Silverback Strategies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Former Brand Manager of CroppMetcalfe

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Residential and commercial HVAC, plumbing, pest control, and electrical services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Silverback Strategies to accomplish?

• Launch and manage PPC campaign with a CPL < $200
• Optimize and provide guidance on SEO activities to increase organic visibility
• Setup Meta advertising aimed at lead conversion

SOLUTION

How did you find Silverback Strategies?

Referral

Why did you select Silverback Strategies over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Silverback Strategies were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Silverback managed all of our digital marketing properities and campaigns including paid search, SEO, paid social, and organic social with a dual focus of increasing brand awareness and driving incremental customers through performance marketing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Throughout the length of the project, Silverback helped us manage and made recommendations to achieve our KPIs which were CPLs < $200, varying organic and SEO goals, and overall lead volume for paid social campaigns. 

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

Silverback was highly responsive with regular and ad hoc meetings throughout the length of the project. They always kept us informed of the status of request and made recommendations proactively to help drive results for our campaigns. 

What was your primary form of communication with Silverback Strategies?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I have always felt that their communication was the best among agencies I have dealt with and they consistenly brought new and innovative ideas to the table. They also took the time to understand our industry rather than just recommending tactics that didn't make any sense for our customers.

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

Not at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner and founder of a company that offers a platform where car dealerships and mechanics can provide cars for rental. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

We needed support with growth marketing with the goals of increasing our business and brand awareness.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contacted Silverback Strategies to create our branding and designed our logo. The team has designed a landing page from scratch on my website. We've had multiple discussions to explain my company and vision, and the team has taken the project from there. The creative team has been responsible for creating the landing page. Silverback Strategies creates marketing campaigns that target my desired customers on Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram and provides SEO, too. 

What is the team composition?

I work with 4–5 teammates from Silverback Strategies. 

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

I found Silverback Strategies through recommendations from other companies that had previously worked with them and spoke highly of the team. I wasn't successful in looking for a service provider on my own. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Silverback Strategies in May 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Silverback Strategies' marketing support, our business has increased 40% in the last two years. Our growth has been evident since we started working with the team. Silverback Strategies' customer service is the best out of the marketing companies I've worked with.
How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Silverback Strategies is efficient in meeting deadlines, which is one of the reasons I like working with them. Silverback Strategies provides an expected date to deliver work and meets it everytime. We collaborate via Basecamp and communicate through monthly meetings to review progress and AOL Instant Messenger, where they respond quickly.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Stephanie (Paid Media Manager) has worked great with us. She's on top of things when we ask questions or request changes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Silverback Strategies stands out for their professionalism, speed, and efficiency. I sometimes have a hard time explaining requirements, and the team understands my ideas and delivers products that I didn't realize I needed. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Silverback Strategies can improve 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I suggest communicating your expectations to Silverback Strategies right off the bat, and they'll deliver them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of marketing at Meadows Farms Nurseries & Landscaping.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

We needed support to manage our digital advertising, including social media marketing and PPC campaigns. Our business has two sides: retail and landscaping. On the retail side, we only manage sales to customers, and on the landscaping, we depend on getting leads. Our main goals were to attract customers to our retail store and increase online leads for our landscaping design work. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After signing the contract, Silverback Strategies set us up with an account representative with whom we had several meetings to discuss our goals. We then moved forward to create different types of ads. Silverback Strategies has created advertising campaigns in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

What is the team composition?

We work with one main representative and with her boss. Silverback Strategies' president sometimes engages in those meetings, too. I've also worked with other teammates on specific details. 

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

The first time I heard about Silverback Strategies was through a radio station I worked with that worked alongside the team. I revisited Silverback Strategies for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

I contacted Silverback Strategies in late 2019 and started working together in January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. We have a yearly contract and adjust our marketing budget monthly since we're a seasonal business; some months, we're closed, and other months are more important for our company. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This year, we've asked Silverback Strategies to focus more on lead generation and increase our spending, and as a result, leads have increased by 80% over previous years. We can track our increase in leads directly to Silverback Strategies' ads. Initially, the quality of the leads and the sales percentage didn't meet our expectations. We talked to Silverback Strategies about it, and the team adjusted their work to achieve the sales percentage we needed. 

Silverback Strategies adjusts to our needs. On the retail side, the team has done a great job in acquiring users to sign up as VIP customers, representing repeat customers who come in often. 

