Disruptive Advertising

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a dental center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We needed their help in getting the word out about our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Some of Disruptive Advertising’s initial tasks were designing our landing page and advertising our business online to help us extend our services to more patients. We had an existing landing page, but they made it more Google-friendly and derived the original content.

As for the lead generation, their team first listed down what keywords they could use to promote our services effectively and help us reach an organic audience. They also briefed me on their existing brand guidelines before conducting their market research to identify what strategies they could utilize.

Disruptive Advertising currently monitors our ROI and ad spend via Google Analytics, and they produce advertising materials from time to time.

What is the team composition?

I currently work with an account manager from their team.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I found their team online after looking for potential marketing agencies to partner with. I liked Disruptive Advertising’s business model, and they received credible reviews from different clients, so I was happy to onboard them.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent around $5,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the engagement in December 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Disruptive Advertising’s efforts have rewarded me with an impressive ROI rate. I’m constantly getting new patients who find me via Google, and that’s because of their team’s hard work and impressive performance.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate via Google Meet and email. Disruptive Advertising has a very systematic approach that allows them to deliver quality solutions, meet deadlines, and communicate effectively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency definitely stands out — I’m always updated with accurate ad spend reports, so my team and I are certain that we made the right decision by hiring Disruptive Advertising to manage our Google advertising budget. I’ve worked with a company in the same field that delivered lackluster solutions, so I’m really thankful for Disruptive Advertising’s credible team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more flexible in setting up meetings. Not everyone has access to a single communication software or website, so we can all benefit from additional options to join meetings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work closely with their team and make sure that you’re present during the regular meetings that they set. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a brokerage and advisory firm for accredited high-net-worth investors in the US. We consult clients on buying portions of real estate. We don’t make the deals, but we work with investors to find the deals that work for them. For example, instead of buying a whole building, someone can buy a part of it and rent it to FedEx as distribution facilities. Typically, the minimum investment is $100,000.

A lot of people choose our investments as part of a 1031 exchange. When they sell a piece of property and replace it with another one of equal or greater value, they’re able to defer any capital gains taxes on that sale. However, the investors are in a particular timeframe because of the rules of the IRS. They’ll often search Google for 1031 investment opportunities, or they’ll know what a Delaware statutory trust is — in which we specialize.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

Over the last several years, Disruptive has helped us operate a PPC campaign to get leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive has done some PPC and PPC-related work for us. The ads lead to a landing page that Disruptive has set up.

What is the team composition?

Shannon (Senior Marketing Consultant) has been our main strategy lead over the last few years. More recently, we’ve onboarded Conrad (Account Strategist) because Shannon is going to be transitioning. Paul (CRO Marketing Consultant) is helping us with conversion-rate optimization.

We’ve worked with other people from Disruptive in the past, but it’s been a while since then.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I wasn’t part of the company when Disruptive was brought in. I believe it was through paid search.

How much have you invested with them?

For 2018–2019, we spent around $500,000 per year. We spent $1 million–$1.5 million in 2020, and we’re on pace to pay $1.8 million in 2021. However, their actual fee is lower, since that’s just the money they spend on our behalf.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started a contract in November 2017, but that might not have been the first one. We continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Leads are flowing in. We track the cost per lead and conversions, and our return on ad spend for the past year has been positive for both initial investors and lifetime value.

We get a lot of support from the Disruptive team on running analysis, but it also involves our accounting and CRM. We recently integrated Google Analytics to track the people signing up with us, but we haven’t seen significant reporting. Moreover, Disruptive may report exactly how much money we’re getting from our investment in the future.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication is good and consistent. It can take more than a couple of days for Disruptive to get back to us, but we understand that they have more than one client. However, if it’s an urgent issue, they usually get back to us within a matter of hours.

They’ve met the deadlines that we’ve set for them within reason. There’s a one or 2-day wiggle room on certain items, but they haven’t completely missed or neglected anything. We have regular check-ins to review everything and make decisions on how to go forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I’ve thought of recently is that Disruptive could be more forthcoming with ideas for improvement and not just leave it up to us to ask how we can get better. They could make new suggestions.

Also, we’d like to hear data-driven recommendations on where we could spend more and what would come from it. We’ve worked together for a while, and they should take the lead on that sort of thing. They’ve made some recommendations, but continuing to be forthcoming would be great.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’ve been here less than six months. The advice given to me was to stay on top of Disruptive and ask them constantly how we can improve. Being able to ask those questions seems important, as is reviewing the QA work once in a while.

