Elite SEM is a NYC-based Search Engine Marketing (SEM) boutique agency that was founded in 2004 by CEO Ben Kirshner. From small beginnings, Elite SEM is now the agency of record for several Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer Top 500 companies including Ideeli, Hugo Boss, Terminix, Dictionary.com, Tommy Bahama, WWE, Clarks, Telenav, PwC, Air and Water, Havaianas, Michael C. Fina, Solstice, Coffeeforless.com, Andrew Marc, TruGreen and Rockport. In addition to a vast knowledge of the online marketing vertical through experience in the space, all Elite SEM agency members are certified search marketing professionals. Some of Elite’s longest tenured and top executives teach online marketing at NYU’s continuing education programs in a class Benjamin Kirshner first started in 2006, and have had their ideas published in Mashable, Yahoo News, and American Express OPEN Forum. At the same time, members of Elite have even been privileged to be invited as speakers in front of other industry professionals and top companies at official events at Google, Yahoo, and Bing offices, and also at industry conference events at E-tail West, Multichannel Merchant, and IRCE.
With a team of nearly 30 SEM experts in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta, we aim to continue to further assert ourselves as thought leaders in the online marketing space. We pride ourselves with providing concierge-style quality of service, round-the-clock attention to detail, and accountability for our services and results. Where more traditional marketers have trouble keeping up with the blindingly rapid pace of new tools and campaign types in the online marketing space, we work hand and hand with our agency teams at all the major search engines on a daily basis. This is to ensure that Elite SEM clients are on the forefront of everything cutting edge available to advertisers.
We encourage anyone interested in learning more about our growing agency and services to contact us. Need more reasons? See below for 5 specific reasons that we think make us stand out.
5 Reasons Why Elite SEM is a Different Kind of SEM Agency
1) We’re the least profitable SEM Agency
While traditional online marketing agencies have trained salespersons who know much about the online space, these same people who sell the service are very unlikely to actually be the ones who work on a client’s account on a daily basis. Oftentimes the important tasks of daily optimization are given to young newcomers straight out of college.
At Elite SEM our salespeople are also account executives and managers. Talented and accredited individuals with 2-7 years of experience and teammates behind them ensure company success.
How does this make us the least profitable SEM Agency? Well, account executives and managers make 50%+ of the profits on the accounts and campaigns they manage. This keeps them heavily incentivized to not only grow their clients’ campaigns, but to also keep the ROI and results positive so that client retention remains high.
While it may make our agency overall less profitable, we feel it separates us from the pack in terms of adding an extra layer of incentive for agency employees to hit their clients’ goals.
Most importantly, we see our clients stay with us three times as long as the industry average and those results speak for themselves.
2) We have a two day out clause in a hyper transparent industry
Unsatisfied with the results of your campaigns driven by Elite SEM or the level of service your account is getting? If for whatever reason at ALL you are not satisfied with our services, it is stated in all Elite SEM contracts that there is a 48 hour “Out” clause for our clients to leave if they see fit.
We hope for our clients to never want to use such a clause, but it is there for peace of mind.
3) We have a 0% employee turnover rate
Since the company started in 2004 we have never had an employee quit Elite SEM.
Elite employees receive the highest compensation rates in the industry, ownership in the agency, educational training reimbursement, free lunch and coffee (just like they would receive at Google), and are required to take time off work for vacations to ensure they don’t burn out from working too hard.
Happy and well-compensated employees work hard on their clients’ campaigns and ensure the very highest level of service in a service-driven industry.
4) We believe in the “Expert’s Only Approach”
While other agencies attempt to bundle many additional services beyond search engine marketing, display advertising, and remarketing across all device types, we’ve embraced the “expert only” approach and consider our staff to be a 10 out of 10 in those aforementioned core online marketing services vital to any business.
We recommend that our clients who seek shopping comparison and/or affiliate marketing services use companies that we’ve had the pleasure of dealing with through our vast list of clients, with whom we have had great experiences and results.
If you find you’re only getting a 5 out of 10 with one type of marketing campaign and all other campaign types are performing adequately or better than hoped, simply replace the company that is underperforming, without having to replace what is working.
5) We’re a closely knit work family
At Elite SEM we feel that the people of our company are the most important asset we have to offer potential clients, be they well-known Internet Retailer 500 brands or smaller to midsized businesses looking to further build an established presence or start their business online for the first time.
That being said, over 95% of the Elite team has been handpicked via employee referrals. We’re a closely knit group of not just colleagues but friends who work together in the good times and through adversity towards a greater good.
The fact that we’ve been listed for two years in a row in the Inc. 500/5000 “Fastest Growing Private Companies” for 2010 and 2011 only reaffirms the advantage of our approach.
We also print money for our clients, are fun at parties, and were voted the number two most popular place to work in New York City by the Business Insider in 2011.
Elite SEM is a NYC-based Search Engine Marketing (SEM) boutique agency that was founded in 2004 by CEO Ben Kirshner. From small beginnings, Elite SEM is now the agency of record for several Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer Top 500 companies including Ideeli, Hugo Boss, Terminix, Dictionary.com, Tommy Bahama, WWE, Clarks, Telenav, PwC, Air and Water, Havaianas, Michael C. Fina, Solstice, Coffeeforless.com, Andrew Marc, TruGreen and Rockport. In addition to a vast knowledge of the online marketing vertical through experience in the space, all Elite SEM agency members are certified search marketing professionals. Some of Elite’s longest tenured and top executives teach online marketing at NYU’s continuing education programs in a class Benjamin Kirshner first started in 2006, and have had their ideas published in Mashable, Yahoo News, and American Express OPEN Forum. At the same time, members of Elite have even been privileged to be invited as speakers in front of other industry professionals and top companies at official events at Google, Yahoo, and Bing offices, and also at industry conference events at E-tail West, Multichannel Merchant, and IRCE.
With a team of nearly 30 SEM experts in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta, we aim to continue to further assert ourselves as thought leaders in the online marketing space. We pride ourselves with providing concierge-style quality of service, round-the-clock attention to detail, and accountability for our services and results. Where more traditional marketers have trouble keeping up with the blindingly rapid pace of new tools and campaign types in the online marketing space, we work hand and hand with our agency teams at all the major search engines on a daily basis. This is to ensure that Elite SEM clients are on the forefront of everything cutting edge available to advertisers.
We encourage anyone interested in learning more about our growing agency and services to contact us. Need more reasons? See below for 5 specific reasons that we think make us stand out.