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Silverback Strategies delivers work on time and on budget. We have biweekly Zoom meetings with our account representative and communicate via email, too. We collaborate via Basecamp, where we store documents we can consult anytime.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to highlight Andrew (President) because he has done a fantastic job on our project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Silverback Strategies knows how to use the ads and what words to use more efficiently than we can. The team does a good job in attracting our target customers and, more importantly, in the specific area we service. Additionally, the way Silverback Strategies delivers my marketing budget options is really good. The team offers low, medium, and high choices, and I can adjust our budget depending on our needs.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything that I've been dissatisfied with. I'm pretty happy working with Silverback Strategies. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I suggest paying attention to Silverback Strategies' communication because it's a key aspect of the project. The team is worth listening to, and it's essential you communicate your goals and particular business needs. Once you do that, Silverback Strategies will take the project from there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager for a global company, LexisNexis. Our side of the business provides legal and professional resources to clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

The company partnered with Silverback shortly before I came on board. At the time, the company just started to implement PPC campaigns. They ran campaigns with a different agency that focused mainly on branded terms. Management decided that wasn’t the only part of PPC that we wanted to play in.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We chose Silverback as the agency to expand our PPC efforts. Their team added nonbranded keywords into our campaigns and optimized our landing pages. They managed paid ads on Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Their team also directed paid ads on YouTube.

We later brought them on board to help with our SEO campaigns. They wrote keyword-rich content for all of our products. Their team also created nuanced content for blogs as well as secondary and tertiary pages on the website.

We also have a creative contract with them. They’re on retainer to work on quarterly creative initiatives.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and a paid media specialist. On the SEO side, we work with two people too. I also communicate with one primary person on creative projects. I’ve worked with a couple of other individuals on her team.

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

Another division of our company initially hired them. When our company restructured, a VP of marketing for a different segment transitioned onto ours and brought Silverback with her.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent around $600,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together started in February 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we first started with them, we only focused on branded keywords. We didn’t do anything to refine and gather leads. Silverback not only expanded our market but also increased the efficiency of our campaigns. Our cost per acquisition’s low; lower than it needs to be. At this point, it’s almost a 4:1 ratio. It used to be nearly a 1:1.

They conducted research and found that many small law firms rely on Facebook for their online presence. Their team made the recommendation based on our customers. They did the same with LinkedIn, taking and laying in our consumer data to ensure they fit together.  Now, Facebook and LinkedIn are a large part of their work. 

Since we started with Silverback, we’ve seen phenomenal growth. I’ve worked with a lot of agencies over my 21 years in digital, and Silverback’s fantastic. I’m happy with everything that they’ve done so far.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

We work through Basecamp. Our team uses Trello too. I appreciate that their team keeps me honest. They make sure that I give them what they need in a timely fashion. Their team helps me to stay on top of everything. They’re a partner more than a contractor. Their team puts forth ideas that we hadn’t considered. They also let us know when an idea probably won’t work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Silverback’s invested in our success and willing to be a partner. I’ve worked with many agencies that only said yes. That’s not the case with Silverback. If they think that we could do better or don’t think an idea’s the best investment of our money, they’re more than willing to say so. That’s as important as execution. It’s extremely helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If there would be anything to change, it might be with our communication. On one hand, I'd like to have a Slack channel to be able to have that level of communication. On the other hand, I don’t want to interrupt anyone, and I don’t want them to interrupt me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to what they say and listen to see if it fits your mode of work. if that doesn’t make sense to you, ask questions. Don’t just hire someone to do the job and then not give them the tools to be able to do it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Manager for a real estate development/managemet company. Our company's main focus is in multifamily residential (apartments) and we own/operate 75+ apartment communities and 25,000+ apartment units in the DMV region. Additionally, we own/manage 4 hotel and conference center properties (including a ski resort) and 5 commercial office buildings. My marketing department handles all marketing, advertising and communications efforts for our corporatation and all its individual businesses and segments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Silverback Strategies?

