Background:
This client came to us while already working with another agency who they felt were not testing enough nor did they believe they had a sound fundamental strategy.
This client was already spending between $250,000 – $300,000 / month on ads with a consistent 2.5 – 3.00 ROAS. They believed they could be doing much better and wanted a new strategy.
The Challenge:
Simply put, we were given the task to compete against an existing agency who had been working with this client for an unknown period of time. Suffice it to say, they had a strong head start in the relationship.
Almost immediately out of the gate, significant communication and expectation issues arose between our agency and the client.
As it would turn out, the results we were able to achieve meant little and took a backseat to personality conflicts with one of the team members resulting in various communication issues.
NOTE: This story doesn’t have the happiest of outcomes and demonstrates that you can be doing a lot of the right things and still be wrong (and get fired).
The Strategy:
Upon reviewing the existing ad account and strategy, we identified a few key areas that we believed (quite confidently) would immediately improve the results of the campaigns.
In our ad account, we implemented a tight and organized campaign structure utilizing both CBO and ABO. We got very specific with our targeting options and implemented a direct response approach (i.e., specific targeting groups either individually or by theme relevant to the product).
We removed the “expand targeting” option and isolated lookalike audiences to identify which ones were producing the greatest ROAS so we could separate out all combined lookalike audiences (which was the other approach the agency was using).
The best way to describe what we saw, with all due respect, was a poorly organized, executed, and managed account. There were sloppy mistakes being made that were costing the company sales and profit.
The Results:
Within the first 30 days, our simple campaign structure and strategy outperformed the existing agency. We generated $135,673.81 in sales from $40,176.08 in ad spend (ROAS of 3.38) compared to the existing agency generating $637,596.36 in sales from $218,824.33 (ROAS of 2.91).
Based on our performance, and the results, we were asked to scale and went on to generate $792,450.30 in sales from $174,586.75 in ad spend (ROAS of 4.54). The previous agency, during that same time, generated $1,152.337.91 in sales from $314,625.22 in ad spend (ROAS of 3.66).
In our 3rd, and final month, we again outperformed the existing agency with a ROAS of 2.79 compared to 2.61. We also outlined, built, and launched an interactive quiz for the client that immediately saw a 5.92 ROAS in the last week of our engagement.
Why were we fired? There were significant red flags between both parties in our ability to communicate and resolve conflict.
The Biggest Takeaway:
Since ending this relationship with the client, they have left us with access to both ad accounts (the existing agency and what we used). Looking back at the data, from previous months and even “today”) our organized and long-term campaign strategy (in an account NOT even actively being managed by anyone) is outperforming an agency that is constantly launching new campaigns and turning off campaigns that only work for 2-3 days.
You may notice we don’t talk about or name our clients publicly, ever. Many clients choose to work with us because everything we do is held in the strictest of confidence. If a client wants to give us a shout out, we’ll gladly take it. But we don’t list a roster of specific clients. It’s a holdover from Dr. Stern’s psychology days where all client information is 100% confidential.
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