Hop Online

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Taroko, a software company headquartered in the US, with operations in Taiwan. We also operate several SaaS businesses in the US. I’m one of the founders and I run operations, marketing, and most of the support around service and business needs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

We realized that we didn’t have enough paid marketers in-house to grow our accounts sufficiently. We were changing partners at the time, and we needed assistance in order to ensure business continuity for our paid marketing budget. We also need help recovering the damages from our previous vendor.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve completely taken over our paid, search engine marketing (SEM). This includes engineering/re-engineering campaigns, lead management, optimization for lead conversion, the budgets, and account growth.

We’re working on extending to display advertising, which we will launch soon with one of our largest products. They’ve also helped us to launch products in Europe, by doing market research on cost-per-click rates, providing ad copy, and designing visuals for display advertising.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with Paris (CEO and Founder, Hope Online) and two other people, including a marketing specialist.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

I found them through an online search. We got quotations from around 20 different agencies, interviewed 10 of them, and shortlisted three, including Hop Online. We chose them because of Paris—his response and involvement from day one were exemplary, and the tariffs were good for the quality of work provided.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2018, and we have a monthly retainer with them.

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

Since they’ve taken over, our conversion rates have increased by 20%, while the cost for acquisition has remained the same. Our share of search impressions has increased by about 20%. We’ve seen 300% growth on our AdWords account.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well. We have a dedicated Slack channel with them, and also have conference calls and a shared dashboard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Hop has been super responsive from day one, without pushing too hard on us; professional and reactive when we ask something of them, while providing the right amount of resources. They’re dedicated and we can call them at any time of the day or night.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Everything’s been good.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should give them access to their accounts from the beginning, for a thorough review. They’re a technical team, and they can point you in the right direction. Start by opening up, and go from there.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Vogue Tire, a specialty tire company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

My company initially hired Hop Online for SEO. Then, a provider we were working with on PPC and other advertising wasn’t meeting our needs, so we re-engaged Hop Online to provide these services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Hop Online provided SEO. Now, they manage our PPC and online advertising through Google Ads and the Bing Network.  

What is the team composition?

Our primary contact is Antoaneta (Digital Marketing and Advertising Specialist, Hop Online). There are a lot of people working behind the scenes. When we were doing SEO with Hop Online, we had another contact who was also very professional.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

We found Hop Online through Moz.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in June 2017, when Hop Online began providing SEO. In October 2017, they began PPC and online advertising services, and this work is ongoing.

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

We’ve seen our KPIs increase. Since we’re a B2B company, it’s difficult to get a pure ROI, but Hop Online’s work has undoubtedly delivered very favorable outcomes. They do an exceptional job of managing the project and driving results.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

When we worked with them on SEO, we liked their process and how thoroughly they answered all of our questions. We knew they’d be capable of handling PPC and online advertising as well.

Our teams have weekly status update meetings, during which we discuss ongoing issues, new initiatives, and the go-to-market plan. We strategize online advertising for the next thirty, sixty, and ninety days. Hop Online regularly provides analytics and reports on things like product demand and keyword performance, and they give us recommendations on what we can do to improve from creative and content standpoints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been very pleased with the care and attention that Hop Online gives us as their client. The team wants to help us improve our performance and grow our KPIs. They not only help us in advertising but also in stewarding our brand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there is nothing I’ve seen.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of an IT security firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

We needed a partner to manage our SEO.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hop Online assessed our business and online presence, coming back with a recommended strategy for the engagement. They oversaw a massive overhaul of the website where they changed almost the entire thing. We gave them a history of our company and some of our customer personas, and they used that to do the SEO work, including keyword research. They also optimize the blog posts that we write, do backlinking, and manage our social media accounts. When needed, they’ve done on-demand writing, too.

What is the team composition?

