The 50 Fastest Growing Digital Ad Agencies in London

How did you communicate your new offering to the market?

To be honest, at first, we didn’t.

“We ‘bootstrapped’ the agency into existence with credit card debt, basing ourselves initially in my parents’ attic, then my living room, then an office in Kilburn that more closely resembled a dungeon! We didn’t move into our first ‘proper’ office until eighteen months ago.” – Daniel Gilbert, Founder, Brainlabs

So how did this agency, which, until twenty months ago, was just eight people, take the industry by storm with two awards for building the first ever real-time bidding platform for Search (The Digitals 2014 and The European Search Awards 2015 respectively) and The Best Small PPC agency in Europe (The European Search Awards 2015)?!

This is the seed question for this blog.

Over a relatively short period, Google has introduced a number of new features that have changed the industry completely. With every addition of every new feature, we’re talking about access to new data points, adding to the complexity.

• How are various digital ad agencies coping up with these changes?
• What processes and values are keeping them stable?
• How do they ensure that their employees keep up with the pace?
• What are successful agencies doing, that others are failing to implement?

These are some of the questions that I set out to answer. Not for my blog, not for my firm, but for me. As a marketer, I need some direction on where the industry is going. And what better place to start than London!

London, the mother of ad agencies in Europe, is every marketer’s dream. Full of inspiration and talent for design, advertising, and branding, the best and brightest gravitate to the many digital agencies that are widespread throughout the city. The creative and vibrant environment of this city and the various opportunities that it offers, shape some of the brightest minds in the industry.

This post features a detailed analysis and commentary on the core USPs and success strategies of the fastest growing digital ad agencies in London. Apart from the marketing lessons, information on the various services offered has also been included to help client-side professionals choose the right partner to help achieve their business goals.

To keep my research as objective as possible, I used the following factors to rank the digital ad agencies.

20 Factors : (I added a weightage to each of these factors)

1. Google Partners

2. Minimum Monthly budget

3. No. of Certifications/ Qualified users

4. No. of Services offered

5. Diversity of Industries that the agency caters to

6. Global Reach

7. Client Reviews & Case Studies

8. Press Reviews

9. Social Media Activity

10. User Engagement on Social media

11. Work Culture

12. Awards and Mentions (Employees + Agency)

13. Creative works

14. Thought Leadership (Employees + Agency)

15. Data Driven Marketing

16. Tools & Certifications

17. Reviews from intermediaries (RAR, The Drum List  etc.)

18. Check the Agency on Industry / Trade Association

19. Do they provide their clients with Audit Reports?

20. Support Offered

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But before my long list, I must mention the 5 agencies which are beyond any rankings due to their work culture, awards, leadership, innovation and hundred other factors. These digital ad agencies have earned success and respect with their extraordinary work for years. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a loooooong ride…. 🙂

I. Honorary List of Digital Ad Agencies in London

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Distilled

Smarter online marketing.

“We believe tomorrow’s biggest brands will be built online. To play a leading role in this, we need to push ourselves and our clients to be exceptional.” -Will Critchlow, Founder & CEO, Distilled

Childhood friends, Will Critchlow and Duncan Morris, founded Distilled in 2005. The mission of this agency is to help businesses of all shapes and sizes to thrive in the online world. Their skills span a wide range of creative and technical areas, allowing them to cover every corner of a digital marketing campaign.

This team of tech-savvy online marketers includes strategists, stats geeks, developers and designers who specialise in SEO, search engine optimisation, Pay per click, ppc, online reputation, CRO, Conversion Rate Optimisation, Linkbuilding, Keyword and Market Research, Web Analytics, Digital PR strategy and execution, Content strategies and execution.

Lessons to Learn:

• Culture of sharing and improving knowledge
• Constantly look for ways to build a team that is happy

Distilled has a long list of clients including Rasmussen College, ebay, Zoopla, Grovo, CEWE Photoworld, SimplyBusiness, and many others.

This online marketing agency loves sharing knowledge.

iProspect

Delivers personal, adaptive and valuable digital experiences.

“The dedication and passion for digital at iProspect is unlike any other place: there is nowhere more exciting than where technology, data, creativity and innovation intersect.” -Matt Adams, Managing Director, iProspect

iProspect was founded in 1996. The agency is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu Inc. Today iProspect has become the first truly global digital performance marketing agency with offices across 50 countries. The wide range of services provided by the agency include: Paid Search, Natural Search, Performance Display, Content Generation, Data & Insights, Conversion Optimization, Lead Generation, Affiliate Marketing, Web Analytics, Social Media Management and much more.

The agency consists of team players who are digital obsessed and result-oriented people. Apart from training and career development, the social calendar is added which includes various activities and events like team-building days, after-work drinks, helping local communities, etc.

Lessons to Learn:

• In-depth understanding of consumer behaviour
• Believe in building loyalty upon every touch-point
• Team of specialists
• Agile, pioneering and ambitious
• Quality comes first
• Share ideas and knowledge with the best in the business

iProspect has many clients like adidas, Burberry, GM, Hilton, ASDA, Kellogg’s, British Gas, sky, British Airways, Microsoft and many more.

The agency puts customers at the centre while creating effective strategies that connect with people across every channel and grow businesses in ways they can measure.

Manning Gottlieb OMD

Dedicated to clients’ growth.

“The basic premise behind every strategy should start with a great creative idea.” -Tim Pearson, CEO, Manning Gottlieb OMD

Manning Gottlieb OMD is a part of Omnicom Media Group which is owned by the Omnicom Group. It offers a range of services including media planning, account planning, media buying, strategy, digital, SEO, PPC, mobile, social media, direct response, research, affiliates, econometrics, data analytics, content, regional media, and much more.

The agency plans lots of outings, fun activities and training for the teams for continuous growth.

Lessons to Learn:

• Creative use of media is essential to help clients
• Commitment to deliver strong results
• Utilise latest technology and uncover the ever evolving consumer behaviour to get innovative solutions

OMD has a long list of clients like Virgin Holidays, John Lewis, PS4, Sony Pictures, Seymour Brew, Age UK, Nissan Juke and many others.

The agency has a record of winning the Global Media Agency of the Year award 10 times in a row. It has won many other awards too.

Don’t just live. Thrive.

“Our business continues to get more and more complex and that’s both exciting and challenging. The scope of delivering excellence to our clients, diversifying our business and winning new business makes it more demanding every day and we need an agile management structure to reflect this new reality.” -Tom George, Chairman MEC UK

In 2002, MEC was launched as the first Global Communications Planning and Implementation agency. The agency offers an integrated range of services which include Media planning and buying, Digital media, Mobile, Search, Performance marketing, Social media, Analytics and Insight, Sport, Entertainment & Cause, Multi-cultural, Content, Retail, Integrated Planning.

This agency has the ambition to be its clients’ most valued partner, famous for inspiring people and exceptional results. Therefore, it has a team of genuinely inquisitive well motivated people who are dedicated to finding inspiring solutions to deliver exceptional results.

Lessons to Learn:

• Passionate about investing in its people
• Use combinations of analytical products
• A thriving culture

MEC has clients like Maggi, Marriott, Renault, Dynamo, and many more.

This multiple award winning agency has a ground-breaking new approach to understanding and quantifying how consumers make purchase decisions in today’s world

MediaCom

The Content+Connections agency.

“The media landscape has changed so radically that the word ‘media’ no longer adequately describes it. Increasingly consumers search for and consume content, with no regard for who might have created it or distributed it. So, forward-thinking advertisers are realising that they need a media agency that is as adept at creating, delivering and managing content as it is at planning and buying media.” -Stephen Allan, Chairman and CEO, MediaCom

MediaCom is one of the world’s leading media agencies was established in 1986. This agency plans and buys media for the clients around the world and offers specialist services in digital, ROI and direct response, consumer insights and research, business science, sponsorship, sports marketing.

The agency has a simple philosophy: inspired people will create better work for the clients. Hence, their ambition is to make MediaCom the best place to work for knowledgeable, curious, caring and passionate people. They strive to nurture a culture that will fire enthusiasm and inspire creativity.

Lessons to Learn:

• Cultural ethos is “People First”
• Transform communications through systems thinking
• Use specialist tools and skills to get the maximum effectiveness

MediaCom has clients like P&G, Skittles, Bank of New Zealand, Universal Music Group, Bose, Volkswagen and many others.

This multiple awards winning agency believes that everything is connected and therefore it has to think and operate in an entirely new way.

And I found many inspiring digital ad agencies in London that were different and definitely irreplaceable. It was a herculean task to narrow down the list to top 50…but here you go!

Get the infographic on the 50 Top Ad Agencies in London here.

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II. The List of Fastest Growing Digital Ad Agencies in London

1. Brainlabs

Agency that becomes an extension of businesses it works with.

“So the whole field has shifted from an entirely marketing-driven strategic exercise to something that requires a better understanding of data and automation.” -Daniel Gilbert, Founder Brainlabs

Daniel Gilbert was working at Google when he noticed that clients and agencies had huge amounts of customer data which was unused. He identified the enormous gap between the engineering/programming departments and marketing departments present in most companies. That’s where he saw the opportunity to help businesses utilize the data more effectively by bringing together the programmers and the marketers.

He says:

“In 2012 I founded Brainlabs with two broad missions:

(i) To change the future of digital advertising

(ii) To create the best company to work for in the whole wide world”

Daniel has definitely been successful in both his missions. His company’s unique approach is totally focussed on the use of data and statistics to scientifically optimize web businesses. While the work culture is super cool and friendly filled with loads of extracurricular activities like free yoga, lunches, etc.

Lessons to Learn:  

• They use a unique blend of mathematics, technology and analytics.

• Their methodology basically relies on testing, analysing and optimising.

• Though initially, they were sticking to paid search only, they expanded to paid social and programmatic once they realised that the same principles were applicable to them. Today paid social and programmatic account for more than 40% of their business.

• They follow an “Immersion Programme” at their clients’ offices to learn everything about the business, after which they come up with a structured plan for success.

This team of marketers, scientists and mathematicians has catered to brands like Deliveroo, Which?, Domino’s, JD, UNICEF, FILA, BBC and many others.

The company considers getting Which? as the biggest turning point. The main objective for Which? when appointing Brainlabs was to increase conversions (subscribers) and at the same time maintain a low CPA.

Brainlab’s strategy included:

• Weather bidding which resulted  in a 4% increase in conversions

• Time of day/day of week bidding which resulted in a 9% increase in conversions

• Socio-economic targeting leading to a 21% increase in pay up rate

• Mobile bids which  resulted in a 12% increase in conversions

Overall Results:

• Conversions increased by 32%

• CPAs lowered by 21%

• Pay up rate increased by 21%

This agency has won the Best Large PPC Agency in Europe, European Search Awards, 2016.

Brainlabs, the scientific performance marketing agency, is all set to go global with its expertise in data and technology.

2. Merkle / Periscopix

Digital conversion specialists.

“We value passion and enthusiasm more than technical knowledge or skills – it is having the desire and ability to learn that is most important.” -Simon Norris, Co-Founder, Periscopix

Periscopix was founded by Simon Norris and Marc Warren in 2004 to run online advertising campaigns. The agency specialises in PPC, Google Analytics and Display Advertising. In 2015, it was acquired by Merkle Inc. as they had shared vision for the future. Hence, now it is Merkle I Periscopix.

Since the beginning, the company has been driven by the passion of its staff who proudly call themselves as geeks. This happy team of mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists and marketers utilize logic, technology and mathematics to maximise client success.

Lessons To Learn:

• Specialise in optimising biddable media

• Honest assessment of objectives before taking up new projects

• Develop powerful software

• Create data-driven campaigns for both big and small budgets

• Intelligent analysis to find ways to improve performance

This agency has clients like 3M, APL, CMC, Nintendo, JP Morgan and many others.

Cath Kidston approached Periscopix with the objective to:

• Increase overall revenue

• Attain ROI of £10.60 : £1 over the Christmas season

The strategy employed by Periscopix included the following:

• Removed all broad match keywords

• Added Product and Brand ad groups to the account

• Individual ad groups were set up for each of the products sold via the online Cath Kidston store. Therefore, all the queries were directed to the most relevant landing page.

The Result:

Within 2 months,

• CTR increased by 200%

• Average CPC lowered by 40%

YoY results with 8% increase in budget,

• 46% increase in revenue

• 100% increase in CTR

• 36% decrease in CPC

• 32% increase in ROI (attained ROI of £18.70 : £1, 76% above target)

Brogan Savage, Online Marketing Manager at Cath Kidston, says “Thanks to the expert team at Periscopix, I can focus on exciting new projects in paid search such as international expansion and RLSAs. They constantly review and improve our campaigns and I completely trust them with running our account efficiently and cleverly.”

A long list of awards has been won by Periscopix. This agency is definitely distinguished by its passion and innovation.

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3. Found.

Driven by challenge and opportunity.

“Performance marketing can be tough – always holding yourself to account, seeking out new ways to keep clients ahead of the competition. But I love the challenge.” -Tina Judic, MD Found.

Found is a part of the Big Ideas Group. Initially, the company was named as Artemis Eight and focused on long tail management of PPC campaigns. In 2010, when it was rebranded as Found, the agency offered solutions for all SEM channels like PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Affiliates, Online, Paid Search, Search Engine Optimisation, Mobile Search, Digital, Natural Search, Creative, Advertising, Design, Display, Marketing.

