Lean Partners

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Performance Marketing of a home swapping platform

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ours is a members-only home swapping platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lean Partners to accomplish?

• Execute paid media campaigns to acquire new users

SOLUTION

How did you find Lean Partners?

Referral

Why did you select Lean Partners over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Lean Partners were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Lean was originally brought on in Sept '24 with the specific remit to mature and expand our SEM efforts. Upon taking over management of our existing account, Lean began the process of an entire account restructuring, keyword research, copy writing and more. Our program scaled more than 2x, while maintaining similar efficiencies despite the wider breadth.

From there, Lean conducted an audit of our paid social accounts and identified several areas of opportunity. They shortly thereafter began managing our paid social efforts as well, allowing for a much more dynamic allocation of budget based on holistic performance. 

Most recently, Lean's scope has expanded to include creative services for our performance marketing efforts. This has been a major unlock for us as we were seeing diminishing returns and an inability to scale our efforts given previous creative production limitations. The creative team approached the business with fresh eyes and continue to present us with new creative angles to unlock growth.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We've been able to expand our scale, acquiring new members at all-time efficiencies.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Lean team consistnely delivers on time while maintaining a high level of quality. In the off-chance a project is taking a bit longer than originally anticipated, the team is communicative and sets expectations on revised timing (should note that this is a rare occurence).

What was your primary form of communication with Lean Partners?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What I've appreciated most about working with Lean is their eagerness to continue exploring new opportunities to unlock additional growth. The team has never seemed content to rest on their laurels and is routinely providing test opportunities. 

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

Not applicable -- very happy with Lean.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Chief Marketing Officer of a medical company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a virtual primary care company providing healthcare services to B2B and D2C patients. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lean Partners to accomplish?

• Grow acquisitions while reducing CAC

SOLUTION

How did you find Lean Partners?

Last company

Why did you select Lean Partners over others?

• Referred to me
• Used at my last company

How many teammates from Lean Partners were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I've worked with a lot of agencies, but Lean is the only one I've trusted enough to bring into two different companies. Most agencies are vendors. You hand them a brief, they run the brief, and the relationship never grows past the scope of work. Lean is the opposite of that. They act as part of our team, not contractors billing hours, which is why I trust them on strategy as much as on execution, and that's not something I say lightly. But honestly, the team is why it all holds together. They're proactive, blunt when they need to be, fast to flag a problem instead of hiding it, and genuinely in it for the outcome. They're easy to be honest with, which is rarer than it should be

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

At my last company, Lean managed the paid marketing that sustained roughly 30x growth over four years (not a typo), while improving efficiency by 40%. At my current company, they've roughly doubled our acquisitions in a matter of months, while pulling our CPA down around 20% at the same time.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team is consistently proactive and is more like a strategic employee vs. an external agency.  They are smart, quick, and own business metrics as if they work with us full time.  I wouldn't be able to grow our business without them.  

What was your primary form of communication with Lean Partners?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their strategic insights and business ownership.  They are equally invested in hitting targets as we are. 

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of demand generation at QuotaPath, a tech startup. We provide commission tracking and sales compensation management software that automates calculations and help with compensation strategy for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lean Partners to accomplish for QuotaPath?

Our marketing team has just two people, and paid media channels like Google SEM and LinkedIn would be one of our full-time jobs without Lean Partners' help.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lean Partners handles all of our paid media campaigns. They manage an annual budget of more than $250,000. The team independently develops ads, landing page ideas, and manages the day-to-day bidding and budgeting of our PPC portfolio. Lean Partners focuses on Google Ads, LinkedIn, Bing, Meta, and Capterra.

What is the team composition?

We work with one teammate from Lean Partners.

How did you come to work with Lean Partners?

We found them through a referral. We chose them because their pricing fit our budget, they had a great culture fit, they offered good value for the cost, and their company values aligned with ours.

How much have you invested with them?

We've used them as our primary SEM driver for numerous years (even before I worked here) and continue to do so, as well as having them manage a ton of our marketing budget each quarter, so we've invested quite a bit!

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Lean Partners' expertise and the ease of working with them allow us to confidently offload the lion's share of work in paid media and fully trust that they'll take ownership and optimize our campaigns for maximum effectiveness. We've had ambitious pipeline goals for each year Lean Partners has partnered with us, and they've helped us hit those goals nearly 100% of the time, even as we scaled our program (and our goals for it) to more than double year-over-year. We've generated over 40 opportunities per month and an estimated $600,000 in quarterly pipeline consistently over the course of the program.

