Acquisio helps us differentiate our offerings by allowing us to manage client campaigns across platforms – including social ads – in a high-touch, low-hassle way. We’ll be able to provide customized reports and other value-add services to our clients without any additional headcount.”

The Problem

YPG Needed a Cost-Effective, Scalable Platform for PPC Management

As advertising moved increasingly to online, Yellow Pages Group of Canada (YPG) wanted to claim a significant market share of the emerging business. With 100-year-old roots in traditional media, the company had to convince advertisers it was up-to-speed on online advertising practices and that it could effectively compete against other providers for the digital advertising business.

“Our customers are SMBs you deal with every day. They are small to medium sized businesses. We knew we would be managing hundreds or thousands of small spend accounts and needed a PPC solution that was flexible enough to handle this complexity,” said Sean Ballard of Yellow Pages Group. “We also needed a cost-effective platform that would scale easily along with our increased volume.”

YPG Uncovers an Alternative to New Full-Time Employees

When Ballard went to launch his company’s pilot PPC program, it quickly became apparent that managing such a large volume of clients and campaigns could quickly get tricky. “When we launched Performance Custom PPC in late 2007, we estimated needing 3 or 4 full-time employees just to get started in building, managing, and reporting on campaigns,” said Ballard. But Yellow Pages Group didn’t have a business case for hiring a handful of new people for a pilot program, and so Ballard and his team explored other options to help develop and manage its clients’ campaign reports. “We knew we’d need a solution that could help us quickly get the reporting tasks handled, and so we started researching what was out there.”

The Solution

1 Consultant + 1 Acquisio License= A 65-75% Cost Savings

Yellow Pages Group began its pilot program with one consultant and one Acquisio license, with a cost saving of between 65-75% from the costs associated with 3 or 4 full-time employees. “Acquisio understood our PPC business and what we were trying to accomplish,” said Ballard. “Where Acquisio shines is its ease of reporting, the basic fundamentals of telling the client how their campaign is doing. It’s easy for us to manage the message, and for advertisers to understand what they’re getting.”

“Acquisio’s ability to provide an efficient platform on a scalable service model has been critical to building our business”

The Results:

YPG Scales its Business to Become Canada’s Premier Performance Media Network

Acquisio’s polished, easy-to-understand reports helped Yellow Pages Group scale its PPC business and establish itself as the preeminent performance media network in Canada. “We grew the pilot program into a robust service managing hundreds of accounts and a multi-million dollar spend – all still with one person and Acquisio.”

Pilot Program Success Leads to Bigger Service Offerings

Ballard credited Acquisio’s ability to scale as an important factor in Yellow Pages Group’s success and growth. “Acquisio’s ability to provide an efficient platform on a scalable service model has been critical to building our business,” noted Ballard. “Since the success of our pilot program, we’re actually going to be re-launching our Performance Custom PPC program this year as an agency-style service for small-and medium-sized businesses.”

 

Providing Value-Add Services without Additional Staff

Launching the revamped PPC program will be easy, according to Ballard, thanks to Acquisio. “Making a business case for the relaunch is easy because we know we can handle additional volume and service without a big ramp up,” Ballard commented. “Acquisio helps us differentiate our offerings by allowing us to manage client campaigns across platforms – including social ads – in a high-touch, low-hassle way. We’ll be able to provide customized reports and other value-add services to our clients without any additional headcount.”

Poised for Painless (and Profitable) Growth, Thanks to Acquisio

Ballard is convinced that Acquisio is built to support Yellow Pages Group today and into the future. “Even as we grow, the number of people we need to run client campaigns will remain low and our technology ramp up processes will be painless, because of Acquisio.”


About Yellow Pages Group

Yellow Pages Group (YPG) is Canada’s leading performance media and marketing solutions company. The Company serves approximately 365,000 local businesses through its nation-wide sales force of media consultants.

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