This agency has been known for its ROI-focused campaigns as the emphasis is on clients’ needs, demands and budgets. Hence, with continuous innovation, Found offers the most cost effective and scalable SEM solution in the market.  

Transparency and constant sharing between teams have helped Found to grow stronger.

Lessons to Learn:

• Adapt to requirements speedily

• Innovative research, optimisation and reporting

• Various tools developed by Found. to bridge the gaps

Found. has had a long list of top companies like Shedstore, Canterbury, Squaremeal, Vitec Group, Red Letter Days, and many others as its clients.

Canterbury of New Zealand is one of the many success stories that Found has. Canterbury approached Found to

• Improve PPC campaign performance

• Lower cost per sale

• Expand focus on generic traffic and actual sales

• Deliver slick and effective site migration.

Found mapped the international rugby calendar to run a perfectly conceived and timed search campaigns to help Canterbury capitalise on all major rugby events.

The results were amazing:

• CTR increased from 1.27% to 8.28%

• 50% spend reduction and 44% increase in sales

• 437% increase in mobile visits

• 404% increase in tablet visits

• 50% increase in revenue

• Search marketing ROI up from 862% to 2,481%

• CPA of just £2.39 achieved

• Reduction of £3.74 on every sale

Fiona Fergusan from Caterbury of New Zealand rightly says that “Found’s impact has been staggering. Their ability to plan effective, time-sensitive search marketing strategies has transformed our ROI.”

Found won the Best B2C Campaign for its work with Red Letter Day in 2015.

4. Stickyeyes

Independent innovators with ruthless efficiency.

“It’s the satisfaction people get from doing great work that ultimately drives our success.” -Craig Chalmers, CEO & Founder, Stickyeyes

Stickyeyes is an independent agency which was founded by Craig Chalmers in 1998. Craig Chalmers worked in traditional marketing and advertising for 10 years. The ability to measure its performance attracted Craig to internet marketing. He says that his business is like a traditional marketing agency, and hence, relies on the capability of his team.

This agency has a comprehensive team having experts in every marketing discipline. This multilingual team uses multi-channel integration to deliver successful results. The agency which started as a specialist in PPC and SEO has gradually  included services like content marketing, social media, online PR, blogger engagement, insight and digital consultancy.

Lessons to Learn:

• They deliver digital acquisition and brand engagement campaigns.

• They combine industry-leading insight, innovative technology and world class creative ideas.

• They have international expertise and implement campaigns for huge brands.

• Their intelligence reports keep the clients updated with market trends and also provide custom insights for the client business.

The clients for Stickyeyes are brands like GlaxoSmithKline, Now Pensions, Staples Europe, OnStride among many others.

Now Pensions approached Stickyeyes with the following objectives:

• Build a new website with improved communication about their products

• Generate more online leads

• Improve public awareness of the UK government’s new legislation on pension auto-enrolment through on-site content

Stickyeyes used WordPress to build a responsive lead generation site offering an easy-to-use interface for creating pages of permanent content, news posts and contact forms. The flexibility of WordPress helped Stickyeyes to develop New Pension’s online presence. Paid search and SEO services were also provided to drive traffic to the newly built site as part of an integrated campaign.

The Results:

• Average site bounce rate reduced from 58% to 44%

• Average pages viewed per site visit increased from 2.94 to 3.6

• Average mobile bounce rate reduced from 71% to 47%

• Average traffic increased from 5,200 to 12,456 per month

• Average returning visitors increased from 745 to 2467 per month

• New conversion rate of 1.7% (conversion rate data not available for the previous site)

Having successfully achieved the objectives for various clients, Stickyeyes has been favorite of all and has won very many awards.

5. Edit| KIN+CARTA

Driven by insights & focused on results.

“We are home to a team of Editors – people with a passion for delivering amazing marketing for brilliant brands. And to keep our Editors happy, we have an environment that’s fun, supportive and nurtures curiosity.” –Team Edit.

Edit offers CRM and media, underpinned by brilliant technology and data science. They transform businesses and their decision-making processes by making them understand the pattern and characteristics hidden within their data. They help brands deliver personalised marketing experiences across all the interactions they have with their audiences.The team work with real data to get us all to transformative insights based on robust thinking that gets to the heart of what their clients want to achieve – be that hard sales numbers, award winning campaigns and/or achieving the dream customer experience.

Why Edit? What makes them different?

Services, clients, heritage, agency legacy, awards and Searchleeds.

They’re big fans of flexible working as they know how important a good work/life balance is. Edit produce much better work if they’ve had time to exercise, relax, socialise or do whatever recharges their batteries.

On top of this Edit benefits package isn’t to be sniffed at either with a pension, healthcare, discounted gym membership, wellness reward programs, life assurance and much more.

Why Edit? What makes them different?

Services, clients, heritage, agency legacy, awards and Searchleeds.

They’re big fans of flexible working as they know how important a good work/life balance is. Edit produce much better work if they’ve had time to exercise, relax, socialise or do whatever recharges their batteries.

On top of this Edit benefits package isn’t to be sniffed at either with a pension, healthcare, discounted gym membership, wellness reward programs, life assurance and much more.

Lessons to Learn:

• Ensuring transparency for our clients and staff

• Ensuring collaboration in everything we do

• Ensuring we are always looking for new and innovative ways to delight our clients.

Tesco Bank’s Data and Insight Team support the company’s marketing activity but were hampered by a data latency of up to 10 days, meaning they could not react quickly, produce actionable insight or trigger daily campaigns.

Using their inhouse customer data platform Edit built a robust, low-latency single view of customer activity. They also harnessed the power of IBM marketing automation platform to automate “next best action” decisioning to increase the relevancy and frequency of customer communications without worrying about contact fatigue and conflicting marketing messages.

Result:  Data latency was reduced from 10 days to 1 day, enabling Tesco Bank to dramatically improve the volume, increase the timelines of its campaigns.

6. Verve Search

Industry-leading knowledge and insight.

“I believe that to be a good digital marketer, especially in SEO, you need to have the right mindset: passionate, inquisitive and driven.” -Lisa Myers, Founder & CEO, Verve Search

Lisa Myers worked in marketing since 2001 and started working on SEO from 2005. Finally, she founded her own agency called Verve Search in 2009. The agency provides services like SEO, Content Marketing, Consulting and Training.

Verve Search has a team of creative, passionate and knowledgeable individuals from 13 different countries, speaking 14 languages. This diversity is what drives award-winning campaigns, and enables them to grow and support businesses on an international scale. The agency believes it is essential to keep the team happy to keep them focused and utilise its full potential. They also invest in continuous training and development for all of the staff.

Lessons to Learn:

• Transparency and honesty

• Passion and enthusiasm

• Proactive

• Accountability

• Multilingual team

The clients include Expedia, HotelClub, miinto, flipsnack and others.

Hotel Club approached Verve Search for its initiative ‘Idiom of the World’ with the objectives to:

• achieve top-tier, authoritative, editorially valid links

• generate traffic

• increase brand recognition

They identified the core audience of country-hoppers who love to experience different cultures and share what they found all across the web. It was decided that only top-tier sites would be targeted. Then a  list of some of the most interesting idioms from around the world was created, the designers teamed up with V&A featured artists Marcus Oakley to begin defining the final look of the piece. After taking the first few idioms to key journalists for their input and several rounds of development, 10 idioms were finalized.

The Result:

• 2.4 million views

• Coverage on 350 sites

• Major offline coverage

• Over 185k social signals generated

• 22% increase in brand searches

• 12% increase in worldwide rankings

Belen Bueno, SEO Specialist at HotelClub.com says, “Verve Search has exceeded our expectations. It is a pleasure working with such a reliable and proactive team that truly cares about our business results. They know what today’s real SEO is and they are a great partner to have. Bringing Verve Search on board was a great decision for HotelClub.”

This award winning agency is committed to growing the client’s ROI.

7. Greenlight

Digital growth for clients through excellence and innovation.

“Delivering growth and maximum ROI has been our focus from day one and our approach has won us admirers along the way.” -Warren Cowan, CEO, Greenlight

After working in few search companies, Warren Cowan realized that search was going to be the dominant medium in online marketing. In 2001, he decided to start his own agency and in 2003, Greenlight was born. The company has 3 broad areas of operation: Digital Marketing, Measurement and Design & Build.

This digital growth agency helps clients realize their digital fortunes by supporting them to grow internationally as well as across multiple markets. Its brand values are Push the boundaries, Lead & Protect, and Make the difference. The company believes that its success comes from the commitment and passion of its employees.

Lessons to Learn:

• Their approach to any new campaign starts with predictive modelling, to ensure it is optimized to deliver the best results.

• Their goal is to structure the data, to challenge the assumption, and to bring the type of clarity that will make channels, activities, websites and teams, better drivers of growth.

• They use measurement analytics to determine their success in order to implement the findings to future campaigns.

• They understand the brand and customers before designing the approach for the business targets.

• They combine their creativity, technical excellence, and multi-channel thinking to deliver an array of digital marketing services that help the clients to find and connect with their targets.

• They have developed their own technology and in-house processes to produce maximum ROI and growth.

• They build e-commerce websites and bring together their e-commerce and marketing teams.

The list of clients for Greenlight includes cocosa, Pret, maplin electronics, glh., Legal & General and many other companies listed in FTSE, NASDAQ and NYSE as well as charitable organizations and government bodies.

Maplin Electronics approached Greenlight with the following objectives:

• Double the range of products sold online from 15,000 to 30,000 SKUs (stock keeping unit)

• Provide flexible omnichannel touch-points including desktop website, mobile website, mobile apps, call centre

• Deliver a new eCommerce platform enabling stability for future growth in international markets

• Provide Maplin Electronic’s customers with a flexible set of store fulfillment options when checking out, including Reserve & Collect and Pay & Collect, as well as providing same-day delivery slots

• Integration to over 20 different merchandising and back-office systems to improve sales and site operations respectively

• Deliver to market within 6 months prior to peak Christmas trading

Greenlight conducted an in-depth consulting and platform evaluation programme, including reviewing the existing technical landscape of Maplin Electronics. Workshops were conducted with the client, in order to ensure that the agency understood the business and could deliver a solution that met the best return on investment.

Greenlight delivered a new solution on the hybris platform that included all relevant commerce features, channel touch-points and back-end integrations. A brand new front-end design was also created for both desktop and mobile-specific channels. The site launched within 8 months, with integration to over 30 systems and 100+ APIs.

The Results:

• 50% uplift in conversion

• 45% increase in traffic

• 33% increase in revenue

This multiple award winning agency successfully met all the objectives of the client.

8. Reprise Media

Delivering business defining results.

“It’s crucial for brands to now be thinking about different points where a consumer can discover them.” Craig Lister, Head of Reprise Media

Reprise is part of the global holding company IPG Mediabrands, a proven entity in helping clients maximize business results through integrated, intelligence-driven marketing strategies. Founded in 2003, Reprise Media operates on a global scale with offices in 39 countries. The services include PPC, SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Analytics & CRO, etc.

The agency presents a cooperative and innovative work environment. The passion of the employees leads them to consistently outdo themselves. Reprise media believes that a team-focused culture is the key to developing and fostering strong relationships both with among employees and the clients. They benefit by sharing collaboratively with their overseas colleagues.

Lessons to Learn:

• Gather insights from data

• Integrated search marketing services

• Deliver engaging content at every stage of the consumer journey

Our hunger for success and our vision toward the future is what attracts top talent from around the world and keeps us a step ahead of our competitors.

Reprise Media develops strategic, integrated search engine and social media marketing campaigns that help the world’s largest brands generate revenue and drive traffic to their websites.

9. Forward3D

Striving to continually improve performance.

“We’re more analytical and numbers-driven rather than big-ideas driven.” -Martin Mcnulty, CEO, Forward3d.

In 2004, Neil Hutchinson founded a digital marketing agency called TrafficBroker which specialized in sending traffic to clients via Google AdWords. In 2009, a holding company was created with the Forward Internet Group as parent and TrafficBroker became Forward3d. Today, Forward3d has expanded to Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and New York. The agency provides a wide range of services like Paid Search, SEO, Display, Analytics, Affiliate, Social and more.

The agency gives lots of importance to the development of the staff as that will ultimately lead to great results and service for the clients. To encourage this culture, all the employees embrace 3 internal values which are always learning and teaching, using technology for innovation and taking initiative. This is done as individual as well as a team.

Lessons to Learn:

• Have adopted the agile working methodology

• Dedicated linguistics service

• Hive database system

• Implementation approach to technology

• Data-led decisions

Forward3d has many global clients like Hertz, Hilton, Liberty, New Look, Gucci, Etsy, John Lewis, and others.

New Look approached Foward3d to set up Product Listing Ads in order to increase reach and improve engagement beyond standard text ads.

The agency used the AdWords labels feature  within Google Merchant Centre in order to categorise the entire catalogue by price brackets. As different products within a category will carry significantly different price points, therefore, uniform bid for the products became illogical. Hence, they ignored the product category and focused on the product’s value.

Through retail price targeting, they were able to balance CPAs and ROI more effectively by proving that AOV was directly related to the price points. Then they adjusted the bids based on expected return. This targeting method allowed for increased exposure on the best performers in order to drive the maximum amount of revenue from these PLAs, whilst keeping expenditure as low as possible.