How did Lean Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Lean Partners is incredibly proactive and has never missed a deadline in my time working with them. We communicate through virtual meetings, emails, and messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lean Partners is available online at nearly all hours, is super easy to work with, and proactively makes suggestions and changes to our program to ensure we're hitting goals. They're without question the best agency I've worked with.Ivana (Account Manager) has been an incredible partner. She's knowledgeable, fun to work with, and dedicated to our team's success. I've come to think of her as a member of QuotaPath's own team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren't any. Lean Partners is dope.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Demand Gen Manager of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our product lets you run any procure-to-pay process, and Billy, your AI employee, operates it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lean Partners to accomplish?

• Improve paid search ROI
• Improve paid search cost efficiency
• Identify & execute on account-level optimizations

SOLUTION

How did you find Lean Partners?

Referral

Why did you select Lean Partners over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Lean Partners were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Comprehensive strategy to balance our growing opportunity generation needs – while also testing messaging, positioning, and ERP campaigns   
• Dedicated CSM to run daily keyword analysis, maintenance, bid optimization, and exclusion keywords to further optimize performance
• Advanced persona and buyer stage targeting capabilities
• Platform-level and GA4 reporting/insights
• Creative strategy & testing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Paid search efficiency improved significantly. Cost per opportunity decreased from an early-2023 average of ~$3.6K to ~$1.9K and remained mostly stable over the next 18 months, while opportunity volume and lead-to-pipeline conversion both increased.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Mostly delivered on time with swift responses and turnaround times, despite the time zone difference. There were some instances where communication via Slack was difficult due to their schedule on certain days, which sometimes made it tough to get deliverables out the door quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Lean Partners?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The dedicated CSM was only distributed across 3-4 accounts, rather than 10+, which is a major differentiator.

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

• Upfront expectation setting or SLA for response times, which is vital with fast-growth startups that move quickly
• Proactiveness to step outside of just platform-level/GA4 metrics and own HubSpot pipeline reporting as well

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CMO of a retail company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The compamy is an ecom site selling rugs and homegoods.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Lean Partners to accomplish?

• Scale Acquisition
• Improve ROAS

SOLUTION

How did you find Lean Partners?

Previous relationship

Why did you select Lean Partners over others?

Prior expience with them has been 5 star

How many teammates from Lean Partners were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

LEAN was tasked with assessing the current state of the paid media program, recommending a course of action to improve ROAS and scale the program, and implementing it. Key deliverables included a comprehensive audit, a strategic road map, daily and weekly reporting, and attending internal meetings.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

LEAN hit all the assigned targets, from scaling to ROAS improvement.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

LEAN deliverd everything on time - in fact, they were often prompting us for more "action."

They are incredibly responsive, 24/7. In fact, spent many weekend evenings working with them. 

What was your primary form of communication with Lean Partners?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I cannot say enough good things about Lean. They are incredibly smart, very good at what they do, and ethical. They will do the right thing for your account. Always. 

They will integrate with your in-house team seamlessly and produce results. I have hired them 4x and they have never, ever disappointed.

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

Not really. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Manager Performance Marketing of Shippo

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Shipping technology for every business

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LeanSEM to accomplish?

• Improve Paid Marketing Performance

SOLUTION

How did you find LeanSEM?

Referral

Why did you select LeanSEM over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from LeanSEM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

LeanSEM was driving our Performance Marketing for over a year. They supported us with all major channels like Google Ads, Bing Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads and more (e.g. Capterra).

They helped drive the strategy, monitoring / reporting, creation of ad creatives and continous optimization.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They were successful in scaling channels and hitting goals. As a result they managed more and more of our performance marketing budget.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We worked very closely with them. A shared Slack together with a daily standup made alignment easy. Communication and deliverables were great.

What was your primary form of communication with LeanSEM?

Virtual Meeting

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

LeanSEM really cared about our business success. They did not try to appear "busy" or focused on improving some vanity metric - instead they were constantly thriving to impact our core business metrics and move the needle there.

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

It took us a while to find a good rhythm for Paid Social. Sometimes reporting could be even more action oriented - instead of just presenting data focus on what the data means and what next steps can be derived from it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Performance Marketing Manager of Sophia Learning

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Online education company 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LeanSEM to accomplish?

• Drive Subscriptions
• Drive Free Trials
• Drive Awareness

SOLUTION

How did you find LeanSEM?

Other

Why did you select LeanSEM over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from LeanSEM were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

LeanSEM is our media advertising agency that supported our online education business. They also provided creative strategy and asset creation as needed along with ongoing media reporting and optimizations. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

+20% YoY growth for our business 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, the team was always able to meet any deadlines and give us what we asked for in a timely manner. They also worked to adjust work styles when members on our team changed 

What was your primary form of communication with LeanSEM?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The LeanSEM Team was fantastic at building out our agency media plans from scratch. Before them, we had only been running some ads from our internal team. They were able to set us up in various systems, start running on multiple media channels and help us get us from the ground up. They have always extremely cared about our business. 

