Upthrust Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Manager | Enterprise Sales of EMB Global

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

EMB Global is a strategic consulting and advisory firm that helps businesses scale and transform through tailored solutions in marketing, branding, technology, and business development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

• Pre Buzz + Awareness
• Lead generation

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

Founder connect

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Credentials

How many teammates from Upthrust Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The primary objective of the pre-launch strategy is to position the marketplace as a must-have digital solution for manufacturers involved in selling, renting, and managing equipment. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Got 25-30 qualified leads in 2000 bucks. 

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

The communication gap at the beginning of the project. While our team primarily operated over WhatsApp for quick coordination, Upthrust was more active on Slack. This disconnect in preferred communication channels led to delays in alignment, slowed decision-making, and ultimately impacted. 
Although the team did deliver on key items eventually and was open to feedback, the early communication issues did hamper overall efficiency. Clearer alignment on communication protocols from the start would have helped ensure smoother execution and timely delivery.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

Email or Messaging App

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

Credentials & Key Strengths: What stood out most about the company was Akshay’s leadership. He brings a highly strategic approach to the table, backed by deep industry understanding and strong professionalism. His involvement ensured that the larger vision was never lost, even during execution-level discussions. 
The team’s credentials reflect a strong grasp of performance marketing and growth-focused thinking. They have experience working with high-scale, fast-moving brands. Their ability to connect broader business objectives with tactical execution was a clear differentiator. What we found most impressive was their ability to combine data-driven decisions. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

While the Upthrust team took a strategic approach to project execution, one of the major areas that needs attention is communication. Early on, the mismatch in preferred communication channels—their team primarily using Slack and ours using WhatsApp—led to delays in coordination and impacted the project. 
More importantly, we felt there was room for the team managing the project to be more approachable and collaborative. A more open, responsive, and hands-on communication style could have helped in aligning faster, resolving blockers sooner, and driving better day-to-day progress. Clear, two-way communication is a big area to work on to ensure smoother collaboration and more efficient delivery going forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am a manager at VEGA

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a wholly owned subsidiary of VEGA Grieshaner KG, Germany, which manufactures measurement technologies for measuring process level, point level and pressure.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

• Lead generation through LinkedIn campaigns
• Lead generation through SEM

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Upthrust Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Upthrust partnered with VEGA to boost its digital visibility and lead generation for products like VEGAPULS 6X, VEGABAR pressure sensors and Compact radars through:

• A bespoke, conversion‑focused landing page Targeted LinkedIn and Google Ads campaigns (including retargeting)
• Expert email‑marketing strategy and
• Optimization Ongoing performance tracking, analysis, and iterative optimizations ​ 

Key deliverables included  generating 40+ quality per month. It also included

LinkedIn 

• Complete audience research & targeting plan
• Production of ad copies, creative assets,
• Weekly performance reports and optimizations

Google Ads 

• Developing search & retargeting campaign strategy
• Conducting keyword research, writing ad copies, and setting up extensions
• Managing bids and ROI analysis

Email‑Marketing 

• Defining email strategy blueprint (messaging themes, cadence)
• Supplying template designs and content guidelines
• Advice on list segment

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• About 700 leads through LinkedIn campaign in the last 1.5 years
• Efficient CPL ($15)
• Effective watch on overall performance and immediate actions on non-performing campaigns based on CTR and campaign objectives 

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

I am very happy with their project management. The response time is a maximum of 12 hours. They utilize the latest work management and productivity tools, such as Slack and Zapier, and are also developing their own AI model for work automation, which increases their productivity. This not only benefits us as clients, but it also saves time and helps us reach the right target groups with efficient content.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Their educational background- engineering knowledge
• Unerstanding about B2B customer jouney and its mapping
• The team's technical understanding was most impressive.
• Understanding of digital touchpoints specifically for the B2B domain
• Ability to create technical content
• They built automation with Slack, Zapier, and their own AI, so they spent time on ideas, not grunt work.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

• More experienced team members with technical knowledge. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of Acadly

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Attendance automation and lecture engagement product for universities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

We wanted to experiment with and test traction channels for our SaaS targeting USA higher education institutions. Specifically, we aimed to explore LinkedIn ads, Google ads, and email marketing, but we were unsure how to begin or where to start.