The Result:

• A 24% increase in week-on-week revenue immediately after launch

• Month-on-month, overall paid traffic levels grew by 47%

• PPC Revenue grew by 68% and ROI improved by 40%

• The conversion rate of Google Shopping traffic grew by 36% year on year

Magdalena Sikora, Multi-Channel Marketing Manager at New Look, says that “The transition was very simple, and setting up and developing the PLAs was a straightforward process.  Most importantly, after a few months of running PLAs, we increased our online search visibility (thanks to the PLA’s more prominent position) while carefully controlling our ad spend.”

Forward3d, with performance as its core, has a global reputation for success across all digital channels.

10. 7thingsmedia

Do things differently.

“Talent is very hard to find and maintain and we firmly believe in the principle of creating an environment for our employees to work to create their own purpose, mastery and autonomy” -Chris Bishop, Founder & CEO

After a decade of his career in online media, Chris Bishop founded 7thingsmedia in 2009 with the goal to rise from a small start-up into a leading global digital media agency. The agency offers strategic digital consultancy, media planning and buying – across affiliate, display, lead generation, mobile, PPC, SEO & social media.

7thingsmedia strongly believes that  there is always an opportunity to make a positive difference. Today, this global digital agency has a proven track record of delivering hugely impressive returns for clients.

Lessons to Learn:

• Provide clients with tailor made campaigns in line with their business objectives

• Their best-in-class technology supports the teams with all-encompassing and instant data at their fingertips

• Immerse themselves in the client’s business and work as an extension of their team

• Have an entrepreneurial approach to media and strategy

The list of clients includes Mars, Loreal, Konga, Liberty London, katespade, Graziashop, ultimo and may more.

Liberty London approached 7thingsmedia to create an affiliate programme to acquire new consumers.

7thingsmedia devised a data-led strategy which identified significant untapped opportunities within key consumer segments. Moulding the affiliate model around Liberty and their needs, 7thingsmedia devised and executed a unique affiliate programme made up of granular, micro-campaigns designed to target niche consumer groups including fashion, parenting, and overseas markets as well as amplifying revenues from gifting during the Christmas season and capitalizing on the opportunity at the Olympics pop-up store.

The Result:

• 174% increase in revenue from affiliates YoY

• ROI increased by 57%

• Fashion content sites drove revenue increases of 216% YoY

• The contribution from overseas affiliates rose by 360% YoY

• Engaging the parenting segment led to a 568% rise in revenue from parenting affiliates on the programme.

• During the key Christmas trading period, revenue increased 157% YoY

Milly Glaister, Online Marketing Manager, Liberty London, said “In the past, we have never worked with an agency who have the ability to deliver such remarkable returns on an affiliate campaign, but also have the confidence to take the lead in identifying new market segments and also executing plans to target them. We have been overwhelmingly impressed with the innovative methods that the agency employs to target particular consumer groups but also the passion and enthusiasm that they employ throughout the campaigns they run for us.”

This multiple award winning agency creates digital strategies that not only drive growth but also enhance the brands.

11. Croud

Digital performance re-invented.

“Finding the right people in this market is key to expansion.” -Luke Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Croud

Having worked in the industry, Luke Smith and Ben Knight realised that there was a gap within the industry to deliver a more innovative and creative service to clients that could rival other agencies. In 2011, they founded Croud with the mission to build the world’s greatest performance digital agency which focuses on the 4 key pillars:

1) Great people
2) Supported by network of digital marketing pro’s
3) Everyone should own a share
4) Technology should enhance everything

Croud uses the best marketing talent in the world to provide services like PPC, SEO, Display, Content, Social Ads and Analytics

Lessons to Learn:

• Have the worldwide network of digital specialists

• Recruit and retain finest in-house talent

• Performance-driven agency

• Use technology to provide quality and affordable search marketing expertise

The agency has clients like Interflora, Netflix, Hiscox, the guardian, fitflop and many others.

This multiple award winner and Google certified global agency has the expertise to help the clients grow their businesses.

12. Click Consult

Delivering online success.

“What hasn’t changed, however, has been our focus on being transparent and ethical whilst delivering tangible results and ROI for our clients.” -Matt Bullas, Founder & CEO, Click Consult

Matt Bullas felt restricted in the commercial buying roles that he pursued for several years for a UK supermarket. He wanted to achieve something greater and decided to start his own company in 2003. Initially, his company sold international phone cards using AdWords Pay Per Click marketing model to drive customer acquisition and revenue growth. Soon, he discovered the niche offering online marketing services to other businesses and Click Consult was born in 2003. Today, the company specializes in advanced Web Development, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click Marketing, Social Media & Conversion Optimisation, etc.

Click Consult makes sure that the knowledge of the staff is updated and a transparent and ethical approach is followed. They expanded and developed their services by bringing in new talent and expertise accordingly.

Lessons to Learn:

• Ethical and transparent approach

• Utilise best practices methodologies and industry-leading tools

• Tailor-made services for the clients according to their unique objectives

• Invest in research

The company has clients including Chill Insurance, etyres, Oxfam, Truprint, Llyods pharmacy, Toyota, Penna, South West Trains and many others.

Julian Charles approached Click Consult to:

• Increase traffic to the new site

• Increase conversions and

• Bring down cost per click

Click Consult used their organic search (SEO) activity, put together a PPC and Google Shopping strategy to achieve the objectives.

The Results:

• 336.58% increase in clicks on Google Shopping

• 133% increase in the number of overall PPC clicks

• 50.65% increase in transactions

• 38.15% increase in revenue

• 13.55% improvement in CPC

“The team at Click put together a campaign that underpinned our objectives and have achieved fantastic results within a very short space of time. We look forward to our relationship going from strength to strength.” -Julian Charles

Click Consult has won many awards and believes that sticking to core principles has brought success and a loyal customer base.

13. The Media Image

Enabler for better digital performance.

“The Media Image has always prided itself on client service and going the extra mile for our customers.” -Grant Macfarlane, Founder, The Media Image

In 2008, Grant Macfarlane, one of the pioneers of European search engine marketing, founded The Media Image in Durban, South Africa, focusing exclusively on Paid Search. Within 2 years, Grant headed back to London to open the company’s UK office. While, Peter Brooke-Sumner headed the South African operations.

Over the years, The Media Image expanded its services from PPC to SEO, Display, Content and Social Media. Their specialist knowledge across disciplines allows them to integrate campaigns and ensure tailor-made services which deliver successful results. The agency strives to be honest and transparent in all its dealing and recognises its business relationships as the basis of its success.

Lessons to Learn:

• They combine expert knowledge with a commitment to data-driven optimisation and the latest technology to deliver results.

• They value client relationships.

• Client retention rate over 92% in the industry.

• Though their focus is always on core KPI’s, they do routine reviews of deliverables like turn around times, accuracy and professionalism.

Their client list includes bgo, Azimo, Gracewell Healthcare, Ned Bank, Groupon, Estonian Air, Just Giving, Peter Harrington, and many more.

Gracewell Healthcare approached The Media Image with these objectives:

• Drive the maximum organic & referral traffic for localised queries over a 12 month period

• Increase traffic to Google local listings

• Increase traffic to local care home pages

• Increase enquiries to each care home

The Media Image executed the following strategy:

• Set up and optimised local listings for all care homes situated throughout the UK.

• Create multiple citations for all care homes.

• Ensure consistency across existing & new citations, on-site information and Google local listings

• Creation of localised content working closely with each care home.

• Targeted localised outreach for the content.

• Localised and re-wrote on page elements including all meta data for the website.

• Technical support and solutions for a wide set of issues on the website.

The results:

• 84% increase in referral traffic

• 74% increase in organic traffic

Amy Hyland, Marketing Communications Manager at Gracewell Healthcare, says “TMI have performed brilliantly for us when we have commissioned them for both short and longer projects. Not only are the results good but their diligence in terms of customer service is fantastic. This is a young, friendly and professional team who simply get a great job done.”

This agency focused on client satisfaction and ROI, has won multiple awards.

14. Zazzle Media

Creating and growing specialist audiences of value.

“Think about whom the content is designed for, and then create it, as you’ll experience much more success doing it that way than creating a great idea, then figuring out who might like it.” -Simon Penson, MD & Founder Zazzle Media

Simon Penson has 10 years of experience in print media. He worked as a journalist and editor of national magazines. With such background, Simon truly understood the need for digital content. In 2009, with the mission to be the ‘Global thought Leaders in digital marketing’, he started a content led, data-driven digital marketing agency, Zazzle Media. The focus being on content strategy, the agency builds audiences of value through search, social and influencer channels.

In 2015, Stickyeyes acquired Zazzle Media. Both agencies will retain their individual brands and trade independently initially but expect to collaborate on larger international projects.

Lessons to Learn:

• Combines technical brilliance with an unparalleled knowledge of content, SEO and social

• Passionate about upholding clear values

• Every decision is backed by data insight

The client list of Zazzle Media includes Karen Millen, Superdry, Genie, ebay, Morph Costumes, Mulberry and many others.

Mecca Bingo approached Zazzle Media to rebuild brand visibility and move them towards a content-led future.

Zazzle media rolled out a content-led plan for their website which was centred on the new content strategy.

• Clean up & Data: The focus was on data in terms of link profile and site index.

• Proactive marketing: Firstly, clear audience personas were created by mining search and social data. A new content strategy was followed for 2 separate blogs and the social team amplified the reach and sharing.

• The PR team ensured that the site continued to benefit from earned content placements, brand mentions and links

Result:

• 105% improvement in search visibility year-on-year

• Regaining of key top five rankings across the board

Trevor Fordyce, SEO Manager, Mecca Bingo, said, “Zazzle Media fought off tough competition in winning our account. Our reason for choosing them was clear. As well as having an innovative approach to search marketing the experience the team has with content was a huge plus for us. The account management we receive is also second-to-none.”

This award winning agency operates from 3 locations in the UK.

15. MediaVision

Independent thinkers, creatives and digi-geeks all working collaboratively.

“You must continually adapt to the market and plan improvement at every level or you will almost certainly lose out to the competition.” -Louis Venter, CEO, MediaVision

When he discovered his love for computers, Louis Ventor started his web development agency in 1999 which was later bought by a publishing firm. He moved to London from South Africa for programming jobs but ultimately started MediaVision with Thomas Schonenberger in 2003. Initially, the company offered web development, design and SEO. But gradually Louis identified his passion for organic search marketing, paid search marketing, conversion strategy and online PR.

Today MediaVision has offices in London and Capetown which specialize in SEO, PPC, CRO, Search Marketing, Conversion Strategy, Digital PR, Content Marketing. This boutique agency believes in integrated marketing approach. Creative brainstorming sessions and adventurous team building activities help in bringing out fresh ideas and cultivating relationships.

MediaVision is transparent, flexible, credible and fun to work with. The company implants work-life balance in the attitudes of its employees. Office mischiefs and outdoor activities are encouraged.

Lessons to Learn:

• Using cross-channel marketing for best results.

• Full range of digital services entirely scalable to needs of the clients

• Stay updated with changes in the industry

• Proactive and enthusiastic team

• Willing to go extra mile to achieve the best possible results

The clients of this agency include names like Instant, Hobbs, Aquascutum, PINK, DAISY and many others.

Instant Offices was rapidly expanding and approached MediaVision for SEO services and strategy to augment their aggressive growth plans in 104 countries and in eight different languages.

Strategy followed by MediaVision:

• Established a single set of URLs accessible by search engines thereby removing the duplicate content from the site.

• The in-house development team integrated mechanisms to expose the inventory correctly to search engines and improve the information architecture of the site.

• Implemented internationalisation plan i.e. geotagged the content for different regions and brought the multilingual content correctly to search engines.

• Then the hreflang implementation was launched which interlinked content in all 104 regional websites in eight different languages.

• Later the link-earning strategy was initiated which aligned with the overall digital efforts

The Results:

• Extraordinary traffic growth of 109% year-on-year and revenue growth of 205% year-on-year.

• 104% increase in UK traffic YoY

• 76% increase in US traffic YoY

• 109% increase in Canada traffic YoY

• 92% increase in Australia traffic YoY

• 96% increase in UAE traffic YoY

• 204% increase in HongKong traffic YoY

The Digital Marketing Executive from Instant Offices, Bryan Hunter says “MediaVision’s strength is in truly understanding Instant and aligning activity with our key business objectives, which includes driving high-quality leads in our core markets. MediaVision are also very well connected in the SEO industry, meaning that they stay at the forefront of the often dizzying changes to search algorithms and the industry at large.”

This agency has won multiple awards like CIM Marketing Excellence Award, UK Search Award, etc

16. Mediaworks

Take your brand to the next level.

“By the very nature of the industry, we have to keep moving and refining to ensure we stay on the cutting edge of our market.” -Brett Jacobson, Managing Director, Mediaworks

Right after completing his degree in Applied Computing in 2006, Brett Jacobson wanted to start his own business. In 2007, he founded Mediaworks which uses creativity and digital marketing expertise to collaborate with clients and help them achieve success online. The company has grown rapidly and today offers services in Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search Management, Conversion Rate Optimisation and Online Reputation Management.

Apart from providing various benefits, the agency invests in social and sporting activities for its young and active team. The workplace culture is creative and collaborative which ensures successful results.

