Wolfgang Digital

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the group digital marketing manager for a hotel chain.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

We were transitioning from one booking provider to another and also relaunching our websites, so we needed a partner to work on our SEO and PPC, particularly Google and Bing Ads. Our goal was to compete with online travel agencies such as Expedia and increase the number of bookings coming through our own brand websites.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Wolfgang Digital does a lot of work with Google Ads, collaborating with our hotel managers to write copy and keep the sites updated with current special offers. They optimize our campaigns and work on content creation, mainly for organic and social to build our outreach and improve domain authority. They recently implemented Google Hotel Ads to increase our reach.

What is the team composition? 

We work with a client manager, SEO team lead, and PPC team lead.

How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

We went out to tender, looking for agencies in Dublin. We narrowed it down to seven firms, interviewed three of them, and chose Wolfgang Digital because they meshed well with our team, goals, and workflow.

What is the status of this engagement?
We partnered in August 2017, and the work is ongoing. 

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

Ever since partnering with Wolfgang Digital, the online bookings through our own websites has increased by 1%–2%, year over year. They’re helping reverse the trend of guests using online travel agencies.

How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They have excellent project management skills. They hold regular calls with our hotels five times a month and issue quarterly business reviews. We talk to the client manager every day, and the SEO and PPC team leads once a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re incredibly proactive, coming up with new ideas and suggestions all the time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had some issues with attribution, but Wolfgang Digital solved the problem and recently began using Google DoubleClick.
 
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have them meet stakeholders so they can get to know the business and what's important to managers. Set your own KPIs; don't just go with generic ones. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Digital Performance Manager for JUST EAT. We’re Ireland’s leading digital marketplace for online food ordering.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

We originally intended do an SEO audit of our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We set out to do an in-depth, internal, architecture analysis of the website. They reviewed the entire website from an on-page optimization point of view and a backlinking perspective. They used our internal analytics to determine where we were losing impression share on searches,and keywords that we should be optimizing towards. Currently, they’re managing our PPC operations and on-page keyword analysis. Though they mostly focused on on-site techniques, they also provide off-site services.

What is the team composition?

We work with two SEO analysts on that side and their Director of Training and Senior Digital Marketer on the PPC side.

How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

They're one of the more interesting and forward-thinking agency's in Dublin and they've built themselves quite a reputation. It was a mixture of that reputation and word of mouth that led us to them initially.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $6,500 per month on PPC and $2,000 per month on SEO.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2015.

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

We've seen an increase in the efficiency of our PPC account – a reduction in cost per conversion. We’ve also seen an increase in organic traffic year on year. They’ve definitely helped us grow, especially on PPC side of things. In terms of a more efficient PPC spend, it’s meant that we can reach more users.

How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicate with them at least on a weekly basis. Usually every few days from a PPC point of view, and once a week on the SEO side. From a project management perspective, they’re efficient at putting together plans and timelines and then executing and sticking to those. They're very responsive to changes as well, so if something comes up from our side that necessitates a plan change, they're very handle it quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very switched on in terms of what's currently happening in the PPC and SEO ecosystems, but also about what's coming down the line and what we have to be prepared for, in order to stay ahead of our competitors. We have a great relationship and level of access with them. It’s so easy to pick up the phone and get right in front of our account manager. They put things into action very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

Any advice for potential customers?

One of the things that I would say of them - and any agency - is to trust them and give them a bit of time. They're really good at driving results, so you have to trust their methodology and listen to the advice that they're giving you. They're looking for you to succeed as much as you want to succeed, so trust the advice that they're giving you and give them time to prove themselves. They’ll bring you along in terms of success.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an account director of a publishing and media company. I am responsible for the performance of our commercial partnerships.

For what projects/services did your company hire Wolfgang Digital?

We contracted with Wolfgang Digital for a comprehensive SEO audit of our sites.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to maximize our SEO potential and to ensure our content organically reached as many people as possible.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by a former colleague.

Describe the project in detail.

Wolfgang Media coordinated a month-long audit of a selection of our sites, identifying issues and categorizing them according to severity. Post-audit, they guided our development and editorial teams through the implementation process to ensure we were maximizing our SEO potential by removing a potential overreliance on organic and paid social. Wolfgang Media presented its findings and plan of action to the relevant stakeholders in the company. We spent several weeks addressing the problems uncovered in the audit.

What was the team composition?

I liaised between the two sides. When necessary, their team spoke directly with our editors or developers.

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

The true impact of the SEO upgrade cannot yet be determined, but we're already vastly improved in our rankings, and our organic traffic has experienced tremendous growth. Our editorial team is now empowered to create content that will have massive organic potential, rather than relying on Facebook or other social channels.

How did the Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were a pleasure to work with. Their documentation and communication were among the best I’ve ever experienced.

What impresses you about the Wolfgang Digital?