Furthermore, our business strategy may change based on marketing conditions. Disruptive manages a huge amount of our advertising dollars, and there’s the possibility of errors being made, so we need to be constantly alert. Therefore, we must have complete visibility of what’s happening.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Marketing Director. we provide corporate communications and HR professionals with email measurement and design services within Microsoft Office 365.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

Initially, we started working with Disruptive to help with our Google Ads Campaigns. We were working with another vendor who didn't really understand B2B marketing or take the time to understand our goals and objectives. It a completely different experience working with Disruptive! We have since expanded to LinkedIn Ads and email marketing.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose to work with Disruptive because they had a very hands on approach to took the time to understand our needs before making any recommendations. All the reviews I had found online about them were phenomenal (and accurate)!

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

To start, we spent some time defining goals and objectives, defining our target audience, ICP, and established a budget we both felt comfortable with. We launched Google Ads and immediately saw an increase in performance. Based on the performance of the Google campaigns our marketing strategist recommended we refine our strategy and try using LinkedIn Ads.

With more the more advanced targeting LinkedIn offered we were able to better reach our audience and surpassed our goals. After a few months of great performance we added email marketing to our mix through the use of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Although the project was a bit difficult and took some time to get setup (Dynamics is a VERY complicated and not so user friendly system) we are really happy with the results.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with our Marketing Strategist, Garret for PPC and Email Marketing Strategist, Kalin. Both are excellent!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Because of the nature of our business, we were better able to identify and target our audience using LinkedIn and outperformed our target metrics. This success came at a critical time for us as the COVID-19 Pandemic had disrupted our in person events and left a gap in our lead generation efforts. With the leads generated with LinkedIn we were able to beat our 2020 lead generation goal. We could not have done this without Disruptive!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

My team is always in the know and in touch with the team at Disruptive constantly. It doesn't feel like you are working with an outside vendor, but rather an extension of your team. It's comforting to know they have our best interest in mind.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Our Marketing Strategists are always up-to-date on things that may affect our projects. Changes to tracking, new LinkedIn strategies, etc. that help us stay on top of things. We recently launched Facebook Ads internally and our Marketing Strategist offered to help set up tracking pixels to make sure we are doing it correctly. It's great to know we can rely on them for help if we get stuck!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

One of the best things about our partnership is the continued dialogue about areas of improvement. If we aren't 100% satisfied they want to know so they can fix it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a manufacturer of medical devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We hired Disruptive Advertising for PPC marketing services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Disruptive Advertising has analyzed our accounts, optimized our digital marketing platforms, and placed ads for us. 

What is the team composition? 

My main point of contact is Jacob (Senior Marketing Consultant), and I also work with another account rep.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

They were recommended by an SEO agency that I was working with.

How much have you invested with them?

Thus far, we’ve probably spent around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2018, and this is an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Disruptive Advertising understands our product and has done a good job in ad placement and optimizations of our digital marketing accounts.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed well. We have biweekly meetings via Zoom or Google Meets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been more effective at getting us a better ROI on our digital marketing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The meetings could be more frequent because digital marketing is a dynamic environment, and they might be a little more attentive to the accounts to see changes that occur.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Disruptive Advertising is a good agency, and you should consider them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Weekend Maids is an established business in the domestic services industry. We primarily focus on assisting clients with housekeeping, carpet cleaning, window washing, and other domestic services. I am the General Manager of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We hired Disruptive for PPC Management.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We interviewed many agencies before making the decision to go with Disruptive. Our primary factors were: Pricing Model Quality of work Attitude

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Disruptive manages our PPC campaigns for Google Ads. We have multiple regions in which we operate, and the campaigns require constant tuning.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have been assigned one Marketing Consultant, Chris, who is wonderful to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

I'm happy to state that our campaign performance is great. We track metrics such as cost per conversion and since Disruptive took over the account, the overall performance of our Google Ads has done quite well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Monthly meetings with automated weekly updates. Our conversations are succinct and meaningful.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I enjoy engaging in the ''thought process'' with Chris. He often challenges our approach to things and helps us see a different perspective.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

It would be great to get more insight into what sort of fine-tuning is done on the account every month and how much time is actively being spent on the campaigns.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Marketing at Grow.com, a business intelligence software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We were looking for an agency that could take our paid ads to the next level. We were having a lot of success with Google Ads by managing it ourselves, but didn't have the time and bandwidth to make the most out of it.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My CEO recommended Disruptive and after talking to Adam (the sales rep) I knew that these guys knew what they were talking about and were going to be more than capable of doing what we needed.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Disruptive handles the ad campaigns for Google and Facebook. They have already created new campaigns along with a customized landing page which was a great surprise! They started getting results quickly and the leads are already moving through the funnel. We are super happy.

