True Interactive (Formerly KeywordFirst)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president of a company that specializes in selling high-end office furniture online. We also offer space planning layout and design services for small to mid-sized businesses across the U.S.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We needed help in cleaning up and better structuring our Google Ad Words account, as well as optimizing our pay per click campaigns on Google and Bing, in order to improve our online traffic, as well as the traffic that goes to our call center.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive manages our Google Ad Sense and Bing Ad accounts. We also use product listing ad services, so most of our efforts are centered on pay-per-click.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

We looked at a number of different firms. True Interactive was recommended to me by a member of an organization of which I am a member, called Young Presidents' Organization. This came during a transition period in which we didn't have an internal manager for pay per click services. We decided to let True Interactive come in, evaluate, and restructure our account. We would then make a decision on moving forward.

How much have you invested with them?

The total annual cost for their services is above $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We haven't determined if we will continue our collaboration. We kicked-off with a one-year agreement which will end within the next quarter. There is a new vice president of marketing which will be brought into our company. He has a great marketing background and will be left in charge of making a decision regarding our accounts and how well-optimized they are. It will be a good time for reassessment.

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

Their work has been successful in many ways. True Interactive has cleaned up our account and allowed us to have better visibility by keyword, as well as giving us a better way to optimize at a detailed level. Now that we're trying to optimize our campaigns based on phone calls, as this will potentially drive more revenue to our company, a lot of our marketing efforts will not be tracked in Google Analytics. We're thus in need of an agency that is able to optimize and truly understand our business. This is what our new vice president will be tasked with.

We've recently launched a new website on a Magento platform, putting in an enterprise resource planning in Net Suite. We've introduced a lot of change in our business, so any metrics are hard to determine.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We work with them closely. Because of our Young Presidents' Organization connection, they've really tried to help our business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We offer design and space planning services as well as selling furniture. It came as a nice surprise to find out that, down the road, True Interactive outfitted their whole office with our furniture. This has happened with a few other vendors we've used. I appreciate this because it tells me that, not only do we understand how their business works, but True Interactive has actually put their money where their mouth was and bought our services. This creates an interesting dynamic to our relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Every business is different. Ours is difficult in terms of the phone lead element. A big piece of our revenue comes this way, making it very hard to track. One phone call can be worth $1,000 while another can be worth much more or less. Our vice president of marketing has to be kept in check in this sense. We have learned this as a group in general. We have to swing back and forth between phone and web revenue in order to measure their effectiveness.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager of a company that deals with home improvement, specifically outdoor living upgrades like paver stones and artificial turf.

I’m in charge of the company's visual channels, including social media, paid SEO, email campaigns, and so on.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We needed help with paid search management. Our objective is to get leads and quality traffic to our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive manages all of our paid search accounts on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, as well as our Facebook ads.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

When I came on board one year ago, my company was already working with True Interactive.

How much have you invested with them?

The annual budget managed by True Interactive is between $200,000 and $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company has been working with them for around two years. We evaluated the success of their work back in November of 2015. I found them to still be the right partner for us, so we will be working through to the end of 2016.

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

I’m satisfied with their services. It's hard to argue with what the numbers tell us. Last year, True Interactive helped us to nearly double the amount of leads which we were able to acquire. Our marketing budget did double during that time, but it was spent effectively through their efforts. Our budget has traditionally gone up by 95% each year, which has led to more conversions at a lower cost per conversion. These are the two metrics through which I've primarily judged their performance.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They are a small team, which has to be taken into consideration. Because they manage multiple accounts, we sometimes have to be persistent in getting our message across.

There were times in which I've had to spend more time in conversations with True Interactive in order to get the answers that I needed. It depends on how each client manages their vendors, but overall, they've been easy to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are a very flexible company. We've tested a handful of new programs, including retargeting platforms and social media advertising. True Interactive has adopted them well and did all the heavy lifting for us. It's been nice to know that we can have a partner that will adapt to us and not charge extra for every little item which we want to test. They are team players and seem to want to see us succeed. True Interactive is willing to do whatever it takes in order to accomplish their goal, for the most part.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times in which I would have wanted to have more recommendations and feedback from them. Although they are generally flexible, I wish they'd also be more proactive. They're not very inclined to say no to a bad idea.