We first hired Silverback because we had outgrown other digital marketing partners. In Silverback, we found a digital marketing operation that was able to handle the scale of our account, and provide the level of analytical strategy we were looking for, but had been unable to find with smaller shops and traditional ad agencies. Silverback is a team of specialists, who analyze data to make informed suggestions and recommendations to optimize our advertising spend. While our first project was on the paid media side, we soon invested in an SEO strategy. After seeing the results from our SEO efforts we ended up expanding into a content marketing strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

We had several goals. Our first goal was to optimize our paid media spend. By spending more time analyzing our data and making prudent recommendations, we thought we could be much more efficient with our advertising dollars. We wanted to use data from our operations software to ensure the dollars were being allocated to areas of our business that needed more attention (certain markets that needed to generate a larger # of leads). After accomplishing this goal, our next goal was to optimize our website so we could then decrease our paid media spend without reducing the overall # of visitors to our website. The combination of SEO and content marketing has helped us to continually reduce our paid media spend while increasing the # of visits through a large increase in earned media.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have worked with more than a dozen digital marketing partners over the years. Many digital marketing departments in large ad agencies, other small digital marketing specialists with just a few employees. We selected Silverback because they have a team of dedicated specialists, but had enough resources to handle the scale of our business needs. We were very impressed by their analytics-heavy approach to managing digital marketing accounts, and we could tell early on that they were committed to building a true partnership with our company. We did our due diligence, checked references, and began working on our first project with Silverback roughly 5 years ago.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Our relationship with Silverback has grown over the 5 years since we began working with them. Phase 1: We initially hired Silverback to manage paid media accounts. We were looking for a partner who would dig into our business analytics (not just the Google Analytics and Adwords data, but our operational metrics) to help develop and implement sound strategies to optimize our ad spend. Phase 2: After optimizing our paid media spend, we saw an opportunity to improve our share of earned media. Our goal with this phase was to improve our SEO to reach (and surpass) a tipping point, where we could begin to decrease our paid media spend without decreasing the overall # of visits. Phase 3: We began the process of developing a new website (circa 2017) and involved Silverback at the beginning of the planning process. They ensured all SEO best practices, conversion funnels, conversion tracking, etc. were all part of the strategy from the very beginning to ensure the highest potential for future marketing efforts (both paid and earned). Phase 4: After launching the new website, drastically improving earned media results (via SEO) and starting to decrease our paid media spend, we initiated a Content Marketing stratetgy to help generate a larger # of earned visits to our website. This would allow us to further decrease our dependence on paid media. Phase 5: We expanded our relationship with Silverback to include paid media and SEO efforts for our individual hotel properties. Until this point we had relied on hotel industry-specific digital marketing partners, but we knew Silverback's methods are industry agnostic and we were confident we would see similar success for our hotel website conversions.

What was the team composition?

Silverback has different teams with specific areas of expertise. We have recurring meetings/calls with one team specializing in SEO and earned media and another team specializing in paid media. There is always a team lead who oversees the corresponding specialty. We also have regular contact with the CEO of the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I believe Tyler Lucas has already shared specific data points that show the increase in visits, conversion %s, etc. The bottom line is that in the 5 years we've been working with Silverback we've seen our website traffic/visits increase steadily. We've seen major efficiencies in our overall advertising expenses (our overall annual marketing budget has descreased more than 30% since we began working with Silverback) and our conversion ratios have increased exponentially.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is extremely effective. We use Basecamp for all communications and the Silverback team responds immediately to any comment added to our projects.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Silverback uses data/analytics to make routine, proactive adjustments to our digital marketing campaigns. Where many digital marketing companies use a "set it and forget it" approach, or rely on computer algorithns to "optimize" campaigns, this team uses human brains to apply analytical thinking and common sense to get the biggest bang for our buck. They're highly intelligent people and still have good people skills, which makes them easy (and fun) to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any. We've been very pleased with our working relationship with Silverback, as shown by the various "phases" in our ever-expanding partnership. They're a great company and I can't recommend them enough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at Washington Speakers Bureau, a service provider that connects professional speakers for hire with customers who need those speakers for events, digital marketing, and even sponsorships in marketing opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

We launched an initiative to significantly bolster and grow our social media presence across all the major platforms. We had a campaign that we developed and needed an agency to help scale our efforts and activate it across our social media platforms and speaking engagements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired them to help us in the social media management strategy, creative, and activation. We intended to initially launch across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, while adding Instagram later on.

Silverback Strategies helped us with the calculated approach to how we were going to scale within those platforms. They were managing social for us daily. Not only were they generating content and posts for each of those sites, but they were also managing, with our team, and co-creating the editorial calendar and the creation of creative assets that we needed, such as social graphics, copy, and videos and animations. That campaign ran its course, and then their focus became much more about supporting our corporate brand through those same channels.

What is the team composition?