What was the team composition?

I work directly with our Account Rep as well as her team lead. We have our CRO and CEO hop on weekly calls with us every once in awhile. They have their own content created team and dev work they've done to create the landing page.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've already seen new leads coming in from their campaigns they set up on Google and Facebook and a lot more conversions on their landing page than I was expecting. Since it has only been a couple of weeks, seeing that quick of turn around time makes me really excited for how the numbers will look next month.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was easy to get them what they needed and they put things in place right away.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The turnaround time and expectation management. They know how to explain the process to those who haven't worked with paid ads before and that makes my job easier.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

Our account manager is brand new so she's missing the experience confidence but that's it and it's not really a deal breaker. She has always been quick to respond and follows up well with things she needs from us and with updates on how things are going on her end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager for Sound Approach. We’re an e-commerce platform that sells audio and video equipment. We’ve been open for 13 years, and all of our work is specifically through the Internet.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We were looking for a way to efficiently manage our Google Ads. We’d been using it for a number of years, but we’d always find it challenging to manage it internally. Part of the reason was that for a long time, we didn’t understand it enough to be able to utilize it to its fullest potential.

We’d tried other companies prior to Disruptive, and just before them we worked with a company that was very inconsistent in their delivery. We’d set pretty reasonable goals, and they still had a hard time meeting them. Therefore, we searched out for a new company to manage our online ads in order to get consistency and improve sales. We were looking for campaigns designed to build traffic, clicks, and conversion rates so that we could get a higher revenue.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive is currently managing our Google Ads campaigns. Initially, they reviewed our history with Google Ads and conversions so they could determine the best campaigns moving forward based on market analysis, trends, and so on.

When we first onboarded with Disruptive, we provided them access to the platforms we use for marketing purposes and communicated verbally a lot of the information. Once they had access to our accounts, they were able to review all of the information from the last several years, absorb it, and come up with an action plan. They also utilized some of the information they had through their experience with e-commerce platforms and other contracts to help inform our own goals.

They’ve also provided some services related to tag management in order to improve our SEO, as well as our ability to display the coupons or discounts available to the clients online. Furthermore, we’ve discussed various other capabilities that they have as a company to help us grow. As we expand and improve our revenue, we plan to branch out and take advantage of more of their services.

What is the team composition?

We typically work with one project manager who branches out and utilizes whichever employees are necessary for the tasks we set on a monthly basis. I’m sure the team isn’t very big — probably 2–3 in maximum — but we don’t need more than that at the time.

However, they do have the ability to scale, and they’ve brought in people for special occasions. If there’s something in particular that we want to discuss, like expanding our capabilities from Google to Bing, we speak with other project managers. In general, Disruptive is able to take in information and provide us outlines and plans for the future if we decide to expand our services with them.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

We actually found them through Clutch. Originally, it was a Google search, but I noticed they were in one of Clutch’s top 100 rankings. We ended up reaching out to them because their price point was actually included in the review. A lot of Google Ads management companies have very generic, baseline pricing, but Disruptive had a lot more specificity to it, which allowed us to zero in on them because they were the right price for what we were asking.

We reached out to them, and after having a conversation, we felt that they had a good track record and were the right fit for our company. Ultimately, we decided to go with Disruptive because we felt that the value they could provide for their cost was worth every dime.

How much have you invested with them?

As far as the marketing efforts as a whole, we invest around $75,000–$100,000 per year. The cost for Disruptive’s services is much lower, the $100,000 is the entire cost of our Google campaigns.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. It’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When they began with our campaigns, we immediately started seeing results. We went from averaging $50,000 in revenue a month to averaging over $70,000. It was an immediate increase on our average sales, and we saw an increase across the board in all of the metrics that Google Ads uses.

At first, we asked that they meet a certain amount for our annual revenue. In November, we were approaching around $550,000 in revenue, and our sales goal for the year was $700,000. With our previous company, we didn’t feel it was possible, and given the short time frame, we really felt that it was a tough goal to reach. However, Disruptive was actually able to reach that number.