We work with six people: a project manager, social media specialist, two backlinking experts, an advertiser, and a copywriter.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

They were a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $2,000–$5,000 every month, so over $20,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in October 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Our domain authority has gone from 10 to 35, and our website traffic is up by five or six times more than before. Every metric we can measure has improved, including cost of acquisition, which has stayed low.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They require a bit more oversight than an internal team would need, but given the size and price of their firm, the project management has been excellent. They set up an Asana dashboard so that we can write tickets and track projects. We also get weekly status reports on traffic trends and other analytics.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We didn’t understand SEO, so they’ve been a trusted partner throughout our learning process. Our business has grown so much because of the hard work they’ve done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone could always be better at improving efforts to achieve data-driven results, but they’re pretty good at that.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Don’t just expect to hire them and not do anything else. To make the most out of the partnership, follow their advice and create the content they suggest.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the vice president for corporate development at a global electronics manufacturer and systems integrator. We provide electronic safety products, data and communication infrastructure, and electrical power systems for mining, tunneling, construction, and other associated industries.

For what projects/services did your company hire Hop Online?

Due to various acquisitions and company growth, we’d launched a new website at the start of 2018. We hired Hop Online to work closely with our external website developers and our internal team to maximize SEO from a content perspective. This included an additional focus on Google Ad's, as well as ongoing enhancements and support.

What were your goals for this project?

Our overall project goal was to have an industry-leading website from a visibility perspective. We also wanted to obtain the highest search engine rankings possible based on our content.

How did you select this vendor?

We gathered advice and searched on SEO sites before choosing three companies. This shortlist of companies covered a broad spectrum in terms of price range, geography, and industries served.

We chose Hop Online because they listened to us and understood what we were trying to achieve. They also seemed able to advise us on areas that weren't in our core skill set and provided the best proposal with what was by far the best cost.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

During the first phase of the project, Hop Online focused on keyword research and content mapping. They discovered the most profitable organic keywords to use, classifying each into priority buckets before introducing them to our new, consolidated website. They also recommended an improved site structure based on their keyword research. Their team consolidated all of our web properties under a single domain and optimized the titles and meta descriptions for each of our pages.

In the second phase, they focused on implementation, content strategy, and site redesign and development. Hop Online rebuilt and relaunched our site based on their phase one recommendations. Their team then created a slide presentation that defined target buyer personas and outlined recommended topics for ongoing content marketing.

During the third phase of the project, Hop Online focused on content marketing and content production. They produced blog posts of varying lengths that were well-researched, well-written, unique, and SEO-optimized. They also promoted some of their articles through social media and direct influencer outreach.

What was the team composition?

We held initial conversations with the CEO of Hop Online and met the rest of the team as the project progressed. In total, we've probably worked with about 5–6 people, including an SEO specialist, a project manager, a content manager, and a finance manager. The handover from the CEO to the project manager was seamless, and we've maintained a single point of contact throughout the partnership.

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

Although the partnership is still in its early stages, we’ve met many of our goals, as evidenced by the statistics we’ve been tracking.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Hop Online’s approach to project management is structured and detailed. They take ownership of every task and are committed to meeting our goals. They also communicate well, allowing me to act as a sponsor and provide data as requested.

We’re a time-critical company, and this was one of our initial concerns. However, the Hop Online team completes work as and when required and understands how to best collaborate with us. They're able to define a plan of attack before each phase and provide regular updates as needed. They also keep distractions and barriers to a minimum.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I’ve been impressed by their ability to work closely with our web development team. This has been essential to our success.  

Are there any areas for improvement?

I don’t think there are any areas where they could improve. They should continue to take ownership of all aspects of their client’s websites, as they've done with us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder of Menlo Coaching, which advises MBA applicants to top programs like Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia.

For what projects/services did your company hire Hop Online?

We hired Hop Online to develop marketing channels like SEO to help supplement our new business acquisition. We have historically relied on referrals, but we believed we had the potential to rank well online.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to attract more clients to our website with SEO. 

How did you select this vendor?

Endorsed by Moz, Hop Online was the only firm I researched that, thanks to their location in Bulgaria, offered a high quality of service against a low price.

