Effective Spend

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager at Visio Lending, a lender for real estate investors that provides loans for rent-ready rental property.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

My team worked hard to develop content for our site, but it wasn’t working strategically for search engine ranking. We then approached Effective Spend to help us improve our Google rankings.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Effective Spend runs our SEO efforts. They constantly analyze the market and our online presence to find every opportunity to improve our rankings. Their team also analyzes our search and industry competitors to see what we can do better. Effective Spend optimizes existing content and suggests new content for me to write and publish. We make a great team: I provide the industry expertise, and Effective Spend provides SEO expertise. They also work closely with our backlink provider. 

What is the team composition?

We work with three teammates from Effective Spend, including the director of SEO and the associate and senior SEO content managers.

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

Effective Spend was recommended by a professor at the University of Texas. We interviewed several companies, but Effective Spend’s strategy and approach to SEO stood out to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invest $5,000 a month with Effective Spend. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership with Effective Spend began in January 2020 and it's ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our partnership with Effective Spend has been fruitful: our organic traffic has grown 93% year-over-year. Before we engaged with Effective Spend, our domain rating was 33, but now it’s at 45. 

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

Effective Spend is great at communicating and reporting project updates. We meet with their team biweekly and communicate regularly via email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a small in-house team that works closely with Effective Spend — they are essentially an extension of our in-house marketing team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Effective Spend has done an excellent job and has already addressed any areas of improvement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers will get a result from the partnership proportional to the work they put into the engagement with Effective Spend. SEO work is a team effort. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We make safe and effective pest control for homes and families. I’m the chief growth officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

We wanted to efficiently drive traffic and needed new customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Effective Spend does all of our PPC campaigns through Google Ads and Amazon. They also do all of our paid social on Facebook.

What is the team composition?

We work with Paula (Digital Media Director).

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

When I started, they were already on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2019, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Quantitatively, we’ve definitely increased traffic. Year-to-date, we’re up 138% in total sessions coming through our site. On Amazon, we’re up 60%. We’ve been able to do that without adding any significant inefficiencies. While we’ve been driving traffic, our conversion rate is only down slightly from where we thought it would need to be. As a result, our revenue is up 83%. Qualitatively they make sure we keep our content fresh and up to date. Overall, it’s been great.

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been fantastic. The team manages our day to day well, and we have an open slack channel with our key points of contact. We get detailed weekly reports on anything that’s going on. This year we’ve been able to hit the ground running.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We get full transparency with them. We modeled out what we needed to do for the year and handed that over. At first, they were skeptical about hitting the numbers we gave them, but as things started to pan out, they came back and said they could actually reach those goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing springs to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very data-driven, so it’s important to know the numbers and provide goals. If you know what you want, they’ll build a plan for it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior demand generation manager at BloomFire, which is a knowledge-sharing platform. We make knowledge bases for companies that are trying to connect our teams. I manage a large portion of our inbound spend.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

They worked with ongoing management of advertising campaigns for Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They managed advertising campaigns. This included channel management and optimization.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Paula.

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

After interviewing a few agencies, we decided to go with them. They already knew our vice-president.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s around $35,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work started in August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve driven a large number of opportunities to the pipeline. They’re very attentive, detail-oriented, pragmatic, and intelligent. They have a wide scope on the technology side to troubleshoot problems.

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very focused on hitting goals. They’ve driven dozens of opportunities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail is impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing to add.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to learn the different facets of effective ad spending.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Brakes to Go. We’re a mobile brake repair company, based in Austin, Texas, that goes to customers’ homes to replace or repair their brake pads on the spot.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

We’d consulted various marketing providers in the past, but none of them had been very effective. I was quite frustrated at one marketing firm in particular, who had diminished our number of job requests by mishandling our digital marketing campaigns. We engaged Effective Spend so that we could return to our previous rate of the business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met with Effective Spend in person, and they performed an audit of our accounts and websites. They conducted keyword research and compiled data on how to fine-tune our platform to make it more SEO-friendly. They’ve provided us with bi-monthly reports while managing our website and PPC campaigns.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2­–3 people.