Lessons to Learn:

• They combine technical insights with creative tactics

• Proactive

• Creative approach

• Specialist in what they do

Mediaworks has many clients like Brantano, Psyche, Jones, Wren Living, Freeze Pro Shop, Newcastle College, Travelex, etc.

Freeze Pro Shop approached Mediaworks to help with their PPC campaign.

Mediaworks followed the below-mentioned PPC strategy to deliver exceptional ROI, increased website traffic and conversions and greater revenue:

• Quickly identified new audiences and integrated an international audience into the paid campaigns to widen the brand’s reach.

• Discovered the peak months for the client’s products and focused a larger share of the budget on this timeframe.

• Crafted a bespoke marketing effort that saw the construction of a display advertising campaign and a remarketing campaign.

• Implemented a number of tweaks such as call extensions and the exclusion of low converting search terms.

• Excluded previous keywords which were high cost but delivered low conversions.

• Data-driven approach helped in constantly analysing and amending the campaign accordingly and capitalise on opportunities.

• The keyword bids were adjusted so that products appeared on the first page of search results, ensuring interested buyers could find Freeze Pro’s ads.

• Also targeted mobile users more effectively to capture on-the-go buyers.

The Result:

• 57% increase in the traffic to the website

• 74% increase in conversions

• 80% increase in revenues

• 1153% ROI

Al Conroy, Managing Director, Freeze Pro Shop, says, “We’ve been working with Mediaworks for almost a year now and came to them with very high expectations. They have certainly delivered the results we hoped for. Their attention to detail is fantastic and their approach to building a strong commercial relationship with clear, concise and regular communication is exemplary.”

This agency has won multiple awards and adds value to the client’s business consistently and continuously.

17. Blueglass

Driven by creativity. Backed by data.

“The plan is to not necessarily to grow the number of clients we’re working with but rather to grow the size of our clients.” -Kevin Gibbons, MD BlueGlass

Kevin Gibbons started a search agency called SEOptimise in 2006. In 2012, his research showed that the clients who were neglecting content had their performance shrink by 9% per year in comparison to those who were implementing the content strategy. That was when Kevin identified the huge opportunity around content marketing and decided to form a new company with a new direction.

This new company, Quaturo, was specialised in creating great content to build an online brand and maximise visibility and revenue. But Quaturo was soon acquired by BlueGlass as they shared the same vision. Kevin and his team joined to create BlueGlass UK.

BlueGlass is focused on content marketing while acknowledging the importance of creativity and data.This agency takes pride in its team and provides an environment where employees fuse their skills, experience, and interests into a satisfying career.

Lessons to Learn:

• They believe that every client is different, hence, they tailor their strategy services accordingly to create the biggest impact.

• They feature the clients on some of the most popular sites within their vertical, generating powerful, authoritative links and engagement.

• They use creativity to make the clients stand out from the crowd and position them as a content authority in their industry.

• They are selective with who they work with.

• Spend time experimenting to improve creativity.

BlueGlass increases organic revenue and brand visibility through SEO and content marketing. The company has clients like Expedia, British Council, nutmeg, vInspired, Healthspan, Financial Times, OKA and many more.

Healthspan came to BlueGlass to:

• Support and challenge Healthspan’s existing digital strategy

• Remove historical Google Penalty

• Increase organic search market share.

Blueglass developed a solid digital strategy, successfully removed the Google penalty and then set a clear SEO and content strategy around nutrition keywords. They hired nutritionists as writers to support content production and constructed a range of creative content campaigns. Then, built relationships with high-quality publishers and influencers.

The results:

• Removed Google penalty following link removal and re-consideration project

• Increased organic search visibility by 144% during 12 months

• Secured coverage on 93 high-quality publishers – including Cosmo, Mail Online, Telegraph, Marie Clare and more

Jennifer Jackson, Digital Marketing Manager at Healthspan, says “BlueGlass delivered an incredible ROI – increasing our organic traffic and revenue to record levels.”

The agency has won UK Search Award in 2015.

18. Jellyfish

Innovative marketing solutions.

“We’ve managed to create an environment where people are encouraged to challenge process and innovate. This culture has cultivated a highly motivated team with an open approach where anyone can share their thoughts and ideas freely.” – Rob Pierre, CEO, Jellyfish

Rob Pierre’s passion for digital marketing led him to launch Jellyfish in 1999. Jellyfish are specialists in PPC, SEO, Social Media, Creative, Web Development, Display and Analytics. Today, this is the world’s biggest boutique agency which delivers full-service digital solutions across a wide range of industries.

Lessons to Learn:

• Client-centric approach

• Accountable, autonomous, flexible and personable

• Offer latest digital marketing solutions and insights

• Combination of technology and talent

Jellyfish has clients like boohoo.com, skype, motors.co.uk, waitrose, FastSMS, Saga Healthcare, Fuerte Hotels, ADP and many others

FastSMS approached Jellyfish with the following objectives:

• To provide a holistic goal tracking solution and improve the in-house marketing team’s visibility of overall account performance

• To improve the efficiency of the paid search activity already being run

• To develop and execute a comprehensive mobile search strategy

Having restructured the account to conform to Jellyfish best practices, Jellyfish quickly set about optimising the user’s journey with Fast SMS and provided the Fast SMS development team with a set of conversion optimised landing pages to implement. After initial split test results proved promising, these were then rolled out across all PPC campaigns. Jellyfish also optimised ad copy and campaign settings for mobile devices in line with a growing emphasis on mobile strategy.

The Result:

• 100% increased PPC sign ups

• 61% decreased CPA

• 22% reduced account spend

This multiple awards winning global agency is a DoubleClick Certified Marketing Partner, Google Analytics 360 Suite reseller and has many more Google accreditations.

19. Web Marketing Group

Hell-bent on delivering results.

“It’s important for WMG to continue to develop our services, strive to deliver excellent results for our clients and recruit the very best talent in order to remain a leading independent digital agency in the UK.” -Dennis Engel, CEO, WMG

In 2000, Dennis Engel created a platform to generate and manage virtual exhibitions, Web events featured stands for advertisers, news hubs and knowledge centres with the help of a team of software developers. In 2003, this led them to make the transition from online trade shows to develop a suite of basic online marketing products designed to drive targeted traffic to websites.

WMG believes that to be successful as an agency it must develop, grow and inspire its talented team, actively encouraging them to share ideas. This creates a team of digital innovators, passionate about delivering campaigns which get results.

Lessons to Learn:

• Comprehensive approach to digital marketing

• Develops longstanding partnerships with its clients

• Transparent analytical approach to SEO

• Proprietary software tools and systems

WMG has clients like HomeLet, H&Tpawnbrokers, Crockett&Jones, SkateHut, AllPondSolutions, DownLights, Carter Jonas and many more.

Skate Hut approached WMG to increase rankings, traffic and revenue across the wide range of products.

WMG followed the following strategy:

• Planned, wrote and optimised onsite content and meta data

• Created an authoritative, organic link profile to attract target audience, build domain authority and create a brand buzz

The Result:

• Position 1 for phrases including ‘skateboard’, ‘skateboards’ and ‘scooters’

• 30% year-on-year increase in revenue from organic traffic

• 142% increase in organic traffic over 18 months

• SEO visibility has more than doubled

This multiple awards winning agency uses sophisticated analysis, intelligent interpretation, insight and proven strategy to ensure that clients are a step ahead of their competition.

20. Koozai

Succeed Online.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but we find if you bring in people that are really passionate about the industry and they want to really immerse themselves within it and couple that with a good working environment and clever people who know their stuff, it just seems to work.” -Ben Norman, Founder & CEO, Koozai

After working in digital marketing for few years, Ben Norman founded his own agency, Koozai in 2006. This agency specialises in SEO, Content Marketing, Paid Search and Social Media.

The agency provides a creative environment which gives the opportunity to its employees to develop and expand their skillset. Koozai team has a wide range of experience, expertise and tools to create and implement campaigns, from carefully curating awesome content to optimising it online with their exceptional SEO, PPC and social media skills.

Lessons to Learn:

• Create data backed content

• Keep things simple

• Result driven

Koozai has clients like MSG cars, TUI Travel PLC, University of Cambridge, GJS Titmuss, Pearson, Merlin and others.

GJW Titmuss approached Koozai to:

• Increase the volume of traffic to the main website and blog

• Improve website visibility and rankings by targeting specific long-tail search terms

• Establish the brand as an expert in the pet industry

• Attract a new audience for people who are looking to buy their first pet

Koozai carried out in-depth competitor analysis and market research and identified a gap in the market for content primarily geared towards new pet owners. The idea was to create a series of comprehensive user guides specifically for first time pet owners. From dogs through to birds and pond fish; GJW Titmuss would host a guide for all the popular pets. This evergreen content was designed to increase the volume of relevant traffic to the client’s site and blog, educate new pet owners and establish GJW Titmuss as experts in their industry. A dedicated pet user guides section was created on the blog to host the content, with 11 detailed and informative pet guides uploaded to-date. The section will continue to expand as the project continues.

The Result:

• Organic sales increased by 94% YoY

• Organic traffic increased by 90%

• The pet blog generated 19.6% traffic of the total blog traffic

This multi-award winner agency has also earned accreditations for the high standards of its work.

21. Maven of London

Research-led digital strategy.

“Those that can blend custom data gathering, consumer insight, and practical activity plans, can realize significant benefits across communications, strategy, and product plans.” -Daniel Singer, CEO, Mavens of London

Ben Bose, who was the Head of Research at iCrossing, founded Mavens of London in 2009 which is an online research, strategy, and digital marketing company. Hence, the agency distinguishes itself by aggregating and analysing data of all kinds to provide insights into people and their behaviour – breaking down difficult business problems, and providing clear, realistic, and actionable solutions. Today, it has expanded to US and Latin America.

Lessons to Learn:

• Flexibility

• Research skills

• Commitment to quality

The list of Mavens clients includes top brands like Dove, Disney, Electrolux, Philips, Persil, Vaseline and many more.

A leading laundry detergent brand approached Mavens to:

• Find how much its facebook presence contributed to consumer attitude and value of the brand name

• Measure this brand equity benefit across four of the brand’s key markets (the UK, India, Indonesia, and Brazil)

• establish ways to increase the usefulness and ROI of their Facebook profiles

Mavens executed the following process:

• Primary Research: 2 non-branded surveys were created for each market to gain honest opinions on the brand. One survey was for those who had seen the Facebook content in the previous six months, and another survey for those who had not. The surveys were advertised on Facebook, targeting the demographic groups that were most relevant to the client.

• Social Media Analytics: A comprehensive meta-analysis of the client’s Facebook posts was done, measuring them against their own best practice benchmarks. The consumer responses to the posts were aggregated and categorised to build a picture of consumer sentiment generated by the brand’s Facebook output.

The Result:

• A thorough analysis of the brand’s functional perception, brand equity and purchase intent in different markets was presented.

• The analysis and survey revealed that the client’s Facebook posts reinforced or generated positive consumer sentiment towards the brand.

• From the research, it was deduced that Facebook posts might not influence consumer opinions on specific topics, but that posts can drive a more general increase in positive brand associations.

• It was found that Facebook posts are not a major influence on consumers’ buying behaviour.

This data-driven digital research, strategy, and marketing consultancy improves the online infrastructure and performance of the business.

22. Vertical Leap

Maximise visibility online.

“This is an exciting time for us. We’re leading the way in our industry and delivering the most efficient and effective search marketing service available.” -Matt Hopkins, Founder & Managing Director, Vertical Leap

In 2001, Matt Hopkins founded Vertical Leap to run an SEO agency with transparency at its core. The principle of giving clients complete visibility of their SEO campaigns is one that is still one of their core values. This agency is one of the first of a new generation of digital marketing agencies, has today expanded its services to offer PPC, content marketing, social media management and design.

Vertical Leap has developed its own deep data platform so that comprehensive information can be given to the clients about their online profile in one place. This gives a competitive advantage to the agency. The culture of complete accountability further contributed to its success.

Lessons to Learn:

• Marketing Intelligence Platform

• Transparency

• Actionable insights

• Committed to achieving results

Vertical Leap has clients like UKmail, easyBus, randstad, KernPack, Hoburne, Property Personnel, and many others.

KernPack approached Vertical Leap to:

• raise brand awareness

• get more people onsite

• generate more online enquiries

Vertical Leap designed and built a new website for KernPack – the main aim being to improve user experience and increase the overall visibility for the core packaging machine. We also optimised the website for load speed, content relevance and structure.

Then they built highly targeted paid search campaigns for each product type to generate leads, but brand awareness was also an objective. They created a fun national survey to discover ‘The nation’s favourite biscuit’, which tied in with KernPack’s food packaging solutions. This generated press coverage, and they also worked on similar content marketing ideas.

The Result:

• Average monthly conversions increased from ‘Online Enquiry’ form increased by 133%

• Organic web traffic increased by 167% YoY

• More than 2.27 million website impressions

• More than 38k clicks from PPC ads

• Total website visibility increased by 19%

• Increase in blog views by 388% in 1 quarter

• ‘National Favourite Biscuit’ campaign was featured in national and industry press publications

This award winning agency combines deep data with specialist insight from experts.

23. Further

Delivering great results.

