Galactic Fed

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Aloa. We help startups and small businesses by providing them with software development services. I focus on the operations side of the business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Galactic Fed?

We were entering 2020 with a solid pipeline. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we ended up losing a lot of the initial pipeline that we’d set up in Q4 of 2019.

We relied heavily on in-person referrals and networks for a lot of our deals. We tried to scale faster than we could, because everyone was working from home. We didn’t have any marketing efforts at that point. We were excited to work with Galactic to figure out our online image and paid ads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Galactic Fed helped us get our website and landing page in front of startups and small businesses looking to build their products or expand their product teams.

They helped us set up Google Ads from scratch, as we didn’t have any experience with it. They set up the accounts, helped us with how to best target those accounts, and created the best business strategy. We wrote the first draft of the Google Ads copy, and they took it from there.

At that point, we hadn’t put much thought into our landing page from a marketing perspective; we just threw things onto the website with no rhyme or reason. Galactic Fed took a look at our web copy, landing page design, and flow. Then, they recommended changes to the content and website structure to better optimize for conversions.

What is the team composition?

We work with four main people, including an account manager. He does everything for us. He gives us feedback on the copy, provides weekly performance reports, fine-tunes the marketing strategy, and optimizes our ads to get more conversions to the door.

A high-level person helped us set up the engagement, and he was our first point of contact at Galactic Fed.  Another person on the technical side has helped us with setting up Google Tag Manager, embedding the tracking codes, and integrating with Salesforce. Another point of contact helps us here and there with administration.

How did you come to work with Galactic Fed?

One of our founders knew one of their founders, and we were in a place where we needed to ramp up our digital marketing. Rather than going through the process of researching different firms and freelancers, we went with Galactic Fed.

How much have you invested with them?

We estimate it to be between $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around March 2020, and the project is ongoing.

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

They’ve helped us close over $200,000 of deals revenue, all of which has come from ads. We went from less than 100 clicks and 1,000 impressions to around 200 clicks and 40,000–50,000 impressions.

How did Galactic Fed perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been amazing. Every Monday, Vic (Account Manager) sends us a report on a dedicated Slack channel. In the report, Vic provides numbers on ad spend, total spend convergence, cost of acquisition, total impression clicks, and click-throughs.

Each week, Vic also explains problems they encountered, like underperforming campaigns, and lays out his plan to better optimize them or put them on pause. We work together every week to figure out long-term goals, and we haven’t experienced a single issue. They’re awesome.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The initiative that the account manager shows every week is impressive. We don’t have a dedicated marketing person on our team, and we’re constantly working on products. We don’t have much time to look at dashboards and numbers every week and figure out the strategy or make decisions for underperforming campaigns. 

Things have been improving with each week, without us having to go to them asking questions. They make sure our bidding strategy is correct. We trust them to do what they need to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One minor thing would be to give us a long-term metric. We have some good short-term metrics, but we don’t have a good idea of a long-term metric or KPI. Part of that’s on us because we don’t have a defined marketing strategy, and we’re leaning on our account manager for most of that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They should know what they’re looking for, whether that is more impressions,  clicks, or conversions. We didn’t figure that out until two weeks in, and they really helped us out. It would have been better if we already knew what we wanted to get out of the experience.

Another recommendation would be to come with examples, which we actually did. We already had a good idea of who our competitors were, and that sped up the onboarding process. Galactic Fed took a look at our competitors and their strategies, and they built our strategy around that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of global marketing at a B2B SaaS company that helps organizations purchase things they need.

What challenge were you trying to address with Galactic Fed?

We wanted to scale our PPC and Google Ads account to drive demand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged them for SEO and PPC work through Google Ads and LinkedIn. However, they also advised on our overall strategy in addition to operating our advertising dashboards and identifying target keywords.   

What is the team composition?

I worked with Jack (CEO & Founder), Sam (Director of Advertising), Vic (Growth Marketing Manager), and Camilla (Growth Marketing Manager). 

How did you come to work with Galactic Fed?

They came highly recommended by a mentor of mine. Their approach to understanding the landscape and willingness to grow in the engagement appealed to us.   

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020.

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

We’re tracking quality traffic to the website as well as lead volume and conversion to demo requests in comparison to spend. They’re constantly working to learn with us, iterate, and improve. We’re pushed to try new things because of our relationship. They’re also very receptive to feedback and feel like an extension of our team.  

How did Galactic Fed perform from a project management standpoint?

