Ladder.io

I am the CEO of GoodUnited

GoodUnited is the #1 direct message solution for nonprofit fundraising

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2-5 Employees

Ladder.io was charged with bringing a new SaaS brand to life and drive qualifed accounts through an awareness funnel to open up deals.

Ladder.io moved faster than our team. It was the first and only time I've ever had a vendor set the bar in hustle and professionalism.

I wasn't passed off to a low-level employee. With Level, the "quarterback" who you buy into and believe in during the sales process is the one who owns your account. "Owns" is the keyword. They are a world-class digital marketer and human who cares as much about our business as I do. Because we had a seasoned expert, there were no lies. If something was working, we tested ontop of it. If it wasn't, we quickly re-grouped and attacked. Ladder treated our money like their money.

I liked it, but there were a lot of people moving in and around our account. Because our "quarterback" was in command it didn't bother me as he was bringing new resources in and out to support different tests. However, I can see the speed and intensity that Ladder moves at may not be for everyone.

I am the project manager for Way Forward Signage Co., which is a company that provides beautifully designed temporary COVID-19 signage for the workplace.

We hired Ladder.io to train and gain more traction in the market. As expected, there are lots of signage options available. We wanted to differentiate ourselves and emphasize our commitment to customers safety.

We were looking to increase our visibility in the market, as well as our sales. Using Ladder.io helped us to be at the top of Google searches using specific keywords. We got more traction and visibility than expected and were extremely pleased with the outcome, which would not have been possible without the team at Ladder.io.

We were looking at the company that was most knowledgeable about trends in regards to performance marketing. We chose Ladder.io because they provided the most insight into the ever changing market and offered solutions right away.

The Ladder.io team was responsible for taking a deep dive into Way Forward Signage Co. They immersed themselves in the company and our product and truly came to understand where we wanted to position ourselves in the market. Once the discovery and immersion was complete, they were tasked with creating ads to promote our business.

We had one main point of contact for the project and he was responsible for planning all of the weekly meetings we had and communicating new findings/giving updates throughout the week. There were various other team members at Ladder.io working on our project that we were able to reach out to and ask questions. The team was consistent throughout the project.

Traffic to the website has increased significantly and we are continuing the Google ads to generate revenue. Due to our product, many people come to the site various times to look at the our options and discuss with the partners at their business on what to order.

The workflow was extremely effective between our team and theirs because of the main point of contact we had. Olaf was great and played a big role in keeping the project on track.

I found their communication and drive most impressive. They were always researching new things and keeping us up to date on all their findings.

No.

I’m the marketing manager on the growth team at an advertising technology company.

We hired them because we had broken out into a smaller team. We were trying to onboard new customers at scale, and we had a new self-service offering of our technology, so we needed Ladder.io’s expertise and assistance in ramping up the program.

Ladder.io did a big audit of our existing marketing stack and looked at everything that we had been doing. They then gave us recommendations from a technical standpoint of how we can improve and how they could support us from that side.

We work directly with an account manager. He works directly as a liaison between us and other people on the team. We’ve had two account managers in the time that we worked together because one of them left. We periodically have conversations with higher-up members of the team as well.

We did a lot of research, reached out to, and interviewed a lot of digital marketing agencies. Somebody else had used Ladder.io in the past and liked them, so they came internally recommended which is why they made our shortlist.

We began working with them in June 2019. We’re still working with them in a different structure than the original one.

Overall, they provide high-quality service. Ladder.io is very responsive and flexible to our needs, which has been one of the most helpful aspects of working with them because our needs change constantly. The team is always willing to adapt their services that they provide based on what we need.

The first account manager wasn’t an excellent project manager, so we had a lot of frustration at the beginning of our relationship around having visibility into one different campaign. We got a new account manager who is very on top of everything, and we feel a lot better.

Beyond their flexibility, I’ve learned from them. While they’re executing certain services, I’ve been able to learn about growth marketing and how Ladder.io tackles different challenges.

We’re a bigger company that has a lot of internal stakeholders. I get the sense that the way Ladder.io works is more autonomous, but we can’t do that. It’s tricky finding a balance of how we can let them work the way they do while maintaining internal standards.