The easiest metric to determine is the year-over-year statistics, and our revenue has increased by 177%. That’s a huge metric, especially when we consider the market was up in the air this past year due to the pandemic. A lot more people were shopping online, but with luxury items, it was a difficult transition. Moreover, being able to increase our revenue so much during such a difficult time was very much appreciated. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without their input.

Also, one of the big things that we look at is the return on our ad spend. Right now, we’re sitting at a return on ad spend of 6.02 for the year so far, so the investment is definitely paying out for us.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicate via email. Once a month we’ll have a meeting through a video call or just over the phone between the project manager and our marketing department.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Based on our experience with previous companies, Disruptive’s consistency has been their biggest draw. We’ve seen consistent results — they’re not always the highest numbers we’ve seen and every week isn’t always the best week, but we’re steadily improving.

One of the biggest problems we had with the previous company was that one day we would get high results, and the next day they’d be incredibly low. We were battling with issues with internal AI and proprietary programming, and there was always a fight and a need for micromanagement with other companies. Disruptive has been able to deliver on their goals and provide results, and that’s made our jobs easier. We can depend on what’s going to happen.

Furthermore, one of the things that we look for in the business and collaborators that we work with is that they have a clear understanding of the business we’re in. I can tell that our project manager has taken the time to go through our website to have an understanding of what we’re discussing. I’m always blown away by our manager’s ability to talk so eloquently about our products, which demonstrates that he’s taken the extra time to go and research them. We can provide that input to somebody, but going that extra mile definitely helps inform the process and do a better job with the campaign.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe the organization could be a little better, but given what we’re asking from them and what they’re delivering that’s not really an issue. If we expand the services that they provide to us, I think there might be more opportunities for miscommunication, but knowing what I do about them, I don’t anticipate any reason for their performance to change other than the workload getting bigger.

Therefore, I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be improved. They’ve done a good job so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Speak with as many different companies as you can before making a decision so you can find the one that fits best. The more you talk with various companies that do the same type of work, the better understanding you’ll have about what they can actually achieve.

After speaking with 10–12 management companies, a lot of the information I got from them was how not to be an ads management company. When I spoke with Disruptive, they gave me advice on how the process works and what to look for in a partner. There was no pressure to hire them; they wanted to provide us information and help us make the best decision for our company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a roofing material company. We sell roofing safety tools. Our company is a partnership of four family members which is a family investment trust. We are inventors and investors as well as have a patented safety product that helps people get on and off of steep roofs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?
We were at the part of our business growth where it was time to scale and start getting more exposure nationally, as opposed to regionally. I brought in the people at Disruptive Advertising with their online advertising expertise to help make that goal a reality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Originally, they started with Google Ads online advertisements. Then, we started adding in a remarketing campaign on Facebook. Now, we’re beginning to work on an email strategy to contact customers at the shopping cart, all the way to several weeks after they’ve received their product. Disruptive Advertising has also worked on SEO and PPC. At the beginning of the engagement, we did a series of screen shares educating them about our business, but then they did their own extensive research as well.

What is the team composition?
We currently have about nine people either doing the work or overseeing the work. We have two marketing analysts, one client growth specialist, four managers and strategists, as well as two ad specialists. There is a team of two that are my main points of contact, Skyler (Marketing Consultant) and Kyle (Marketing Consultant). I copy them on everything.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?
I did my own extensive research. I was looking for a company in the western US because our product does very well in the eastern US. We have various campaigns running in the eastern US with a different agency, but I needed to expand our hours of operation. When the east coast firm ends at five, I can get another three or four hours of service out of having a company in the west.

I started searching online for respected ad campaigns for companies that were in the western US. Then, I started looking through portfolios of the different online ad agencies that I was researching. I liked what I saw with the Disruptive team based in Utah. They had a good portfolio and a clear business proposition. Their site was easy to navigate. It made the decision very easy to choose them over others, but they weren’t the only firm that I contacted. 

I contacted 3–4 agencies from Texas, California, and Utah. Their rates were so much more realistic for what they required to get started than some of the agencies that required a minimum of $25,000 a month to get started which I felt was too much for an experiment to see if an ad agency in the West would generate results. I’d rather go with $5,000–$10,000 to see if it’s going to work than $25,000–$50,000. All those factors considered made it a pretty easy decision.