They were equally professional and friendly. And they delivered on what they promised.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an e-commerce manager for an electrical goods retailer. We have 22 stores nationwide and were previously considered a brick-and-mortar establishment exclusively.  More recently, we’ve had an online presence as well.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

Our primary goal was to manage our sales campaign more effectively to improve its results. We also needed to gain insight on how the best changes for our online platform’s look and feel regarding business results. I wanted to pinpoint the combined impact of our website and digital channels on our bottom line. By better educating our business team, we hoped to define the overall value of our e-commerce.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although we’d been seeing steady user activity on our social channels, when Facebook implemented offline events we couldn’t seem to find related search details. Wolfgang Digital helped us find ways to gain more insight and show our campaigns’ impact on our overall business.
 
Together, we revamped our entire online customer journey. The team suggested having users click on an e-receipt that takes them to a URL on our website. This feature lets us map that URL to the user’s previous activity on our site and digital channels. It shows trackbacks from in-store revenue to digital channels, including search. Wolfgang Digital is always searching for new technologies to implement, like promotions extensions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had one central point of contact from Wolfgang Digital’s side.
 
How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

Two years ago, we were looking for a team to temporarily manage sales campaigns and found Wolfgang Digital through a recommendation. We were so impressed with the results that we stayed with them ever since and have been steadily increasing the scope of their work.
 
What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Wolfgang Digital in April or May 2016, and our work is ongoing.
 

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

Within the context of our partnership over the years, we’ve massively increased our return on ad spend both online and offline. I don’t have any metrics on hand, but our campaigns have performed quite well overall.  Wolfgang Digital is always looking for ways to implement new technology and improve our project to maximize ROI. Being able to visualize these results was a huge benefit for our business.
 
How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The team can not only follow instructions but also work reactively as new variables emerge. The nature of our business is very volatile. Even though they’d probably prefer a more planned approach, I know we can go to them with any request. 
 
What did you find most impressive about them?

Our weekly calls are always right to the point. They facilitate efficient correspondence to touch base on the last week’s activity and bringing us up to date on all our campaigns. It’s great to have them as a partner. 
 
Are there any areas they could improve?

We’d like to see more detailed reporting on our results. I know this task is dependent on the information we provide from our side, as well, however. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of online and digital services for the Ireland branch of Zurich Insurance. We offer a variety of insurance products and also offer investment, savings, and pension plans to both corporations and individuals. I’m responsible for all of our online content, which includes consumer-facing sites for our insurance products, B2B sites for the agents and independent brokers who sell our products, and sites for corporate clients who offer employee pension plans through us.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

We initially wanted to increase our online presence so we’d connect with more customers. Wolfgang helped us with SEO, social media, and digital advertising.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work on anything related to digital marketing. For SEO, they came up with a list of keywords to help boost our rank and they’ve also done a lot of work ensuring that our content is backlinked correctly. On the pay side, they manage AdWords for all of our different products and run our global digital marketing campaigns. In addition, they help us come up with social media campaigns for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and manage our online presence. Many of these digital campaigns are also integrated with traditional TV and print media campaigns.

They’ve also done offline market research to help us determine what kinds of content we should post on our site and they’ll write some of that content for us. They produce content that will get us backlinks and optimize it so that it maximizes use of our keywords.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with our account director and then other members of my team work with their specialists for SEO, social media, digital content, and advertising.

How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

I researched and met with a number of advertising agencies, looking at their portfolios, notable awards they’d received, and the capabilities of their staff. Wolfgang’s team came out on top and we decided to go forward with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2011 and our relationship is ongoing.

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

One of our major goals was to increase our presence in the market for education savings accounts, as those costs are quite substantial and parents often begin setting aside funds early in the child’s life. We started out several years ago with a minimal online presence but now we dominate the search results on this topic. If you look up the cost of education in Ireland, nearly every link on the first page is related to our business, either through our original content or through mainstream media that links back to us. Our original goal was simply to get our name into the top results once or twice, but we’ve far surpassed that.

How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at meeting deadlines and very efficient when it comes to rolling out projects. They communicate with us daily via phone, email, and Google chat. We also have quarterly half-day meetings with their team to review our successful campaigns and plan for the next quarter.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re head and shoulders above any other agencies within the Irish marketplace. They have a close relationship with Google and they’re really attuned to upcoming trends. We’ve stayed one to two years ahead of the competition because they’re so good at recognizing potential and steering us toward new opportunities.

It’s typical here in Ireland for people to change advertising firms every couple of years to maintain freshness, but we’ve been successful with Wolfgang for a long time. Our business has expanded quite a bit since we began this partnership, and their team has grown along with us as we’ve acquired more clients.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s normal to be a bit skeptical of the advice you get from a new agency, but listen to what they have to say. Take what they’re saying at face value and act upon any insights they give you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Arctic Adventures, a tourism agency. I manage the website and advertising.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

Our primary competitor had the largest organic platform in the tourism industry. We wanted to compete in a strong way.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process has been ongoing for nearly eight months. They analyzed our websites to identify the biggest opportunity areas for SEO. The team then strategized on how we could create an advantage against the competition. They have been rewriting blog content as well.

