Overview
Cenvar Roofing and Solar is a local Virginia company with big ambitions of becoming a national brand. Such expansion would require extending their marketing reach, but early steps into the digital advertising world were shaky and uncertain. The Genius Monkey platform offered the solid digital marketing foundation Cenvar needed, and helped them elevate their entire marketing strategy to reach further, smarter, and more efficiently than ever before.
The Challenge
Before working with Genius Monkey, the Cenvar team used only traditional marketing methods such as billboards, print ads, and linear TV commercials. These worked well enough for developing a local clientele, but Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Vernon knew they would need to do more to achieve Cenvar’s ambitions. They needed a solution that would reach across state boundaries and find new, interested clients.
Tracking success is also tricky in traditional marketing. As Vernon put it, “Our traditional marketing methods were pretty fire-and-forget; just spend this money on these advertisements and hope it works!” Without knowing what was and was not working, it was difficult to know what other steps Cenvar should take. Vernon said, “You need that reporting to accurately decide what’s going to happen – and what to do – in the future.” The right platform for Cenvar would need in-depth reporting and metrics.
Vernon and his team looked for digital platforms and eventually signed on with a company to start running ads. Unfortunately, the lack of transparency and the inexperience of the Cenvar team meant hidden fees, smoke and mirrors, and a hearty dose of frustration. According to Vernon, “They were just hiding a whole bunch of things from us. I was new to digital marketing so I wasn’t sure what questions to ask.” The team learned that transparency and clear expectations would be a vital part of Cenvar’s long-term digital marketing plans.
Cenvar Roofing & Solar focused on these primary goals with their programmatic vendor:
- Expanded reach with Targeting Solutions
- In-depth Reports and Analytics
- Transparency and Clear Expectations
Our Solution
Vernon first heard about Genius Monkey through an email outreach, and the promise of ad analytics caught his attention. During the first meeting, Vernon was impressed with the knowledge our sales representative possessed, as well the up-front information offered on exactly what Cenvar could expect from a partnership with Genius Monkey. With the go-ahead to start placing OTT ads, Genius Monkey focused efforts on homeowners, especially those interested in renewable energy sources or those who have been having roof troubles in an older home.
Cenvar was shifting to an entirely new potential client base, which meant building awareness by increasing impressions. In addition to placing ads to optimize their CPM, Genius Monkey helped the Cenvar team customize their dashboard so they could quickly see their desired metrics. Every bit of information was readily accessible, and the team could even see which metrics were having the largest impact on conversions.
With the plan and the ads in place, it was time for the Genius Monkey platform to work its magic.
The Results
After advertising with Genius Monkey for 45 days, Cenvar noted:
- A 34% increase in website traffic
- A 44% increase in leads generated from the website
Once Cenvar saw that impression frequency was the metric with the largest impact, they also included display ads so potential clients would see and interact with Cenvar more often.
After one year with their new programmatic solutions, Cenvar found:
- A 12% increase in total lead volume
- A 30% increase in gross billing
- Potential clients were seeing Cenvar ads more than double the rate as when they started with Genius Monkey
These numbers suggest that Cenvar’s ads are generating the best type of leads; more people who are ready to convert are seeing the ads. The corresponding jump in closing and billing (which even surpassed the increase in leads) suggests that . Vernon was also impressed with the customer journey reports, which show every impression and interaction a customer had from introduction to conversion. “I remember one report that showed a client with 57 interactions starting from a Genius Monkey ad and going through multiple channels… It’s just amazing.
"I remember one report that showed a client with 57 interactions starting from a Genius Monkey ad and going through multiple channels... It’s just amazing."
- Stephen Vernon, CMOSummary
After a rough start to their digital advertising journey, Cenvar Roofing and Solar found a transparent, data-driven partner in Genius Monkey that delivered tangible results. The now-visible numbers showed that more potential customers were receiving more ads at more opportune times, strengthening Cenvar’s message and leading to a sustainable increase in conversions.
Cenvar continues to expand its reach, with plans to add digital audio advertising to their suite as well. Above all, CMO Stephen Vernon praised the Genius Monkey team for their accessibility and expertise: “Genius Monkey has good people who know what they’re doing.” To anyone who might be hesitant to take their first steps into digital marketing, Vernon says: “Go for it; it’s worth every dime” and concludes, “I wish we had started with Genius Monkey years ago.”