“So much has changed in that time with new channels, social media, and of course, search engine algorithmic changes, but the original Further mantra remains, we are still about understanding clients, their markets, their challenges and objectives – and then maximising their return on investment by creating industry-leading campaigns across organic and paid.” -Steve Jaggard, Co-Founder, Further

Zac Ireson and Steve Jaggard shared vision for a ‘best of breed’ online agency and co-founded Further in 2006. They wanted Further to be an agency that could bring proven marketing expertise to the digital sector; to offer clients measurable, industry-leading work and results ; to build strategic relationships on honest, professional advice and performance. The agency offers Content Marketing, Technical SEO, PPC, Data Analysis and CRO services.

The Further team is smart and straightforward. The agency culture promotes creating, sharing and celebrating excellence.

Lessons to Learn:

• Benchmarks performance and identifies areas of opportunity

• Creates bespoke digital marketing strategy

• Maximum results

• Expert delivery team

Further has clients like British Safety Council, Aetna, Natures Menu, Adrian Flux and many others.

Natures Menu approached Further to increase online sales, transactions and basket values while lowering CPC.

Once on-site foundations were in place, Further’s Paid Digital team deployed PPC as a first activity in order to give the brand instant visibility and sales. The resulting data would help to inform the over-arching strategy, providing intelligence for the content marketing and conversion optimisation work. It began by targeting highly relevant, niche keywords. As the campaign started to prove a positive ROI, more generic keywords were gradually introduced to increase product and brand awareness for raw pet food.

The Results:

• 455% increase in online transactions

• Cost Per Conversion down from £3.14 to £1

• Return per £1 of ad spend

• Increase in average basket value

Peter Roy, Director of Nature Menu, said that “We’ve seen hugely positive results on our PPC performance. Sales are up, the cost per click has come right down and the return on spend is far higher than we’d anticipated.

This award winning agency is known for its data-led, target-driven approach.

24. Salience

We increase your brand awareness so you make more sales.

“Content is the heart of everything we do.” –Salience

Salience has been in search marketing since 2009. Previously known as Inside Online, they’ve been lauded as one of the 50 fastest growing digital marketing agencies in the UK, with awards spanning their SEO, PPC and Content Marketing campaigns.

Since 2009, they’ve provided search marketing services for household names, challenger brands and ambitious start-ups across retail, lead generation, finance & charity. Starting in Chester as an SEO & PPC agency, they’ve expanded their skills and team exponentially over the last 9 years to ensure the clients’ digital activities are in peak condition, from analytics to content marketing, they have the skills in-house to give your brand the competitive edge required to compete in today’s digital world.

Salience works on Agile principles, born from the belief that marketing challenges rarely come with six month’s notice, so there’s no point in making planners that far in advance. They are a new breed of search marketing agency that moves fast and adapts to opportunities in the moment, not in a month.

Lessons to Learn:

• They use data and storytelling to engage audience and deliver results

• Provide integrated services

• Their regularly published data insights reports are used to create competitive market intelligence

• High performing consultancy services

• Target people by understanding the client’s audience

• World class storytelling talent

• High-quality content campaigns

• Focused on delivering results

The agency has a long list of clients which include Dreams, Ved-Medic, MortgageKey, lights4fun, urbanest, capstone, SquareMeal and many more.

MortageKey approached Salience to:

• Create a brand and strategy which could generate higher quality leads at a lower cost

• Design and develop a website that could maximise conversion rate through lead

• Build a marketing strategy which generates leads quickly

Salience identified the gap in the market place. Then they calculated the required performance from a website and marketing campaigns with the help of data and their knowledge of the financial and search marketplaces.

A simple, clear brand website was launched with conversion focused design and efficient web development to produce immediate results. The website had a straightforward message and clear call to actions to build trust and maximise conversion rate. Search, remarketing, paid social and display campaigns were started to deliver quality leads at low cost while building the exposure of the brand.

The Results:

• 577% increase in conversion rate

• 1843% increase in lead volume

• Cost per lead reduced by 81%

• Conversion rate increased by 16%

Oliver Laver, Managing Director of MortgageKey says “Salience have created a brand which we’re already immensely proud of. The website strategy and marketing campaign is delivering us more leads, at a lower cost and of a higher quality than we’ve ever achieved before. They clearly understand our audience and the market place. We look forward to growing our business with the help of their excellent team.”

This dynamic and forward thinking agency has won multiple awards.

25. Epiphany

A better approach.

“We’ve worked hard for our reputation as an employer of choice and our high client retention rate reflects the world-class service that we continually strive to deliver”. -Robin Skidmore, Co-Founder & Commercial Director, Epiphany

Epiphany was founded by Shane Quigley and Robin Skidmore in 2005 and led by Rob Shaw. Initially, the agency was a search specialist but gradually, it expanded its services to SEO, PPC, Display, CRO, Content and Web Development. In 2014, it was acquired by Jaywing group as they felt that they were the right cultural and technical fit for each other. The agency has built industry leading team of marketers, programmatic specialists, creatives, data scientists, developers and analysts.

The work environment is friendly and the agency prides itself on having a team full of creative and talented people who connect powerful ideas, rich data and new technologies. Epiphany wins clients and new customers with insightful content, advertising and digital design.

Lessons to Learn:

• Passionate and strive for perfection

• Always learning and taking inspiration from one another

• Keep things simple

• Carefully craft marketing communications inspired by data

Epiphany has many clients like Insurance2go, Pandora, The QHotels Group,Space Station, Leeds Bradford, Kempinski, and many more.

Pandora approached Epiphany with the following objectives:

• Increase revenue from paid search

• Reduce customer acquisition costs

• Improve mobile campaign performance

The agency reviewed the account and bid strategies and restructured Pandora’s bid management. The new campaign identified opportunities to improve results from mobile searches. Latest tools and techniques were used to set up shopping campaigns and assist with product feeds.

The Results:

• Cost per acquisition reduced by 65%

• 2400% more revenue was generating from mobile without increasing cost per acquisition

• 512% rise in revenue

• 430% ROI increase YoY

Helen Harris, Head of Online Marketing & ECommerce at Pandora, says, “Paid search is hugely important channel for our business. Working with Epiphany dramatically improved its performance from both a results and cost perspective.”

This Google certified agency has won many awards. Today it is known for helping the clients transform their visibility, enhance their reputation and to grow their business online.

26. Search Laboratory

Leading the way in digital.

“We pride ourselves on our mathematical, data-driven approach alongside excellent account management to produce the best results for our clients.” -Ian Harris, Founder & CEO, Search Laboratory

Search Laboratory was founded by Ian Harris in 2005 in order to provide a more auditable, ethical and statistical approach to PPC and SEO, and to fill the gap in the market for a linguistically faithful campaign management.

The agency specialises in PPC, SEO, Multilingual PPC, Multilingual SEO, Online PR, Pay Per Click Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, Multilingual Search Marketing, Retail SEO, Retail PPC, Global PPC Agency, Global SEO Agency, B2B SEO, B2B PPC, Google Analytics

Lessons to Learn:

• Create successful multilingual campaigns with a team of native linguists

• Hold ‘culture days’ where the teams take it in turns to educating the rest of us about the way they do things in their home country

• Experts in international search engine marketing

• Open to clients about the techniques being used

• Accountable at all times

• Highly analytical and ethical approach

• Focus on increasing revenue and delivering demonstrable results for clients.

Search Laboratory has clients like British Airways, IBM, HSBC, O2, Ted Baker, Karen Millen, Jigsaw, Viking, VisitBritain and many more.

This multiple awards winning agency helps brands maximise the profit from their website with digital marketing, both domestically and in international markets.

27. Topclick

Maximise your online presence.

“The largest shift in recent times is search engines focusing on fresh, unique quality.” -Miles Cottrell, Founder Top Click

Miles Cottrell noticed that small to medium sized businesses lacked in advertising online. He also realized that people falsely viewed online advertising as either too expensive or solely for the bigger players. Hence, in 2003 he founded Topclick to put an end to this myth. Today Topclick offers a full range of digital marketing and design services to help businesses achieve their online marketing goals.

Topclick has an experienced team that has the necessary skills required to manage all aspects of online advertising strategies, from inventive SEO and PPC campaigns that maximize budgets, to establishing and extending web presence across local and national markets. The agency has regular fun events organized for the employees.

Lessons to Learn:

• Results-driven

• Transparent account management using a team approach

• Cutting edge creative design

• Specialist staff

The agency today has clients like united London fc, zuuma, fernox, global mailing, stickermoose, upright, national airport links, cs4uk, wallderful and many more.

Fernox approached Topclick to build out their organic presence in the UK, Netherlands & Germany.

Topclick confirmed the different keyword variations and got them translated. Then they optimised the website around this keyword set, in addition to building high-value links to build out the authority of the website.

The Result:

• 85% increase in organic visitors

Oye Awojobi, Manager from Fernox, says “”Enthusiastic and knowledgeable team – They know their stuff and are happy to share knowledge and advise me accordingly. Enjoying the journey so far.”

This multi-award winning has been recognised by various industry experts.

28. Steak Digital

Delivering ROI to clients across every digital channel.

“The strongest relationships are fostered when both parties are properly aligned.” – Jon Cheng, Business Director, Steak

Steak was founded in London by search engine pioneers, Oliver Bishop, Duncan Parry and Julian Walker in 2005 to offer PPC and SEO services. Gradually, they expanded to New York and Melbourne. In 2011, Steak became a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, based in Japan. Today, Steak offers a full range of digital services which includes strategy, search, social, creative and media.

The focus of Steak is always on understanding the complexities of consumer behaviour to deliver the best results across all digital channels.The agency has a bull named Bruce as its mascot. The team gets lots of fun time as they regularly go for outdoor activities.

Lessons to Learn:

• Focus on understanding consumer behaviour which gives insights to plan campaign strategies

• Data-driven approach

• Using a combination of creative thinking, technical know-how and market expertise

The clients for Steak are La Perla, selfridges, Aesop, Scottish Friendly, wowcher and many others.

Scottish Friendly approached Steak to optimise their programme and drive sales along with improving their quality. They were also planning to expand their product offering to the affiliate base.

The strategy by Steak was as follows:

• Introduced strict new PPC terms on the programme

• Brand-bidding and direct-linking were stopped

• Paid for affiliate traffic by quality content only

• New weekly reporting structure

• Revisions were made in the landing pages

• Tested the new products and pinpointed which products work best with each affiliate

• Affiliate campaign was more tailored which helped in increasing the conversion rate and strengthening relationships with the affiliates.

• Worked with an affiliate site to use their customer information effectively

• Members of affiliate site who had shown an interest in similar products were sent a targeted Scottish Friendly email.

The Result:

• Scottish Friendly Affiliates’ campaign became much more sophisticated by enhancing control.

• The conversion rate on the campaign increased from 1.27% in January 2011 to 7.2% in September 2011.

Jill Mackay, Marketing Manager (E-Commerce), Scottish Friendly, says, “The team at Steak are an invaluable addition to our e-marketing team. They are true experts in their field and they share their wealth of knowledge on industry trends and developments. They are always on hand to respond to any requests we have and work hard to exceed our expectations.”

This agency, with a diverse skillset, was named one of the best companies to work for by The Sunday times.

29. Builtvisible

Communicate ideas and build brands.

“Our policy is to always attempt to deconstruct how something might have been developed, that way, we’re learning.” – -Richard Baxter, Founder, Builtvisible

With 10 years of experience in digital marketing, Richard Baxter founded Builtvisible in 2009. This agency specializes in SEO, search, strategy and content. The mission of his agency is to make the web a better and more interesting place through developing ideas that challenge and inspire. The team is full of enthusiastic and effective digital marketers who love getting results in everything they do.

Builtvisible hires people with a story, that is, those who have achieved something in life, apart from their professional achievements.The agency supports its staff and is committed to creating a fair, positive and healthy working environment. It also arranges a variety of training programs to help the employees in expanding their technical expertise.

Lessons to Learn:

• Produce forward-thinking, elegant and inventive consulting solutions

• Golden Rule: We do what said we’d do

• Committed to a policy of equal opportunity and anti-discrimination

• Support a range of local and national charities

• Choose not to work with companies who behave irresponsibly

• Has developed resources and tools for digital marketing community

• Contributor to industry best practices through webinars, etc

• Highest client retention

Builtvisible works with numerous globally recognized brands like Swisshotel, Very,feelunique, towergate insurance.

Feelunique approached Builtvisible to improve organic traffic and revenue through the channel.

Builtvisible had the following strategy:

• Keyword and market research

• Audited and implemented complex technical recommendations

• Delivered content marketing that generated high-value coverage and links for the brand

The Results:

• 198% increase in organic traffic

• 41% increase in revenue via organic

• 356% increase in organic visibility

• 174% increase in pages driving organic traffic

Tom Newbald from Feelunique says, “We have been working with Builtvisible for over 3 years now and during that time they have been excellent at identifying significant opportunities to help our business grow. Our teams have a fantastic, collaborative working relationship and together we’ve delivered tangible results through a variety of SEO & content marketing initiatives.”

This international digital agency offers technical solutions and data-driven creative content strategies that make real, measurable differences to the visibility of the clients’ brands.

The agency is accredited by RAR, approved by Figaro Digital, recommended by Moz and a Drum Elite Agency. It has been acknowledged as experts in the field and shortlisted at the 2014 Digitals Awards and The Guardian’s Marketing and PR Excellence Awards

30. Gravytrain

Delivering beyond your expectations.