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

They were referred to me by a friend.

How much have you invested with them?

At the two-year mark, we’ve spent an amount just shy of $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They took over our account in March 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has been astonishing. In just one month of Effective Spend being given full control, our revenue went up $50,000. Over time, they’ve gotten even better at reducing our cost-per-click (CPC) rates. We’ve seen instant results from their campaigns, and our job count has continued to grow.

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicate with them via email and over the phone. They deliver bi-monthly reports for me to go over before we have our conference calls. Their customer service has been fantastic, as these reports tell me everything I want to know. I had an in-person meeting with them last week to discuss our needs as we plan to expand into other cities, so they’ve offered support on other ends, as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a small business owner, this is my livelihood, and they take my success personally. Whenever there’s a new development, challenge, or threat to the business, they go out of their way to ensure my business success. It’s honestly felt like I have an in-house digital marketing team, which is amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As long as you describe your company’s needs, they’re going to achieve all of your business goals. They do a phenomenal job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the graphic designer and web developer for Austin's largest locally owned and operated furniture store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effective Spend?

We connected with Effective Spend in order to ensure our digital advertising was targeting the right audiences and maximizing our campaigns affectiveness.

What were your goals for this project?

We were hoping to make our ad spending more effective, while taking in new marketing approaches in areas we may have been oblivious to.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After having us in for an overview of their services, we chose to go with Effective Spend for our needs.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Effective Spend has taken our budget, and ensured our messaging is getting out to the correct audiences. They're able to track which campaigns are succeeding, which are failing, and helps us make decisions as to the directions of future and on-going projects.

What was the team composition?

I'm usually on a weekly call with our two contacts in the team, however from time to time there has been additional folks in on the calls, on either side. Most of the time if there has been contact with anyone else though, it has been through messaging, as our 2 team members cover our needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're pretty happy with Effective Spend's results. We've seen an increase in our ad effectiveness, and our in-store conversion rates are not only trackable, but in the range we need to be.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication has been pretty open, and we've been able to work together as easily as can be.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Effective Spend has done a great job in refocusing our online presence and ensuring we're spending our budgets most wisely.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a direct-to-consumer e-commerce food vendor. I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

As we grew the business, we wanted to improve our application in the most effective way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally did all of our customer acquisition inhouse, but the results were amateurish. We worked with Effective Spend to help us find customers and make our online acquisition campaigns more structured and sophisticated. A lot of our early work involved some experimentation to determine the right customer targets and messaging. Some of those tests didn't work, which helped us eliminate those avenues and concentrate on the right channels.

They did a lot of strategy and execution, and ultimately drove the efficiency of our campaigns. Primarily, they worked on PPC campaigns. Though SEO will take longer, they've helped us with some of the strategies we will use as we expand into organic growth.

What is the team composition? 

There are a lot of people who work in the background, but we consistently interact with an account manager, an agency lead, and one or two other individuals who execute on the account.

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

A friend in the local e-commerce community recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $5,000 a month on their services, give or take.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019. We paused the engagement in July 2019, but that was due to an issue on our side. As soon as I can start working with them again, I will.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results they provided were exactly what we hoped for. We saw material increases in the number of customers we acquired. Our goal was to triple our acquisitions, and we hit all our targets.

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

They're great project managers. They were responsive, and they did well with dashboarding and kickoffs. They were always available to meet, and they always brought relevant data and experience to those meetings. Our interactions were always very rich, and they provided powerful information to help us make decisions. Working with them was a delight.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are methodical, and they find the right answers through experimentation. They work as quickly as possible, and they deliver good results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Every business is unique. They could improve their onboarding, just to establish what sets their clients apart. They worked quickly, but there were conversations they could have had that would have made that process even faster.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the principal of Echo Canyon River Expeditions, a summertime adventure resort. We are the largest commercial whitewater rafting company in the state. We have a full food and beverage program, a full-service restaurant, and two catering locations along the river during peak season. We also have luxury cabins and glamping tents at our lodging property.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

