Disruptive Advertising

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We create T-shirts to match sneakers. I’m one of the owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We hired them to help us expand our awareness so that we’d gain more traffic to our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive Advertising is in charge of our Google Ads. They also do a lot on Google Shopping, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. They've done A/B testing as well. For example, Amy (Marketing Consultant) was in charge of the testing for our homepage and the cart page.

What is the team composition?

I work with Amy, Jacob (Founder & CEO), Derek (Marketing Consultant), and Brandon (Marketing Consultant).

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

Our web developer was running our Facebook Ads at the time, and we weren't satisfied with his work. We spoke to the developer, and he actually recommended Disruptive Advertising and said they had really good reviews. He set up a meeting with me and my business partner, himself, and a member of the Disruptive team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in September 2019, and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I’ve worked with a lot of ad companies, and Disruptive is hands-down the best. Most ad companies just take your money, create some Facebook or Google Ads for you, and don’t put any maintenance into it. Disruptive really keeps an eye on the ads and ad spend. If we’re spending too much on ads and there isn’t much of a return, they make the proper adjustments. Before they launch anything, they always show us and make sure we approve. Overall, they’re a really good — if not the best — company out there.

They put forth a campaign, and it has brought ROI results at the end of each month. We’ve definitely seen major growth with Disruptive.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a follow-up call once a month, during which we go through a deck on Google. We discuss the numbers from the previous month and what we’re going to do next. They’re spot-on in their commitment to launching new features and testing efforts. We communicate via Google Meets and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their integrity is their most impressive characteristic. Integrity is important to me. When we started this journey with them, we didn’t really know anything about ads, how the process worked, or how much it would cost. They could’ve easily taken advantage of us, and most companies we found did, especially when it came to SEO.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have anything to say about improvement. They’ve done a great job. I’m the one to tell you if they have something they could work on. Integrity, promptness, and getting back to me in a timely fashion is important to me — and they’ve done all of that.

Any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend coming into the initial meeting with a clear plan and vision of how and where you want your company to be. Then, let them execute on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Band & Vow, a men’s wedding band company. We’re internet-based.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

I brought them on the very first month I started the business. I’d built out the website and developed the infrastructure for the business, but I knew that I didn’t have the advertising know-how to compete in the online space.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive does all of my advertising for Facebook, Instagram, Google, Bing, and Pinterest. They have a creative team that’s put together different artwork. After a few months, or depending on how the creative is performing, ads get a bit stale, and the cost-per-click starts to rise. Disruptive refreshes the ads and mixes things up. They always consult me on new ideas. We also have a monthly call to review all of our progress and discuss strategy.

What is the team composition?

We generally work with Tim and Jessica (Marketing Consultants), and then I think they have a third person who contributes. Tim handles the paid search, and Jessica handles all of the social media.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I looked at a few different ad agencies online. I found Disruptive in the exact same way they’re helping me find my customers: they retargeted me. I started to see a lot of advertisements come up on my Instagram.

This was my first time dealing with an ad agency, and it was a bit overwhelming because there were a lot of choices. One of the things that stood out to me with Disruptive was that they were very open; they welcomed me and were there to help me. They walked me through it and didn’t treat me like I couldn’t afford their services because I was a new business, which was the feeling I got from a few of the other agencies.

Before I even signed on with Disruptive, I had an onboarding call with them, during which they walked me through their process and business model. It was a very good, welcoming experience. The first person I talked to from Disruptive was Dawson (Senior Marketing Strategist). I wanted one of my friends with experience in marketing to join our call, and Dawson was completely open to that. My friend suggested I try to do marketing on my own at first and then bring Disruptive on later, but I decided to bring them on right away, and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

How much have you invested with them?

Right now, we’re spending about $10,000 a month. That’s their management fee plus the cost of the ads.

What is the status of this engagement?

I began working with them in June 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In June 2019, we were a brand-new business and did zero dollars in sales. In June 2020, I did $48,000 in sales. They’ve been able to drive revenue like crazy, but in a healthy way. I’ve seen other online companies that will spike and do $300,000 in one month because they spent $200,000 on ads, and then the next month is nothing because they don’t have the money to put back into it. Disruptive has grown our sales in a very healthy way. They’ve grown our brand presence significantly.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

They continuously monitor the ads and make tweaks to find the right audience and improve on the number of clicks. In the beginning, they actually set up the entire infrastructures of Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics and put them into my site. They have a dashboard as well. They harvest all of that data and put it into a slideshow, and we receive it during our monthly calls.

