Firestorm SEM

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a contractor for Walcott Rx, a company that serves optometrists. They sell eye surgery instruments such as stainless steel blades, and I’ve been working with them since 2013 as a marketing consultant.

What challenge were you trying to address with Firestorm SEM?

We needed more visibility and higher user traffic, so we’ve been using Firestorm SEM’s services since 2014 for PPC Google Ads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firestorm SEM does keyword research based on the feedback provided by Walcott Rx. They mostly target optometrists, but they also target veterinarians because our products can be used for animals as well.

Firestorm SEM’s efforts are focused on helping us find more customers, surgery centers, optometrists, and practices that could use our instruments.

What is the team composition?

I only work with Jonathan (Lead Digital Strategist & Founder).

How did you come to work with Firestorm SEM?

When I was looking for help, I wanted to work with a US-based, local company. I found Firestorm SEM in Upwork and discovered that they were based in the New Jersey, Philadephia, and Delaware tri-state area as us.

I also really liked Jonathan’s experience and education, and that’s what made me choose to work with him over his competitors.

How much have you invested with them?

Firestorm SEM has been on a retainer contract since 2014, and we’ve spent roughly $30,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2014, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The advertising for Walcott Rx is a little challenging because our sales are made over the phone — we don’t have an e-commerce site. Thus, we measure the success of Firestorm SEM’s involvement by tracking the conversion rate of calls, and the results have been great.

How did Firestorm SEM perform from a project management standpoint?

Firestorm SEM has been great — that’s why we’ve worked together for so long. The nice thing about Jonathan is that he makes himself available whenever I need him, and I can jump on a call with him at any time. We’ve worked together for long enough to trust him fully.

We communicate via email and phone calls. Additionally, every month, they send us reports and updates on the campaigns, and they optimize the ads to make sure that they’re consistently profitable.

The engagement keeps going smoothly, and we don’t need to communicate as often because, every time Jonathan does optimizations or tweaks to the campaigns, I get an automated email about what he’s doing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Firestorm SEM’s communication and effectiveness are impressive. The access that I have to Jonathan is fantastic, and he keeps the campaigns continuously optimized, updated, and, ultimately, profitable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to think about constructive criticism because everything has been great. If anything, Jonathan has offered us to improve their keyword research. However, this isn’t necessary because we at Walcott Rx know our clients better. The keywords that we’ve selected with the help of Jonathan’s expertise about campaign structures have been the more effective.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know your market. Jonathan has expertise in Google products, but you have to know your customer. If necessary, do your market research and have it prepared before you pay for ad services.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a direct-to-consumer online mattress company. We launched our business at the beginning of 2015, and were the fastest-growing e-commerce brand in North America at the time. We sell luxury foam mattresses which are delivered compressed to customers' doorsteps.

I am the Head of Marketing for the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Firestorm SEM?

The mattress industry is extremely competitive when it comes to online search terms in the pay-per-click space. As a new brand, we were trying to gain traction with the incumbent ones, and make a dent within the generic mattress terms. We also wanted to protect growing brand queries. We didn't have an in-house capability to do this, so we reached out to Firestorm SEM.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firestorm SEM performed an audit of the competitive landscape for pay-per-click terms, as well as a specific audit of our Ad Words account. Firestorm SEM then structured new campaigns, ad sets and creatives for Ad Words, and shopping campaigns, specifically around branded, competitor, and generic terms. Firestorm SEM wasn't involved in social media marketing.

How did you come to work with Firestorm SEM?

I think that we found Firestorm SEM through a recommendation from a SEO [search engine optimization] expert which we'd worked with. We went through some due diligence on accounts which Firestorm SEM had worked on, checking out their online search presence. I thought that Firestorm SEM was doing a good job, so we gave them a test campaign. It went well, so we decided to employ Firestorm SEM on a retainer model.

How much have you invested with Firestorm SEM?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the 2nd quarter of 2015. We hired an internal resource at the end of 2015, so we're not working with Firestorm SEM anymore. We found this to be more effective.

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

Firestorm SEM helped put us on the map in terms of having an Ad Words presence and increasing our impression share with competitors. Firestorm SEM drastically lowered our cost per acquisition as well.

What did you find most impressive about Firestorm SEM?

I have no base for comparison, but I found Firestorm SEM to have a solid approach and a deep knowledge for what they're doing. I trusted Firestorm SEM's methodology.

Are there any areas Firestorm SEM could improve?

Not that I was aware of.

Please describe your organization.

We sell discounted pharmaceutical products.

What is your position?

I am the marketing manager of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Firestorm SEM?

We needed search engine marketing services. Our aim was to obtain as many conversions as possible, within a certain cost per action target.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Firestorm SEM provided strictly search engine marketing services for us.

How did you come to work with Firestorm SEM?

I'd worked with them previously for another business that I ran. The experience was reasonably positive, so it made sense to bring Firestorm SEM on board for our current project.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The average monthly budget for the work was $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work has ended. We've brought on an in-house team as of a couple of weeks ago [May 2016]. We worked with Firestorm SEM during a six-month period.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The work's been reasonably successful. We've done well, raised expectations and met most of them. SEM continues to be a marketing channel for our company, so we're continuing to focus on it, but we decided to have an in-house team focused on this.