Ben (Vice President of Creative, Silverback Strategies) was our primary point of contact. He understood our business and what we were trying to achieve. Ben helped set the strategic tone for the campaign and our overall social presence. We worked with another of Ben’s colleagues for some day-to-day work, but Ben oversaw the primary operations.

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

Silverback Strategies was the agency of record at a previous job of mine. Although we interviewed and considered other agencies, we selected Silverback Strategies because of their robust social and content team. I had worked with the head of content before and liked their philosophy and approach to social. It wasn’t just content-driven and brand-driven, but it was also very performance-driven. They wanted to make sure that social supports our lead generation efforts and that we could quantify the results there against revenue targets.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $96,000–$110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement spanned March 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us expand our reach and our awareness within our influencer base, in addition to learning more about our audiences through analytics. We now have much more intel into who our likely buyers are. We were also able to see those buyers start funneling through our marketing systems and turn into hard revenue dollars as far as bookings for professional speakers.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

In addition to weekly stand-up meetings, we used Basecamp as our primary communication tool. They are local to us, so we benefited from having several in-person meetings as we were getting everything off the ground. We relied heavily on a senior member of their team to manage the project because he understood our product, our service, and our brand. He wasn’t just a scheduler, however. He was hands-on in terms of developing a strategy and content for us, as well. Not everything was perfect, but their team did a good job of communicating when tasks weren’t going to be on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Silverback Strategies has an ambitious team. It wasn’t enough to get a good piece of copy out there or a good post and get a lot of likes. They wanted to follow it all the way through in making sure that it was on-brand and on-voice. More than anything, they wanted to make sure we were making good business decisions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their expansion into more content development has been a welcomed core service that they’ve added. They should continue to expand their content team and their creative team to look at new mediums, video, and other creative.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For a new client, it’s very tempting to want to turn over the keys to an agency and ask them to make it happen. That’s the wrong approach to someone like Silverback Strategies. You need to come to the table prepared and with an understanding of what a successful project will look like for them. Be very clear internally about what it is you want, and be very open and communicative with Silverback Strategies about what those needs are. They’re not going to make you do it their way, but they are going to want to work with you to solve your problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former marketing and data analytics manager at Discovery Education. In my role, I oversaw the marketing data for 35 corporate partnership programs. We coordinated with different organizations to sponsor free-to-use education products for classrooms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

To support our partnership programs, we compiled monthly data reports on each organization’s web performance and marketing efforts. However, it was a time-consuming process that involved manually pulling key performance indicators (KPIs) from 6–7 sources and putting them into an Excel-based dashboard. Silverback Strategies came onboard to overhaul our reporting processes, developing a series of robust dashboards to better track our program metrics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Silverback Strategies created 35 dashboards based in Google Data Studio. Their team wrote custom scripts and APIs that would automatically aggregate data on each of our partner organizations. The dashboards would then generate reports based on the programs’ website, social media, email analytics, paid advertising, and newsletter inclusions. 

One of the most beneficial features was a horizontal overview of all of our partner organizations. By comparing metrics across programs, we could establish benchmarks to better improve individual program performance.

What is the team composition? 

Andrew Nelson (COO, Silverback Strategies) initially worked with us to establish the project details and tailor the solution. Afterward, Louis Belpaire (Director of Paid Media & Analytics, Silverback Strategies) took over as our main point of contact. We also worked with Andrew Fuchs (Senior Paid Media Account Manager, Silverback Strategies) and Jonny Mazo (Senior Paid Media & Analytics Manager, Silverback Strategies).

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

Silverback Strategies was working with another department within Discovery Education on our digital marketing strategies. At some point, I came across a basic dashboard that they’d created using Google Data Studio to track our paid social and SEO/SEM efforts. I realized that this was exactly the tool we needed for our programs, so I reached out for a quote.

How much have you invested with them?

Our overall contract was for about $100,000, which included 35 dashboards and additional monthly hours for troubleshooting.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work started in August 2018 and is ongoing. Over the course of 3–4 months, we went through several iterations because we wanted to make wholesale changes from what we’d initially asked for. Regardless, they never made us feel bad about requesting changes or new features. Currently, they’re providing five hours per month to troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new dashboards have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both our internal team and partners. The interface is visually appealing, and the automation makes it much easier for our team to update the data. I was particularly impressed with how well they tailored the solution considering that they’d never done anything like this at such a large scale.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Louis was an incredibly thorough project lead. To prepare for our weekly calls, he would share an agenda outlining our discussion points and list any updates; afterward, he would immediately send out the next steps for our team and his. It can be hard for vendors to keep a client on task without sounding rude, but I appreciated that Louis gave us helpful reminders on what we needed to deliver while still being polite. 