“Our clients have always been the main priority here at Gravytrain.” -Kevin Taylor, Co-Founder & Director, Gravytrain

Gravytrain is a full-service Digital Marketing agency set up in 1999 by Kevin Taylor and Rocco Pietosi. The agency offers a wide range of services including SEO, PPC, Social Media, Analytics, Email Marketing, Mobile, Affiliate, Website Design and Development to name a few.

The agency believes that by creating the right internal culture and ethics they will exceed their internal and external client’s expectations and goals. Following this mission, at Gravytrain, the employees are treated as family. They have a Friday breakfast club, which involves free breakfast and a chance to catch up on the week’s events. They also have a monthly ‘Gravytrain social’ which is a chance to mix with colleagues at the local pub.

Lessons to Learn:

• Holistic approach to online strategy

• Monitor the success of the campaign to assess and alter

• Tangible employee engagement strategies

Gravytrain has many clients like Capita, Brightside, TalkTalk, Drain Depot, Kinoko, Luxuria, Oracle, HayGroup and many more.

Drain Depot approached Gravytrain to:

• expand and gain further revenue from their site

• create an optimal Magento/WordPress hybrid website

• provide more organic traffic to the Drain Depot site

Gravytrain started with audit and review of the site so that they could create a solid foundation and form a strategy that would provide the best chance of success. These audits included Technical SEO, Backlink audit, Keyword Research, Content Audit, UX and Navigation Structure. After the audit, Gravytrain embarked on an extensive content marketing campaign both on and off-site and provided a well-rounded, holistic SEO campaign for Drain Depot.

The Result:

• All primary high-volume keywords increasing significantly and ranking on the first page of Google.

• After 6 months of the campaign, YOY organic traffic increased by 37.7%

• After 10 months of the campaign, YOY organic traffic increased by 223.12%

• Numerous pieces of content being added to the site, improving UX throughout every stage of the buying journey and bolstering off-site Digital PR campaigns

Simon Trott, Managing Director, Drain Depot says, “A very big thank you to all involved for making the development of the new Drain Depot website a great success. I am particularly pleased with the new imagery, the 70 or so information videos and the ease of navigation which we hope will encourage both existing and new customers to visit and purchase from draindepot.co.uk time and time again.”

The agency has the expertise to keep the clients one step ahead of the competition.

31. UNRVLD Digital Agency

Reimagine and reinvent your digital world.

“Delete takes a very user-centric approach to its projects. It aims to create a campaign or website that motivates and engages the user.” -Damon Mangos, Partner, ECD & Strategic Director, Delete

In the year 2000, Jeremy Middleton and Graeme Burns founded Delete Agency which worked in the digital space. Having been very successful, the agency was acquired by fuse8 in 2010 as they found a perfect fit in each other.

The agency has a smart team of leading digital practitioners who think and work dynamically – big enough to deliver, agile enough to adapt. They drive each project with passion and inspire the clients to imagine something better.

Lessons to Learn:

• Unique blend of our expertise and experience

• Innovative product design

• Enthusiasm and Passion

Delete has a long list of clients which includes James Grant, Red Bull, Safestore, Carluccio’s, Save the Children, IKEA, Expedia and many more.

Carluccio’s approached Delete with the following objectives:

• Drive more online restaurant bookings

• Deliver a refreshed brand essence

• Increase organic search rankings for all restaurants and key territories

• Capture customer data to further grow CRM communication

Delete implemented the following strategies:

• User experience for the site was built to facilitate a seamless customer journey across all devices with full functionality. The main premise was to keep Carluccio’s restaurants and menus at the heart of the site’s focus, with clear signposting to both. Users are able to easily view menus, locate restaurants and see latest offers. There is also quick and simple restaurant booking service accessible from anywhere on the site.

• The new site not only transformed the company’s visual digital identity, but also showcased the restaurant’s unique and authentic feel, whilst enabling effortless restaurant booking and online purchases.

• The user interface was designed specifically to mirror the style of the modern Milan Café culture.

• They used Kentico EMS as central platform of choice to take advantage many of the inbuilt features, as well developing custom web parts for specific requirements. And used Kentico commerce to power the online store.

The Result:

• Organic traffic increased by 112.27% as a result of careful SEO-centric development of the new website.

• Goal Completions from organic traffic increased by a staggering 120.71%.

• 41.6% Increase in online table bookings compared to previous period.

This award winning and certified agency has the mission to create digital solutions that are not only innovative and market leading but also deliver commercial success.

32. Reflect Digital

High-quality digital solutions.

“Customer service is always my number one priority.” -Becky Campbell, MD Reflect Digital

While working for a digital agency, Becky Campbell found her passion for internet. In 2011, she quit her job and started Reflect Digital in Kent, which has clients across the country. Reflect Digital is a web design company which offers many services like web management, web marketing, SEO, PPC, social media and many other marketing services.  Though they work for all market sectors, they specialise in content managed websites, in particular for law firms, technology companies and event management businesses.

Becky inspires her team to deliver an honest, personable and professional service, resulting in innovative and engaging deliverables which meet and exceed all expectations. Therefore, the team is made up of highly professional, knowledgeable and friendly people.

Lessons to Learn:

• Offers high-quality web solutions

• Specialise in law firms and technology companies

• Forward thinking

• Help the clients determine the best digital marketing ‘pick n mix’ for their companies

• Ethos is centralised around customer service

The agency has a long list of clients like Days Contract hire, Redbrick Solutions, Compare My Local, waterfront solicitors LLP, Liverpool FC, SBL, Simply Cosmetic Surgery, Brookline and many others.

Compare My Local approached Reflect Digital:

• To design and develop a brand new website which provided a home improvement price comparison service.

• The site needed to be an engaging, modern site that focused on generating customer enquiries and social interaction

• it was important that users could easily discuss their home improvement wants and needs

Reflect Digital designed an interactive, colourful site that provides users with the ability to compare suitable suppliers in their area with a simple enquiry form. The site is full of custom graphic elements and intuitive features, including an interactive, clickable banner area that enables users to navigate through the different categories available.

The site also includes a news section as well as blog areas with social icons clearly displayed to allow users to follow Compare My Local on their social sites. A directory section was implemented that allows users to find local home improvement companies. The site was launched in early 2013.

Richard Finch, Marketing Director of Compare My Local, says, “We are extremely happy with the design and development of our new website. We have worked closely with the whole team at Reflect Digital who have done a great job at understanding our vision and delivering what we consider to be an excellent website. I would like to say a special thank you to Becky and Wayne for all their hard work through the process.”

This Kent-based agency has won a long list of awards.

33. Silverbean

Experts in digital optimisation.

“All of our work is very measurable and we concentrate very hard on finding the right opportunities to grow our clients’ businesses and achieve the objectives they set out.” -Neil Robbins, Founder & Managing Director, Silverbean

Silverbean was founded by Neil Robbins in 2002 and since then it has developed its service offering to provide intelligent and advanced digital marketing strategies for the clients. From digital strategists and paid marketing pioneers to data-geeks, content & social media whiz-kids and affiliate marketing maestros, Silverbean has been constantly growing to be one of the best in the business.

The agency works with an array of clients from a wide range of sectors, some on an international scale. They understand diverse markets and create unique solutions to suit the needs and goals of each individual business.

Lessons to Learn:

• Agile approach

• Team of certified channel experts

• Create unique solutions to suit the need of individual business

Silverbean has clients like Rowlands Pharmacy, Northumbria University, oki-ni, N.Peal, Monnier Freres, Aphrodite and others.

N.Peal approached Silverbean to continue building their online presence in 2015 with SEO goal of increasing both organic traffic and revenue.

Building on the success of 2014, Silverbean combined fixing the remaining high priority technical issues along with helping N.Peal craft optimised content, that appealed not only to search engines, but also their target market. This approach ensured that pages were being ranked effectively and were more likely to convert. Silverbean also worked closely within brand guidelines to create a new, more user and SEO friendly content outlet and produced the subsequent content, allowing N.Peal to further build their brand presence online and rank highly for an ever growing number of long tail key phrases.

The Result:

• 113% increase in organic traffic

• 106% increase in organic page views

• 121% increase in organic revenue

• 121% increase in organic transactions

• 113% increase new users from organic

Phil Myerscough, Head of E-Commerce, N.Peal, said “The team at Silverbean are great to work with, as well as their expertise in search they also have a real understanding of our brand, our heritage, our product and importantly, our customer. They work as an extension of our team and we face the challenges and successes of growing our online business together. We’ve made some positive changes with key technical improvements and the re-launch of our blog onto the WordPress platform. These steps are already helping to increase awareness of our brand, as well as giving a boost to orders and revenue as we come into our peak trading period.”

This multiple award winning agency follows a simple philosophy of taking the clients to the next level.

34. NMPi

Innovation in digital advertising.

“We have a lot in store for us over the coming year as we plan to move our brand forward, and continue to stand out from the crowd, and differentiate ourselves within the industry.” -Joe Comotto, Operations Director, NMPi

NMPi was founded in 2004. The agency is owned by Incubeta Group and is also a partner within the Yamondo Global Performance Alliance, a group of agencies that support each other in the delivery of global excellence. As a result, NMPi’s global proposition is supported by 19 performance agencies, each considered to be a leader in their fields of Digital Marketing. Today NMPi runs campaigns for complex clients across more than 100 markets in over 55 languages.

Their heritage is rooted in paid search performance marketing allowing NMPi to apply their knowledge and experience to the campaigns they run across all their marketing solutions including paid search, display, paid social and the DoubleClick Channel Partners programme. This professional, enthusiastic and data-driven team has the attitude of always striving to achieve results over and above client expectations. Their clients are particularly happy with their customer service and performance.

Lessons to Learn:

• Personal, customer-centric approach to every account

• Holistic approach to digital advertising combined with innovative technology and a talented team of data-driven analysts

• Offer their clients rich data and valuable insights

The agency has clients like small world, Papa Jones, BlueBay, My-Wardrobe, Superdrug, Microsoft, Dune and many more.

My-Wardrobe.com approached NMPi to re-engage lapsed customers.

NMPi looked to create a Facebook advertising strategy to bring back customers who hadn’t purchased in over a year and gain new customer acquisitions. The campaign looked to achieve a conversion rate of 4% and followed the below steps:

• They targeted My-Wardrobe’s customer email database, specifically those customers who had not purchased in the past year and who had Facebook accounts.

• Then they used Facebook’s feature of ‘Lookalike Audiences’ and targeted people who have similar characteristics to previous or current customers.

• Lastly, they targeted the fans of My-Wardrobe’s competitors.

The Result:

• NMPi delivered a conversion rate of 9%.

• Alone purchases exceeded expectations by 70%

• The total revenue from this campaign was more than 100% greater than the forecasted objectives.

This multiple awards winning digital agency helps ambitious brands to maximise their potential online.

35. Tug

For ambitious brands.

“Our people think creatively across channels, using state of the art technology to drive significant commercial results for our clients.” -Nick Beck, Founder & CEO, Tug

Nick Beck founded Tug in 2006, on the belief that search marketing was the first channel to bring Media and Creative back together into the same agency. His experience coupled with a passion for digital media helped him to build Tug into a global media agency that truly delivers to a client’s bottom line. His stated aim is simply to build an agency that ambitious clients want to work with and ambitious people want to work for.

Today Tug is a full-service Digital Media Agency with services across SEO, PPC, Programmatic Display Advertising, Social Media and Analytics. Tug hires and nurtures, imaginative people, always looking for new angles to help our clients beat other brands, to get the attention and hard-earned money of their audiences.

Lessons to Learn:

• Use cutting edge technology

• Target audiences creatively

• Detail oriented

• Local market insights

Tug agency has clients like Aveeno, Aon, Jamie’s, Citrix, House of Fraser, Bombardier, Misys, Kirin and many others.

House of Fraser approached Tug to deliver high-quality visibility across key business areas.

Tug developed unique content to attract bloggers and consumers to host and share assets. Four different link acquisition strategies were implemented to gain a varied link profile, product reviews, experimental outreach, content creation and competitions to further expand the Home and Furniture department’s reach. A Blogger recipe book was created and printed as a more interactive and engaging approach to link acquisition, which was then sent to each of the bloggers as well as House of Fraser.

The Result:

• In six months 75 competitions were run which received over 40,000 interactions on key products

Tug is a team of creative and insightful channel experts based in London, Toronto and Sydney.

36. Collider

For launch and beyond.

“Collider integrates brand, digital, experiential and social in order to create campaigns that make a client’s audience stop, think and act.” Anton Jerges, Managing Director, Collider

After years of experience in integrated communications, Anton Jerges founded Collider with Creative Director Derek Manning in 2003. Collider is an integrated advertising agency specialising in launches. The agency was earlier called as The Liquid Way but, in 2014, it rebranded itself as Collider. The agency announced the rebrand as a key part of its plans to expand the business both in the UK and internationally over the next five years. In 2014, Collider acquired digital marketing agency, Trueline, and in 2016, it merged with Maynard Malone as they felt that they were a perfect fit.

The agency makes a direct emotional connection with the audience and creates offline, online and social experiences that stick and keep the fan base engaged and energised.

Lessons to Learn:

• Specialises on launches

• Enable positive reactions through creativity, insight and experience

• Fuse disciplines

• Creates integrated plan designed for maximum ROI

Collider has clients like Tate & Lyle, Beko, Pizzaexpress, Meridian, Qantas, Epson, Sharp and many more.