We’re in a very competitive marketplace and digital advertising has become a lot more valuable than print. We needed outside help with some of the architecture and logic that goes into placing those buys.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Effective Spend provides PPC services through Google AdWords for us. They do all of the legwork for us, measuring keyword density and frequency. Their team determines which keyword phrases we should be emphasizing and how as well as what we should be spending per buy. Effective Spend also leverages technology, such as automatic bidding tools, for us. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–3 members of the Effective Spend team. We have an account manager who is our primary but we also work with Maya (Senior Digital Media Manager, Effective Spend) who is responsible for oversight. The third person we work with is Paula (Digital Media Director, Effective Spend) who oversees that team entirely.

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

I was referred to them by another company. They worked in a completely different market but I asked if they knew anyone who offers a similar scope of work and leverages similar technology. Their company recommended Effective Spend.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay Effective Spend a monthly retainer of $1,400 but they receive additional compensation based on conversions. During the off-season, we mostly pay them just the flat monthly fee, but once we get into the season it ranges from $3,000–$5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Effective Spend began in 2017. We use our season, which runs from May 1st through Labor Day, as a marker. A lot of planning and organization goes into making the season successful so we work with Effective Spend year-round with hyper-focus in a short buying period. We’ve worked with them for two seasons so far.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Effective Spend team brings us weekly results. Their team provides us with both week-over-week and year-over-year performance. 2018 was our baseline year, so now in 2019, we have something to compare to and see how effective we’ve been with return on ad spend. They track all of the metrics you would expect from a digital agency.

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re on it, they have a system and formula in place. Our team has a standing call every Tuesday morning during which we share screens to go through our weekly report. Four of us, including me and my business partner and two members of their team, go through the report. All of the tools we use are adequate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Effective Spend is a well-run organization. They do a good job. I look for tenure because I don’t want to get bounced around from one account representative to another. I need to know that the people I’m working with are tenured within the organization so they’re familiar with all of the tools and assets. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing I can think of offhand.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be engaged. Follow through and ping them every now and again via email or phone. Ask good questions to make sure you’re getting good answers and don’t expect them to do what needs to be done and your behalf. Remember that it’s your hand on the rudder sailing the ship and it’s their job to make sure they’ve got the sail in the wind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the growth marketing director for TUSHY. We’re a Brooklyn-based startup bathroom and lifestyle brand. We make bidet attachments and other sustainable products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend? 

We needed a partner to help us scale and amplify our presence on PPC channels, including paid social, paid search, shopping, and display. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Effective Spend helps manage all our campaigns. We're a small company, so they’re heavily involved with bidding, campaign adjustments, and audience adjustments. They provide full funnel service from prospecting to retargeting and remarketing. They optimize every aspect of our PPC channels. They make sure that our Google Analytics campaigns are set up properly, and that information flows between Google Analytics and the Shopify dashboard. 

What is the team composition? 

There’s a core group of four people who are accessible to me all the time. 

How did you come to work with Effective Spend? 

They were recommended to us by a friend of our founder. 

How much have you invested with them?

At this point, we’ve probably spent $150,000–$200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We're still working together, and the project began in October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One thing that makes Effective Spend such a great partner is they understand how important customer acquisition cost is to us. All of their performance incentives are scaled around keeping our CAC within an ideal range. If our revenue is scaling up, but CAC is staying the same, they intensify their efforts to keep it that way.

Another huge thing that they've done is not just increasing our website traffic but also helping increase the quality of the traffic. We're now getting high-intent site visitors. 

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint? 

Effective Spend is incredibly transparent, super responsive, and very efficient. I have a weekly meeting with them, and they’re willing to have additional calls as necessary. I’m fond of everyone on their team. They help me to fully understand each comprehensive PPC report.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Effective Spend makes a valiant effort to both understand our brand and the performance of their work. They spend a lot of time looking at the quantitative numbers for every campaign that we're running. That allows us to see where their marketing is working so that we can adjust our spend as needed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm very satisfied with them. If there’s anything that I think they need to improve, I make it clear to our account strategist. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Make sure that they’re fully aligned with your goals. They're really receptive if your goals change as long as you’re transparent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of marketing at Snap Kitchen, a retail and e-commerce company that provides ready-to-eat healthy meals. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Spend?