I don’t think you could find a more affordable agency for the work they provided. From trafficking in an extremely timely manner, getting things live, and providing that support  - You can think of LeanSEM as an extension of your group. They are lovely people and I have enjoyed working with them.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Consumer Marketing of an online learning company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're an online learning platform that delivers impactful and cutting edge tech education, enabling individuals and organizations to unlock their potential.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LeanSEM to accomplish?

• Scale our paid search and paid social programs within a healthy margin
• Develop a cohesive, full-funnel paid media strategy
• Leverage a/b testing, competitive analysis, and user research to drive insights for positioning, messaging, and creative direction.

SOLUTION

How did you find LeanSEM?

Referral

Why did you select LeanSEM over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from LeanSEM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

LeanSEM is responsible for owning and operating our entire paid media program, from building strategy and quarterly/annual forecasts and budgets to executing day-to-day campaign management, optimization, and testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• LeanSEM drove $$ in incremental bookings while reducing our marketing margin by %%.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project management is high quality, they feel like a member of our internal team. Very proactive and transparent, and also available to react with high urgency when needed.

What was your primary form of communication with LeanSEM?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

How well they embed with our team and function as a strategic partner, as opposed to an agency that blindly executes. They add a lot of value as a strategic thought partner, and we benefit from the seniority and experience of their team members.

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

Nothing that jumps immediately to mind. Because we've worked with them for a few years, one thing we talk a lot about is to continue to be creative and diversified in our approach and not get too stuck in our existing paradigm.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Monti Kids

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We manufacture and sell educational toys online

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LeanSEM to accomplish?
Drive ROI positive revenue through paid search & paid social

SOLUTION

How did you find LeanSEM?

Referral

Why did you select LeanSEM over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from LeanSEM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired LeanSEM to become an extension of our marketing team and to lead the strategy, implementation and optimization of all performance marketing efforts across paid search and paid social. Our primary goals for this partnership was to drive profitable revenue through paid channels and create a paid marketing strategy that could scale.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

LeanSEM did an exceptional job at creating new strategies for us that achieved our goals for profitable revenue growth. Within the first 3 months, they were able to deliver positive return on the spend and by the 6th month, they were exceeding our expectations.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The LeanSEM team are some of the best professionals we've worked with. They were effective communicators, proactive problem solvers, and approached the relationship as true partners. We appreciated their ability to see out in front for us and bring us new ideas and solutions to problems we'd not even internalized yet. They were also extremely good in urgent situations. In digital business, the internet "never sleeps" and whenever an issue surfaced, the team were extremely responsive and supportive.

What was your primary form of communication with LeanSEM?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

This team's ability to quickly discern problems and offer solutions, their ability to nimbly pivot, and their creative approach to the partnership made them an invaluable part of the team.

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

LeanSEM rose to every one of our challenges. I can't think of anything they could have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Marketing & Sales of Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Tomorrow University offers Bachelors, Masters and MBA degrees aligned with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) so people can become change-makers and have a positive impact on the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire LeanSEM to accomplish?

• Scale learner enrolment
• Higher # of SQL
• Lower CAC

SOLUTION

How did you find LeanSEM?

Referral

Why did you select LeanSEM over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from LeanSEM were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

LeanSem serves as an extension of our marketing team, being in charge for our performance campaigns for all of our degree programs. Lean develops and executes the demand generation strategies for our program portfolio in terms of SEA and Social, from market research, to campaign and creative development, to optimization, analysis, reporting and planning.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

better ROAS, higher # of SQL, higher # of enrolled Customers

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Lean is a true extension of Marketing Team and offers great support 24/7. Our partners, and especially our manager Andrej respond immediately and collaborate with us whenever we need it in a timely and prompt manner. I absolutely appreciate Andrejs strategic mindset, his data-driven, realistic & concise approach to performance marketing. I also love Sara, our creative leads, fresh ideas and awesome copy and creative proposals. 
Our Lean Team supports us not only with ongoing campaigns launched by them, but also with existing optimization efforts. They always have an open eye for any request for support, and come up with innovative solutions. They are very very out of the box, open and willing to try new stuff, whatever generates value for our brand. Lean is not like a normal performance marketing agency, and I collaborated with many before, Lean is personal, open eared, part of your team, deeply data driven, and has an honest intent of doing the best work for you, with you. 
Our Team, Andrej, Sara and Jovana, are really experienced, and bring assets we do not have internally. They are highly proactive, which is not that common across agencies, and bring new proposals across different channels.Andrej is extremely strategic, and has a broad experience with accounts such as ours, I feel we are in the best hands.

What was your primary form of communication with LeanSEM?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The fact that Lean does not feel like an agency, Lean feels part of the in-house team. And the fact that the team is very senior.

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

No, not atm.