Depending on the way in which the client operates, True Interactive may need to be coached more than average, especially when trying out new campaigns or ideas. They're more than willing to give things a shot, but do need to be micromanaged at times. This is the downside of working with a team outside the company office.

As satisfied as we are with them, there is room for improvement. Approaching True Interactive with this in mind will help their clients in the long-term. They get the job done and are smart people. Compared to other paid search management vendors with which I've had experience, I'd rate True Interactive with a 7/10.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of e-commerce of a primary and secondary gift card company.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We needed additional revenue generation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive provide PPC marketing administration for us.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

I inherited the agency from a co-worker. At the time, we were working with another agency for a different business which I run. I was happy enough with the work done by True Interactive, so I decided to not switch to the other agency.

How much have you invested with them?

The annual cost for their services is between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I've been working with them for six months. The relationship is ongoing and I have no plans to stop.

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

I've been satisfied with their services. Results are measured by a marketing cost versus revenue return basis; in other words, cost divided by revenue. Over the last year, since True Interactive has taken over, they've halved this percentage.

At the end of the day, we have a revenue goal tied to marketing costs. Revenues generated through True Interactive have had a marketing cost of below 7% over the last five months. Last year, when the program was being run in-house, the average was around 12-14%.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

I work on the West Coast and appreciate that their team is two hours ahead of us. This gives them a little time to get things done before we come in in the morning. This is positive for making adjustments and creating new ad groups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the fact that they're not based in San Francisco or New York. This gives me a more devoted team compared to a larger-scale agency. We're a big fish in a small pond for True Interactive. The alternative would be to be a small fish in a big pond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The reporting system they've migrated to requires having to pull reports manually. It can be a little annoying to me as a client, but it's a minor complaint.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital marketing manager of a luxury hotel and resort company with five locations across the United States. We are currently building a location in Cabo San Lucas as well. I oversee our revenue efforts online.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We've used their services in order to drive online bookings. We want to encourage guests to book directly with us instead of using an online travel agency like Expedia or Booking.com. Brand awareness was another consideration, since we are a smaller group.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive provides PPC services for us.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

They were an existing vendor when I started working for my company. I don't have information about how they were found.

How much have you invested with them?

The annual cost of their services is between $200,000 and $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked with True Interactive for almost three years. We have no plans to stop the collaboration.

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

Every year, we adjust our goals. True Interactive has been great in making sure that we meet those goals or even exceed our forecasts. This has already happened this year, which is great.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the things I like most about True Interactive is that we have a partnership. Their team is very involved in day-to-day activities and understands how the travel and hospitality industry works, especially given that our price point is higher than average. Our average room cost is over $1,000 per night, so, commitment to our services is a significant step for a client. Also, given the seasonality of our locations, True Interactive has focused on where we could optimize and what the competing campaigns against our company are. They excel in attention to detail and are personally invested in our success.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Some agencies constantly bounce clients around between account representatives. This has never happened with True Interactive. They rarely have new people show up, and never push us to someone else because our previous contact thought they could get a better assignment. I can call them any time and they will answer the phone. They email me right back. I never got lost in their organizational hierarchy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The account manager who was overseeing our project left the organization in November 2016. A new team member came on board and the transition process was actually great. There was an understandable learning curve, but not an excessive one.

They took ownership of making sure that our transition was smooth, and that we were still hitting goals and collaborating efficiently. This is more of a compliment on how they handle change than a suggestion for improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the brand director, founder, and the developer of all our products. We’re an online store. Most of our products are manufactured by our company, centering on storage and organizational items.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We wanted to increase our earnings while either maintaining costs or proportionally increasing them along with our revenues.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive provide paid search services. We're also starting work on social media marketing.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

We did an extensive Google search, vetting various agencies. True Interactive was directed to me specifically by a much larger agency that only took on big companies, working on projects worth millions of dollars. We were too small for them, so that company's vice president recommended True Interactive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend close to $2,000,000 per year on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with True Interactive since October 2014. Our work is ongoing, with no plans to stop.

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

Their work has been successful. We always want results to be better, but True Interactive are knowledgeable and are very easy to work with. Unlike the people in many other agencies, they're humble. True Interactive are not too confident or arrogant to have a conversation and learn. The key requirement for their business is knowing the product inside and out. Our products are especially complicated, so knowing all the nuances of our target demographic and product is the key to success.

