SevenAtoms

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a Performance Marketer at Fabric

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

fabric is the next-generation commerce platform that is designed to provide the commerce services customers expect so they can build world-class experiences, anywhere. $293 million in total funding raised to date.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SevenAtoms to accomplish?

• Increase pipeline & sales opportunities
• Decrease cost per lead

SOLUTION

How did you find SevenAtoms?

Referral

Why did you select SevenAtoms over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from SevenAtoms were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

SevenAtoms was hired for end-to-end management of PPC. SevenAtoms managed Google Ads, Bing Ads, Review Sites, and the Landing Pages.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Working with Seven Atoms provided outcomes that far exceeded our expectations. Seven Atoms and the fabric marketing team worked together and were able to decrease cost per lead by 50%, grow the sales-qualified pipeline from paid search by 100%, and improve landing page conversions by 3x. Seven Atoms over-delivered for every single quarterly goal ahead of schedule and was amazing to work with.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Seven Atoms consistently delivered on time or ahead of time. They met every need and always went the extra mile.

What was your primary form of communication with SevenAtoms?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Seven Atoms knowledge and ability to market for B2B software companies is phenomenal. They're cutting-edge and consistently stay on top of trends. I highly recommend them. I've referred multiple clients that love working with them as well.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Incapsula is a cloud service that accelerates and secures websites. We have customers of all sizes, from individual bloggers all the way up to Fortune 50 companies. I am the Vice President of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SevenAtoms?

We had two issues. We needed to wrap our PPC campaign and needed someone who was experienced that could manage and optimize it for us. The other is that we needed a lot of content created. They brought both content marketing and PPC management skills to us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were creating eBooks, white papers, and things like that that would attract people to us and also could be used in some of the PPC campaigns. We did two different types of collaboration. In one example, we took a longer more technical document and asked them to both simplify it and make it more interesting so it would appeal to our customers. In other cases, we would give them assignments in which we gave them an outline and had them go write it and they would come back and work with my content marketing manager to revise it. It was that typical back-and-forth process.

How did you come to work with SevenAtoms?

I was looking for a local firm because I wanted to have that face-to-face collaboration work, especially in the beginning because we were doing so much new work. I believe I was just looking around, probably on Google, and then I checked out some of their references and decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with SevenAtoms?

We spend $5,000 to $10,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re working with them now. They don’t do as much content for us as they used to. We ramped up our PPC campaign and they do a lot of work on the landing pages as well. So a lot of optimization work is being done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t have all the stats at my fingertips. I was not happy with the previous agency managing our PPC advertising. The one stat I can give you is that we went from a negative ROI on PPC with our old agency to a positive ROI with SevenAtoms. So now, for every customer we acquire via PPC, we’re actually making our money back on the program in that year, and then everything else on top of that is gravy. That’s the most important stat to me. Obviously, just about everything has improved. Our conversion click-through rates on the ads themselves and conversion rates on the landing pages have improved. So our pages are doing quite a bit better than they used to.

How did SevenAtoms perform from a project management standpoint?

It is pretty hands off. We correspond with Andy a couple of times a week. Then, we have quarterly reviews where we go over the stats. We’ve been working together for a number of years and Andy knows our products and what we need to do. There hasn’t been an issue with deadlines. Back in the early days, when they did more content, it wasn’t an issue.

What did you find most impressive about SevenAtoms?

First of all, their reporting is great. Andy goes over all of the AdWords campaigns in great detail during our quarterly reviews. It pulls out the highlights and shows what worked and what didn’t. I’m not really a very data driven guy. It’s nice to get such a comprehensive report. Andy is a very patient soul. He’ll sit down and answer any question we might have. There’s transparency with the agency. You don’t feel like you’re being confused with AdWords techno-jargon that you don’t understand. The fact that they’re able to be self-sufficient and provide reporting is great.

Are there any areas SevenAtoms could improve?

They bring us new ideas, which is good. My dream agency is someone that would bring me new ideas and they would test it first, so that they would bring me a concept and say, “we’ve actually thought of this and tested it out a little bit and we think this is the way to go.” That would be a nice addition to their services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Elite Era, an e-commerce company that specializes in vehicle accessories. Some of the websites that we run and operate are Sealskincovers.com and Boatcovers.com. We’re also moving to other e-commerce businesses such as subscription-based services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SevenAtoms?