Work with them. They’re a great company to work with, so have a conversation with them and you’ll be able to tell very easily if they’re the right fit or not.

We’re working on a sponsored blockchain project that uses technology to reinvent the way people use the Internet. Essentially, we’re created decentralized solutions to give data ownership back to individuals, rather than it being siloed with large corporations. I’m leading a decentralized experience team in my role.

Over a year ago, we started building this technology and realized we needed to outreach to get some traffic directed to landing pages to gain initial traction. Now, we’re moving into specifics surrounding engaging directly with developers and those who will be utilizing the technology.

First, they started to build up a directory of people who might be interested in our product. From there, they used paid advertising through Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others to get an audience excited and aware of our offerings. They did this to generate traffic, conversions, and member signups on our email list.

We have direct meetings and communication with a public account specialist. I know there are creatives and writers working on ad content, but I’m not sure how many. We only have regular direct contact with one person, though.

I found them by doing a Google search, with the intention of vetting a few different agencies. Their growth marketing and tracking algorithm intrigued me. They have their own unique system that’s based on historical data of their past campaigns with other companies. That appealed to me, so I hired them.

We spend $11,000 each month, which comes out to about $130,000 in total.

We started the collaboration in October 2018 and continue to work together today.

Each month, we’re getting better conversion rates, their advertisements yielding good growth performance. On average, we’re seeing a 3%–4% conversion rate on the strategies we’re focused on. The main thing we wanted to achieve, though, was growing our email list. Our current list has around 2,300 addresses, and we started at zero. They did a great job ramping up that process—we’re getting about 10 leads each week.

We’re very satisfied with our weekly meetings, where we’re able to communicate about different strategies. They’re able to actively engage with us in ways that accommodate our needs. Sometimes, we need them to be more hands-off and other times we’d prefer them to be more involved. Either way, we’re actively communicating with them, which is always helpful.

From day one, they were serious about establishing KPIs and knowing exactly what our end goal was. They wanted to understand what kind of leads we were looking for and the specifics on timelines. Because of that preparation, we’re getting better conversions and higher quality leads. They work every month on new tactics, accommodating the growth of our company over the years. Throughout, they’ve been willing to work with us to meet our various needs.

In terms of messaging, sometimes content appeared in a way that wasn’t in the original plan. For that reason, we needed to more actively participate in the creative and writing end of the project to ensure our specific messaging was accurate. Our need to continue to actively communicate in that way ended up being the only shortcoming.

Try them out, as long as you’re comfortable with your project plan. They need specifics on your goals to succeed, so communicate that to them. There won’t be a problem executing from there.

I’m the VP of marketing for a wedding venue and package company. I oversee the entire marketing spend reach for all of our communication, advertising, and promotion goals.

My company wanted to create a more consistent paid media approach. We hoped to have one agency oversee all our paid advertising so that they could learn from the strengths of different platforms and continue innovating and improve results.

Ladder.io uses search and social tools to help us promote our business to clients. They’ve deployed Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. The team crafts new creative and develops ongoing ad campaigns.

We’ve had too many different project managers. Different teams work on different parts of the project.

I followed Ladder.io’s blog and enjoyed it because they had so many relevant ideas. I also loved their expertise.

We’ve spent $300,000.

Our work with Ladder.io began in November 2018, and it’s ongoing.

Ladder.io manages a budget of $2 million. We’ve been tracking standard metrics, such as cost-per-click, and several touchpoints, like phone, formfill, and chat. We track everything within our own terminology and metric database, and then also within native tools.

They haven’t done very well in this regard. They make big promises and have big ideas, but when it comes to actually fulfilling the work, they repeatedly miss deadlines. When they’re doing work they like, they do it well, but it doesn’t tie back to any targets or goals. They prioritize based on ease rather than the requirements of the client.

Ladder.io is always in-the-know on what’s happening in the industry, and they’re always willing to try something new.

We’ve had a rotating door of project managers, and communication has been consistently poor. When something isn’t working well, Ladder.io leaves us to discover it rather than communicating proactively. Unfortunately, the approach from Ladder.io is to over promise and under deliver.

Expect to manage your own targets and metrics. Also, keep them focused until you get results; don’t give them too much to do at once. They tend to be scattered because they have so many great ideas, so a “less is more” approach works best.