Describe the project in detail.

After researching how people search for our services, Hop Online designed a strategy for creating content that would align with that. They continue to provide ongoing support, strategizing for each content piece and identifying other potentially interested partners. 

What was the team composition?

Our project manager serves as the primary point of contact. She coordinates specialists from various areas like outreach, technical audit, and keyword research. Hop Online’s CEO is also kept abreast of our progress and goals and is available if necessary. 

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

Our position quickly soared from a baseline with only our brand name to rankings for hundreds of new keywords. The engagement is still in the early stages, but we expect to see even more increases in the future. 

How did the Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

Hop’s project management structure is perhaps their strongest aspect. We follow detailed schedules for content production with research documents that are clear and organized, and all materials are stored in our preferred systems (Basecamp and Google).  

What impresses you about the Hop Online?

Hop Online took advantage of our European location to visit us personally. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

We do have to conduct a final proofread for some of the content. We are very particular about the precise, highly educated tone customers expect from us. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the marketing director of a mapping software company. I primarily manage the strategic direction of our online marketing and advertising efforts.

For what projects/services did your company hire Hop Online?

We hired Hop Online to help us rank for new keywords. We weren’t pleased with our previous provider because of the lack of results and transparency.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to improve our ranking for existing keywords and improve our overall visibility online. We wanted to increase the number of online referrals we receive and get more visitors to our website.

How did you select this vendor?

We followed a referral to include Hop Online in our search. We vetted several companies but chose their team because they were results-oriented, communicated clearly, and had a strong technical strategy.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a series of meetings to familiarize Hop Online with our brand and online goals. They helped us revise and increase our target group of keywords. They also provided support across our social media accounts. They implemented a few structural changes to the site to make it more SEO-friendly; for example, the calls to action were made more apparent, and the site design is more intuitive. They’ve continually made suggestions to streamline our website for users.

What was the team composition?

We work with a team of analysts from Hop Online.

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

We’ve seen a drastic increase in online inquiries and visits to our website since beginning our engagement. Overall, traffic to our site has improved. We’ve also seen a lot more engagement on social media and an increase in social media followers.

How did the Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team has been a pleasure to work with. They’re responsive and we primarily communicate through email and phone calls. If we need updates, they are always available and willing to help us understand any aspect of their progress. Outside of our monthly scheduled meetings, we communicate on an as-needed basis.

What impresses you about the Hop Online?

Outside of the fantastic results, their professionalism and knowledge stand out to us. They take the time to understand our industry and competitive landscape. The due diligence they put in at the beginning of the project and their follow-through have made all the difference.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If any issues arise, they’re great about responding and incorporating our feedback. They’re a reliable and flexible partner which is why we continue to work with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the general manager for a company that creates products for music makers, including software (instruments and effects) and music studio furniture.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

We originally needed help with SEO.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Hop Online provided SEO services and performed an SEO audit on our website. We then incorporated their suggestions on our end based on the detailed summary of their findings.

After that project, they started managing our PPC and Google AdWords campaigns, followed by Facebook ads.

What is the team composition?

Paris (CEO and Founder, Hop Online), who handled our SEO audit, was our first point of contact. He later brought in two other people to oversee our AdWords and another two to oversee our Facebook ads.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

I found Hop Online online and reached out to them based on their recommendations. I considered about five other companies, but I remember being impressed by Hop Online's website and initial discussions with their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $20,000–$25,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since May 2017. The original SEO project lasted about a month, but all of our other projects are ongoing.

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

Hop Online's SEO work made our website significantly stronger and more robust. Thanks to their help with AdWords, we've seen an increase in conversion rates. Most importantly, we feel a lot more confident in our approach to SEO and PPC, utilizing their expertise to ensure we're making the best decisions.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been great—we always know what's going on and they're responsive. We mostly communicate through Basecamp and have weekly Google Hangout meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're very impressed by their team overall. They've helped us feel more confident in our approach to advertising, so we know we're making the best moves we can to reach potential customers.

