Ad Badger

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a sports and outdoor company primarily operating on Amazon. We sell hydration products, backpacks, bike cages, and a hydration bladder that we’re moving into other niches within the outdoor industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ad Badger?

We needed help with marketing and advertising.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ad Badger worked for us on a monthly retainer basis, and their responsibility was to manage our Amazon ads account.

What is the team composition?

We first worked with Ad Badger’s two co-founders, who then directed us to our potential account manager based in San Diego. However, they later directed us to another account manager based in The Philippines.

How did you come to work with Ad Badger?

I found Ad Badger on Google and listened to their podcast regarding Amazon PPC. After contacting them, we went through an onboarding process, during which Ad Badger’s co-founders gave us the pitch.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $8,000–$12,000. Every month, they discounted a minimum of $900 from our budgeted ad spend as their service fee.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2021–February 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve? 

Ad Badger’s initial pitch was very strong. They gave us a lot of insight into what they could do for us. When we met the account manager, they explained their involvement more in-depth, which made their proposal very strong. However, they didn’t mention who would be managing our account during the project, and we were under the impression that the account manager would be the person we met.

As soon as we signed the contract, we met the person who would actually manage our account. Given that this person was based in The Philippines, we had a lot of communication problems due to the language barrier.

During the first two months of our engagement, everything seemed fine, mostly because of the ad strategy we had built ourselves. Still, as soon as we got deeper into the contract, our business turned unprofitable. This hadn’t happened to us in two years, and it was caused due to the poor account management and inexperience of this person.

How was project management handled?

We gave Ad Badger space and let them roll with the project. However, when we approach them to talk about our concerns regarding the account manager, they reassured us that they were very experienced.

After giving Ad Badger more space during January and February 2022, we found a point of no return — I had to speak up. When we told them the amount of money they were wasting, they didn’t seem to be aware of the analytics. Ultimately, they ended the contract two weeks early, but they still billed us for the remaining two weeks.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The last two months of working with Ad Badger caused us to waste an insane amount of money on advertising, which affected our Amazon brand and made us lose our best-seller rank on it. Fortunately, we recovered our rank by doing in-house work.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Add Badger was very organized, structured, and streamlined, and it seemed like they had a very well-crafted process in place. They kept us very engaged in what they were doing each week; it was their strong suit.

Additionally, the onboarding and offboarding processes were handled very professionally. During the onboarding process, we met and had the chance to talk to their co-founders, who gave a strong pitch. The offboarding process, on the other hand, was filled with sincere remorse, and they apologized for what had happened.

In what specific areas can they improve?

It would be great if Ad Badger were more transparent about who manages the accounts. Additionally, their awareness of the businesses they work with needs improvement. The statistics regarding profit and loss are clearly visible through analytic tools, and they should use them to see how much their account managers are spending.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explore multiple agencies before deciding on one, and try to speak with the person who will manage your account before signing a contract to ensure that they understand the nuances of your business.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of Ridge Products L.L.C.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

I sell welding supplies on Amazon and other Ecommerce sites

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ad Badger to accomplish?

• Learn PPC

SOLUTION

How did you find Ad Badger?

Online Search

Why did you select Ad Badger over others?

• High ratings
• Already provided great value for free

How many teammates from Ad Badger were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

It was a coaching program, where you sit down with one of their Amazon PPC managers and they will guide you along how to improve your Amazon advertising account.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped me take my ROAS from a 1.9 to a 4.5 while increasing sales by 80% and lowering spend by 20%

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

It was a weekly meeting, with emails between. All communication was EOD or faster.

What was your primary form of communication with Ad Badger?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They had a lot of experience and were willing to provide massive value to their audience, wether they buy or not.

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

Only to have more available time slots in the day for calls and to possibly open up weekends.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Owner of an ecommerce company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

E-commerce

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ad Badger to accomplish?
Effectively Manage PPC Campaigns

SOLUTION

How did you find Ad Badger?

Online Search

Why did you select Ad Badger over others?

• High ratings
• Other

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

I worked one-on-one with one of their coaches. I needed help understanding how to optimize my bids and effectively set up my PPC campaigns. The help I received was fantastic!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our main goals was to reduce my ACOS significantly. We've made good progress, and I expect it will continue to improve with the methods taught.