Although we didn’t always meet our deadlines, Silverback Strategies consistently met theirs. This was partly because they worked hard to make up for lost time, but I think they also had the forethought to build extra time into the initial estimate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Silverback Strategies had a solution-oriented mindset and tailored their work to suit our needs. Even if I didn’t have a concrete idea in mind, they always found a way to deliver so long as I defined the desired outcome. I could ask them for a report on regional engagement without knowing how to approach it, and they would come back with a visual representation based on our data and industry standards. Their consistent ability to deliver on our needs was truly remarkable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. From my understanding, this was a relatively new area of business for them that they hadn’t grown out yet, but it was incredibly helpful for me. They should consider dedicating parts of their business to helping clients visualize marketing KPIs because there’s a lot of demand for that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Build in some time into the initial project estimate to accommodate potential changes. We would often ask for something specific, and they would deliver exactly what we wanted. But we would then realize that we needed something else instead. By allocating extra time from the beginning, you can explore how things turn out and build new iterations based on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing operations manager at Advanced Solutions International. We developed an engagement management system software for associations and not for profits. Our software and services help our clients focus on their missions and achieve great things.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

As an international company, our search engine strategy is complicated. We are the market leader in our niche, and we needed help to improve our online presence through SEO and PPC campaigns in our American, Canadian, UK, and Australian markets to stay ahead of our competitors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took over our entire account management and strategy planning and work with us very closely on SEO and PPC projects. We started with a full audit of our website, including all the technical aspects, an inventory of important keywords, and analysis of our brand image and web presence. We took a hard look at our campaign structures for each category and reevaluated a lot of keywords and how they align with our goals. Our ad presence, both domestic and international, needed to change to surpass some of our competitors.

Each month, Silverback sent is a report with complete analysis of our performance month over month and year over year. They drive all our analytics and restructured our website so it’s easier to navigate. We have a much better grasp of how our PPC initiatives stack up against our competitors, and we can see exactly where we are improving and where we can do better. Our marketplace is very competitive, but now we are consistently staying ahead.

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager, an SEO subject matter expert, and a PPC subject matter expert on their side. They meet weekly with three representatives from our side.

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

We engaged them years ago for another project and were very happy with their work. When we decided to take PPC work on in-house, we ended the partnership, but when we realized that things weren’t going the way we wanted them to, we reengaged them. Their office is very near to ours, so it’s easy to meet with them in person as needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We have a flat fee of $5,000 each month for SEO, plus a $5,000 per month PPC retainer, not including our ad spend.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started up again in January 2018. We were on a six-month contract to start, but now engage them on a month-to-month basis. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen some major improvements since the start of their involvement. SEO keywords have moved as far as fifth- or sixth-page rankings to first or second in search results, and 70% of our most important keywords reached the top-ten positions within the first eight months of our engagement. On the PPC side, we have more than doubled our conversion rates at a very efficient cost, paying only two thirds of last year’s spend. Overall web traffic is up, and we’ve maintained higher traffic month over month.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is fantastic. We meet weekly and use Basecamp to communicate and share documents at any time. They drive agendas for each meeting, and have clear goals of what to address.

We found that one page in our site was receiving a lot more traffic than others, so we asked them to analyze that specific page to see how we could optimize it and bring some of those improvements to the rest of the site. They’re extremely quick and finish each project within the week. Turnaround times are short, and they always check in through Basecamp to update us on what they’ve finished.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really knowledgeable and are more than willing to explain their process. If we’re unsure of any terminology or changes Google makes in their algorithms, they’re quick to educate us on what each change means and how it impacts us. That’s extremely valuable, as there’s no way we would be able to stay ahead of these changes on our own.