Tim is the lead on my account, and he sends me weekly email updates. He always puts a personal touch on his emails, and he doesn’t miss a beat. The weekly updates include a link to the report on the Disruptive dashboard. Anytime I email them, they always reply quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For me, it’s their level of professionalism. Sometimes, I feel like they give it more energy than I do; I have multiple businesses, so I’m always juggling to keep my balls in the air. However, they don’t take their eyes off the ball, even though some months, I’m not 100% focused on this brand. They don’t slack because of that; they still push and drive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that Tim, who does our paid search, goes above and beyond in a lot of aspects. He sends out the weekly reports, and then on our monthly calls, he sends out the slideshows. He’s very transparent, open, and honest with me in that he includes graphs that are particular to what his performance is, so it’s like he’s holding himself accountable. This graph will include where his numbers are each month, such as cost-per-click and ROAS.

On the flip side, I don’t get that from Jessica, who handles social media. Tim takes it to the next level in terms of self-accountability; he just puts it out there and makes sure that I know that he’s holding himself accountable. Jessica does a great job, but I just don’t see that piece from her.

Any advice for potential customers?

The months that I’ve gotten the most out of the engagement were when I actually put time and effort into it. They’ll come with their report, and then I’ll come with mine. This entails doing some of the legwork on the backend and keeping them updated on all of the things you’re doing, because there are ways they can tie that into their marketing scheme. You get out what you put in.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an online retailer that designs and manufactures stencils for the crafting community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We were looking expand and advertise with different online platforms and needed an expert to assist us in the journey. 

What were your goals for this project?

We were wanting to reach our potential customers through online advertising and interaction on the internet. We wanted to expand the business and capital investments with a predictable and steady financial result.

SOLUTION

How did you select Disruptive Advertising?

I search out a company that was located close to me, that had strong customer reviews and could help us reach our goals.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We meet twice monthly. The first meeting is to review the previous month's goals and plan for the following months. In each of these meetings, we review the data collected, and make goals based on this data.

• We set advertising budgets for Facebook and Pinterest.
• Discuss email strategy for customer retention and online checkout processes.
• We review CRO data to determine friction issues that are affecting customers' purchases.

What was the team composition?

Disruptive has a team made up of specialist in the following areas:

• Facebook/Pinterest
• Google
• Email
• CRO

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our business has grown by approximately 160% year over year. We are receiving a ROA of 4 ish with Disruptive. The side effect of this advertising growth, is we are seeing strong sales in other platforms that Disruptive does not assist us with.(ETSY)

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There is good communication between Disruptive and our business. It takes time to gather data, this data has definitely effected our business strategies.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Your are working with young energetic individuals that are highly skilled in their specialties. There is also good communication with management, if help is needed to resolve issues.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Your are working with young energetic individuals that are highly skilled in their specialties, but lack a strong background in business management and life in general. This is no fault of the employees, just reality of where they are in life. I think it would be helpful to have someone with a business background assisting each team, helping teams to understand that success is measured in business owners profit.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales for Campman, an omnichannel online retailer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We’re a small company, and bandwidth is pretty limited. We’d gone through a few different agencies; our Google Shopping results would be good, but then we’d get a new account manager, and they were terrible. We fell into that pattern for a few years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive manages all of our PPC campaigns and our Google Shopping feed. 

It’s a partnership; we ran our own campaigns for a while, but we didn’t have the bandwidth to continue doing so. Bringing them on allows us to keep our headcount low. They definitely come to the table with new ideas and different strategies to try that usually work out well.

What is the team composition?

I’ve interacted with several people there, but Berrett (Marketing Consultant) is my day-to-day account manager.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

We actually looked at agencies on Clutch and interviewed a couple of them. Disruptive had good reviews, and then out of the 3–4 that we interviewed, they were the only ones that came to the table with applicable solutions after looking at our backend. Disruptive let us know what they could do and what they recommended, such as running Smart Shopping versus traditional campaigns.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $60,000, or a little more than that.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in February 2019, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our return on ad spend is 50% higher, and our overall growth for our direct channel is up almost 100% this year.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform extremely well. There are obviously different parts of the company, but as far as the project management side, they do a good job of meeting deadlines, scoping things out, and figuring out what the right deliverables will be. We’ve hashed it out in the time we’ve been together, and now it’s pretty seamless.

They’re always available for ad hoc requests via email. We also have biweekly calls to go over everything, and they send us a weekly report. They gave us a nicely packaged Google Data Studio sheet that helps with evaluating some of the other metrics as well, such as brand performance. We’ve built that sheet together over time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve had good account managers in the past that have done a great job with their account, but the thing that makes Disruptive different is the continuity of service. They’re also better than other agencies at involving their whole team, from their Google to Facebook specialists. They were a little more expensive at getting the feed set up properly, but compared to other agencies, they did a better job. Once you have it up and running, it runs pretty seamlessly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. I think every organization has their sacred cows, and ours is our analytics. They’ve offered a full spectrum of services, but we don’t really let anyone else touch our analytics.

Any advice for potential customers?