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

Yes. Email communication was great.

What was your primary form of communication with Ad Badger?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They're a small company that knows the ins and outs of Amazon advertising.

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

No. There was nothing they needed to improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of a DTC Ecommerce Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a DTC ecommerce company that specializes in providing high-quality, sustainable water bottles to customers through its online platforms on Shopify and Amazon. Founded in 2015,, offering a range of reusable, eco-friendly water bottles that aim to reduce single-use plastic waste and promote healthier lifestyles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ad Badger to accomplish?

• Grow amazon ppc sales and reduce ACoS
• amazon ppc coaching
• manage amazon advertising

SOLUTION

How did you find Ad Badger?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Ad Badger over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Ad Badger were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

Ad Badger said they have a small service wing of their company to manage PPC campaigns on Amazon to research and study so they can fuel their software development. For us, they managed our PPC campaigns for about 8 months. They monitored performance, adjusted bids and keywords, and were able to move ROAS in the right direction. They provided recommendations to improve organic sales, but only managed the ads. They sent a weekly loom video. Happy with the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For a while, we had trouble with high ACOS on Amazon ads in 2022 for our DTC brand. Ad Badger suggested expanding campaign types, reallocating budgets, and focusing on our best and highest ROAS keywords. While CPC rose, implementing the changes was a bit bumpy. However, after about four months, things leveled out, and we hit a high ad spending and revenue.

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

I had a great experience working with Michael for my PPC campaigns. They delivered on time and were incredibly responsive throughout the process. They developed a customized strategy based on my needs and provided regular updates and reports. I was impressed by their ability to quickly make adjustments and optimizations based on the performance data. 
Their level of professionalism and attention to detail was exceptional, and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to improve their Amazon PPC campaigns. The big thing that stuck out was how responsive they were when we had a rising CPC with ACOS moving the wrong way. We developed a plan and improved.

What was your primary form of communication with Ad Badger?

Email or Messaging App

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

The most impressive thing about these guys is how knowledgeable and passionate they are. I don't think they work with many clients 1on1 so it was really unique to get so much dedicated time answering my questions and enjoyed having them come up with custom plans.

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

The reporting was in a google sheet. It had everything I needed, but sometimes it was too much information and was a little hard to follow. I would had preferred the information in a more graphical way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of an Amazon native tools and home improvement brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ad Badger, and what were your goals?

We needed help managing our Amazon PPC, our primary goal was reducing ACOS to a more sustainable level.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were working with another managed services company that was not going so well. Deliverables were off track, communication was lackluster, etc. We found AdBadger after some online searching and scheduled a call. During the first sales call, they took the time to learn about our issues and pain points. A week later we had another call where they gave us a roadmap of how they would fix our account. AdBadger was the only service that we interviewed that actually took the time to audit our account and tell us how they would fix it.

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

Our engagement began with a meeting where we reiterated our ACOS goals per product. From there, the team did an in-depth audit of the entire account and came up with a strategy to reduce TACOS without sacrificing sales. Once the goals were set, we let AdBadger run their playbook. AdBadger provided weekly updates to us through email and video meetings.

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

Our AdBadger engagement team consists of two people, one manager and one specialist. Both are very hands on with our account and have a vast amount of knowledge about Amazon PPC. These aren't outsourced VA's meticulously following SOP's without any thought. They consistently bring valuable insight to the table.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since starting our engagement with AdBadger our ACOS has decreased 15.56% while ad sales have increased 42.85%. The increase in sales has also caused the organic ranking of many of our products to also increase. Each week they make calculated and meticulous improvements to our account.

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

We have a weekly video call with our engagement team but they will also send loom video updates if we miss the call that week. The team has also shared a ClickUp board so that we can constantly see what they are working to improve each week.

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

The team at Ad Badger has done a great job at managing our PPC account. However, the most unique thing about AdBadger is how they have become part of our team. It 100% feels like we got two additional teammates on our team rather than the feeling that we hired an outside agency.

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

The pricing is a bit on the expensive side. For us, its $975/moth + 7% of ad spend with a minimum of $2500 per month. Some months we would have been under that $2500 minimum and it would have been nice to use the extra few dollars else where. But, overall I think the pricing is fair for the service that we receive.