Do you have any areas of improvement?

Given that they're located in Bulgaria, the timezone difference has been a bit of a challenge since we are based in California. However, this isn't their fault and not a necessarily a bad mark on them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It's helpful to provide them with as much information as possible and be clear in communications so they have enough information to work with between the time difference. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of partner management at a performance marketing technology company. We create software for airlines to improve their direct channel revenue. As part of that, we offer SEO services to clients, either as part of the software that they buy or as a discrete service.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

While we have an in-house staff that handles our SEO, we often turn to other agencies to help us in certain areas. As a result, we wanted external companies for additional on- and off-page SEO support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They augment our internal team, working on a handful of our clients’ projects on an ongoing basis. Functionally, they support us on two fronts: on- and off-page SEO support. The on-page work entails all of the technical meta-structure of the site as well as anything that affects the performance of the on-site architecture. The off-page support centers on a variety of tasks, from link building to developing and executing our overall link reclamation strategy.

What is the team composition?

Initially, they assigned two members from their team, each focusing on either on- or off-page SEO. However, we merged the responsibilities because we've seen them do both parts. We’ve recently brought on an additional team member to focus more on our off-page and like reclamation efforts.

I also work with Paris (Founder, Hop Online) who has been a partner from day one. He’s totally accountable, diligent, and professional. He’s honest and transparent as well, and he never turns down the chance to have a strategic conversation. When working with an outsourced company, it can be gauge expectations. However, Paris has been professional since the start, and I consider him my colleague.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

I found them on an online list of the top recommended SEO agencies based outside of the U.S. I spoke with a few companies on the list before talking to Hop Online’s president about their work. While it wasn’t an easy decision, they immediately proved themselves to be the best candidate.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

In general, their support has helped us become better equipped to optimize our software’s search performance. Since our tool lives on our clients’ websites, it can be tricky to measure results. However, we’ve seen improved site performance and page load times overall, and our client satisfaction has improved significantly. They’ve also contributed to our success across all on-page key performance indicators (KPI). It’s harder to define their off-page impact because a lot of link building involves client input. However, Hop Online has been crucial in providing both the strategies to help our clients as well as the analyses for why the strategy is worth the devoted resources.

I’ve worked with numerous outsourced companies, and Hop Online has been our top performing partner. Although our market is very specialized, their team has been really adept at understanding both our market and products. Over time, they’ve remained flexible, showing a real ability to do anything based on the clients’ demands. They’re dedicated to us, and we consider them an extension of our internal team.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been fantastic. We work in sprints, and they’ve adapted to that, which has made the process a breeze. In terms of communication, we use Slack and Jira for day-to-day workflow management in addition to regular Google Hangouts with the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to agencies based in the U.S. with the same caliber and skill sets, Hop Online has been incredibly valuable financially. Moreover, not only do they deliver the work itself, but they contribute to our overall strategy. It can be easy to think of external resources as taskmasters, but Hop Online is certainly not. They’re thinkers and doers, and they’re extremely bright. Ultimately, what separates them from their competitors is that they’re strategic partners who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as transparent as possible and open to them delivering more than expected. Beyond basic SEO work, they’ve proven themselves to be thoughtful partners who are capable of deep research and analysis. Be prepared to leverage their resources to their fullest extent and remain open to their suggestions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Radius Payments Solutions operates in the fleet market. We are a B2B seller of fuel cards and a provider of vehicle tracking services. We operate in 13 countries and have 1100 employees. I am the company's digital director.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hop Online?

The main challenge was to increase our inbound lead generation to match the business’ growth speed. We specifically focused on organic Google search and Facebook marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hop Online manages all our inbound processes, including our SEO and Google PPC account. They helped us launch Facebook advertisements. We were tasked with generating 50% of the company’s inbound leads, which our sales teams convert into orders.