How much have you invested in them?
The agency fees are a little under $20,000, and with the online advertising I had done, the total is around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
We began working with them in October 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Before we used Disruptive, our sales were slow and steady. Now, there has been a substantial spike, positively, not only in the traffic but also in the clickthrough rate. Additionally, we’ve seen an improvement because the advertising spending we’re doing is leading to purchases.

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?
We have ongoing email communication but also talk by phone every two weeks. On the sliding scale, they’d be about as high as I could imagine. Number one is they have expert knowledge in the systems of Facebook and Google. Disruptive knows what they’re talking about and take the time to ramp me through the learning curve when I don’t know exactly what they’re talking about. 

In terms of language, they manage me — which is what I tell them. Disruptive is also very good at communicating their ideas for an ongoing strategy to continue growth. They’re always tweaking the plan based on what they see. For project management, they’re checking my account on a daily basis to look for any kind of anomalies that stand out, good or bad. They contact me when those things do happen. From a project management standpoint, I’m extremely happy.

What did you find most impressive about them?
It’d have to be their time management. As a client, they make me believe that I can call them at any time and will be prioritized. Even though I’m not spending probably nearly as much as some of their other clients, Disruptive really has the ability to make their client feel prioritized and heard. All of the requests I have ever made to them have been accomplished which, believe it or not, is hard to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?
What they’re not doing as well as they could be is leaving a lot on the table of the services they provide. Disruptive has some incredibly smart people who are very technologically intelligent, but the range of services seems rather narrow. I wouldn’t know that by going to their website because I was looking to meet a specific goal and they had what I was looking for. 

What they could do better is take a look at each of the competencies of each of their employees, listing them out, and then find additional products and services that they could offer to clients like me. I always tell them that they know more than me and if they see there’s something I’m not doing that they know how to do, to think of my company as a blank canvas for them to paint their intelligence all over. I don’t want to leave anything on the table. I think leveraging their employee competencies is something they could do even better on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be very clear on your goals before you start working with them because they’ll be able to immediately start applying resources to get you to your goals as soon as possible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder and CEO of an online men's training brand that sells strength accessories and apparel since 2010.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire , and what were your goals?

We hired Disruptive to manage our Facebook/IG and Google advertising channels. We wanted a team to manage both of these channels so that they could work better together and help us spend our budget more efficiently between the two channels and scale where there were opportunities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected Disruptive because of all the great reviews we read and their reputation for starting our as one of the best Google Advertising Agencies in the country. They went into our accounts and were very confident they could scale our Google side because it had performed so well over the past 5 years. We ultimately decided to go with them because we felt confident they were going to help us expand our advertising efforts and that they had the experience to make it happen. Their communication on calls in the beginning were great so that gave us confidence. They also communicated to us that we would have a manager for each channel, an account manager and a creative asset - so the value of the team was there.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Disruptive was hired to manage all of our advertising efforts on the Google Platform - specifically Search SEM, Shopping, Youtube etc. They were also tasked with managing our Facebook/IG Advertising which included building out campaigns, setting up funnels of different ad sets, creating 1 video creative a month, writing copy for the ads and overall managing the budget and spend. They were supposed to monitor both channels to optimize ROI across the advertising channels based on revenue coming in to our Shopify website. The minimum return we had expressed was a 3X ROI. Before we began they had identified an opportunity to scale the spend of the Google platform 3X - so that was part of the project as well.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with mainly two people. We were told we would have an Account Manager, Facebook Ads Manager, Google Ads Manager and Creative Manager. When we began we worked with the Facebook Manager almost exclusively for calls and emails. We did not have an account manager and we were never in contact with a creative person. This was the first red flag.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Within the first 3 weeks of working with disruptive all of our major performance metrics (KPIs) has dropped to all time lows. Our Conversion rates sank by 50%. Our time on the site dropped by 40%. Revenue sank by 20%. Cost per acquisition on Google increased by 12x. Our traffic had doubled and tripled on some days but it was very low quality traffic with a large percentage coming from outside our demographic (India). They had completely demolished what performance we had from before working with them.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We would have a call weekly at first and then it pushed out to every two weeks. Email correspondence was fast at first and then it slowed down after we started to have problems. As mentioned earlier - we did not have an account manager. Only when we started to raise concerns were we in contact with their VP of Paid Teams.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were initially impressed by their communication and their understanding of our goals. They claimed to understand how the channels needed to work together and how the end goal of a business is to bring in revenue - not to show stellar stats on an ad set. After working with them - we were not impressed and to be honest - quite surprised by how negligent their management was.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Pretty much every area they could have improved on.