We wanted to grow our business as we started doing more sales online, so we reached out to Effective Spend to help with our overall digital marketing strategy. We wanted to be able to justify scaling our spend by accurately tracking our online efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Effective Spend implemented website and events tracking systems so that we could track the results of our ad spend. After providing a competitive overview, they also provided additional marketing research and helped us develop a strategy for managing our digital media spend more effectively. 

What is the team composition? 

We work with 4–5 people, including an analytics expert, an account manager, a social media lead, and a search subject matter expert who provides a lot of forecasting information. One of their co-founders was also heavily involved in the beginning and checks in every quarter. They also assigned a junior account manager to us over the last couple of months. 

How did you come to work with Effective Spend?

One of our internal consultants had worked with them before and recommended them. We liked that they seemed to be wired differently compared to other vendors because they didn't try to push us to spend a lot before we were able to justify it with performance metrics. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've helped us maintain a strong level of growth much more efficiently. We went from spending around $5,000 in the first month to close to $200,000 after Effective Spend helped us increase our credibility and prove our way back to spending a lot. We now have systems in place that clearly analyze our engagement metrics and pinpoint where our orders are coming from. 

How did Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

They're great. We typically have a weekly meeting with their team to go over the prior week's results and any open projects, as well as biweekly creative meetings to go over new opportunities. They respond very quickly for anything else we reach out to their team for. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're wired for performance, and truly live up to their name. Compared to other agencies, they're more data-based in their decision making. They're the first firm I've worked with that wanted to start slow on spend to ensure we were acquiring customers at an efficient cost. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They're fantastic and honest about their strengths with new clients. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't be hesitant about their approach or to provide any feedback.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the e-commerce manager of Verb Products, a high-quality, affordable haircare brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Effective Spend?

Our company had never used a significant portion of our budget or team toward paid ad efforts. We wanted to focus on direct-to-consumer advertising, and move away from only working with large retailers and salon distributors. We wanted to hire an external team to make the most of our time and resources. We brought on Effective Spend to lead our paid ad strategy and manage the daily aspects of the campaign.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase our sales and grow in overall site traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We considered between 3–4 agencies but made our decision based on cost. Additionally, Effective Spend was the most impressive with their thoughtful pitch, and they fit our needs best.

Describe the project in detail.

At the start of the project, Effective Spend primarily created Facebook ads for us. We've expanded into using Instagram, paid Google and Bing search results, Reddit, and Youtube. Their team brings new opportunities to our attention and gather audience interest. They write copy for the ads, find keywords for SEO, and create other useful brand guidelines.

What was the team composition?

During the onboarding process, they provided between 3–5 teammates. As we’ve gone further into the project, there are now three people I frequently speak with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement?

In under one year of working with Effective Spend, our revenue has nearly quadrupled. Thanks to their assistance, our traffic, unique users, conversions, and keyword rankings have all exponentially increased. All of the results exceed our original expectations. We’re so pleased with their work that we’re going to do SEO with another branch of their team.

How did the Effective Spend perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicate through email, bi-weekly phone calls, and Slack. They send follow-ups after every call that serve as useful reminders. Though they’re based in Austin and we’re in New York, we’ve met a few times. As a team, they’re extremely thorough and clear when it comes to explaining their expectations for us. Whenever we need anything, they’re approachable, available and helpful.
  

What impresses you about the Effective Spend?

Effective Spend feels like an extension of our own team—they’re invested in our brand. They’ve been a tremendous help to us, and are pleasant to work with. They bring us new ad possibilities and always jump at the opportunity to help. This has been my best experience working with an advertising team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Whenever something falls through the cracks, they are quick to remedy the situation and learn from their mistakes. They’re careful and thorough, so I can’t think of any areas for them to improve in.