Meridian approached Collider to update its brand from a previously manufacturing focused bias to a more luxury, consumer-focused brand with a wider appeal to engage a new younger audience.

The idea was to emphasise the unrivaled product sound quality while developing a brand of elegance and confidence. The new brand was rolled out across all touch points under a headline of ‘Redefine the Possible’. Collider also engaged a new audience by creating content across existing social media channels and Instagram and Pinterest. In addition, Collider collaborated with Meridian’s automotive partners McLaren and Jaguar to tap into their passion audiences.

The Result:

• 314% increase in page impressions

• 21% increase in the footprint of their social communities

• 25% increase in traffic to their website

• 280% increase in social engagement

Collider is known for creating positive reactions for brands by fusing Social, Digital, Experiential and Brand.

37. Bulldog Social Media

Solve your online problems.

“Keeping up with the changes is a constant battle.” -Gareth Bull, Founder & CEO, BullDog

Founded in 2013 by Gareth Bull, BullDog believes that digital marketing is all about understanding where a business is going and generating a top quality, results-driven strategy that is designed to help it get there. The agency provides services like SEO, PPC, Social Media, Digital PR and Infographics. With a team of young and enthusiastic digital marketing experts, the agency is growing rapidly.

Lessons to Learn:

• Transparent approach

• Covers all aspects of online marketing strategies

• Combine depth of experience with a fresh new approach

• Build lasting relationships with clients

BullDog has clients like arcsystems, Fast Keys, Shepherd’s Bush Market (SBM), University of Essex, Hi-Tec, U+I and others.

SBM approached BullDog with the following objectives:

• More social engagement

• Increase likes and follows

• Increase Brand Awareness

BullDog found out who Shepherd’s Bush Market’s target audience was and improved their social engagement targeting relevant social media users. This enabled them to increase their following and online presence, which also boosted up their brand awareness.

The Result:

• 16200 increase in twitter followers

• 5848 increase in the facebook likes

• 3824 increase in instagram followers

• Top 3 positions for all main keywords

Sophie Wood, Marketing Manager, said that “Our rankings and social presence rocketed. Gareth and his team have been superb throughout the past year and we can’t wait for results to continue.”

This award-winning agency which is a certified Google partner helps the clients refine their digital marketing strategies through how-tos, infographics & high-level insights.

38. Dog Digital

Delivering innovation and individuality.

“Understanding how cultures work together and individuals are motivated is key. For me, the only route to doing this is by building up strong relationships and putting your faith in the team’s capabilities.” Gerry McCusker, Owner & CEO

Dog Digital was established in 1996 as an independent agency. The agency helps its clients from a range of industries to change, evolve and grow their organizations by achieving customer experience that positively impacts business performance. For this, the agency brings together two core disciplines: Marketing in its many forms, and harnessing technologies. Combining these two skillsets, Dog creates experiences, from strategy to implementation, that influence how individuals act and feel about a client’s brand, product or service, and empower them to interact with that client.

Lessons to Learn:

• Expertise in data, planning, technology and creative craft

• Approach to communication

• Move from a mass-marketing model to an individual level

• Formidable attitude and value learning

Dog Digital has clients like Bibby Financial Services, Vivocity, Tourism New Zealand, CALA, Powerleague Group, UEFA and many others.

CALA approached Dog to deliver them a design that would reflect the same space, light and luxury experience that the customer enjoys when they own a CALA home. And they wanted that coupled with a build that would deliver a better, more customer-focused experience, to reinforce CALA’s position as the UK’s most upmarket home builder.

Working to turn around the complex project in a very short space of time, Dog delivered a bespoke Sitecore platform web development and redesign with a fully adaptive mobile site, that resulted in improved user experience, and a cleaner and fresher look and feel that captures the CALA brand. And they achieved it with the client at their side by adopting a totally collaborative approach and agile process to the entire project.

The Result:

• Conversions increased by 125%, YoY

• Unique visits increased by 87%

• Mobile and tablet traffic boosted by 36% and 105% respectively

The agency fosters a pack mentality for every challenge or opportunity.

39. Visualsoft

Delivering cutting edge e-commerce.

“I relish every challenge that I take on, when I’m faced with a big task I break it down into bite-sized chunks. Somehow, that makes it more achievable.” -Dean Benson, Founder & CEO, Visualsoft

Dean Benson set up Visualsoft along with two other partners, Richard Bendelow and Steve Meredith in 1998 to provide online training. Gradually, other partners left and the company headed by Dean Benson, became a dedicated e-commerce provider wherein they exclusively design, build and market online stores.

The employees are offered unlimited holidays, flexible working hours, free breakfasts and many other benefits. The agency promotes a healthy lifestyle and has a ‘Time to Innovate’ scheme wherein the staff devote 20% of their working week to do anything they want as long as it adds value to the business.

Visualsoft makes sure that the staff enjoys coming to work.

Lessons to Learn:

• Specialist in e-commerce

• Ground breaking technology and innovation

• Tailor made solutions specific to the needs of the client

• Offer SEO service to help the online retailers

• Keep the clients in loop at every step

• Keep the staff happy

The agency has numerous clients like Boxfresh, SikSilk, Mitre, Laver, Gola, British Watch Company, Tic Watches, Jelly Egg, Lotus, and many others.

Mitre approached Visualsoft to create a functional e-commerce website which gave the best possible experience to the customers. They wanted to tell their brand story through the website.

Visualsoft used a modular approach and built a clean, functional and user-friendly website which appealed to the target audience. The brand was presented to the end consumer in the right way.

Will Klug from Mitre says, “Overall, our new website has had a positive impact on the Mitre brand, and we would definitely recommend the Visualsoft services to anyone looking to build their brand online.”

The agency has won multiple awards and with its comprehensive range of services, has become a one-stop-shop shop for online retailers.

40. Converted

Experts in online performance.

“As an agency Converted specialise in the delivery of ROI oriented Search Marketing.” -Cathal Saunders, Operations Director, Converted

Converted was first created in 2004 by a collection of marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, project managers and most importantly gifted digital experts. What defines Converted as a digital agency is a clarity of purpose. Their success or failure is based on defining the important result then delivering it.

Starting as a PPC agency over a decade ago, Converted has rapidly grown into a full-service digital consultancy offering capabilities in design, development, branding and all aspects of digital marketing. Today, the agency provides services in the following digital marketing disciplines: Pay Per Click Advertising, SEO Services, Bespoke Web Site Design, Website Development, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, WordPress.

Lessons to Learn:

• Methodical disciplined approach to project management

• Worked on projects that range from a local level to multinational, multi-lingual campaigns

• Have a clarity of purpose in everything they do

Converted has clients like Unicef, Badgemaster, Prezzybox.com, Carlton Court, Pest Control, Autoworld and others.

Carlton Court approached Converted with the following concerns:

• They were getting no enquiries from their paid search and SEO campaigns

• The conversion rate of the website was very poor

• There was short space to their peak season

Converted analysed the user experience and identified some key areas within the customer journey that were blocking potential enquiries. They made the enquiry process easier and gave simple solutions to getting across key information that would not cost the client significant amounts in design and development work. Then they made a few key changes to targeting and keyword selection within the paid search account as a short-term improvement plan. Having created a content strategy for the customers SEO campaign for the longer term, Converted provided some key on site changes and were able to influence SEO performance quickly.

The Result:

• 348% increase in enquiries through adwords

• cost per enquiry reduced by 62.68%

• Month on Month 36% growth in organic traffic

This award winning agency has its services based on sound business acumen, innovative technology and 360° strategic thinking.

41. Space & Time Media

Creative media that works.

“Planning smarter, integrated media campaigns across multiple channels and platforms is our forte……maximising ROI and keeping wastage to a minimum.” -Sandy Gil, Managing Director, Space and Time Media

Having had years of experience in Media, Peter Jones started Space & Time media in 2000 with the philosophy of ‘service first, profit later’. The services include both online and offline media like PPC, SEO, CRO & advanced analytics, display, video, content management, broadcast, etc.

This bright and talented team puts audience insight and reporting at the centre of every campaign, using its understanding of the target audience and learning what works in real time.

Lessons to Learn:

• Create short and long-term strategy to deliver goals

• Experts across all channels

• Enthusiastic team

• Specialises in integrated media solutions

Space & Time has clients like SMS Audio, Avant Homes, Mentholatum, Optegra, etc.

Avant Homes approached Space & Time to create and implement a tailored ‘pay per click’ strategy to support the launch of Avant Homes’ first regionally targeted TV campaign and major brand launch.

In order to make the best use of the available budget, PPC activity was scheduled around the TV spot times, ensuring the client’s brand had optimal coverage of the Search Engine Results Pages across multiple devices at key times of the day. PPC ad copy was written to echo the creative message used on TV, and the relative success of different ad texts was monitored to measure the overall online exposure, ensuring that the budget was being used as efficiently as possible.

The Results:

• 120% increase in brand traffic to the website

• 60% increase in customers, primarily in their research stage coming through to the regional landing pages

• PPC activity ensured that all those who went online having seen the TV advert ended up on the most relevant page of the website

This award winning agency provides well-researched, fully integrated and beautifully crafted media campaigns.

42. Absolute Digital Media

Perfect solution for your business.

“Our approach is spurred by a desire to achieve results, despite the competition now present on the web.” -Ben Austin, Absolute Digital Media

Ben Austin, ambitious and with strong work ethic and natural flair for digital marketing, founded Absolute Digital Media in 2008 after he got search engine success for his own website. Today, the services provided by the agency include PPC, SEO, social media, web design, content marketing, affiliate marketing, mobile optimisation, reputation management, display advertising and PR.

The agency aims to offer effective yet affordable digital marketing options. They combine market intelligence with creativity to deliver integrated digital campaigns that focus on unique selling points while seeking out which channel is most effective to communicate these. They ensure that they reach the right people at the right time.

Lessons to Learn:

• Customer service and client satisfaction are at the core of everything.

• Offer bespoke services

• Result oriented

• Flexible in approach

• Comprehensive digital campaigns

Absolute Digital Media has clients like NHS, Peachy, Super Casino, Pierre Lemond, pitney bowes, NCP, NeoPost, The National Autistic Society, ITS and many more.

Pierre Lemond approached Absolute Digital Media to:

• manage and improve existing Facebook and Twitter profiles

• boosting fans and followers

• create and manage a new Google Plus profile

• interact with and build relationships with existing and potential clients through these networks and gain referrals through social media sites

From the beginning, the agency had focused on sharing a mixture of branded and non-branded content that would spark interest within Pierre Lemond’s audience. Posting photos of creative hair styles, makeup and nail designs, the team paid attention to seasonal trends and particular occasions such as Hallowe’en. They also shared tips and tutorials, inviting users to share their own advice with other readers.

Their social media specialists also concentrated on company news and information such as details on packages, as well as promoting new bookings and Groupon offers. Before and after shots of Pierre Lemond’s customers were also very popular and, keen to take advantage of as many different types of media as possible, the team also kept users interested with reviews and videos. With every piece of content shared, the focus was on identifying which techniques performed best and using this to shape the direction of the strategy to continue providing the best results.

The Result:

• New Google+ profile was created and acquired 650 plus ones in 2 months

• Facebook fans increased by almost 70% in 2 months

• Average weekly reach per post increased by 461%

• Gained an average of 250 referrals from facebook

• Nearly 600 people directed to their Groupon page

Grant Collinson, Director, Pierre Lemond, says “I’m really happy with the way my social media profiles are looking. Absolute Digital Media have managed to get people interacting and engaging with my brand regularly, and have increased my Facebook followers by over 70%. I’m also pleased to report that we receive a high number of referrals through Facebook each month.”

Passion and persistence have led the company to multiple awards and accolades, such as an inclusion in the RAR Top 100 Agencies in 2013 and RAR Digital Awards Winners in 2014.

43. Conversion Works

Converting traffic into profit.

“The entire ConversionWorks team works tirelessly to add value and meaning to all our client’s projects.” -Russell Sutton, Founder & Managing Director, ConversionWorks

ConversionWorks was founded in 2000 by Russell Sutton. This is a specialist conversion analytics agency focussing on website analytics and conversion rate optimisation. The aim is to help clients improve conversion rates and website sales using actionable insights and multivariate testing.

Lessons to Learn:

• Drive the right traffic to the site

• Better insights and more profitable decisions

• Multivariate testing

Conversion Works has clients like Bissel, Diageo, Radisson, Morphsuits, PayPoint.net, Stoneworks and others.

Morphsuits approached Conversion Works with two key objectives for their Adwords campaigns

• To increase ROI

• To grow e-commerce revenue Approach to Adwords Optimisation

The ConversionWorks team focused on implementing a wide-scale ad copy overhaul to more aggressively communicate Morphsuits’ USPs. Ads were deep linked to appropriate landing pages – a user searching on “red morphsuit” for example would be taken directly through to the red morphsuit page. Many long-tail keywords were added and bid optimisation techniques were used to control average click costs. Various ad extensions were rolled out in order to gain more real-estate on the search engine results page, with Adwords Product Extensions, in particular, working extremely well for the campaign.

The Results:

• 60% increase in sales revenue, with just a 9% increase in advertising spend

• 45% increase in ROI across the 3 key markets – UK, US & AU

This Google accredited and award winning agency is web analytics and conversion rate optimisation agency that helps clients generate more sales and leads from their websites.