We launched the business a relatively short time ago, so our understanding and knowledge of the space continues to evolve. We offer 20,000 different drugs and run multiple campaigns, so the mix of those has had an effect on the overall cost-per-click as well as our click-through and conversion rates.

Firestorm SEM's work was pretty good. The overall cost-per-action for this channel improved in time, and we came to get more and more acquisitions, which was exactly what we were looking for.

How did Firestorm SEM perform from a project management standpoint?

Firestorm understands how to run and manage these types of projects because their two guys at the top [partner and managing director Mark Barletta and partner and president Jonathan Stec] have years of experience and great industry knowhow. They always go with their gut because their intuition and knowledge is fantastic. They wouldn't be a fit for a client who requires a very strong data and statistics focus of the PPC [pay-per-click] work.

What distinguishes Firestorm SEM from other providers?

They were able to lower costs per click and help generate more qualified leads for the client during the substantial engagement.

Is there anything Firestorm SEM could have improved or done differently?

There are certain advantages to having an in-house team that, unfortunately, we couldn't find with Firestorm SEM. The people that we train here will always know our industry better. Since we have such a niche product base and industry that is a global market, it's quite difficult for agencies to make an impact with our marketing.

I also wish they would focus on data and analytics more. They have been in the industry for many years, but a data focus would provide better client service.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and CEO of a hosting company that mainly focuses on gaming servers at 15+ worldwide locations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Firestorm SEM?

We needed assistance with setting up and managing Google ad campaigns.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this project was to have a Google ads campaign that was functional and flexible, allowing us to target our demographic with a high degree of accuracy while driving down the CPC.

How did you select this vendor?

Jonathan was seemed extremely knowledgeable and eager to help. After the initial call, we were excited to work with him as he was able to quickly grasp the scope of the project and offer answers to any questions we had with explanations that were easy to understand.

Describe the project in detail.

Jonathan spent time setting up campaigns with Google Ads that worked for us and slowly ramped up those campaigns based on what we thought was working.

What was the team composition?

We're always in communication with Jonathan and he's always quick to reply and provide us with updates when needed.

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

Since the start, we have seen a substantial drop in our CPC and increased conversions.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Jonathan has been extremely easy to work with and is always happy to explain anything to us that might be new or hard to understand due to us not dealing with it before.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Jonathan has a very deep knowledge of Google Ads, campaign management, and various tools which add to our success.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far we are very happy with everything!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Revelator Coffee Company is a subsidiary of Bronnie’s Coffee Tech. As the marketing director, I am responsible for guiding the strategy and execution of our ongoing and campaign-based marketing efforts within retail, wholesale and e-commerce verticals.

What challenge were you trying to address with Firestorm SEM?

We wanted to establish, optimize, and maintain SEM strategies for Revelator Coffee and Bronnie’s Coffee Tech. While we had unique goals for each brand, our main priority was improving our ROI.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Firestorm SEM’s first priority was to develop a viable plan for our brand. We started with a lengthy phone conference, in which we discussed our objectives. After hearing our goals, they began developing a custom SEM strategy that aligned with our needs. They also gathered information, set up our baselines, and integrated analytics plugins on our website. Since completing the onboarding stage, they have been providing monthly reports and optimization calls.

Their efforts for our parent company were more straightforward. They produced a clear SEM roadmap to convert leads to sales. We continually optimize our spend to enhance our results.

How did you come to work with Firestorm SEM?

We were referred to them by a trusted source within our network.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we have spent less than $10,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in June 2018.

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

The SEM roadmap that they developed for our parent company has generated massive returns. Within two months of implementing their strategies, we earned more than $70,000 in equipment sales; our yearly profits were more than 12 times our SEM spend.

Our subsidiary company has also benefited from their services; we're receiving at least 10 inbound wholesales each week, and our online sales have doubled.

How did Firestorm SEM perform from a project management standpoint?

We enjoy working with their team because they are efficient. Teamwork, phone, and email were our main channels for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Firestorm SEM provides friendly service and delivers practical solutions. Their agility is unmatched.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their reports are easy to follow, but they could be more detailed.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the president of 10-8 Video, LLC. We manufacture in-car and bodycam video recording equipment for law enforcement agencies.

For what projects/services did your company hire Firestorm SEM?

We hired Firestorm SEM to manage our SEO campaigns and PPC ads. 

What were your goals for this project? 

Our goal was to continue to increase traffic to our company website by optimizing our PPC ads. We hoped to better target our audiences to sell more products.

How did you select this vendor? 

We found them through a web search and then interviewed them. 

Describe the project in detail. 

For years, they’ve handled our SEO and PPC campaigns, enhancing our ads to better target key audiences. 

What was the team composition? 

Jonathan (Lead Digital Strategist, Firestorm SEM) has been our point person on this project.

Can you share any statistics or metrics that speak to the quality of their work and impact of the engagement? 

They provide monthly reports on our traffic. The project is ongoing, and Firestorm SEM continues to improve our online presence. 

How did Firestorm SEM perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate primarily through email in addition to the monthly progress reports.

What impresses you about Firestorm SEM?

We have great communication with them, and they’re very responsive to input.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I can’t think of anything.