There have been times when they’ve worked over the weekend to make sure we completed last-minute projects. They were transparent and always willing to go the extra mile when we wanted to make changes to the project.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They bring industry knowledge that allows us to move quickly through processes. We appreciated their reliability and flexibility in using the available resources to reach our goals. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We probably could’ve done a more comprehensive ramp-up period and taught them about our business earlier on in the partnership. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Teach them your industry to give them a good understanding of the space and your goals. Once you set forth those goals clearly, they’ll meet them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I led the marketing dept. at Tenfold. While at Tenfold, 

1. We raised over $30M from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Salesforce Ventures
2. We grew revenue from $400k --> $7.5M ARR in just over 2 years
3. 87% of total company ARR came through leads generated from inbound marketing channels
4. Customers we acquired included T-Mobile, Western Union, Staples, BBVA, Adobe, Transamerica, and 400+ others

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

SEO targeted keyword ranking as well as backlink building and other tasks (guest blogging, marketplace review building, and more).

What were your goals for this project?

To organically rank for top keywords that our customers were searching for in order to drive targeted inbound leads for our product.

How did you select this vendor?

I reached out to them after doing some digging around and tons of research.

Describe the project in detail.

Galactic fed not only found what keywords our customers were looking for, they then spent time ranking number one for all of those which resulted in and dramatic increase in inbound leads that turned into paying customers.

What was the team composition?

Galactic Fed's team is amazing at communication and always kept us in the loop with real-time data and results from their daily efforts.

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

If you look at a product like SEMRush and search Tenfold.com, you will see that from during the time we used Galactic Fed (starting in June 2017 and ending in Oct 2018 - because I left the company), our site traffic per month increased from 4,089 in June 2017 to 27,410 in Oct 2018. Just amazing results and growth during their time with us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Tremendous. GF kept us in the loop non-stop and was always a pleasure to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their knowledge, experience, and focus on actual results/data (vs. most agencies that are a lot of fluff).

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of during my time with them, no.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of travel company that offers work & travel programs to remote workers.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We brought Galactic Fed on because we didn't have a marketing team, and needed help getting the product flow / pages built, getting payment integrated, setting up email cadences, and testing a budget for paid ads on Facebook / Instagram.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to get existing customers and also new customers signed up for our newest product / experience.

How did you select this vendor?

The CEO of Galactic Fed was a customer of ours, and has worked with us for the last years on marketing services.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We had a few goal setting calls, followed by jumping right in to help us build. Their people take a really practical approach to building, ensuring that we only create what we really need to get the MVP off the ground, saving us time and money. They also helped manage a freelance designer and made that contractor feel like a part of the team. Together we built out about 10 webpages, send a 3-part email drip to our following, started paid ads to promote the program to new customers.

What was the team composition?

1 email marketing / tech + 1 paid marketing specialist

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

We had 40 people sign up for the new program in the first two weeks, which was a really exciting result. We also had really strong conversion to a digital purchase from this new funnel, when previously we had a human sales team instead of digital conversion.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Really easy, entirely on Slack, and always available.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They feel like a part of the team both culturally and goal-wise. They jump right in and work with a passion as if they were a full-time member of our team. And they take a scrappy, MVP approach that saves time and money on the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It would be nice to see a project tracker more often to see where we stand in terms of progress, time, etc. This happened informally along the way, but less so in a consistent and weekly basis.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of communications for Ivee. We deliver on-demand IV therapy as a decentralized platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Galactic Fed?

We were looking to build a sustainable digital marketing campaign and acquire new users through paid advertising and organic search.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked alongside Galactic Fed to implement our Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and SEO strategy. We have a synergistic workflow in which our in-house team creates content and together we iterate on strategy and execution.

What is the team composition?

We communicate most directly with Zach and Irina (Managing Partners). There are also account managers for our SEO efforts, which has a team of 10 people, and for paid ads, which comprises 15 individuals.

How did you come to work with Galactic Fed?

They were recommended to us by a friend. She had worked with Galactic Fed with a previous company and gave us glowing reviews (which we can surely now attest to!).

How much have you invested with them?

Our yearly spend is about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with Galactic Fed since November 2019 and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

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

Over the past three months, Galactic Fed built 69 links and increased our referring domains by 520% and organic keywords by 700%. We’re listed on the first page for 10 of our targeted keywords. Our blog has also seen really high returns on backlinking endeavors. We expect our paid ads to reap the same level of results once turned on upon our hard launch.

How did Galactic Fed perform from a project management standpoint?

Galactic Fed is very responsive and generous with their knowledge.  We communicate mainly through Slack, which leads to instant replies to comments or concerns. 

