just a job, it's what we love doing.
'Marketing isn't a neat little funnel anymore. It's more like a pinball machine. Audiences bounce around from platform to platform, message to message, with a million distractions in between. It's noisy, unpredictable and hard to control. That's why we've got to be smart, fast and always thinking one step ahead. Data helps us spot the patterns, creativity makes us stand out and strategy keeps us focused.'
Why
'alchemists'?
Alchemy was the old search for turning ordinary things into gold. In marketing, the closest thing we have is behavioural science. Researchers showed back in 1981 that the same choice, framed two different ways, gets different answers. Small changes in how something is framed, ordered or said can change what people do.
So the work starts with how your buyers actually think, then uses data to check I'm right.
What I work on
Questions
people ask.
Who is Dan Picken?
The founder of The Digital Alchemists, a digital marketing consultancy on the Central Coast, NSW. I run SEO, AI search, Google Ads, Meta and tracking for businesses across Australia, directly and for agencies. I have a degree in marketing management from Staffordshire University.
Is The Digital Alchemists a big agency?
No. It's me, doing the work myself, so you deal with the person who knows your account. I keep the number of clients small so each one gets proper attention.
What kinds of businesses do you work with?
Online stores, lead generation businesses and charities, directly and through agencies. The industry pages show how the approach changes for each.
Where can I see your background?
On LinkedIn. Or start with a free audit and see how I think on your own numbers.
Let's have
a look.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.