Effective Marketing

Together with our 161,000+ members, the American Dental Associatoin has been driving dentistry forward for more than 160 years. As one of the largest member organizations, our purpose is to support our member dentists at every step along their journey as they support the care of their patients. 

We hired Effective Marketing Communications as our new AOR for our digital and print paid media. We were seeking a nimble, strategic and proactive partner to elevate our presence and engagement in the American Dental Association brand and our offerings for dentists.

How did you select this vendor?

We were searching for a new paid media agency partner to be an extension of our in-house agency team. After they submitted their proposal and we met the team, we knew they were the right ones for us.

Describe the scope of their work in detail. 

Effective provides market analysis, channel strategy and paid execution for our priority campaigns and content. Specificially, they support our recruitment and retention campaigns, brand reputational efforts, new product launches and offers, such as the forthcoming new ADA Member App and ADA Podcast and our new Onward campaign. 

What was the team composition?

The principal of the firm, Sam Karow, is very present in all our work along side a very gifted account team who go above and beyond. 

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

Effective drives marketing performance metrics as well as an effectiuve spend of our budget. Here are a few recent metrics. Q1 2022 vs Full Year 2021: 57% reduction in CPM (cost per thousand impressions), 75% reduction in CPC (cost per click). Also, for the ADA's ACE Panel program they drove the most traffic of any JADA  (Journal of American Dental Associatin) program to date. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Seamless and well, effective - hence their name. They are truly an extension of our team and have stepped in when we have had capacity needs. They are very results oriented and proactively report and pivot based on what we learn.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We are very impressed by thier people and their highly consultative approach to every assignment. They execute beautifully and are highly strategic in the process, plus we enjoy working with them.

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

Not a thing. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

Genius SIS is a SaaS provider of Student Information Systems, leader in online k12 segment in USA. I am head of Sales and Marketing and General Manager of Genius Brasil

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

Increase awareness of our main product, Genius Class. Final goal was Lead generation.

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

Vendor was indirectly selected by BTP Unite.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After visual identity phase was concludes, Effective Marketing was introduced by our vendor (BTP Unite) to handle a digital campaign. They understood deeply our case, built and presented a social media campaign. An important part of this process was to define the target audience, since our solution is B2B with a very specific target. They did a great job understand our needs and presenting an effective campaign

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

3 resources:

• 1 partner
• 2 analysts

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

Our goal was around 24,667 site visits with 1% conversion in leads (246). Important to disclosure this was the first marketing campaign of Genius, so no track record here. At the end we had 61,761 site visits (250% of our target) with 145 leads. Out of these leads, 7 hot leads with 1 sales and other 4 still active in the sales funnel.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Quick responses, very easy tool to follow-up the achievements, nice communication. Effective Marketing is very hands-on, important skill considering the lack of marketing team at Genius.

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

They demonstrated a very pragmatic approach with good results.

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

Not really

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Communications Manager for Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability at the American Medical Association.

For what projects/services did your company hire Effective Marketing, and what were your goals?

We hired Effective Marketing for multiple digital paid media campaigns to support and promote resources for the AMA STEPS Forward program. Our goals were to increase both page views and downloads.

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

Effective Marketing was recommended to us from another business unit within the American Medical Association.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Deliverables: Effective Marketing engaged in Media Planning, Media Buying, Program Management, Paid Search Buying Management, Project Management, Tracking and Ad Operations, plus Measurement, Optimization and Reporting for multiple media campaigns.

The vendor will ensure that each campaign will meet the following goals:

• Maximize clicks to increase website sessions (traffic). All campaign deployments will include testing for best, most successful campaign elements, defining plan parameters and KPIs, and understanding the performance of past campaigns, and drivers of success to apply to plans.
• Develop data strategy and plan for leveraging client, vendor, and campaign performance data to target decision-makers defined by AMA.
• Build audiences using LiveRamp and other 3rd party data.
• Define barriers and drivers of brand engagement.
• Recommend marketing plans to achieve goals - Objectives, strategies, media mix, and communication levels for stable A/B tests.
• Estimate audience delivery, reach x frequency, conversion model, and forecast.

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

Sam - President, Founder; Marissa, Media Supervisor

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

We achieved 168% of our goal. We got the most traction on Google Display Network, although we also had a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We had biweekly meetings for updates and discussion of strategy, and Sam and the team always made themselves available for questions in between.

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

They know what they are doing. They listen to our goals and offer great advice on maximizing our budget and reach on the most appropriate channels. They monitor responses and adjust strategy accordingly. They are thorough and focused. It was nice to hand over the campaign management to a capable, effective team and know that everything was being taken care of.

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

No - we are very happy with our partnership with Effective Marketing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Recruiting Manager at a large foodservice packaging company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Effective Marketing, and what were your goals?

We updated our starting pay rates for our direct labor, entry level jobs Q4 of 2021 and wanted to spread the word in a very tight labor market. Our goal was to increase applicant flow to staff on plants in an 8 week time frame.

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

I was not apart of the selection process but rather relied on a referral from our Corporate Communications group.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Effective asked questions of the local team to understand what type of applicants we were seeking - education, experience, skills; what are objectives were, how we would measure results, etc. They came back each time (multiple campaigns), with a well thought out and on target ad proposal all of which have been approved.