Galactic Fed also created a dashboard for our marketing efforts. This makes tracking progress easy and efficient.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise in the space truly stands out. With Galactic Fed, all of their projects and advice look at our short-term goals and set the stage for long-term success within the company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The communication between our content team and Galactic Fed was a little rocky at first, but once we established what each party is responsible for and when, it’s been running super smoothly.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very open and honest about what you’re looking to improve. Even if you only articulate your goals and don’t know how to get there, Galactic Fed is good at looking in between and paving a way to find users in most spaces.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a GM of Growth at a fin-tech company. I'm responsible for user acquisition and engagement.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We hired Galactic Fed to launch Google Search for us and to manage / scale Google UAC and Apple Search Ads. Over the last year of working with them, we've leaned on Galactic Fed to cover gaps in in-house coverage and to augment our in-house team.

What were your goals for this project?

- Launch and scale Google Search - Manage, lower CAC, and increase spend for existing Apple Search Ads and Google UAC channels

How did you select this vendor?

I had worked with the founder of Galactic Fed at a previous company and knew first-hand that he was knowledgeable about performance marketing.

Describe the project in detail.

We asked Galactic Fed to launch and scale Google Search from 0 to 6-figures in a few months. We've also had them manage existing Google UAC and Apple Search Ads campaigns. The goals have been to increase spend while lowering CAC and improving the quality of the customers we get from these channels.

What was the team composition?

We work with a Director of Paid Media on the Galactic Fed team. He manages all of the work on our account.

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

Galactic Fed has lowered CAC and increased spend for the channels they've managed. For example, they've lowered our Google UAC CAC by 11%, and they've scaled Google Search budgets from 0 to 6-figures in the first few months since launch.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It's been great. We mostly communicate on slack and have calls as needed. Our contact at Galactic Fed is knowledgeable, proactive, responsive, and easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were able to onboard very quickly. When we reached out to them we were in a pinch and needed someone to start managing the channels right away. They were able to deliver on that.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We haven't had any issues. At our scale, it makes sense for us to have an in-house acquisition team manage most of our spend, but in situations when we can't cover a channel in house, Galactic Fed has been perfect.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a software development outsourcing company. Startups leverage our platform and expertise so they can focus on building their business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We were looking to start doing digital marketing, starting with Google Ads. They set up our accounts and actively manage them

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to increase our pipeline of high quality leads through our website.

How did you select this vendor?

We evaluated building an in-house team to manage our digital marketing strategy but ended up deciding to outsource it. We searched around for different agencies but heard good things about this one from a close friend

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After we selected them we had a kickoff call to learn more about our company and goals. We worked with their team to come up with keywords, optimize our landing pages and an overall spend strategy. They give us a weekly update on campaigns and hop on calls whenever our team has questions.

What was the team composition?

I've worked closely with one account manager, but i am aware that they have a few other people working on aspects of our account. The account manager is very responsive and knowledgable.

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

We have seen a dramatic increase in leads through our website after they implemented the campaigns. We continually increase lead quality as well week over week as we tweak our campaigns. Very happy with progress so far.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicate through slack and sometimes Google hangouts to talk through issues. They are very responsive, and our team is very happy with the workflow.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a great knowledge of the space and even our industry. We can tell that they are making an effort to understand our business. They are very hands on as well and take as much time as necessary to make sure that everything is transparent

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly this has been a great experience, nothing comes to mind here

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing at Alma, a venture backed, New York-based mental health company on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable care. We support providers with everything they need to start, run, and grow a private practice, including connecting them to clients seeking care.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We hired Galactic Fed to be our digital marketing "team" and help us accelerate top-of-funnel leads to both our provider membership network and our client lead gen directory via paid search and paid social.

What were your goals for this project?

2-3x the number of inbound provider leads; 2-3x the number of inbound client leads

How did you select this vendor?

I was connected to Galactic Fed on the recommendation of our marketing advisor at Sound Ventures. We had previously been working with another vendor, and hired Galactic Fed to audit and improve on that work.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Galactic supports us in digital strategy, creative direction, and campaign creation and optimization for all paid search and paid social (Facebook, IG, Linkedin) for both of our audiences. They also support on KPI dashboards, tracking, and reporting.

What was the team composition?

One point person for search and social, respectively, plus the ongoing support of leaders from the organization.

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

Galactic successfully 3x inbound leads for both audiences and continues to support us on bringing down CPL / optimizing campaigns for continued success / scaling to new markets.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very! Super collaborative, iterative, and generous. Galactic is a GREAT partner.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Galactic is transparent about what they can and cannot deliver, and exhibit true partnership in their approach to goal-setting and execution. Being able to trust the vendor is delivering their best is essential in getting the leverage I need to focus on other areas of the business.

