Matchnode is my chief marketing officer. They want us to succeed, and they’ll go the extra mile to make sure we do.
1440
| Industry | Location |
| News and Media | USA |
1440 is a daily email digest that gives subscribers an impartial view of what’s happening in the world. From a small news digest that was shared with a small group of friends, 1440 has grown to 250,000+ daily readers with a 50+ percent daily open rate.
Social media advertising isn’t easy. It’s particularly challenging for startups, as Tim Huelskamp, Co-Founder and CEO of 1440, understood all too well.
He didn’t want his company to become a cautionary tale of blowing through an advertising budget with nothing to show for it. At the same time, he knew social media advertising was the only way 1440 was going to reach new audiences, grow its subscriber base, and ultimately increase business growth and revenue.
“Most of our growth had been organic, with subscribers forwarding our newsletter to family and friends. But we wanted to expand beyond that base, and we thought paid social would be a good channel for us. We wanted to find new audiences, have those people recommend us to their family and friends, and let things snowball,” he says.
But the 1440 team had a challenge—they didn’t have the resources or in-house expertise to manage social marketing in a cost- or time-effective manner. Even after making it a priority, they weren’t getting the results they wanted.
“I’m more of a venture capitalist than a marketer,” says Tim. “This isn’t my area of expertise. So the ads we were running were very basic, and we didn’t know how to improve performance while keeping our costs in check.”
As an additional challenge, 1440 needed to acquire new leads under a firm maximum cost per acquisition (CPA).
“Our business model only works if we acquire new subscribers under a set cost,” says Tim, “which can be challenging because our product has broad consumer appeal.”
Tim and his team also wanted to target specific types of audiences. They knew those audiences were out there, but they didn’t know how to find them.
“A good portion of our subscribers are huge fans of our newsletter and open it every single day,” says Tim. “We wanted to find audiences that are like that group.”
Therefore, Tim started a search for a paid social media marketing partner.
“Our business model only works if we acquire new subscribers under a set cost, which can be challenging because our product has broad consumer appeal.”
While Tim was keen to find a marketing partner, he wasn’t willing to just take on anyone. Past experience with other agencies had taught him to wait for a partner that loves—and takes pride in—the work it does.
Tim started by talking to his contacts, asking for recommendations. Eventually, a contact who works for a major league sports team suggested he connect with Matchnode.
From his very first conversation with Matchnode, Tim was impressed by the genuine interest the agency took in his business. Tim explained his business model and goals, and Matchnode immediately responded with brainstorming and problem solving.
Matchnode was intrigued but cautious. Normally they only partner with well-established consumer-focused brands; 1440 was outside of their niche.
But after subscribing to the 1440 digest, the Matchnode team was impressed. They read it voraciously, every day. Convinced that 1440 was a winner, Matchnode returned to Tim and they officially kicked off their partnership.
Matchnode dove head-first into planning and strategy. Thanks to their deep expertise in digital ad spaces, Matchnode confidently directed 1440 in a number of ways to improve ad scaling on platforms like Facebook.
“I had raised some venture capital and wanted to explode the business on the paid social side,” says Tim. “Matchnode looked at our Facebook practices and could tell us how much we could scale while holding our costs. They basically helped us develop our growth plan.”
The agency also dug deep into social media campaign details, such as landing pages and conversion tracking.
“Matchnode made sure that we were tracking our leads correctly on different social platforms,” says Tim. “They also rebuilt our landing pages and sped up our page load times. Those small changes made a big difference.”
Matchnode’s close working relationship with Facebook also provided benefits. Tim was brought into face-to-face meetings and workshops with Facebook, where Tim got an under-the-hood look at Facebook’s algorithms and machine learning.
“Matchnode took me to visit Facebook, so we could work hand in hand with them,” says Tim. “As a group, we came up with new ideas to test, which brought us some big wins while further driving down cost per lead.”
Through it all, Matchnode took a proactive approach to iterating and testing ad creatives. They didn’t hesitate to dive into nitty gritty details, where even single words were subject to split testing.
“Matchnode split tests everything, from images to colors to copy,” says Tim. “They keep finding new ways to drive down our lead costs, which allows us to increase the volume of leads we acquire—while holding firm on our cost per lead limit.”
In addition, Matchnode helped Tim reach new audiences. In one case, the agency analyzed subscribers who had repeatedly downloaded and opened the digest over several months. It then used Facebook to find more people like those subscribers and target them with advertising.
“Matchnode really dug into lookalike audiences on Facebook,” says Tim. “They found groups we can target that are closely aligned with our most engaged subscribers.”
Tim was also pleased to discover that he can use Matchnode’s testing to improve his other marketing materials.
“Matchnode’s impact isn’t limited to paid social marketing,” says Tim. “When they discovered that the term ‘impartial’ works better than the term ‘unbiased,’ for example, we applied that insight everywhere.”
Matchnode keeps finding new ways to drive down our lead costs through iterating and testing, which allows us to increase the volume of leads we acquire.
With the help of Matchnode, 1440 is scaling its lead acquisitions 20 fold while lowering its costs per acquisition.
“With the help of Matchnode, we’re a startup with incredible unit economics,” says Tim. “Our business model is solid, and we can keep growing, which is exactly where we want to be.”
Thanks to Matchnode’s careful targeting of lookalike audiences, 1440 is experiencing 40 percent higher engagement with those audiences.
“Forty percent higher engagement with our lookalike audiences means higher revenue and even better unit economics,” says Tim. “Those results are critical.”
As their partnership carries on, Tim finds himself continuously impressed by the lengths that Matchnode goes to understand 1440, its goals, and its target audience.
“Matchnode took the time to really understand our business, our financial model, and what we were going for,” says Tim. “I felt like they were my chief marketing officer. It was wonderful.”
Tim even goes so far as to say that Matchnode has made him a better CEO and expanded his marketing skill set. There’s no doubt in his mind that 1440 is far better off because of them.
“Working side by side with Matchnode has helped me learn and get better as a marketer and a business person,” says Tim. “They’re always helping and bringing me into things. It’s been awesome!”
“Matchnode is a great team that communicates well and is awesome on the technical side. Working with them is the best partner decision I’ve made as CEO,” he concludes.
With the help of Matchnode, we’re a startup with incredible unit economics. Our business model is solid, and we can keep growing, which is exactly where we want to be.