Just be direct and communicate effectively. Tell them exactly what you want. I think a lot of people shy around having direct conversations with agencies, and that’s a recipe for disaster. Set clear expectations and communicate what your experience has been and what you need. They’ll do whatever they can to try to figure it out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a digital agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

A few of my clients needed help with Google Ads management. We previously worked with vendors that didn’t perform well, which led us to look for a new one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive creates and builds Google Ads campaigns. Their team manages display advertising and retargeting campaigns. They also provide the creative for the retargeting campaigns. Their team also designs landing pages.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with a total of five people from Disruptive but currently, I work with Nick (Marketing Consultant).

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I found Disruptive on Clutch. As they were the top reviewed firm, I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

Each retainer is about $2,500 a month, so we spend a combined $5,000 a month on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initially brought them on board around February 2019, and our partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They garnered tangible conversions. For both of our clients, their team generated a ton of leads that turned into tangible new business.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we started to work with Nick, the project management’s been incredible. As with any big agency, the success depends on the team provided to you. We’ve worked with 4–5 different account managers over the course of our engagement. I had to micromanage a few of our past account managers who weren’t top tier like Nick. All of our challenges subsided since we switched over to him.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Disruptive tracks digital marketing campaigns really well. They helped set-up conversion and end-to-end tracking for our clients. For one of my clients, we’re now able to track cost per acquisition for products.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their consistency across the account managers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Request an account manager who has had a successful tenure with the company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Vara Safety is a tech company creating a safer way for families to live with firearms and protection. I am the CEO at Vara Safety and also manage the marketing/creative team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We needed an effective way to increase our e-commerce conversion- though we were getting a lot of traffic, the sales were not equally reflecting the volume of site visits. We started the project with Disruptive to increase our conversion funnel and create more effective Facebook advertising.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to get a better understanding of our ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and increase our overall sales through our Shopify site.

SOLUTION

How did you select Disruptive Advertising?

Disruptive Advertising impressed us with their initial analysis of areas of improvement that would benefit our marketing efforts. After trying some of their suggestions and seeing immediate results, we decided to go ahead and start working together with them.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The scope of work covers management of our entire ad campaign and strategy, testing and optimization of our website and e-commerce funnel.

What was the team composition?

We work with Braden, who is the team lead for this project and manages the Facebook advertising strategy. Taylor and Amy cover the CRO. We also recently added on email marketing, which is led by Jenny and Zack.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since beginning work with this firm, we were able to hit a record of monthly sales and saw immediate results that were phenomenal and very exciting. We are enthralled by the performance and looking forward to continue in our working partnership.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication is excellent and our weekly meetings are always efficient and very productive. Their team is super responsive and always engaged, which makes it very easy to work together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Disruptive has brought a performance and metrics-driven approach to marketing that helps build confidence and transparency into how results are created and achieved. Throughout the entire process, the team is collaborative and very fun to work together with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

n/a

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Disruptive Agency coordinated Google Ads campaigns for a pet tech startup selling a novelty product. After evaluating the products and competitors, they created strategies to drive leads and sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We engaged Disruptive Agency to jumpstart our Google Ads marketing efforts prior to the seasonality ramp-up period of our product. By approaching DA as a strategic partner, we knew we would be able to count on them to help grow an important part of our business.

SOLUTION

How did you select Disruptive Advertising and what were the deciding factors?

DA was recommended by another pet tech company as a great performance team. Their reliability, accountability, knowledge, and results were the deciding factors. Adam and his team check all the boxes and then some! The work spoke for itself, and the people there were always lovely to work with.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

PPC Strategy and Execution. Google ads account overhaul. Ad creation, optimization, reporting, and contributing SEO ideas to help improve the PPC campaigns in terms of budget optimization and attracting quality traffic.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

DA assigned a performance marketing manager Samantha. She is a great expert, fast, proactive, and definitely knows what she is doing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Cost per acquisition continues to improve, and the number of leads continues to rise, despite difficulties created by COVID-19. The leads are of high quality, and we are so satisfied that we are bringing our other companies on board with them in the coming months to handle all of their PPC efforts.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Email, phone calls, Google Hangouts. They do whatever works for you and are extremely flexible. They set and maintain reasonable deadlines and always deliver on their word.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I’ve been impressed that Samantha is very proactive in coming up with a new strategy and approach and doing the research to implement that. Her proactive approach has been very helpful and a big benefit of working with them.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They’re very transparent. If I do have any questions, I’m able to log in and they’re very responsive. No, I haven’t had any complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and co-founder of the Institute of Financial Wellness. We’re a financial marketing and education company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

Basically, we hired Disruptive to help us generate leads. We wanted to build our brand and audience in the arts and entertainment as well as the health care industries.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team created audiences and built our brand’s Facebook profile. Disruptive developed targeted campaigns for those audiences, which created a funnel where we gauge interest. Based on interest, we then market individuals and provide them with our services.