44. Atom 42

Acquisition through online marketing.

“Aligning our goals with those of our clients has resulted in some really strong partnerships and a road of endless learning and challenges.” -Andrew Attala, Founder, Atom42

Having worked in digital marketing for years, Andrew Attala founded Atom 42 in 2007 with the mission to help the clients grow their businesses through online marketing. Today Atom42’s services include PPC and SEO marketing, online advertising, email, social, content and mobile marketing, online PR, web design, web analytics and usability testing. The agency makes sure that it is an enjoyable workplace for its employees.

Lessons to Learn:

• Work with clients with range of different industries

• Create bespoke online marketing strategies

• Hard working and driven team

Atom 42 has clients like The Huffington Post, IOP, Vivo, match.com, Care UK, heat, AOL, Grazia, Rush Shop and many others.

Care UK approached Atom 42 with the aim of driving them more enquiries, the ultimate aim being to fill beds within their care homes.

The agency focussed on local strategy and used a holistic approach to get them greater local search visibility. They worked to improving organic rankings for specific location terms, for example for people searching for ‘care home in Edinburgh’.

Atom 42 also improved Care UK’s Google Plus Places pages, so that they show up more often and are more compelling to click. Finally, they covered more areas with PPC marketing, using specific ads about individual  homes and why they are great.

The Result:

• 90% increase in leads

• 50% cut in cost per lead

• Star ratings boost CTR

This award winning agency is focused on helping clients grow their businesses online.

45. Fast Web Media

Achieve more from your digital marketing.

“Engaging with customers and retaining customer loyalty is essential to maintaining a healthy business, built to stand the test of time.” -Mike Flynn, CEO, FWM

Initially in 1995, this company was about the Premier League websites. In 2009, Fast Web Media was formed through a management buyout from Microsoft based in MediaCity and London. Therefore, FWM is the only digital marketing company to have previously been part of a search engine business. In 2011, FWM announced a strategic partnership with the University of Salford Business School for research and innovation in search marketing and social media.

This data and technology-driven marketing company is all about delivering real results. They specialise in search marketing, search engine optimization, technical development, social and mobile.

Lessons to Learn:

• Have a proven track record for delivering great results and exceeding client expectations

• Develops its own leading-edge brands that deliver bottom-line for the clients

• Rich heritage of working for 2 decades with some of the leading brands

• Have delivered engaging campaigns on a local and global level

• Offers a wide variety of services ranging from traffic driving, technical development, data analysis and digital innovation

Their clients include BBC Sport, Carling, nec, The Ticket Factory, sharp’s, idex and many more.

The Ticket Factory approached FWM to:

• Expand the online acquisition channels

• Drive sales through paid search

FWM’s PPC strategy focused on device targeting, geo-targeting, bid adjustment by location, bid adjustment by ad position and time of day targeting; which were selected as key variables that influence customers’ ticket buying behaviour through PPC ads, and therefore could directly influence conversions and ROI. By adjusting these targeting variables the aim was to maximise on every £1 spent and yield the highest return possible.

The Results:

• Total Visits = 94,056

• Profit = £22,664.10

• Ecommerce conversion rate through PPC = 7.35% (site average 5.56%)

• Revenue per visitor = £5.11

• Cost per visit = £0.27

• For every £1 spent the gross revenue = £17.93

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) = 1,793%

This multiple award winning agency operates from Manchester and London.

46. Caliber

Exceptional digital coverage.

“Making decisions of principle has allowed the agency to thrive with a long list of award-winning campaigns and recognition for outstanding results.” -Jonny Scott, CEO & Co-Founder, Caliber

After years of experience in the field, Jonny Scott and Lee Stuart co-founded Caliber in 2008. Caliber is an organic marketing agency specialising in integrated SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, PR and Marketing Insights.

Caliber is an experienced bunch of geeks, suits and creatives who take the utmost pride in their work. In fact, this name was chosen because of their commitment to finding the best, high caliber talent. The team is known for its work hard learn hard play hard attitude across their three offices.

Lessons to Learn:

• Combination of smart insight, creativity and technical expertise

• Passion and pragmatism

• Happy working environment for the employees

Caliber has clients like Tesco, ebay, HSBC, Falcon Holidays, Villa Plus, broadbandchoices, ticketmaster and others.

Falcon Holidays approached Caliberi to create a campaign that raised brand awareness, collected audience data, generated links, and increased user engagement for the brand on both the blog and social media channels.

Caliber designed, developed and implemented an interactive Q & A platform where users could win a €500 voucher. The game took players through a series of six pages, representing a destination based on Falcon’s SEO objectives.

The Result:

• Over 4000 entries

• 467% increase in blog traffic

• Over 6000 social actions

• Over 200 backlinks

This award winning agency takes pride on dreaming big, their creativity and smart thinking.

47. Liberty Marketing

Get high-quality traffic onto your websites.

“It can be tempting to offer a wide range of services and see everything as a profit source, but by sticking to what we know best, we can concentrate on keeping ourselves at the front of this market and make a name for ourselves.” -Gareth Morgan, Managing Director, Liberty Marketing

Gareth Morgan had gained lots of digital marketing knowledge and skills in his job roles. In 2008, after his job as marketing manager, Gareth decided to start his own agency and Liberty Marketing was born the same year. The agency specialises in SEO and online marketing. Today Liberty Marketing has become Wales’ largest online marketing services agency.

The team has talented, passionate digital marketing professionals who use the latest online tools and techniques to ensure that the clients stay ahead.

Lessons to Learn:

• Strong ethics

• Transparent systems and open door policy

• Offers a simple short-term rolling arrangement which can be altered to suit the client’s resources and budgets

• Believes in specialization, focuses entirely on SEO and online marketing

Liberty Marketing has clients like University of Hertfordshire, Howells, Solicitors, Folly Farm, Pure Commercial Finance, Fiorelli, Modalu, benefit cosmetics and others.

Fiorelli approached Liberty to improve search engine visibility and ROI for their handbags and purses.

Liberty re-structured their AdWords campaigns, changed website keyword use and used content to improve links and organic traffic.

The Results:

• Organic unique visitors up 20%

• Organic transactions up 39%

• PPC click-through-rates up 82%

• PPC cost per conversation down 16%

Fiorelli says, “Good improvements in traffic and ROI. If you are thinking of a new PPC/SEO agency I would recommend you speak to Liberty.”

Liberty has won FSB award and was named as a UK top 30 growth agency by Google.

48. Passion Digital

Extension of your in-house marketing team.

“We focus on delivering a personal, passionate & tailored service to each and every one of our clients however big or small.” -Mike Grindy, Managing Director, Passion Digital

Mike Grindy worked in different digital marketing agencies for more than a decade. With the experience and passion that he had, in 2012, Mike set up his own agency, Passion Digital. His goal for starting up the agency was to provide simple, affordable and effective digital marketing services. The agency specialises in PPC, SEO, Social and Web Design. As the focus is on delivering excellent customer service, Passion Digital maintains complete transparency with the clients by educating them about how the results are being achieved.

The agency sees that the employees are valued and empowered while they also have loads of fun at work. This team dedicated and committed digital marketers are innovative, passionate and believe in staying ahead of the field.

Lessons to Learn:

• Holistic approach to internet marketing

• Ethos of maintaining transparency

• Data driven results

Passion Digital has many clients like KPMG, Junk Wise, Tact, Action Medical Research, Carluccio’s, Spread Ex and others.

Carluccio approached Passion Digital to grow their audience on social media and to provide a strategy for engagement with their fans.

Passion Digital recommended running a number of competitions that tied in with seasonal events like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc. These competitions asked people to visit a Facebook tab and enter with meaningful answers that could be turned into content. On Facebook and Twitter they created a content strategy where 80% of it was more focused on what people on social media enjoy engaging with leaving 20% to post about events/products.

The Result:

• Facebook audience grew by 16000 new page likes

• Engagement on Facebook page more than doubled

• Twitter followers grew by 16717

• Engagement on Twitter increased by 3 times

Camilla Johnson, PR & Marketing Manager, Carluccio’s says “In just a couple of months, their help has increased our Facebook audience by 33%. It goes without saying that the Passion Digital team are deeply passionate and committed to achieving the goals they set out. It’s a pleasure working with them.”

Passion Digital always anticipate the intent of customers and search engines. This agency has been recognised by various reputed organizations The Drum, Google, Bing, etc.

49. Crafted

Experience better.

“Our ethos is Experience Better; empowering our clients to deliver valuable online experiences for their customers, using insight driven strategies. We achieve this across our four pillars of Consultancy, Development, Design and Online Marketing.” -Bradley Warwick, CCO, Crafted

Crafted was founded in 2005 by Brad Warwick and Rob Doole, leading search and creative offerings respectively, after they worked together at a previous agency. Martin Brown joined shortly afterwards to steer all things technical.

The agency delivers online marketing campaigns that are informed by data, fuelled by targeted content and evaluated on business returns. The team of online advertising and organic search specialists analyse audience behaviour to deliver exceptional customer experiences that are the key to enquiries and sales.

Lessons to Learn:

• Blended approach to online marketing

• Results focussed

• Value long term trusted partnership

• Data-driven approach

Generator approached Crafted to drive direct bookings and ensure sustainable search engine visibility.

Crafted sought to implement a multilingual, integrated digital campaign, incorporating organic and paid search techniques across eight languages to connect in a genuine and effective way with Generator’s target demographic.

They worked differently to promote the unique Generator travel experience. Their online outreach consultants secure coverage with design blogs to demonstrate the hostels’ modern, stylish interiors while raising awareness on business websites to target creative entrepreneurs travelling for work.

The Result:

• 211% increase in revenue from paid advertising alone

• 42% increase in PPC click traffic

Emma Benney, Director of Marketing, Generator, said, “Crafted’s creative approach to online marketing works perfectly when aligned with Generator’s target demographic. Young travellers are increasingly sophisticated in the way they connect with brands and Crafted has enabled us to communicate with them in a genuine and effective way. By interrogating our online data, the Insights Team has shaped an aggressive digital strategy which is facilitating our rapid growth by driving bookings and ensuring search engine visibility.”

Crafted has been solving marketing challenges for brands across a wide range of industry sectors

50. Datadial

Building brands online.

“Success online is like running a race car, it needs a great team behind it.” -Datadial

In the year 1998, Robert Faulkner founded Datadial, a web design and online marketing agency. Stephen Gould, the Technical Director, developed database driven websites using ASP and Datadial was one of the first companies in the UK to use it commercially. Datadial was also one of the first UK companies to offer search engine optimization with clients including MSDW, British Airways London Eye, and P&O ferries.

It’s been eighteen years for Datadial Ltd in this field, it is still in the race and is very inspiring for its competition. Datadial believes in teamwork which is enjoyed and encouraged in the company.

Lessons to Learn:

• They provide all development and marketing services

• Proactive

• Future-driven

• Provide the best advice and support

• Realistic costs

The clients for this agency include Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Ashmore Residential, Running School, Baltic Travel, BBC Good Food Show, Bob & Blossom and many more.

Running School approached Datadial for the following services:

• Bespoke E-commerce

• Content Management Systems

• Bespoke Content Management Systems

Datadial built a multi-level content management system for Running School which allowed them to add new franchise microsites to their global site website, whenever required. An e-commerce facility was also attached for booking courses and for buying related running products and buying other digital products. The project was built on time and within the budget.

Phil Williams, Marketing Director, Running School, said, “I know we haven’t been the easiest – making changes here there and everywhere! – But you have been very patient and skilled in dealing with our requests with the result that we have a fantastic new website. I am sure it will be a real addition to our business and would like to thank all the team at Datadial.”

This London-based agency is known for its efficiency, knowledge, and expertise.

51. Organic

Delivers tangible results.

“We are delighted to be unveiling our new branding which we believe truly reflects our culture of clear communication and consistent innovation.” -James Moffat, Founder & Executive Director, Organic

Having worked in the marketing field, James Moffat founded Organic Agency in 2006. Organic is a strategic consultancy and performance marketing agency delivering tangible results for clients.

As consultants, they work out how digital is affecting the client’s business, identify opportunities and help the client take advantage of them. While, as a results driven agency they execute powerful, effective marketing campaigns, tech builds and projects that deliver results.

Lessons to Learn:

• Client retention

• Utilise their own structured methodologies

• Help the clients stay ahead

Organic has clients like Samsung, Nectar, Renshaw, Body Shop, Cynus, churchill, Renshaw, Greenpeace and others.

Body Shop approached Organic to help them celebrate their 40th birthday by improving engagement and increase followers on Instagram.

Organic carried out a photoshoot at The Body Shop’s birthplace, Brighton. Creative images that showed the unique environment of Brighton, paired with iconic products from The Body Shop’s range created an exciting and engaging feed on Instagram.

To get the audience engaged with The Body Shop’s story, 4 influencers shared their favourite The Body Shop products and encouraged fans to visit The Body Shop’s instagram and join the conversation using #ILoveTheBodyShop for a chance to win 1 of 40 hampers.

The Results:

• 18.3K new followers against a target of 5K

• 13.4K entries with a target of 8k

• 9.8K average daily engagements against a target of 6k

• 78.6K total engagements which exceeded the 28k target by over 100%

• 1.3M reached smashing the KPI of 500k

This agency knows all about how to make the web work for its clients.

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