The team we were assigned did not know what they were doing. They did not look at our historical data or take our input seriously. They wasted our budget with cookie cutter strategies that have proven not to work. They recycled old ads with inaccurate offerings and tried to run settings from 2018. We all know the Facebook platform has changed very much since then.

Our Facebook manager didn't even read the copy in the ads he was turning on. When new ads were created they would copy one line of copy from an Instagram post and run it on all the ads. There were no call to actions, value propositions or any other copy proven to be effective in paid advertising. They had setting that had Facebook spending budget to bring low quality traffic from India to our website. They bombarded Google Ads with so many major changed it completely tanked and they did not revert any of it. They just let it run, waste our money and hurt our business.

When we contacted their management to ask for a new team the response we received was that they were at capacity and they had no other managers who could take us on. This company has 100 employees and they could not assign us to a better team. Their VP of Paid Teams stepped in himself to work on our Google Account. The first changes he made was to introduce negative keywords that blocked our branded terms. Google sent us an email warning us that our ads were not running properly because of his changes.

The whole experience was painful and extremely damaging to our brand. When we finally fired Disruptive - they refused to give us a refund for the most recent billing that had occurred 10 days prior. They stalled in fixing the situation because they knew our next billing cycle was coming up. Overall this company has very bad practices and their team is inexperienced and lazy.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on May 7, 2021.

Thank you for your honest feedback about your experience with us. We regret that we haven't been able to meet your expectations and we would appreciate the opportunity to further discuss the issues you have encountered. You should've received an email to schedule some time next week for us to discuss these concerns. Knowing how we failed to meet your expectations, allows us to understand what our next steps are to resolving any issues. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an e-commerce business that sells personalized art.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We hired Disruptive Advertising to create and manage our Facebook and Google Ads campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They mainly helped out with PPC services.

What is the team dynamic?

I’ve worked with one account manager, one creative expert, a Google expert, and a Facebook expert.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

I interviewed with several agencies, but a big factor was reading their reviews on Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

There is a nice onboarding process where we speak with different members of their team. They answered a lot of our questions, along with weekly meetings. It ended up not working out the way I thought it would.

During onboarding, we were supposed to discuss our customers, angles, and demographics. We were supposed to come up with strategies, but that never really happened. There were some early disappointments I chose to look past.

How did Disruptive Advertising address the challenges that arose?

I believe they were trying to hide the fact that they were performing poorly during our weekly meetings. We always heard positive news, and the data they showed me suggested we were doing great. But, in actuality, we were losing money with every single sale.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

In advertising, the core metric is the return on ad spend – for every dollar that’s spent from my account, which is their responsibility, how many sales am I getting? And that metric has been beyond terrible.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

I like the fact that they have four specialists that handle their respective domains. Those are nice communication areas to have on the surface.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Their expertise in advertising was beneath what I was led to believe. I thought they would have an insider look into marketing during sales calls, but their approach was beneath my own.

They’re employing outdated strategies, and their commitment level was also lacking. They haven’t been able to follow up on their promises, and there have been very few touches on my account. Even now, they’re not very involved.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Clients need to understand that they’re a large agency that will assign you newly hired staff that aren’t necessarily experts. They also need to understand that they have to look at their own metrics to analyze their data and measure their performance that way.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on April 30, 2021.

Hi Peter, 

I am sorry to hear about your poor experience with us. It's frustrating when things don't go as planned and I understand why you're disappointed.   

It sounds like we didn't do a great job in the beginning to establish the time and partnership dynamics we needed to work together successfully. You mentioned overlooking several red flags and we must've not done a good enough job at making sure you felt confident with our strategy, reporting, service, and the expertise level of the consultants assigned to your account. 

As you know, ROAS oftentimes takes more than 1-2 months to work on. We don't love long contracts either, and there's a reason we set them up that way at the beginning of our partnership before going month-to-month, which we all prefer. I understand there were some cash flow issues you were experiencing prior to working with us; while your revenue in March increased ~15%, the ROAS dropped and was quite a bit worse compared to February. We failed to understand priorities here, as well.  

I can assure you we weren't hiding or hand-picking metrics for reporting. In addition to our custom reporting, we provided real-time reports where you were able to see all of the performance KPIs at any time. 

It's important to us that we do the right thing. We waived the 6-month contract and appreciate you getting back to us to pay your final 30-days. If there is anything else we can do to help further reconcile this situation, please reach out to us and let us know.