Questions we get every engagement.
Straight answers on how we work, what to expect, and what happens to everything we build together.
Getting Started
How does the onboarding process work?
Every engagement opens with a discovery sprint. In the first 5–10 business days we audit your existing campaigns, funnel analytics, attribution setup, and martech stack. You receive a written 90-day roadmap — with prioritized actions and projected impact — before we touch anything live.
How long before we see results?
Initial optimizations (bid adjustments, audience refinements, attribution fixes) typically go live within 14 days of audit completion. Meaningful ROAS movement usually appears in weeks 3–6. Structural work like funnel rebuilds and custom AI workflows take 30–60 days to fully deploy and stabilize.
Do we need to have existing campaigns running?
Not necessarily. We work with clients from zero and with clients who have years of campaign history. Starting from zero means we build the right structure from the ground up — no legacy baggage to untangle. That said, existing data helps ML models train faster.
What information do you need from us at the start?
Access to your ad accounts (read-only is fine to start), your analytics platform, and a brief on revenue targets and constraints. We handle the rest during the audit. You don't need to prepare anything elaborate — we ask the right questions.
How We Work
Will we have a dedicated point of contact?
Yes. Every engagement is run by a dedicated account strategist who owns your relationship end-to-end. You're not routed through an account coordinator to a back-room analyst. The person you talk to is the person building your campaigns.
How often will we communicate?
Growth Engine plans include monthly performance reviews. Revenue Accelerator includes bi-weekly strategy calls. Enterprise engagements are scoped individually. Outside of scheduled calls, you have direct Slack and email access to your strategist.
Do you manage our existing ad accounts or create new ones?
We manage campaigns inside your existing accounts — you retain full ownership of all accounts, historical data, and assets at all times. We never create shadow accounts that disappear when you leave.
Can we see what you're doing in real time?
Yes. Revenue Accelerator and Enterprise clients get a custom analytics dashboard that shows live campaign performance, ROAS, pipeline attribution, and funnel metrics. All change logs are documented and shared on request.
Paid Media & Ad Spend
What ad spend budget do I need?
Growth Engine works best with $5K–$30K/month in managed spend. Revenue Accelerator is built for $30K–$200K/month. Enterprise is uncapped. Below $5K/month there typically isn't enough signal volume for ML models to optimize against — we'll tell you honestly if your budget won't generate meaningful results.
Is your management fee separate from ad spend?
Yes. Our retainer fee is separate from your media spend. You fund the ad platforms directly — we never hold your media budget or take a percentage-of-spend commission. This keeps our incentives aligned with ROAS, not spend volume.
Which ad platforms do you manage?
Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Performance Max, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube, Amazon Ads, and programmatic/DV360. Most clients run 2–3 channels. We recommend channel mix based on your audience and margin targets, not what's easiest to manage.
How does ML bidding actually work?
We deploy custom bidding scripts on top of each platform's native API. These scripts analyze conversion probability, margin by product/segment, time-of-day patterns, and competitor auction pressure — then adjust bids every 15 minutes. It's faster and more data-driven than platform-native smart bidding, which optimizes for platform revenue, not yours.
Results & Reporting
How do you measure success?
Against the revenue metrics that matter to your business: ROAS, cost-per-acquisition, cost-per-qualified-lead, and pipeline contribution. We don't report on reach, impressions, or engagement rates in isolation — those only appear in our reports if they directly correlate to a downstream revenue metric.
What if results aren't meeting targets?
We flag underperformance before you do — it's built into our monitoring. Every engagement has a 60-day performance review milestone. If we're off target, we present a specific remediation plan: what we're changing, why, and what we expect it to do. We don't make excuses or wait for you to raise the alarm.
Do you use attribution modeling or last-click?
We never use last-click as a primary attribution model. Depending on your stack, we implement data-driven attribution (DDA), Shapley value models, or time-decay models calibrated to your actual sales cycle. Last-click systematically overcredits bottom-of-funnel paid search and misleads every budget decision downstream.
Can you integrate with our CRM and analytics tools?
Yes. We work with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Close, and most major CRM platforms, plus Google Analytics 4, Segment, and custom data warehouses. Attribution data flows from ad platforms through your analytics layer into CRM — giving sales full context on every lead's acquisition path.
Pricing & Contracts
Do you require long-term contracts?
Growth Engine and Revenue Accelerator plans are month-to-month with a 30-day notice period. Enterprise engagements are typically 6 or 12-month partnerships — complex AI builds and data infrastructure require continuity to deliver correctly. We'll be clear about the right structure before you sign anything.
What happens to our campaigns if we stop working together?
Everything stays with you. Ad accounts, ML scripts, funnel builds, custom dashboards, and all code are yours. We document everything we build so your internal team or a future agency can pick up without disruption. There's no handcuff clause and no proprietary black box.
Can we start with one service and add more over time?
Absolutely. Most clients start with paid media or funnel automation, then expand into AI engineering and custom dashboards once the foundation is generating positive ROI. We structure engagements to grow with you — not to upsell you into scope you're not ready for.
Do you offer performance-based pricing?
We price on retainer, not percentage-of-spend or pure performance commissions. Performance bonuses for hitting specific ROAS or pipeline targets can be built into Enterprise contracts. Purely performance-based pricing creates bad incentives — it pushes agencies toward easy wins instead of durable infrastructure.
Still have questions?
Book a 30-minute call. We'll answer anything, walk through your specific situation, and tell you exactly what we'd recommend — whether or not you hire us.
Book a Strategy Call