October 28th, 2021
2020 threw us for a loop and 2021 continued staying on-brand by presenting us with new and further global and advertising industry challenges as the pandemic evolved and tech giants put us in the cross-hairs. While that was the case, the challenges that present themselves are what keep the digital advertising line of work exciting, creative, innovative, and far from stagnant, which is how we prefer it.
Reflecting back, it has been another interesting year in life and in business as the COVID-19 pandemic continued onward and evolved in many ways through vaccine developments, to variants, business mandate executions, supply chain issues, and seeing firsthand how our business and our client’s businesses have quickly pivoted in order to not only survive, but thrive in this new landscape that we call our new normal.
Thankfully, unlike year six when the pandemic began, we did not lose any clients and instead, we saw a continued influx in consulting needs as brands were becoming leaner, looked to diversify, and were understanding of the power of social media advertising and yearning to harness it.
We also faced quite possibly one of the most significant changes to the social media advertising industry with the rollout of Apple’s iOS 14 software update by the end of April 2021 which amplified the need to expand our data detective skills. By having even less data to work with, we, as advertisers had to navigate uncharted territory as we leveraged various tools, continued diversifying our efforts across more platforms, and made sure we were extra dialed-in on creative and ad copy as well as providing a seamless and intuitive way to guide users through the customer journey. Tracking has changed, we have less data to utilize in our strategy and analysis, but that doesn’t mean our work is over or that customers are no longer there. They are and we have to appreciate being kept on our toes, practice future-forward thinking as we develop strategies, and continue to have a healthy appetite for testing new things in order to find our audiences and accomplish our goals.
As we celebrate our seventh year, we go into it with immense gratitude to our team, our clients, to our family, friends, and our peers for the continued support and referrals. Here are a few things that we are grateful for and proud to share about this last year in business:
Highlights
- We relocated back to Southern California! It’s good to be back in the Los Angeles area. After being away for 5 years and exploring Paso Robles on the beautiful Central Coast of California, we realized how much we missed our community, the excitement of a bigger city, and opportunities this amazing county has to offer and allow entrepreneurs to develop. Life is a journey of optimization, so try new things and experience new environments, take risks, and if it doesn’t work out, there’s no shame in reverting.
- As we faced another year without in-person events, we still had the honor and the pleasure of sharing our knowledge, experiences, case studies, and social media advertising strategies by speaking at a number of conferences, such as Utah DMC Digital Marketing Conference, Search Engine Journal’s SEJ eSummit, Paid Search Association’s event, and American Gem Society’s Confluence.
- Our team was published in AdAge, Fast Company, DigiDay, Voyage LA magazine, Wordstream, Search Engine Journal, DataBox, Parlor.io, JustUno, Unbounce, and other news publications and industry blogs.
- Joined Optily Radio, Traject, Foxwell Digital, Wholesome Media, and other video interviews, podcasts, and online radio shows as a guest to talk marketing, advertising, business, entrepreneurship, careers, and the impacts of iOS 14 and COVID-19.
- We returned for the second consecutive year to speak to students at our friend and professor, Mindy Weinstein’s marketing class at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. It’s such a delight speaking with students that are eager to learn and to take the next steps as they prepare to begin their career in marketing and/or advertising. After each of the cohorts, we’ve remained in touch with several students and developed a mentoring relationship. It’s so fulfilling and joyful to see these bright minds at work.
- Worked with a number of exciting, creative, and innovative clients such as Salt & Straw ice cream, Indow custom window inserts, Dansko shoes, Johnson & Johnson, personality test and career assessment company, Truity, Voice In Sport that provides mentors and resources to young women in sports, Aeris air filters, Homes for Heroes that helps realtors and heroes such as teachers, law enforcement, military, and firefighters in our communities purchase homes, EGG New York children’s apparel, and many others.
- Teamed up with and collaborated on some accounts with our agency friends at That Pam Chick, Blue Light Media, Red Mud Media, ODEO, and Spot Violet.
- Had a case study published by the Weather Ads company as it related to our success with their weather-based targeting automation tool that we used for our client, Indow Windows. Learn how we increased their lead volume and lowered their cost per lead by 40%.
- The influx in consulting requests we saw the year prior continued into this year at exciting rates. This resulted us in further scaling the consulting side of our business through consulting for brands and providing tailored training sessions for agencies that were interested in learning more or were considering expanding into paid social. This has been interesting to witness and to take part in as there is plenty of business for everyone and it helps strengthen our community as a whole and what we do. It’s important, it’s helpful, and lucrative for brands and vendors alike. The pandemic has brought more businesses online in order to survive and thrive and I believe this trajectory will continue into the new year as we’re still in the midst of this metamorphoses in our lives and our work.
- As an agency that lives to connect people, we are thrilled to share that over the last year, we referred over 145 leads to other talented, reliable, and seasoned freelancers and agencies in our network where we thought they would have been a better fit for the client with their expertise or that we did not have the bandwidth for at times.
What’s Next?
What IS next? While my crystal ball is currently out of commission and in the repair shop, I can’t say for certain, but what I do know, as an intuitive human being, is that it is going to be an exciting year, full of new and welcome challenges – though, I wouldn’t mind if they eased up a little to give us some breathing room after these last two years. It will be interesting to see how we further immerse ourselves into a cookie-less world, but technology will continue innovating and our work will change with the times.
With a new location, a team expansion, new projects signed on and in the horizon, we’re delighted to share what we’ll be up to with you soon, so watch this space.
In the interim, continue staying healthy and we wish you a joyful and successful holiday season and year ahead. Thank you every so much for being a part of our journey.
Cheers,
Akvile DeFazio
President, AKvertise
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