Chicago-based SEM agency SearchLab works with a variety of fast-growing clients. With clients across the country and just over two years in business, the group has already earned awards from Clutch (2018 and 2019) and was listed among the top digital agencies by Built in Chicago earlier this year.
Unlike most agencies, however, SearchLab operates on a month-to-month business model. It goes without saying that they need to prove their value to their clients in order to stay in business. To achieve this, they combine the paid search campaign building prowess of WordStream with the conversion tracking power of CallRail.
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Simplifying paid search campaigns with WordStream
For SearchLab, WordStream is an invaluable tool for running effective paid search campaigns. With this PPC optimization software, SearchLab can streamline paid search campaigns for clients without adding significant costs for the agency.
“Based on my existing employee and myself, I can cover way more clients than I could when I was just using Ads Editor,” explained Mark Bealin, Founder and Principal at SearchLab. “I think the biggest benefit for us is that WordStream allows us to keep our staff lean and not bring on too many more resources.”
Additionally, WordStream’s integrations and reporting tools help SearchLab prove to clients that their investment is paying off.
“WordStream really solves a lot of problems for us on the paid search side,“ said Bealin. “As long as I have integrated CallRail into Google Ads, WordStream creates really visually appealing reports that clients actually pay attention to. At the end of the day, we want to paint a better picture of what’s going on for the buyer.”
WordStream has been essential to SearchLab’s accelerated scaling over the last two-plus years –– giving the agency the ability to optimize multiple client accounts with greater efficiency.
Streamlined call conversion tracking with CallRail
Meanwhile, CallRail is instrumental for SearchLab’s phone call conversion-based paid search initiatives. With a suite of ad and keyword-level call tracking features, SearchLab can tell its clients which campaigns generate the most phone calls for more accurate ROI reporting.
In the case of one of SearchLab’s neuropsychologist clients, using CallRail attribution data helped the agency to prove that a dip in year-over-year calls for the month of August was actually the result of inaccurate reporting. That, and one awfully persistent dialer.
“With the unique caller metric, we found that one person called 40 times in August 2018,” explained Bealin. “When you can actually drill down and get information about unique callers or running models like first click and last click, you are able to give a clearer picture to your client.”
For another client, call tracking helped bring cost per conversion down to a more profitable number. This level of granularity can do wonders for agencies like SearchLab, whose clients are seeking rock-solid ROI on their marketing spend.
“One of our clients does property tax appeals in Chicago, and as with anything in law, it’s very challenging from a marketing standpoint,” said Bealin. “The clicks are expensive, the competition is high, and I think we’ve gotten him down to $30 conversions at this point. The lion’s share of those are for calls that we generate.”
Better together: WordStream and CallRail
By combining WordStream and CallRail, SearchLab provides its clients with the most full-spectrum view of their marketing efforts. By feeding CallRail’s data into WordStream (via Google Ads, if applicable), they can generate full-spectrum reports that accurately and transparently show clients their investment in the agency is worthwhile.
“If you want to go a layer deeper and say, ‘Hey, I want to actually know who it was that called, what date, the duration of the call, was it a new or returning caller?’” said Bealin. “Within CallRail, I can export records to show exactly all the data from the spreadsheet that shows the name of the caller, the duration of the call, whether it was answered or not, all that kind of stuff.”
Better yet, with CallRail Bealin can take clients beyond cells in a spreadsheet and give them access to the very calls that SearchLab’s campaigns are generating. This buoys the return they’re able to drive for their clients.
“Whatever you pay us is like an investment. You’ll get a dividend from it and then you’ll receive more back than you pay us,” explains Bealin. “I need these tools to help me make better decisions, so we can prove to you that we have been an investment and not an expense.”
