Summary
As LBMS started to grow, it became increasingly difficult for Frank to manage PPC himself. The first two white-label PPC providers were problematic. By switching to oxbird, he has been able to reduce client complaints by 80% and increase client retention from 6 months to 2+ years. LTVs and profitability are way up. Frank was able to bring on a full-time operations specialist with the new revenue, and now he’s spending his own time on content marketing.
Meet the Partner
Frank founded LBMS in 2007 and has built a strong reputation in local marketing.
Local Business Marketing Solutions started out with a focus on consulting in ’07 and switched to marketing services in 2012. That helped to grow their agency from a one-man band to 10+ employees with numerous client success stories.
More recently, LBMS has pivoted to prioritize lead generation for attorneys.
Meet Frank Demming
Frank and his wife live up in shivery New Jersey, where he was crunching 80 hrs/wk until he decided to branch out with his tech skills. Now he’s known as “The Local Business Guy” and has published a book, 7 Steps to Recession-Proofing Your Business. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Marketing Solutions for Local Businesses.
“The owner, Frank, is a true partner of partners--he's been very pleasant to work with; reasonable, collaborative, and even-tempered." -- Mike Johnson, oxbird
Identify the Problem
When managing PPC in-house got to be too much, Frank decided to find a white-label PPC vendor. Both of the vendors he tried before oxbird generated a lot of complaints about performance and communication. His reputation and clients were at stake.
Frank did all the PPC management in-house for the first five years (2012-17). As his CEO responsibilities grew with his agency, though, he looked for an alternative.
A blog post about high rates of turnover among media buyers discouraged him from staying in-house. That led him to try, not oxbird, but two other white-label providers.
“... I got overwhelmed. At that point, ... I hired 2 white-labeling companies prior to working with Oxbird and got TERRIBLE results (a TON of complaints about the poor results we were getting). The skillset was definitely not there. The pain points were primarily performance (or lack thereof) so moving to Oxbird has been a godsend.”
LBMS clients were reporting “no conversions,” high costs per click (CPCs), and “weird leads.” He asked his providers for support, but their communication processes were clunky (giant Facebook groups, disorganized email threads) and took days.
75% of his clients were complaining and several (incl. a six-year nest egg) had given him one month’s notice. PPC was costing him not just services but entire clients. He was struggling to justify his prices and didn’t want to pitch PPC to prospects.
Understand Our Services
Frank’s clients had his back up against the wall. Onboarding under pressure was hard at first, but it became much easier once he met with our team to learn our processes. He was also relieved to find alignment with our team’s account management values.
Frank’s admin found oxbird on Facebook, and he scheduled discovery calls with them and another white-label PPC provider. He “went with his gut and [chose oxbird].”
“It was a cool rapport, it was a smooth conversation... didn't seem sales-y at all. The other one was more of a cut throat type of sales call.”
LBMS began with Google Ads, and about 18 months later started adding Facebook Ads, Landing Pages, and Microsoft Ads. The transition was a little tense because Frank was “afraid that he was going to have yet another failed outsourcing partnership… I had my back against the wall. I had people breathing down my neck saying, ‘Hey. If this doesn’t work in the next week, I’m out.’” The pressure made onboarding difficult for him.
The main issue was access, and Frank was able to share his clients’ assets a few days later on a meeting with our team. As a result of similar experiences, we’ve since built a custom web application for partners. Pivot is our partners’ source of truth for PPC.
“I never even knew something like [Pivot] existed until you guys [built it]. It's a great software and... I LOVE Twist, which, I believe, is tied to Pivot. I like it because I can communicate with you guys via that platform and everything is in one place.”
We use another app, Twist, for partner communication. It specializes in async work with minimal notifications. Frank remembered when we launched Twist and said, “That was huge!” He likes the “streamlined” and “efficient” structure that has eliminated the confusion he experienced with his previous white-label PPC vendors.
Frank also appreciates the improved communication and relationship with our team:
“I view our partnership as a friendship to be honest. ... I just feel like I can reach out to you or anyone. I get replies right away... You guys are like Johnny on the spot.”
The previous providers relied on AI optimizations, sacrificing quality for quantity. Frank knew he had “found the team that I needed to work with” when we aligned around the value of manual, hands-on optimizations. He wanted to maintain quality while avoiding “risk of training someone” in-house and said “outsourcing is a lot sexier” with us.
See the Results
Frank experienced a significant drop in client complaints and an increase in client retention. This produced enough revenue for him to hire a full-time operations specialist. He’s also been able to justify raising his prices. Personally, he’s reallocating time and money into content marketing so he can pursue bigger attorney clients.
Frank believes his investment in our services has been worthwhile because we “have, for the most part, brought in results for [his] clients.” He “also loves the [Strategy Reports]. That is a great touch and… has increased my belief in your services.”
He reported that Google Ads “revenue has skyrocketed” for a basement waterproofing client “since he made the switch [to oxbird].” Another business development client has been able to access 225+ Facebook Ads leads for the low cost per lead (CPL) of $11.90.
LBMS has also been able to solidify their client relationships,
“My agency has been able to improve the communication with our clientele because we are sending them the [Strategy Reports] ... I can show them what we're working on, and they really appreciate knowing exactly what our plans are going forward."
Frank has been able to reduce client complaints by 80% and increase client retention by 300%. Now he and his team spend a lot less time resolving client concerns!
The effect on his P&L has been exponential. Many of his clients use multiple services, so the boost to retention has dramatically increased his customer LTV and revenue.
As his profitability increased, he hired a full-time operations specialist to increase his flexibility. This means that he has “been able to invest more money and time in content marketing.” Sales calls are easier for him too. “I’m very confident that we can deliver the goods, if you will. So that’s why I can speak with conviction.”
“I can now honestly say, without hesitation, that LBMS is a lead generation specialist company because I have oxbird on my side to perform the work."
This did mean, though, that Frank had to increase his fees because ours were “higher than the other outsourcers.” His business coach had already been telling him to do it, and he was finally able to make it happen with his newfound confidence.
He said he “actually had to thank us for [making him raise his prices]” because the changes have helped him access a “higher echelon clientele.” He’s repurposed our Strategy Reports as sales collateral so he can sell “with more confidence.”
“I no longer am hesitant to sell PPC to larger brands [due to results and reports]."
Follow the Journey
Frank understands the healthy dynamics of a working partnership. He’s busy with sales and clients, and we’re managing accounts. The combination has been working well!
Much of Frank’s success is due to his excellent interpersonal skills,
“Frank has close relationships with his clients and is quick to message us back. We're able to save time since his clients have proper expectations." — Nick Robinson, oxbird
Frank is eager to explore his new legal niche. He understands our partnership,
“My responsibility is to get in front of as many potential clients as possible... oxbird's responsibility is to provide the best services possible... for my clients."
He and his new operations specialist are building an employee training process to help new team members get involved in all our services and offerings.
“I am really looking forward to growing with you guys. Everything is PPC related now."
