Challenge

Finding the Right Agency Partner for E-Commerce Media Buying

Retail and direct-to-consumer gear brand Peak Design went through a lot of agency partners before finding the right fit. Most agencies promised they could deliver full-service digital advertising, including creative work, growth hacking, and media buying.

But most of the time, their work in at least one of these areas left a lot to be desired, as Peak Design’s director of digital marketing Elish Patel explains:

“These agencies would promise us that they could do it all. But when it came down to it, the content that they created was not up to our standards,” Elish says.

On top of that, their communication was often slow, and they lacked the big-picture strategic planning that Elish wanted from an agency partner.

“When it comes to digital advertising, it’s all about iterating,” he says. “And I would get called into weekly meetings where these agency partners would share really broad-level data about a few keywords they changed. I can read about those in the reporting deck. During meetings, I want to focus on how the agency’s work is helping us reach our goals.”

Elish often left those meetings feeling like he could have hired a junior marketer in-house for the same results.

“The whole point of working with an agency is that it extends our capabilities beyond what we can do internally,” he says.

Elish decided to decouple Peak Design’s creative advertising from its media strategy. He found Vulgar, a creative agency that produced the high-quality content Elish expected from a partner.

Now, he just needed to find a media agency partner who could help them design, plan and executes a comprehensive media strategy.

“They’re really knowledgeable. From the very beginning, the way they talked about scaling our efforts, looking at our customer base and what was realistically doable, I felt like they understood the point at which we are as a company and what we need to do next in order to grow.” -Elish Patel, Head of Digital Marketing & Growth, Peak Design

‍

Solution

An Experienced Media Partner to Help Build a Comprehensive Digital Advertising Strategy

When Elish began working with QRY, the experience was immediately different from working with past agency partners.

For starters, he could immediately tell that the QRY team knew their stuff.

“They’re really knowledgeable,” Elish says. “From the very beginning, the way they talked about scaling our efforts, looking at our customer base and what was realistically doable, I felt like they understood the point at which we are as a company and what we need to do next in order to grow.”

Plus, no one at QRY would just tell him what he wanted to hear–if they had a different opinion on a strategy decision, they weren’t afraid to push back.

“A lot of the agencies we worked with before would tell us everything was always going great, no matter what,” he explains. “QRY actually tells us what’s happening. They’ll push back if we’re making the wrong assumptions and they’ll tell us what they think we should do. It gives me a lot of confidence.”

QRY worked with Elish to build a comprehensive digital advertising media buying strategy.

Then, they created a detailed media forecast that outlined KPIs and set expectations with Peak Design’s leadership team.

Once everything was in place, they started activating the campaigns and began optimizing them.

“QRY really helped us diversify across all channels,” Elish says. “Whether it’s social media or Connected TV or Reddit. It’s great not to be so dependent on a single channel.”

Throughout their entire relationship, QRY’s flexibility and open communication really set them apart.

“We really wanted to work with an agency that worked more like us and was a little bit more flexible. From the beginning, QRY was on board. They agreed to be on our Slack and join our channels. Communicating with them felt easy.”

We’ve found the right partner. We really value their open communication, and their willingness to jump in and work with us to continually hone our strategy. - Elish Patel, Head of Digital Marketing & Growth, Peak Design

‍‍

Results

A 66% Increase in Online Revenue and Improved Return on Ad Spend by 70%

After three months, QRY completed a comprehensive analytics deep dive to determine the complete impact of the campaigns on the brand. The report confirmed that the campaigns were successful at driving significant incremental revenue.

Elish’s confidence in them had paid off.

“We’ve found the right partner,” he says. “We really value their open communication, and their willingness to jump in and work with us to continually hone our strategy.”

QRY’s media strategy helped Peak Design drive a 66% increase in online revenue. Peak Design also saw a 73% increase in the number of transactions and an improved return on ad spend by 70%.

Today, Peak Design continues to see great ROI for their advertising–even on social media, where a lot of their eCommerce peers are currently struggling.

“Those channels in particular have remained really healthy,” Elish says “A lot of people in the industry have been struggling to keep their return on investment at a sustainable level in the last year and a half. It’s been great to be able to tell our leadership team not to worry, because we are doing fine.”

Having a team of experts to work with has been a great experience for Elish and the rest of Peak Design’s marketing team. They launched a new product this year and needed to balance profitability with the challenges of entering a new market. But having QRY to work with made the whole experience smoother, Elish says.

“The key is that QRY always makes sure to understand what our goals are,” he says. “It’s wonderful working with a team that feels like they are part of the company. They were able to help us maintain our existing business and grow a new product in a new market at the same time. And they did a really good job.”