Are there any areas for improvement?

One area for improvement WAS communication and synthesis of results, but they have worked with us to deliver results and recommendations in a format that works ongoing for me and monthly for leadership.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Paid Social for a digital ad agency. We were founded by an ex-Google employee and we partner with our clients to drive long-term, sustainable growth. We specialize in Google ads, social media ads, SEO, Google Analytics, and Conversion Rate Optimization.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We worked together on a number of clients supporting one another on all facets of digital advertising. We supported the paid social efforts while Galactic Fed worked on all other digital marketing mediums such as Paid Search.

What were your goals for this project?

Scale the client in terms of customer growth, improving ROAS, and lowering CPA while increasing budget.

How did you select this vendor?

Our CEOs knew one another and found an opportunity for us to collaborate on some great clients.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Galactic Fed managed all areas of our projects, from client communication and weekly reporting to executing the strategy on Paid Search and often website development. They were thorough in their analysis and preparation for each client meeting so that we could come with actionable strategies to continue scaling the client.

What was the team composition?

I have worked closely with several members of their account management and digital team along with client strategy conversations with their CEO.

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

Galactic Fed was able to lower the cost per lead by a significant percentage in the first three months of working with the client. We also hear and see the fantastic feedback that the clients say about their work ethic, results, and communication.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow between our teams is excellent and shows no sign of diminishing. We communicate effectively and it shows in the level of detail we are able to provide the end client in terms of transparency and results.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have been thoroughly impressed by their communication and response rate. Even though their team is not always in the same location, you would not know it as they do not let any detail fall through the cracks.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at this time. They do an outstanding job of asking for feedback and taking any recommended improvements to heart.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO of ChangeRoots, an app that empowers people to incentivize politicians prioritize our wellbeing over party loyalty. People reward politicians with micro-donations based on statements we publish on our feed. Users can also fund a politicians challenger to disincentivize toxic statements.

For what projects/services did your company hire Galactic Fed?

We hired Galactic Fed to help us acquire our initial user base. We needed to acquire users at a low cost per download to get our app off the ground and demonstrate to investors we were a good bet.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to get a cost-per-download (CPI) below $5 within 6 months of running facebook ads. We beat that goal within the first month, obtaining a $2.50 CPI in under three months.

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked with another agency and were not happy with the result. I got recommended to Galactic Fed through a professional connection.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We did a discovery process where they learned as much as they could about our app, audience, brand and goals. That lasted 2 - 3 hour long meetings. In those meetings we mapped out what the process would be between our two teams.

Then it took about a month of onboarding, getting them approved to run ads on our Facebook account, trading concepts for ad creative and copy back forth and providing feedback on good potential audiences. We launched a email acquisition campaign in advance of our app launch to build our email list. Through that Galactic Fed tested different ads to see what was performing.

They made recommendations on changes to the way we acquired emails in our landing page. We tested multiple landing pages and ad sets to determine what worked best. When we launched the app, we launched our app download campaign. For that we had already determined an effective ad with effective copy.

We tested one set with a landing page and one without. We immediately got a strong cost per download below $4 and have optimized from that. It's been under 4 months as of writing this review (June 2020) and our cost per download has decreased each month.

What was the team composition?

We work primarily with a project manager who runs the process and an facebook ad specialist who executes the campaign. They are both very professional, great communicators and highly effective at their jobs. It has been a pleasure to work with everyone on the Galactic Fed team each step of the partnership.

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

Since our app launch (under 4 months), we've acquired over 3,500 users spending under $20,000 on facebook ads. Our cost per download is at $2.50. Our monthly growth is 77%. These metrics are strong indicators that we have product market fit and are very attractive to investors that we are current courting.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager had been great. We get updates once a week every Monday that are thorough. We are immediately notified if any issue arises and Galactic Fed troubleshoots with us efficiently until all issues are resolved. Communication is clear and Zach (founder) checks in on us periodically to see if they can be doing anything better. I feel like we are in great hands with Galactic Fed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Results. They are highly skilled at acquiring users cheaply, which is something few can deliver on.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If I had to nitpick on something, I would say the onboarding process could have been a bit smoother. It took longer than we anticipated to get them up and running and ready to run ads for us, partially because we needed to get unusual approvals from Facebook since we run political ads. I don't think Galactic Fed built in that unexpected time leading to us starting a few weeks later than we desired.