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

2 - owner and social media strategist

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

Leola, PA: ad impressions and click exceeded our goals, same for our Federalsburg, MD campaign.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great - Effective has been collaborative and responsive to our needs.

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

their digital ad expertise, professional communication style

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

I wish we could figure out the application tracking pixel on our website but that is our issue. Effective was very diligent in trying to find ways to make it work in our applicant tracking system. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Sleep Crown, a unique pillow company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Effective Marketing?

I have a high-touch product that I used to promote by going to wellness conferences because a live demonstration was the most effective way to convey its benefits. The pillows are snuggly and soft, so when people touched them, they automatically wanted them.

With the pandemic, my business promotion model radically shifted, and conferences got canceled. Looking into the future, I realized that even when things got back to normal, it would be a long time before people would want to interact with my products in the same way that they used to do during the demonstrations.

I decided to pivot and try to promote my products through longer-format videos online. I had no experience or ability in creating Facebook, Instagram, or other social media ads, so I was seeking to find a solution for that. I wanted to take all the budget that I was spending on traveling to go to conferences and invest it straight into video production and online ads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Effective Marketing works hand-in-hand with the video production company that is producing my videos. This other company creates beautiful videos describing the benefits of my products, and they hand them over to Effective Marketing for their promotion.

Effective Marketing takes the content and asks me what my objectives are. They also help me determine which customers I’m looking for and define their other interests.

Then, they place ads on Facebook and Instagram and collect the data. They send me reports about exactly what’s going on, including information about which customers are clicking on the ads and purchasing the products.

I only choose to promote on Facebook and Instagram, but I know that Effective Marketing has the ability to promote on all other platforms like TikTok, Hulu, and Twitter.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people from Effective Marketing: Sam (President & Founder) and Marissa (Media Supervisor).

How did you come to work with Effective Marketing?

I found them through my video production company. When this company started making videos for me, I didn’t know how to promote them besides putting them on my website. This wasn’t effective because only the people coming into the site could see them.

The video production company recommended Effective Marketing to me, and it has been a seamless and great partnership. They already work together on other projects, so they’re a great duo, and it’s easy for them to communicate. They recommend things to one another, and they achieve things together. I barely even have to be in the middle of it, which is great because I have so little time.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Effective Marketing started placing ads for me in April 2020, and the engagement is ongoing. Our engagement happened very early on the pandemic, which was a relief because I was overwhelmed by all of my conferences getting canceled. I was up and running with them within a month, which was amazing.

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

Effective Marketing’s work really pays for itself because they take the amount of money I pay them and maximize the exposure of my products to the right people. They’ve been able to aim the ads directly to our exact customers based on their other interests.

Very quickly, I got to a point with Effective Marketing where we weren’t just breaking even in the amount of money that I was investing, but I was actually making money every month. Now, I’m getting an ROI 2–5 times greater, and It keeps getting better. My original goal was to break even on my investment, so they’ve hit it out of the park.

Effective Marketing has completely exceeded my expectations. The fact that every month they keep doing more and more, has been above and beyond anything I ever would have expected.

Now, I’m also completely in touch with my customers. I see the orders come in, and I know where each person has discovered my product, which tells me what a great job Effective Marketing is doing.

How did Effective Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

Effective Marketing is excelling at project management. They provide me with more data than I even have time to look through, and they’re excellent communicators. Every single metric, they’ve hit it on time. They also tell me everything that they do and give me the results of exactly what took place — they’re brilliant.

We communicate mostly via email, and they’re completely responsive and available to me at any time. We’ve developed a great collaboration, and they know just what I need. If something comes up, we exchange emails, but for the most part, I get a monthly report. As everything is going great, we don’t need to talk that much.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Effective Marketing’s level of professionalism is impressive — they’re the best. They do exactly what I need from them on time, and they’re making me money.

As the scope of their work includes managing so much data, they can tell me exactly what’s working. They’re great at assessing the data and making quick changes if needed. As their name suggests, they’re very effective.

They’re also great for small companies. Even when my budget is small, they make me feel as important as a big brand — I could not imagine a better partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of a single way in which I would change what they’re doing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No matter what business you have, Sam and Marissa are amazing at figuring out your company’s needs and addressing them. They make you feel like you’re their only customer, and they’re great at what they do.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of Underthink, a brand studio that combines nimble brand development with robust creative and production resources. We specialize in launching and scaling brands through targeted social content and advertising.

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

Sam K. and Effective Marketing have been valuable partners in planning and buying media for several good launches. Sam and his team are especially adept at achieving superior ROI through real world message testing and fitting the creative to both platform and audience that resonates with the target consumers for our brands.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to target specific psychographic audiences based on store distribution in specific locations across the US. Sam and his team vetted platforms, predicted and planned spend, and contributed countless creative suggestions and problem solving solutions. They provide both high-level strategic thinking and targeted deliverables.

How did you select this vendor?

I was introduced to Sam Karow and Effective Marrketing through a trusted friend in advertising.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Effective Marketing provided real time hands on keyboard natural experiments and Paid media adjustments as Well as high level strategic planning and brand partnership.