True Interactive have had to learn all of this and did a good job of it. Their learning process has been continuous, and they've never taken the one-size-fits-all approach for us. Our revenues have increased proportionally to our spend increase to a satisfactory level.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They are, from top to bottom, humble and easy to work with people. I never was moved around to many different people for different tasks. They have a small organization giving personal service. A client can talk to the same people every time. The people who handle my account have been the same for a year and a half. During my work with other, larger agencies, the account managers seem to change over. This equates to starting again with someone new who has to learn everything again. This learning process is the biggest challenge we face. It's not always done at the choice of the agency, but it still means starting over from scratch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

True Interactive seems to be very stable. They haven't had much team turnover in the past couple of years. Even though we're based in Chicago and they're in Pittsburgh, they've flown out to meet with me, which showed me their commitment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have an obvious answer to this question, which means that True Interactive has done everything pretty well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a stock media marketplace selling photos, videos, and motion graphics to people who are working on creative projects. I’m in charge of business intelligence, marketing, and analytics.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We needed an outside expert to manage the complicated aspects of our SEO strategy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

True Interactive is our main agency for SEM, display advertising, and retargeting.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

They came recommended to one of my colleagues.

How much have you invested with them?

The annual cost of their services is around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them three years ago. We work with True Interactive on an ongoing format.

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

When we first started working with True Interactive, they did a good job of restructuring the account. They're very good at coming up with an intuitive structure for managing the account tightly, without the need of too many ad groups. They're also very practical. I've seen some people in the past build accounts in very convoluted and hard-to-manage ways. True Interactive has the pragmatic approach of minimizing ad groups and keywords, sticking to something that can be easily understood and managed.

I think that any company promising to double or triple marketing results are going to be selling smoke and mirrors. True Interactive has done a good, professional job of managing our account and keeping it within +/- 10% of its optimal efficiency. When reaching a certain point, it's hard to determine whether the marketing effort should be increased or decreased by a certain amount. We've done exercises in order to determine what the efficient frontier of our budget is, with different results every time.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

In three years of collaboration, they never canceled a call on me. They've had a consistent team available for us. I've only worked with four or five people throughout our collaboration. Two of them are still there. Their reporting is dead-accurate all the time; they don't miss deadlines and respond well to constructive criticisms. When working with a vendor, if the client doesn’t have to think too much, it means that the partner is doing a good job. Whenever you start noticing things, it will be because something went wrong. True Interactive has made my life easier because I've had to do less thinking.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a good sense of attribution and conversion values. Their technical proficiency is above-average. True Interactive doesn’t simply look at how much they can get the client to spend. It's easy to be taken for a ride in this field, but they've never done that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I look at our collaboration keeping in mind that I'm a professional as well. Had I been naïve about it, it would have been a different experience. I think that True Interactive has done a reliable job over the years, and for all the flaws I've seen in them, most things have gone correctly. Whenever we changed the account structure in a significant way and something went wrong, it was caught quickly. That's okay in my point of view. It's part of the game. We wouldn't have continued to work with them if they were different.

If the client is coming off of a bad collaboration with a digital agency, True Interactive will definitely do a good job. If the client is simply looking for someone to manage and grow an account, they'll also do a great job. Everything depends on the situation: if a company has a mature account that has been well-managed, True Interactive will continue to do a good job managing it. Very few people can take an account that is doing well and make it do extraordinarily well. It's simply not how it works.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Suddenlink Communications is a cable operator within 19 states across the US. I’m the chief marketing and sales officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with True Interactive?

We wanted to build customer relationships.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They almost exclusively provide keyword search engine marketing. We work with Google Ad Words.

How did you come to work with True Interactive?

I've used them for a number of years. I've been a customer of theirs since before they were called True Interactive. I worked with them for a different company and maintained our relationship, using them as my search engine agency of record when I moved to be the CMO at a different company. When I took my position at Suddenlink, I once again brought True Interactive with me.

How much have you invested with them?

The annual cost of their services is between $200,000 and $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work is ongoing. We have no plans to stop.

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

I am very satisfied with their work. I find that their personalized attention, as well as their eye for details, is second to none. The primary reason for using them is for the value they provide. True Interactive doesn't have the overhead found in larger agencies, and I don't feel that the people responsible for my account rotate as often.

How did True Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a very consistent team that doesn’t change over the years. It’s easy to work with them because I don’t have to train new account managers or developers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find their personal attention, value proposition, and acumen specialty to be second to none.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.