What is the team composition?

We've interacted with 5–7 people from Disruptive but primarily talk to a project lead.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I conducted research and interviewed numerous companies. We sent Disruptive an RFP, which their team eventually won. They marketed themselves well. I was impressed with the level of detail in their proposal. They clearly put a lot of thought into it. I also liked our account executive; he was helpful and informative.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $70,000–$100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the partnership in November 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They helped us to build qualified audiences and establish a cost per click under 50 cents. For certain campaigns, we met our target cost per lead.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

We have group calls from time to time. About every three months, one of their VPs checks-in on our satisfaction. Their team’s timely and sticks to our meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Disruptive’s transparent and creative. They're a team of great graphic designers. They create great ads and provide great customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re really good at what they do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be an engaged client. Provide them with input and be part of the strategy. It’s not their company, so it’s important to share your vision, message, and goals with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Director for a B2B company that provides internal communications tools for design and analysis to a global marketplace of clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We engaged with Disruptive in order to create a LinkedIn campaign where we could specifically target the right demographic of leads based on their job title and company size.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals for this project were to tap into big data of Linkedin in order to capture relevant leads that were well suited to our B2B product. Linkedin being a business based platform seemed like the perfect place to run these ads as it is where our ideal customers had profiles.

SOLUTION

How did you select Disruptive Advertising?

My marketing colleague selected Disruptive after much research. They have a stellar reputation for getting hands-on with clients and being able to listen to their needs and wants. They are also able to produce custom solutions that deliver for the client a good ROI.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

When we first engaged with Disruptive we were very specific about what it is we do, what we hope to achieve and they were very resourceful in researching our industry to better understand the type of leads we were looking for.

It was advised that Linkedin would be the best platform to run ads on and it has paid dividends. We shared our Marketing style guide to give them our brand colors, logo, and fonts, etc. From there they have created a number of digital ads that have brought in an impressive array of clients.

What was the team composition?

We have worked closely with Garret C., a Pay Per Click consultant for Disruptive. We engage on weekly calls to get an overview of what's currently running, how it's performing, what we can do to tweak and improve things to keep a constant cycle of improvement to our campaigns.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since we have started to work with Disruptive, we have seen some great quality leads come in because of the specificity of the LinkedIn targetting. Our cost per lead has been surprisingly low. We are also engaging them to start an email campaign to compliment the Linkedin campaign.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have been having a weekly and occasionally more often video conference with Garret and when needed other team members to talk over what our goals are and strategies for moving forward.

It has been a very productive way to do business. We also receive a weekly email with a good overview of how everything is performing as a PDF from the dashboard of our account.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

In the past, we have hired agencies to oversee PPC efforts but we received mainly cookie-cutter strategies. With Disruptive, Garret really took a look at what we do, how we are targeting, and what our product delivers for our customers. By being this diligent he has been able to understand our business from a customer point of view and successfully market the product to our ideal customer base with tremendous results.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have to be very honest been overly impressed with Disruptive in comparison to other agencies we have used in the past, the fact that our PPC specialist Garret really dived in and put himself in the mindset of our clients has been extremely helpful! the speed and quality of their work simply can't be faulted!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and owner of a notary association. We process notary appointments and renewal. We also provide the supplies that notaries need.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

The previous company I was working with wasn’t performing well. In fact, our sales kept going down. I reached out to Disruptive Advertising to help our ranking and take charge of our PPC campaign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handle Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook retargeting. Recently, they started on a new funnel that would attract new notaries that might not know about us.  They create the content for Facebook Ads.  They use Google Analytics as well.

What is the team composition?

I work with two account managers and they rely on a few other teammates.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I researched several companies across the country. I was more focused on their reviews and their consistency. I was impressed that they were a Google Premier Partners, which I found meant that they were considered to have a better performance rate. I spoke to a few people within the organization and they were very responsive and always got back to me. Other companies I contacted weren’t as responsive and their answers weren’t as specific.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about 30,000 so far, on top of what we’ve spent on the various platforms.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2019 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Every month, I compare the number of conversions we get compared to the same time last year, and we always do better in comparison.

It took a while to build our campaign, but once it gained traction, they consistently have either met or exceeded their goals.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

They consistently schedule 30-minute meetings to give me an overview of where they think we should take the campaign and what budget would make sense. They send me a report for me to sign off on to set our goals for the next month. They always give the metrics to our success. If we slip in a certain area, they tell me why and what they plan to change to address it. They’re very on top everything.

We hold Zoom calls and we email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of the industry. They seem to know what they’re talking about, and they’re very specific. They clearly understand how Google works.

Then, their communication and transparency stand out. I can’t say enough; they’re a great company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would encourage people to give them a call and hear what they have to say.