What is the team composition?

I work primarily with Sean and Francesco, who joined the project about five months ago. Previously, I interfaced with Sean, Luke, and Thomas.

How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

We hired them before I joined the company. We considered multiple firms and held interviews. Wolfgang’s approach made them a natural fit; they aligned with our environment and goals.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend approximately between €2,500–€3,000 per month ($3,080–$3,697 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in July 2017 and is ongoing. We just sent them another contract to analyze additional creative web strategies. That project has become a separate account and reflects our increasing collaboration.

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

According to their monthly reports, organic traffic has at least doubled year-to-year. Those results make us appreciative of the engagement; they’ve been really good to us.

How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They clearly outlined the project, using email to send reminders and updates. We talk three or four times a week via email. The team always delivered on-time; they had excellent time management and never missed deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to compare because I haven’t worked with other SEO vendors. However, they were clearly passionate about the project. That interest distinguished them from other agencies we’ve encountered. The collaboration worked so well that they felt like co-workers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some written content doesn’t sound native to Iceland. As a foreign vendor, it’s understandable that they’re not completely familiar with our products, but that cultural barrier does present challenges for the tourism industry. However, this challenge hasn’t detracted from the engagement; it’s not a significant problem overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Wolfgang takes care of us and makes the partnership easy. They have set the course and we just follow their guidelines. Communicate a vision to them because it helps the team brainstorm a targeted plan.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m vice president of marketing for Phorest Salon Software, an appointment management and CRM company for hair and beauty salons. We help salons around the world manage their appointments, stock, reporting, and POS. We focus on marketing to help salons attract more clients and get them to spend more. We grow through inbound lead generation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Wolfgang Digital?

We needed help with lead generation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have our own internal marketing function and use Wolfgang Digital as an agency. They have helped us improve our organic traffic and search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. They manage all our pay-per-click (PPC) accounts and help us with our organic search rankings through SEO. They manage the campaign ads, give us advice on how to create landing pages, and manage all the ads we’re running on Google AdWords and Bing.

They review our website to make sure that all our links are correct and that our Hypertext REFerence (HREF) markups are right. They have given us advice about the keyword density of all the content we put on our website. They help us produce content that aligns with Google’s best practices for search.

During some specific content projects with them, they have created infographics and content for us. The PPC and SEO are constantly ongoing. They’ve done loads of different campaigns for us.

What is the team composition?

I mainly interfaced with Luke (Head of SEO, Wolfgang Digital) on the SEO side and another employee on the PPC side. I interacted most with Luke. He has an SEO team with two other people.

How did you come to work with Wolfgang Digital?

We used on agency and a freelance consultant prior to them, but we weren’t that happy with the results. I went to a digital marketing conference in Dublin and saw the CEO and another person from Wolfgang Digital speak. They really understood our approach to marketing, hated bad marketing, and were up-to-date with the latest ideas. We saw that they weren’t just technically very adept, but were also actually a good cultural fit for our company. I reached out to them after the conference.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $50,000-$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2015 and the work is ongoing.

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

They’ve done an amazing job improving, driving, and improving our organic traffic and rankings. Organic traffic in the U.S. is up, due in large part to the work they have done on that campaign.

We’re about 70% over the target in terms of qualified leads generated online. They’re driving sales: we’ve had an increase of about 167% in fashions on our website and generated about 1,000 qualified U.S. sales leads in the first quarter of 2018. It’s been incredible.

How did Wolfgang Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

I give them 10 out of 10. Despite all the clients they have, we still get so much time with them. We're talking to them every other day and have on-site meetings once a month. They’ll work off a Trello board or spreadsheet, but they’re willing to jump in and work with whatever tools we use.I almost consider them a part of the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The four things that distinguish them are great communication, their understanding of our business, knowledge of good marketing practices, and a willingness to dig in and help us out.

I love that they reach out to us with opportunities. Rather than just telling us about the opportunity, they do it for us. When Google changed website meta tagging, they didn’t just tell us we should change our meta tags. They sent us a spreadsheet with all their suggested new tags, asked us to approve it, and implemented it on our website. They’re hands-on rather than just giving advice.

They want to produce results that align with your company’s brand and strategy. They think about the big picture of your credibility and brand instead of just focusing on generating leads. They help us reach out to media and get backlinks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They might want to hire a German- or Finnish-speaking SEO and PPC analyst to help build out some non-English-speaking teams for companies that are going into different markets. I believe they’re in the process of hiring a German-speaking SEO and PPC analyst now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very good at looking at the big picture, so bring them into broader marketing conversations. Tell them what your marketing team is trying to achieve rather than just saying that you need to generate more leads. Include them in your internal meetings and utilize them. They’re smart and they understand your needs.

Talk to them about that and make sure you have internal reporting structures in place. Have someone on your team as a dedicated liaison to them who can implement their ideas. Make sure you capitalize on their creativity to get the most from them.