Ideagility · Co-founder and CTO · 2010 to 2014
Taking the hand-tuning out of pay-per-click
For businesses paying for every click on Google and Bing, from franchise owners to the Portland Trail Blazers
At BRC, the search marketing firm I founded in 2002, our people spent their days adjusting pay-per-click bids by hand, so we built a system that did most of it for them. That system became AgileBid, and in 2010 Mike Ulwelling and I started Ideagility to take it to market, with me leading product and engineering as CTO. With Mike and the Ideagility team we grew it to a million dollars a year in recurring revenue, with customers like ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Built with Mike Ulwelling and the Ideagility team
The result
$0 → $1M
a year in recurring revenue for AgileBid, grown with Mike Ulwelling and the Ideagility team.
The short version
The chore
Bids tuned by hand
At BRC our people spent hours on every client, every month, adjusting pay-per-click bids, and the work was never finished.
The fix
Bids tuned by software
I designed the bidding algorithm, and with the BRC team we built a system that adjusted each bid automatically, inside the limits each business owner set. When I sold BRC in 2010 it became AgileBid, and Mike Ulwelling and I started Ideagility to take it to market.
What happened
A million a year
With Mike and the Ideagility team we grew AgileBid to a million dollars a year in recurring revenue, with customers like ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Hours on every client, every month
In 2002 I started BRC, a search marketing and e-commerce firm in Austin. By 2007 we were up to our eyeballs in paid search clients, companies counting on us to get more out of their marketing budgets, and every one of their pay-per-click bids was tuned by hand.
It took hours on every client, every month, and the bidding was never finished, while the most valuable work, writing new ads and testing more of them, kept getting pushed aside by what amounted to data entry.
Letting software do the math
I designed the first bidding algorithm to adjust bids automatically, always inside the limits each business owner set, and to act right away instead of producing a report that sat until someone got to it. With the team at BRC, we built it into a system that took most of the bid work off our people.
It saved the time I hoped it would, and our clients saw results sooner than I expected, as the software kept making small refinements and we got back to new ads and new campaigns.
Bids by hand
Never finished
- Hours on every client, every month
- New ads and tests pushed aside by data entry
- Never finished
Bids by software
Small refinements, all the time
- Each bid adjusted automatically
- Always inside the limits the business owner set
- Time back for new ads and new campaigns
From BRC to Ideagility
Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon, Mike Ulwelling had spent three years growing a ServiceMaster franchise and wanted to learn how to win customers online. In 2010 I sold BRC, its bidding technology became AgileBid, and Mike and I started Ideagility to take it to market, with me as CTO.
Our early customers included ServiceMaster franchise owners across the country. Ideagility began by running its customers’ campaigns for them, with AgileBid handling the bids and our account managers handling the rest, and each customer could check its results and budget in a dashboard of its own.
A product any business could sign up for
As CTO I led product and engineering while our team turned AgileBid from software we ran for customers into software they could run themselves, and in November 2012 it became generally available. A business could sign up and let AgileBid manage its keyword bids on Google and Bing, putting money into the keywords that sold and cutting back or dropping the ones that didn’t. Customers paid Google and Bing directly, with no markup on their ad budgets.
Together with Mike and the Ideagility team, we grew AgileBid from zero to a million dollars a year in recurring revenue.
How AgileBid worked for a customer
- The business owner sets the limits
- AgileBid tests keywords on Google and Bing
- More money into the keywords that sell, less or none for the ones that don’t
- Results in the customer’s own dashboard
Customers paid Google and Bing directly, with no markup on their ad budgets.
How it came together
- 2002 I start BRC, a search marketing and e-commerce firm in Austin
- 2007 Up to our eyeballs in paid search clients, with every bid tuned by hand
- 2008 Our bidding system goes to work for BRC’s clients
- 2010 I sell BRC, its technology becomes AgileBid, and Mike Ulwelling and I start Ideagility
- Nov 2012 AgileBid becomes software any business can sign up for
- By 2014 AgileBid brings in a million dollars a year in recurring revenue
Next story
A better grip chalk, from formula to shelf
Primo Chalk · Founder · 2009 to 2020