They also started providing WordPress web development for us 10 months ago. It’s been a cost-effective service that complements our other developers. Inbound, web development, and SEO are their main areas of expertise.

What is the team composition?

We were assigned a reporting and PPC expert and a person who manages our day-to-day relationship. They work full-time on our account. They’re the people who’ve been there for us, and who’ve made a difference.

How did you come to work with Hop Online?

Another organization recommended them to my inbound manager. They performed all the groundwork research without any discussion of cost. It was a pleasant surprise for a business to invest in analyzing how we work and suggest how they could help us. Other agencies were willing to do all the research, but not before being chosen as a partner.

Another refreshing quality of Hop Online is that we’ve been able to work directly with the field experts actually doing the work. We don’t have layers of account management.

How much have you invested with them?

Including the end of this financial period, we have spent more than £250,000 ($340,000) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Hop Online in August 2016. We’ve just signed a new contract with them. We’ve increased our scope and will continue the engagement.

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

We are based in 13 countries, and we’ve definitely seen increases everywhere. We operate in a competitive market. I can’t provide exact statistics, but we’ve probably doubled our traffic and SEO conversions yearly. We’ve had a 100% increase in SEO, and even more in paid search. We saw a 130% year-on-year inbound lead generation increase, which will double again in 2018. It’s been an unbelievably successful partnership.

How did Hop Online perform from a project management standpoint?

They introduced us to Asana, which our marketing team of 20 has also embraced internally. Their project management is excellent. Hop Online is only one click away, and it really feels like they’re a part of our company. They interact with my team directly using Asana and Slack. They're part of our core team.

Many agencies have a hierarchical system of contact; you need to contact the account manager, who will speak to the PPC expert. Hop Online is simply an extension of our marketing team. We utilize Hop Online’s skillsets to complement our internal ones. Since the barriers to entry are gone, the system works well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been in the industry for 10 years, managed quite a few accounts, and worked with four or five paid advertising agencies. Hop Online is different for two reasons. The first is their value for money when comparing their fees and contract costs to those of other regional companies. Hop Online gives us an agency atmosphere without charging us as much as agencies normally do.

Their team also has a level of enthusiasm. They are always striving to improve the work they do for us, which goes a long way. They always want to push further with us. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Hop Online is definitely a try-before-you-buy company with a results-driven approach. Clients should engage them and see what they have to offer. If it doesn’t work for a client, they have nothing to lose.

Please describe your company.

We are a surety bond agency. Our main focus is offering surety bond approvals online.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the webmaster for the website.

What was your goal for working with Hop Online?

We were looking to increase our online reach organically and through paid avenues, such as pay-per-click and even social media outreach.

Please describe the scope of their work.

The scope of the work was mainly content creation through published articles on our blog and other user guides. Hop Online also performed social media outreach for us. They are still managing our pay-per-click campaign.

What was your process for selecting Hop Online with which to work?

We found them on moz.com, a really trusted website in the SEO [search engine optimization] industry. We contacted Hop Online for pricing information and tried to get an idea of how they would implement their ideas. We thought they would be a good a good fit for us so we decided to go for it.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

The cost was roughly between $50,000 and $100,000.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We received an uptick in organic traffic several months after working with them, it wasn’t a huge gain, but I do remember an upward trend.

In our industry, the SEO tactics that are normally considered best practices don’t necessarily work as well. It’s a bit of a unique industry. Overall, it was beneficial to work with Hop Online. However, we have discontinued a lot of the services because they weren’t successful in our industry, but that’s not a reflection of the work done by Hop Online.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Hop Online’s main benefit was definitely their pricing. Their pricing was much more reasonable than other companies that we’ve worked with in the past, which was one of the main reasons we decided to go with them. They offer very competitive prices, and the quality does not lack.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might have them do differently?

The only down side of working with Hop Online is that they mainly operate within Bulgaria. Sometimes, there could be a bit of a language barrier with communication. It wasn’t always an issue, but it was occasionally.