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Great communication

How many teammates from Upthrust Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

After analyzing and auditing our accounts, website, and challenges, Upthrust suggested that Google Ads, LinkedIn ads, and email outreach might be the right channels to generate demo calls. They identified these as the lowest-hanging fruit that could be easily optimized.

They also conducted keyword research and shared valuable insights we weren't aware of, such as segmenting campaigns into high, medium, and low intent. Additionally, they recommended retargeting people who clicked on our ads but didn't book a demo call, using both LinkedIn ads and Google Display Network.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cost per demo book calls has been optimized, and we see an average cost per lead $354 from Linkedin ads and around $100 per lead from Email marketing

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

The project management is excellent, and their communication remains quick and effective to this day.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

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

Their speed and deep understanding of our business were impressive. They've taken the time to comprehend our core services and products thoroughly. They did an outstanding job in this regard.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

Collaboration tech could improve, which is something they're working on at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Simply.Coach

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Simply.Coach is a digital coaching platform trusted by coaching businesses across 35+ countries to digitise their client operations and service delivery

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

• Improve existing Google Ads Performance
• Launch LinkedIn Ads as an Aquisition channel
• Launch Outbound Email as an Aquisition channel

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

Online Search

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Upthrust Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Optimise & Scale Google Ads
• Design a high converting landing page
• Launch Linkedin Ads
• Launch Facebook & Insta Ads
• Launch & Scale Outbound Email Marketing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Positives

• Akshay put a great amount of effort into working with us to improve copy & communication

Negatives

• Virtually non-existent team with limited / no experience
• No process - complete chaos - no idea whats the status, things go live without approval
• Creatives were sub-par - had to highlight basic copy mistakes, blurry/grainy elements
• Inexperienced team members giving false information of progress/tasks
• Team member forgot to install Tracking Pixel (after stating that everything is setup and ready) affecting retargeting campaigns

Specific Metrics for our Campaigns

• Optimisation of Google Ads 
  • Increased Budget spending by 35%
  • Worsened CTR - 30%
  • Worsened CPL - 32%
  • Reduced our pipeline by 50% at 50% higher cost
• New Landing Page 
  • Worsened Conversion Rate by 50%
  • Worsened CPL by ~300%
• LinkedIn 
  • Spent USD ~1000 with 3 MQL and 0 SQL
• Email 
  • 0 Positive Responses

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

They seem to be transitioning from Clickup to Notion - Project management was a complete mess. No updates, no visibility - had to manually followup multiple times on the smallest tasks.

Delivery was almost always delayed with subpar quality.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Akshay seems to be willing to work with you and figure out solutions to fix things

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

• Hire a better & more experienced team
• Better at expectation setting & commitments ( do not claim that you will improve the metrics by 70% at least, only to worsen them by 50%)
• Have Quality Checks in place so that clients' business doesn't suffer

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Associate Director of VWO

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

VWO is an A/B testing platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

We were running google ads but the cost per demo call was way too high than our average target cost per demo call, so we wanted someone who can lower our cost per demo call at the same time we can get consistent demo calls and relevant demo calls using paid ads

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Exceptional Communication and ROI

How many teammates from Upthrust Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

After analyzing and auditing our paid accounts, website and challenges upthrust suggested that google ads might be the right channel from which you can get results quickly as they are the lowest-hanging fruit and can be easily optimized. 

They also conducted keyword research and told us valuable things that we weren't aware of like they told us to segment campaigns as high intent, low intent, and medium intent. They asked us to retarget people who have clicked on our ads but didn't booked a demo call on linkedin ads and google display as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The engagement has been great till now. Our cost per demo book calls have been almost reduced to half, and we are happy with the quality of the demos as well

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

The project management is good they've not missed any deadlines or communication till today and their communication is quick.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

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

The velocity and the understanding of our business. Most people just want to start spending money, but they don't want to learn more about the product. They did an impressive job here in understanding our core service and products

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

None. They’re pretty good at the things they do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an art gallery based in New York and we provide art services to companies that are looking to have the pieces in their corporate offices updated or maintained. I’m in charge of business development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Upthrust Inc.?

The main challenge we were facing as B2B company was lead generation. We had been reaching out and calling people all day hoping to close a deal, but we weren’t meeting the goal that we wanted. We turned to Upthrust to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to use digital channels and post ads through Facebook, Instagram, and Google. We began by having Upthrust participate in the sales process. I and one of my colleagues spent some time orienting the team with our current lead generation practices. We showed them our entire funnel.