What was the team composition?

We are a team of experts from different disciplines and Sam is the media and analytics expert we trust to deliver real results.

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

Our return on investment and ROAS exceeded goals and benchmarks of industry. Our you tube pre roll achieved 2x the normal engagement for instance. Most importantly, the brand is selling through, adding distribution and our client trusts Effective Marketing. Sam is a valuable and fair partner in the room and at the table. Transparent and accountable.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Sam and Effective operate as if an in house resource. Communication is clear and easy. Even launching a meat brand during the pandemic there was no lag or difference in delivery or collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Transparency. Communication. Analytical rigor.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

SGK is a global design firm that helps Clients build better marketing ecosystems through smarter content and packaging solutions. We have a robust integrated marketing practice. Effective Marketing has been a linchpin in rounding out our integrated offering to Clients where digital marketing and media play a role. 

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

Effective Marketing is our digital media partner of choice. Our team utilizes them for all media placements – small and large. 

This effort was a manufacturer-led paid media effort to boost sales on distributor sites for a myriad of product categories and brands.

What were your goals for this project?

Specifically the goal was to reach operators and decision makers, educate them and push case discount offers and achieve 2x ROAS.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Tasked with developing a digital marketing plan for a complex distributor-targeted e-Comm media plan, Effective Marketing needed to ‘interview’ the various distributor partners and recommend a division of the media buy budget across all of them.  

Effective Marketing produced all of the initial analysis and media buy recommendations for our client to consider.

Once the ads started running, Effective Marketing’s role shifted to managing the ads and the analysis of the advertising so that any optimizations could be made as the yearlong campaign progressed. 

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

A collective effort with Effective Marketing and our team, we exceeded goal of 2x ROAS with a result of 16x ROAS! 

On this project, and overall we find that Effective Marketing is a unique media partner because they are not only experts in media, but also have a sensitivity for making creative work the hardest and not stifling, but enhancing the creative process. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP Fan and Brand Development at the Chicago Bears.

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

Effective Marketing provided media strategy, execution and reporting optmization for Chicago Bears fan events (e.g. Miller Lite Draft Party, PNC 5K, Meijer Family Fest and Training Camp).

What were your goals for this project?

Goals and objectives varied by event. However, in general we wanted to drive attendance amongst fans who were monst likely to enjoy the events.

How did you select this vendor?

Effective Marketing was a subcontractor for one of our agencies.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Effective Marketing was charged with the following for each event. - Participate in briefing meetings - Contribute cultural, consumer and business insights - Recommend strategies to deliver on plan objectives - Recommend media execution inclusive of: target fans/consumers, communication goals (reflecting creative approach/messaging), geography, scheduling/timing, KPIs, budget feedback, optimization approach - Plan execution and optimization work and meetings - Project completion - including learnings, recaps and final budgets

What was the team composition?

We worked most closely with Sam. Sam was woven in with the primary agency team and acted as the liason with other contributors and vendors.

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

There were a variety of different projects that had varying degrees of success and learnings. The key thing is that Effective was comfortable celebrating successes as much as mitigating or redirecting from underperfroming elements that did not have as much in market effectiveness.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between our teams was excellent. Sam has deep and broad experience. He is able to collaborate effectively with a variety of different personality types both at our agency and within our organization. He leaves his ego at the door and has the same priorities as our team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing about this company is that they are able to mirror our priorities and share common goals: If we are successful, they are successful.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No areas for improvement - all good.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am in charge of brand partnerships at a content and media company. We create engaging videos for brands to better market their products to make consumers more confident in their decisions.

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

Run and optimize paid media campaigns for our clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Drive conversions for client

How did you select Effective Marketing?

They're our preferred choice

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They create, execute and optimize campaigns using our video content and analyze the results.

What was the team composition?

our leadership team and their leadership team

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

they've proven at low budgets they can drive ROI and conversions that satisfy the clients needs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

very

What did you find most impressive about this company?

their agile work behavior always open to pivoting based on results. They keep the CPA very cost-effective

Are there any areas for improvement?

we can always drive more results...

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of Stratecution Marketing, a marketing consultancy. I was the acting CMO for a large restaurant chain (consulting engagement) when I hired Effective Marketing.

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

TV media buying

What were your goals for this project?

I hired Effective Marketing to manage TV buy for my client.

How did you select Effective Marketing?

I worked with Sam (owner of Effective Marketing) when I was the head of marketing at Bob Evans. He did a great job then, so I hired him again.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

1. Develop the media buying strategy
2. Build a comprehensive media plan based on target TRPs and budget by market for 20+ TV markets
3. Work with the cable TV holding company to execute the buy per approved media plan
4. Track results and recommend adjustments to the media plan

What was the team composition?

I worked with the principal of Effective Marketing, Sam, and one other person from the same company.

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

Effective Marketing did a great job managing the entire process from crafting the media buying strategy to building and executing the media plan effectively and efficiently.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We had weekly calls plus frequent phone calls and emails to coordinate.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The head of the company is intimately involved throughout the process, making sure everything goes smoothly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything.