Klikkmania is a performance marketing agency based in Hungary. They’re all about hitting KPIs and increasing conversions for their clients. And together with their sister company in England (Click2Digital), they’re responsible for around $3,500,000 worth of PPC campaigns.
You don’t get that kind of responsibility without good business practices and great client management skills. So, we spoke to Ferenc Dudas, Klikkmania’s Client Service Director, about how the agency keeps their clients happy.
Ferenc Dudas, Klikkmania’s Client Service Director.
His response boiled down to three key ideas:
- Tracking and reporting KPIs related to campaigns (his most important takeaway).
- Helping clients discover what they actually need instead of what they think they need.
- Fostering an optimistic and professional environment both at the office and with clients.
Below, we’ll dive into how they accomplish all three.
Bonus action list: [sg_popup id=”208″ event=”click”] Get our 2-page PDF summary[/sg_popup] of action items you can take to grow your marketing or PR agency based on Ferenc’s advice.
1. Share Detailed Analytics on Ad Performance & KPIs
When new clients come to Klikkmania, they have multiple reasons for wanting to work with the company. But one of the most common is a less-than-satisfactory experience with another PPC or SEO agency.
“In most cases, they weren’t satisfied with other agencies because those agencies didn’t give them the in-depth analysis and information they needed,” Ferenc said.
Most clients want to see the data behind their campaigns’ successes. They want to know how money is being allocated, which strategies are working, what their ROI is on each activity, and more, depending on the services rendered. If it’s a brand awareness campaign, then they want to see quantitative proof that social media engagement is growing. Many companies just want to know they’re getting good conversion rates — although the way those are measured depends on the industry.
Because Klikkmania is so good at providing detailed analytics and information to the people footing PPC campaign bills, they’ve been able to make it part of their USP. In fact, they even make hitting KPIs part of their business deals (in certain situations). In those cases, their fees are a combination of fixed-rate and performance-based compensation. It’s a win-win as long as they hold up their end of the deal: The client hits the numbers they want, and Klikkmania pulls in more dough for a job well done.
Klikkmania’s Reporting Tool of Choice? ReportGarden.
An example report showing Clicks vs Converted Clicks on an ad using ReportGarden.
Ever since Klikkmania was founded in 2007, KPIs have been a priority. In the beginning, they had to pull together analytics reports manually. It could take a week for campaign managers to turn in all their reports, but now it only takes a few hours before every report for every client is ready to go.
Ferenc believes that using ReportGarden impacted their workflow in more ways than one: Yes, account managers save time creating reports. Not only does that mean they can turn their attention to solving their clients’ problems, but it also means the whole team is up to speed on how an account is doing before meeting with that client. They’re able to collaborate more effectively and align on messaging before calls. When they created reports manually, that just didn’t happen.
“We are using ReportGarden as a core service,” Ferenc said, “to manage around 140 clients. We give our clients a report regarding their Google ads campaigns, their Facebook campaigns, and some Facebook insights regarding the social activities which we manage.” They also tried using ReportGarden for LinkedIn but found that it wasn’t a fit for their clients. “It’s just a matter of what your clients need at the moment,” he explained.
As far as actually creating the report is concerned, they don’t. The ReportGarden system sends them a report automatically. The only time spent is on writing an executive summary (this is done by the campaign manager, since they are most familiar with what has happened). On average, he says, campaign managers spend thirty minutes or less on any one report.
Since the reports are faster and easier to create, Klikkmania can release reports on the client’s preferred schedule: monthly, biweekly, or weekly. It’s well suited to the varying management styles their clients employ.
2. Give Clients What They Need (Rather Than What They Say They Want)
A local artist adds a mural to the Klikkmania office space.
Many times, Klikkmania sales reps will receive a one-sentence form submission that says “I need a PPC campaign” from potential clients. Requests for the wrong type of service (or wrong method of implementation) aren’t uncommon, in Ferenc’s experience. Sometimes, clients don’t know what they don’t know.
That’s why consulting is a core aspect of how Klikkmania does business. Before any PPC or SEO services are launched, they’re on the ground talking to their clients, forming a strategy, and setting goals.
“For example, we are working with a mobile app development company which provides services for different sectors such as logistics, e-commerce, etc. When they came to us, they just wanted to launch some campaigns. We made them rethink their approach and tried to segment everything based on different personas, which makes us better able to target those audiences,” Ferenc said.
“We helped them realize they were lacking a digital strategy — knowing which channels they should use, their current market position, key takeaways from their competitor activities, and so on. These things were not in their mindset before we started a discussion,” he added.
By educating their clients, Klikkmánia sets themselves (and their clients) up for success. And once a strategy is set, they continually monitor and adjust campaigns based on analytics and their clients’ needs. As a result, their clients trust them and are willing to come to them with whatever problems they’re facing.
“When a client gets into partnership with us, it’s not just us managing the campaigns or their SEO, or writing their marketing strategy out. Instead, they can reach out to us on any other online marketing-related questions they have,” he said. It’s a step that makes a big difference in the client’s experience.
3. Cultivate an Optimistic Culture
Klikkmania encourages regular team-building exercises, birthday parties, and other events that improve teamwork and lift spirits.
Ferenc emphasized that your outlook — both internally, and in the way you communicate with clients — is key to customer satisfaction and company success.
His main advice is to keep discussions with clients positive. “We do it the American way, where something is a challenge, not a problem,” Ferenc explained. It’s not that you lie or withhold data when things aren’t going the way you want them to; instead, you present your findings, explain how you plan to tackle the issue, and keep clients informed every step of the way. They’ll appreciate both your honesty and your ‘take charge’ attitude.
But it’s hard to do that if you’re completely burned out.
“If you’ve worked for an agency long enough, you know there is no stopping. We work with different sectors, different people with different habits, different markets, different competencies, different business cases, B2B and B2C — and those are just a few that I’ve mentioned. That can become quite stressful. In order to maintain the quality of your work both in a client project and in house, you need to be optimistic and do some fun stuff,” he said.
To promote a healthy internal work culture, Klikkmania employs several techniques:
- A newsletter for everyone to share achievements and encourage team spirit
- In-office birthday celebrations
- Weekly meetings where anyone can ask questions or raise concerns with management
- Encouraging new ideas
- Locally-sourced wall murals and art in the office
- Dog-friendly office
- Monthly team building exercises.
Klikkmania’s office is dog-friendly to keep team members happy and relaxed while they work.
As a result of these efforts, Klikkmania team members are better able to keep discussions with clients and colleagues positive while implementing solutions to their problems. Ferenc thinks these practices are easier to implement when your agency is small instead of trying to implement them after you’ve grown to 60+ employees. Right now, Klikkmania has 23 — a good size for pinning down culture and establishing good habits.
Final Thoughts
As Client Service Director, Ferenc is always looking for ways to make his colleague’s lives better while ensuring that his clients are extremely satisfied. One way he does that is by making adjustments to reports on the fly.
Since the ReportGarden reports are easy to modify last minute, he’s able to tweak presentations and adjust messaging without involving the campaign manager right before meetings. It’s just one more process improvement he’s enjoyed since Klikkmania made the switch from manual to automatic reporting.
Bonus action list: [sg_popup id=”208″ event=”click”] Get our 2-page PDF summary[/sg_popup] of action items you can take to grow your marketing or PR agency based on Ferenc’s advice.