Regular audits are another major asset. We can see how we’re doing in monthly reports and make sure nothing is slipping. They’re very thorough and detail-oriented.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so, we’re really happy with our engagement. We’re four months past our contract end date, but we’ve continued to work together. They still help us maintain our web rankings and make sure we don’t lose any of the gains we’ve made in the past ten months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about your goals from the beginning. We wanted to improve both our domestic and our international rankings, so it was important for us to explain what we wanted. You will know your market better than they will, so it’s important to evaluate your needs and lay out what you’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a higher education company that mainly focuses on online learning. We also have over 70 physical campus locations across the U.S. where students can go to learn. I’m a product owner for our main website, responsible for making sure it performs well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

We used to have a dedicated SEO person in-house. After he left, we brought Silverback Strategies onboard.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From a technical perspective, Silverback Strategies does periodic technical audits on our website. They make sure we're doing everything right so search engines can properly crawl our site. They also keep us abreast of new technologies involved with improving SEO. For example, earlier this year they got more familiar with Google My Business Post in order to boost our organic entries for our campus location pages. They help us figure out different ways to improve the click-through rate on our search results.

Knowing that mobile search is increasingly a bigger factor, Silverback Strategies was critical in helping us migrate from our old Drupal website to a new Drupal 7 website. As SEO consultants, they advised the developers on what was needed to make sure we retained all our structured data and keywords. The goal was to keep our keyword rankings at the same level as much as possible. They also do keyword research for us, and offer guidance on what keywords we should be using every time we build a new page.

What is the team composition?

Jordan (senior digital marketing manager, Silverback Strategies) is our account manager.

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

They were brought on prior to me taking on this web role. I don't know what the selection process looked like.  

How much have you invested with them?

The total spend is a little over $200,000. We pay a monthly fee for anything directly tied to SEO under the main web domain. Any subdomain work or content creation is not included in the monthly fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2016. We're still working together now, but the engagement will be winding down by the end of the year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's not easy for me to do a high-level trend analysis because of the way they report on our SEO rankings. Every month is a different report, and I just see month-over-month changes. We recently merged with another higher education company and we ultimately decided to switch to their SEO agency. Part of the reason for that decision is that we’re underperforming compared to last year in terms of organic traffic to our site. The company that we merged with went through a website redesign last year as well. They launched their redesigned site about six months before we launched ours, but they saw a lot of growth this year.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is great to work with. They’re easy to get a hold of. They’re very willing to work with our instant messaging tool, which is Slack. We Slack with them multiple times a week. We meet weekly with our account manager. Jordan always keeps us up to date on everything they're working on. She also keeps me on track so I’m moving things along on my side. She makes sure the development work was being done for any new features on our website to help improve SEO. The work that they did definitely helped minimize the negative impact from migrating redesigning our website.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're so knowledgeable on the technical side. They’ve been helpful in making sure our website is technically sound in order to help search engines crawl it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One pain point is that we have to go to a different team at Silverback Strategies if we want to leverage their help to rewrite content. As such, it’s outside of scope and requires us to get additional budget. Knowing that content is key to improving SEO, it would be great if they could get content more closely tied with the technical side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Nothing I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-founder of MilitaryByOwner Advertising. We advertise homes for sale and homes for rent around all the military bases in the United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Silverback Strategies?

We rely on Silverback Strategies to provide SEO consulting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our main priority is organic SEO, but we’ll sometimes explore digital marketing or analytics if it overlaps. We spend a lot of time making sure our site is healthy and that our pages are optimized well. We work with about 325 markets across the country, so we have a lot of these military bases operating on SEO templates. We have more pointed and specific content—such as blog posts and resource articles—for our larger markets.

What is the team composition?

We worked alongside Kurt (Vice President of SEO, Silverback Strategies) and Carly (Account Manager, Silverback Strategies).

How did you come to work with Silverback Strategies?

We advertise with a local radio station, one that also works with Silverback Strategies. Our contacts at the station introduced us.

How much have you invested with them?

Over four years, we’ve spent about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in October 2014 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our organic search results are up YoY, and we feel that we have a good system in place. We want to see a gradual growth in organic search, and so far, we’ve seen that. Our main goal is to make sure we don’t go down the wrong path. They’ve proven to be reliable in that regard. For example, we have a design site and a live site, and somehow when pushing a change to the live site, we ended up making every page on the website a no follow link. We fell out of the Google database for about 48 hours, and Silverback Strategies caught that. It didn’t really hurt us, but it could have. Silverback Strategies saved us from something dire.

How did Silverback Strategies perform from a project management standpoint?

Carly, in particular, is very organized. Because we operate using Basecamp, very little is lost in our communication. All of our issues are addressed quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We hired them because they live in the SEO world, so they’re always aware of the latest trends and methods in that space. That’s beneficial for us. We’re always current in our practices because of their insight.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t pinpoint anything that needs improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Nothing works on autopilot. You have to be present and communicative if you want this kind of an engagement to work.