What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Because our product is niche, our cost per lead is relatively high compared to other targets in the market that we’re targeting. That being said, within the first month, Search & Gather was able to cut down our Facebook cost per lead by more than 50%. When we added Google Ads, we saw dramatic improvements there as well.
Even with other projects, like with the call scheduling on the landing page, they’ve been able to improve our connection rate from 25% to 35%. We’ve also seen a significant improvement in the quality of the leads, which means that the higher volume is translating into a positive impact on our business. With our previous agency, we were paying double and getting probably half the value.
How did Search & Gather perform from a project management standpoint?
Search & Gather works as hard as we do, seemingly at all hours of the day. They’re always willing to jump on a call to clarify, and they have a holistic view of the lead generation process.
Our previous agency just managed our budget and ad spend; they relied on us to develop creative and handle our Salesforce backend. We also had to create and manage our own landing pages. Having Search & Gather has been a huge improvement from that. They’ve been able to integrate everything well through Salesforce, often pulling reports to show us the results of their testing.
We use email to stay in contact, and I always get a response right away, no matter the time. We have a weekly meeting cadence, and usually at least one additional call per week. Search & Gather is always willing to go above and beyond, much more so than our previous provider. For example, right now, have our project manager Amanda working with our chatbot provider to fill in gaps from a technical perspective. We would’ve never gotten that from our other agency.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re very aware that our next challenge will be improving lead quality, and they’re constantly coming up with experiments and recommendations. Their ability to move quickly and solve problems has been extremely beneficial. Most other agencies don’t have that kind of proactive, dedicated approach.
I love the fact that I can offload core responsibilities to their team because it frees me up to do more strategic work. For example, I used to handle all of our manual reporting myself, and I found myself always updating our previous provider about A/B test results and landing page edits. We faced a ton of incongruencies because it was so hard to keep everyone aligned with the overall strategy.
With Search & Gather, I don’t have to worry about any of that. They do creative work in-house, they A/B test their copy, they test their landing pages, and they’re always optimizing towards our sales goals. I save so much time by working with them, and they move even quicker than I anticipated.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I’ve only worked with one other agency, so it’s hard to compare, but I think they could benefit from understanding our backend and our organic rankings as well. Granted, we only hired them to do paid ads, but organic leads are a part of that overall strategy. That’s just a suggestion though; I have no complaints.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Take advantage of how hard they work. Search & Gather has the capacity to give you high returns within a short timeline. Let them handled the basics, and you’ll be freed up to work on strategy. If you trust them and give them a clear direction, they’ll deliver excellent work for you.
Establishing a long-term relationship with their partner, the team continues to deliver ads and placements that drive consumers toward the company. In addition to generating increased qualified leads, they’ve added value by accommodating preferred communication and work styles.