Do you work at an agency? Then you’re likely all too familiar with the emails that give you stress-induced panic attacks, or the phone calls that make you want to weep on your favorite co-worker’s shoulder. Agency life is tough! Not only are you juggling multiple clients with varying business models and goals, but each of those individuals is looking at you as the “expert” (whether or not you’ve accepted that title as accurate). Quality customer support, fast service, and number-based results are expected, and delivering anything less than a client’s expectations will result in a battle that will leave you wanting to throw your stapler at the wall.
WordStream customer Touching Clients is all too familiar with the struggles of agency life. Touching Clients is a digital marketing agency that specializes in online marketing for small businesses. With a previous focus on outdated marketing tactics like direct mail, in 2007 they began to branch out with more modern forms of marketing such as SEO and social media marketing, and as recently as 2014 they added online paid advertising to the mix.
The founder of Touching Clients, Kevin Woodcock, found that working directly in Google AdWords was eating up all of their time. With a staff size of under 25 employees, Touching Clients needed a way to cut out wasted time and produce better results for their clients, which is why they turned to WordStream. “We needed a way to scale our efforts and WordStream allows us to do this,” says Kevin.
Touching Clients Founder Kevin Woodcock
Coming onboard with WordStream, Kevin’s been able to accomplish the following things:
#1: Drastically Reduce Time Managing PPC Accounts
Paid advertising shouldn’t be so hard, but it is… Learning PPC and navigating the terrains of AdWords and Bing for multiple clients can eat up huge blocks of time and money, which lots of agencies just don’t have. Kevin has found that WordStream’s tools drastically cut down on time spent optimizing client accounts by taking the manual work off the table to focus on the fixes that will take each client account to the next level.
“WordStream is all about saving time and getting cost-effective results,” says Kevin. “Through the robust set of internal tools they provide you with and the ‘keyed up’ optimization direction alerts, we are able to successfully manage multiple accounts for our clients.”
#2: Give Small Businesses an Affordable PPC Option
Touching Clients works almost exclusively with small businesses. Of course, many small companies are often reluctant to experiment with PPC since budgets are limited, and each marketing dollar spent is critical to growing the business.
“The majority of our clients probably would not utilize SEM due to costs,” says Kevin. This was before Kevin was able to leverage his agency and WordStream’s tools to provide ROI for his clients through paid search. “If we didn’t have WordStream Advisor, the cost of SEM would be prohibitive to the majority of small businesses we service. WordStream’s tools are so efficient, and allow us to provide SEM services for a very low monthly fee, giving our clients greater spend in their actual AdWords and Bing accounts.”
“We do believe you can achieve results using AdWords and Bing tools, however with WordStream we are able to cut that time down by 75%,” Kevin added. “We can then pass these savings onto smaller businesses that have traditionally not been able to have an agency provide custom SEM services.”
#3: Conduct Keyword Research Based on Competitive Data
One of Kevin’s favorite tools to get his clients rolling in is WordStream’s competitive research and keyword tools.
“When offering a client SEM services, we ask that our client provide three competitor websites,” says Kevin. “We then run WordStream’s Competitor Website Crawler, create lists, then use the suggestion tool to enhance the list. Then use the Related Keyword Tool last, after the client has reviewed the list we compiled.”
As the founder of his own agency, Kevin knows all too well how painful agency life can be at times, but WordStream’s provided him and his employees with tools to save time, reduce headaches, and actually deliver profitable results for his small biz clientele.
“From an agency perspective, WordStream helps us to round out the services we are providing to our clients,” says Kevin.
About the Author:
Margot is a Content Marketing Specialist at WordStream with a background in PPC, SEM, content and digital marketing. Margot is passionate about writing and is also a regular contributor to socialmediatoday.com. She enjoys running and eating ice cream during her free time (not simultaneous although that would be impressive). Follow her on:
Twitter: @ChappyMargot
Google+: +Margot da Cunha
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/margotdacunha