Upthrust then went into running apps for us on several social media platforms including LinkedIn. They built an entirely new funnel out of that effort and filled it with the necessary details so that we could call any leads that were generated there.  

Their team also participated a bit in the brand design. They suggested ideas for improving our website and overall digital representation. 

What is the team composition?

We work with three people from their team: a Google Ads specialist, a Facebook Ads specialist, and a marketing strategist. 

How did you come to work with Upthrust Inc.?

They were referred by my colleague. He and one of the people from Upthrust went to the same grad school. Our decision to work with them was ultimately due to their sense of urgency. The team responded very promptly and competitively to our queries.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $17,500 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and it is an ongoing partnership. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Upthrust has made my job easier because I’ve begun to get qualified leads from digital channels. We’ve been around 30–38 leads per week, which is fantastic. The return on ad spend is now at a little over 2.5X.

How did Upthrust Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

I would rate them very highly on this front. Everything is going well and the team is really good at managing our Facebook and Google ads.

For lead generation, they use a tool called ClickUp. We communicate via email and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our organization has never used the services of a marketing agency before but compared to the companies that we've reached out to, Upthrust is the most prompt and proactive at responding. The results they’ve delivered so far are also very good. I think those speak to their competitiveness as an agency.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be sure to sit down for a thorough discussion with Upthrust. Listen to their input and assess whether what they propose is the right way to go. It’s really quite simple.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Executive of Housr

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Leading luxury coliving player in India

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upthrust Inc. to accomplish?

• Improved quality and increased lead flow through Google Ads

SOLUTION

How did you find Upthrust Inc.?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Upthrust Inc. over others?

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

What was the size of Upthrust Inc.’s team?

30

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

We were struggling with poor quality leads coming through Google ads. We wanted high-quality leads and increased lead flow to improve our conversions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Lead Count
• Conversions
• Cost of Conversion

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

Upthrust was everytime on time. Account Manager made sure that they understood the needs properly and executed perfectly on what we needed. We were always in loop and we were updated on all the changes during the entire project.

What was your primary form of communication with Upthrust Inc.?

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

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

Project Management and Communication

Are there any areas for improvement or something Upthrust Inc. could have done differently?

It was great working with them, and everything was perfect. They even helped us get better understanding of the platform which all the other agencies struggle to offer.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Managing Director of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Upthrust Inc.?

We partner with Upthrust to develop and implement Performance marketing (Google, Facebook and TikTok advertising), SEO strategy (B2C), Growth Marketing, Email Marketing and Content marketing. Our goal was to increase traffic to the site and increase our sales. We intended to gain an even higher brand awareness owing to get more purchases and reduce cost per purchase.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had meetings with many agencies, and Our key factors were past results, cost and customer service/satisfaction. Based on the results of those meetings, we decided to choose Upthrust as our vendor. Akshay was highly recommended, and we specifically stated we wanted to work with him. He is as good as his reputation and excellent to work with.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

"We worked with them on Google, Facebook and TikTok advertising, SEO to rank our products on top, Email marketing to generate loyalty and increase sales, and conversion rate optimization. It resulted in excellent sites that rank at the highest level possible."

What was the team composition?

We worked with multiple team members, from Akshay, the primary contact point, to their head of Digital Marketing and Account Executive. Everyone we interacted with had in-depth knowledge and experience in their field.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are seeing significant progress in our results. The average cost per sale decreased from £80 to £24. Throughout this rapid scaling effort, we've maintained a profitable ROAS and met the desired KPIs.

21 of our primary products started ranking on the first page of google for specific essential keywords; we saw conversion rates boost by 234% while they started the CRO effort. They also helped boost the revenue from the email marketing avenue. We also achieved a significant boost (3.5x) in engagement from our social media posts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication and the process have worked very well. The upthrust account manager sends a monthly report and agenda ahead of time, and then we meet to discuss everything, goals, etc. They are also swift to respond to emails.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Everyone at Upthrust is incredibly knowledgeable and genuinely expert in what they do. We’ve also really appreciated their strong work ethic; they’ve held themselves accountable to KPIs and gone above and beyond to ensure our project’s success. I appreciate the knowledge and vision of their approach & diligence. They genuinely care about their clients.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

"A more structure approach would create a seamless experience. Our experience with Upthrust has been exceptional, and we would love to work with the team in future. Overall, we were delighted with the work, so we started a second project with the"