Welcome!
Welcome to this ad agency interview! Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Justin OBrien – the owner of AdsManaged.Co, an extremely successful digital marketing an ad agency. I can say that our conversation was enlightening. Our hope is that you find this interview to be enlightening and inspiring as you seek to start and grow your very own online brand!
Interview with Justin OBrien
Thank you for joining us for this marketing agency profile! We’d like to start by getting an understanding of your backstory. How did you come to own your business?
In 2005, while taking a college marketing course, Justin O’Brien started helping local businesses with digital marketing, specializing in Facebook Ads and Google Ads. In 2010, Justin officially launched the digital marketing agency AdsManaged.co and has helped over 500 clients grow their businesses with online ads. AdsManaged.co has a 97% client retention rate and their clients see an average 800% ROI.
Justin O’Brien has 500+ digital marketing agency clients, taught 500,000+ students via online courses, operated eCommerce stores with 1,000+ product SKUs, and scaled/exited three startups as the founder.
Terrific! Now, our audience consists of aspiring e-commerce businesses. So – can you share your top 3 keys to running a successful online brand?
- Prioritize user experience: In the world of eCommerce, user experience is everything. Make sure your website is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and optimized for mobile devices (submit your domain to “Google Search Console” to ensure your website is optimized to Google’s standards). Also, make the checkout process as simple and smooth as possible to reduce cart abandonment rates. Continuously seek feedback from your customers to identify areas for improvement. A great option we use for testing UI are heatmap plugins, such as Hotjar. By gathering and presenting heatmap data, you can gain insights into how users interact with your site, including which elements they click on, what causes frustration, and where they tend to lose interest on the page.
- Focus on marketing: Marketing is critical to the success of any eCommerce business. Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes social media, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and content marketing. Make sure to track the success of your campaigns and adjust your strategy accordingly using analytics software like Boardroom and Google Analytics. Our team at AdsManaged.co starts by targeting high-intention search keywords via Google Ads, then we retarget these warm audiences via Facebook/Instagram ads (people are busy, so ad touchpoints where they consume content is crucial), and finally, we implement SEO to get websites organically ranked #1 for various Google search results.
- Build brand loyalty: In today’s crowded eCommerce marketplace, it’s essential to build a strong brand and loyal customer base. Offer exceptional customer service, provide personalized emails/ads/recommendations, and create a community around your brand. Consistency is key, so make sure your brand messaging is clear, and your products meet your customers’ expectations. Focus on building your brand first by providing over the top value and customer service to your customers.
Excellent. Now, as you know it isn’t always that easy. Can you tell a story about one challenge, setback, or mistake that you’ve had to overcome? How can others learn from your mistakes?
Fire customers if needed. I spent way too many years trying to please everyone, and some people/customers/etc. will always be miserable. Now I follow the Pareto’s Principle – (80/20)… 20% percent of customers bring in 80% of revenue. Analyze/survey your company’s current customers and look for who stays a customer the longest and pays the most. Create an avatar (demographics, etc.) around that customer type and fire (or don’t pursue) anyone outside of that customer type.
Thanks for that. Now – we want to know what’s next! What new initiatives are you rolling out at your business and what results are you hoping to see?
AdsManaged.co is scaling our eCommerce Google Ads Agency and eCommerce Facebook Ads Agency team. We have built out SOPs and certification plans which enables us to hire/train the best team of remote digital marketers from around the world. We are a certified partner for Google (Google Ads + YouTube Ads), Meta (Facebook Ads + Instagram Ads), HubSpot, and have certifications in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), AWS, and many more!
Our most recent Shopify eCommerce brand we scaled from $20,000 per month in sales to over $130,000 per month in sales using Google Ads and Facebook Ads (we averaged a 5.4x return on ad spend)! The key to success for eCommerce ads is targeting and touchpoints. You need your ads to reach the correct audience, then you need to retarget that warm audience (Pixel traffic) and build trust via testimonials and/or user-generated content (e.g. customer video reviews). On average, it takes 7-8 touchpoints (i.e. brand encounters via online ads, social media, Google search, etc.) to get a customer to make a purchase!If you are an eCommerce store owner, we’d love draft a FREE marketing strategy plan for your business: https://adsmanaged.co
