What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Ignite is the most productive subcontractor we’re working with, and this is why I agreed to review them. They’ve made a significant impact on the SEO side. Each month, more and more of our keywords are in the top 10, and they’ve more than doubled the keywords that are on the first page of Google and Bing. We’re now making more than what we’re paying them. In other words, it’s well worth the money. It’s hard to make a direct correlation between the changes they’ve made and the evolution of our Google keywords, but, given how many of them have moved up, there’s no question that our revenue is higher.
It’s the same with CRO. We’ve seen a bump since the work started, so we’ll be working with Ignite indefinitely. We’re very happy. The PPC is also rending in the right direction. Our click-through rates are up, and the return on ad spend has increased by about 15%.
How did Ignite Visibility perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re excellent. In fact, we’re slower to get back to them than they are to send information to us. They use an application called Basecamp, which keeps everyone in the loop—they assign to-dos to us, and we do the same. All the people who are supposed to get the information, get it.
There has been a little turnover on their side; it hasn’t really affected us, but it did worry me. It seems to have settled down, and they’ve told me that it’s something that typically happens in Q1 with companies like theirs. The core team of project managers has been steady, and there was no performance drop-off after they hired new people. Burkan is their strongest member, in my opinion.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I appreciate the weekly calls. With the other companies we’ve used, there was nothing scheduled, and we’d have to proactively call them. Every week, Ignite goes over our metrics and performance, and they’ve given us an online dashboard so that we have to wait for the weekly meeting. They have a lot of great tools and are transparent about what they do. They’ll even tell us what software they use to retrieve this information. Their transparency is definitely top-notch, above our old company’s.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The turnover was the only thing that concerned me. It affected the SEO and the PPC work, but it couldn’t be avoided. In an ideal world, we’d like to work with the same people all the time, but that doesn’t happen. It’s the fact that there are dozens and dozens of SEO companies near each other in the California region.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Listen to what they say as they really know their stuff and do a great job of maintaining communication. Weekly meetings aren’t just optional; we have them on our calendars as a recurring event, with all three teams. Using Basecamp streamlines that whole process. They do a good job of enabling us to see what’s going on, while not being inundated. So far, we’ve achieved results in all three projects we’ve engaged with them on.
Ignite Visibility holds weekly meetings and communicates regularly, keeping focused on long- and short-term goals. Their work has increased conversion rates from 7.5% to over 10% and impression share from 33% to 60%. SEO is a bit slower, but the partnership is still fruitful.