We were trying to increase our AdWords traffic and increase our cost per acquisition. In order to improve our cost per acquisition, we needed help getting more targeted traffic to our website. Also, Google had banned some of our ads, and we wanted to get them unbanned. We also needed help figuring out how to successfully sell a new product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SevenAtoms took care of the website design, development, and content. First, they found better niche keywords. Then, they set up better ad groups and landing pages that did a better job of converting. As a result, our pages were generating more targeted traffic and the conversion rate improved. SevenAtoms wrote the content on their own. They looked at our website and made sure the landing pages kept the same look and feel; they didn’t look disconnected from the rest of the website. Also, they put together an e-book to educate our visitors about our products and add credibility to the landing pages.

How did you come to work with SevenAtoms?

At the time, we were interviewing 4 or 5 companies. We brought SevenAtoms in, showed our operations and had a chance to learn more about them.

How much have you invested with SevenAtoms?

They make a management fee off our total advertising spend. We spend upwards of $2 million on advertising, so they’re managing about $1 million to $2 million a year. Out of that, they’re usually making around 9%.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’re the kind of company we want to work with long-term. We’ve been working with SevenAtoms for 4 or 5 years, since about September 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The team at SevenAtoms was pretty much amazing. They were able to come in, analyze our AdWords account, and identify some of the weaknesses that we had. Andy prioritized getting some of those ads that Google was banning approved. Once he freed up those ads, we started seeing more targeted traffic right away. In fact, most of the other marketing companies even commented that it was impossible to get some of those specific ads unbanned. As soon as we gave SevenAtoms a shot, we started seeing results within 2 or 3 weeks.

Overall, they [SevenAtoms] were able to generate more targeted traffic and improve our cost per acquisition. Our most popular product was boat covers made of waterproof breathable fabric. We launched a new product, car covers, and could not figure out how to successfully sell them. When we were working with another marketing company, we had a cost per acquisition of around $80. That amount was pretty much impossible. Andy came in and within a month or two, he cut that almost in half. It went from $80/$90 cost per acquisition to $30/$40. It went from an unprofitable product to a profitable product.

How did SevenAtoms perform from a project management standpoint?

SevenAtoms was really good. They have great project management and customer relationship management. They had simple workspaces using Base Camp that kept everybody updated on the different projects that we were working on. Also, if there are any issues, I can call Andy directly, and he’s usually good with getting back to me right away. Sometimes, the environment in AdWords may change, and things will get out of whack, but within a day or so, Andy will get right on it and address whatever issue we’re facing.

What did you find most impressive about SevenAtoms?

I think the main difference is they focus on results. Most companies say that or claim that. But most companies put you in some kind of template system where they’re looking to manage you for as long as possible. Most marketing companies will tell you: "We’re going to set up these campaigns, but you may not see results for 3 to 6 months". That’s mainly because they intend to ration off their resources between you and other clients. In contrast, Andy and his team were able to show us results right away. Everyone else was telling us it was going to take 6 months to see anything. We were already doing well, so we didn’t need someone trying to tell us it’s going to take 6 months to see results. Andy came in, and right away he was able to focus on what we wanted to do.

Andy prefers to take on a project if he feels like he can add value. There have been times where I’ve presented products to him, saying, “Can we sell this?” He would reply, “I’m not going to be able to do this.” As a result, he’s somebody that we really trust. I feel like if Andy or SevenAtoms say they can’t do something, it could be impossible. They work towards their strengths. If it’s something that they don’t do, they tell you right away. It’s not like some companies who overpromise, and then outsource that work or make a referral fee. SevenAtoms focuses on what they specialize in, and they’re really good at what they do.

Are there any areas SevenAtoms could improve?

As of right now, not really. We’ve been growing, and we hope Andy and his team can continue to grow as well because we’re going to need more help and more resources. I know that’s something that he’s working on, expanding his staff and growing his team. I can’t say anything negative about what they do.