CEO SPOTLIGHT

David Chapman

Company: Webrageous Studios

Biography   David Chapman founded Webrageous Studios, a pay per click management firm, in 2001. He graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering with a focus in aerospace applications. He achieved a 4.0 grade point average during three out of eight semesters, including the spring of his freshman year when he was training four hours a day as part of an undefeated heavyweight crew team.

David is an avid skier, holding a season pass at Squaw Valley for the past nine seasons. He also races sailboats and was part of a three person team that won the summer racing series on Lake Tahoe in 2007. Upon graduating from college, David became a raft guide in Colorado and followed his passion to the jungles of Costa Rica. While there, he worked on a class 3 section of Whitewater on the remote Sarapiquí River. In 2008 he had the opportunity to fulfill every raft guide’s dream by guiding the Grand Canyon for one trip.

David started his career in technology at Princeton Consultants, a prestigious firm where he served as a management and IT consultant. After two years, he decided to strike out on his own and founded Webrageous Studios (http://www.webrageous.com) in 2001. It started as a web design business, but has since evolved to managing paid search accounts after several clients asked David to handle this task for them. He discovered a natural talent for PPC management and soon shifted the focus of the entire business to this niche industry.

“We have a tremendous amount of pride in the work that we do and love going way over the top to achieve top-notch results for our clients. Managing pay per click campaigns is my best talent in life and I really love the work that I do,” boasts Chapman.

If you are seeking to work with Webrageous Studios, please note that the only new business they are currently accepting is pay per click management.

What Sets Us Apart?

Webrageous Studios is unique in the industry. They offer pay for performance pricing for most new clients who are already spending $10,000 or more per month on paid search advertising. Essentially, they only charge their clients when they increase sales or leads by 25% or more, or reduce costs by 25%+. In this economy, clients don't want to take a risk that a new vendor won't perform. Not only are financial resources wasted, but clients can't afford to waste several months working with the wrong pay per click management company. Webrageous takes the risk out of the equation with their pay for performance guarantee.

Webrageous Studios started as a web design firm in 2001 and this experience continues to benefit their clients as landing page optimization is a critical success factor with pay per click marketing.

There are hundreds of issues that could cause a campaign to perform far worse than its potential. Success in pay per click advertising can be elusive. It demands that the person in charge of the campaign be detail oriented. Uncovering just a few small mistakes in a paid search campaign can help achieve a 25% to 50% or more increase in leads or sales. You have to know where to look and you can't be afraid to “get your hands dirty”. Webrageous’ experience and depth of knowledge plays a big part in their ability to take clients to that next level.

“We’re careful about how we grow the business and are very upfront with prospective clients. We always turn away potential clients if we don't believe that we can make a huge difference for them, or if we feel there might be bad chemistry with that client. Sometimes a client’s product or website just isn't strong enough to succeed with paid search. We’re always upfront about that,” says Chapman.


Achieving Top Results

A notable success was their involvement with the law firm of Schneider Wallace Cottrell Brayton Konecky LLP where they help find leads for their unpaid wages practice area. In October of 2006 this client received 34 leads at a cost per lead of $49.86. By November of 2008 those numbers had improved to 451 leads at a cost per lead of $3.98.  Another success story can be found in the work they have done for the National Laser Institute. Webrageous increased their student leads from 188 to 729 per month over the course of one year. You can see screenshots of this at www.Webrageous.com/results.htm


How To Choose a Pay Per Click Management Company

The first thing to do is consider all of the PPC management companies you might work with. Webrageous Studios recommends researching these companies before calling them. Search for their company name on Google and see what comes up in the first few pages. Most companies are reputable, but you can determine who the “bad apples” are pretty easily by doing a Google search and looking for any unhappy customers who have complained about a certain provider in a blog post or Better Business Bureau report.


Industry Myths

David frequently hears clients and potential clients talk about natural search as if it was the “holy grail” of internet marketing. Most think that once they receive great natural search results they can eliminate paid search. While Webrageous Studios agrees that natural search traffic is great and should be part of a firm's online marketing strategy, you can only be successful by targeting a few search terms per page. If you have a 10 page website, you’ll probably be able to compete successfully for 10-50 challenging natural search terms. If your domain is less than a year old, you might not rank well for any keyword phrases except maybe the name of your business. With paid search you can compete effectively for hundreds or thousands of keywords and drive a tremendous amount of targeted traffic to your website. Plus, you can find out what works quickly and effectively and adjust your strategy as needed.

The Future Of The Industry

Most traditional advertising firms which handle print, radio and TV advertising aren’t accustomed to the tools required or the frame of mind needed to measure results the way that paid search advertising firms do. Good pay per click management firms are used to tracking results carefully and shifting a client's budget to where they achieve the best success. It takes a unique blend of marketing genius and computer nerd to be successful in paid search marketing. Google is starting to enter traditional media and are applying not only their auction system to media buying but are also providing marketers with a more results-driven approach. This is a tremendous opportunity for Internet marketing firms that want to compete successfully with traditional advertising firms. Typically, Internet marketing firms utilize a more results-based approach and deliver a much higher return on investment for their clients than the big guys.

Webrageous Studios: Five Years From Now

“Doing great work for a select number of clients is very rewarding for me. Growing into a large firm with a revolving door of clients is not what I want. We definitely don’t want to be the biggest pay per click management company, we just want to be the best!” – David Chapman