Grant Cooper

OK #agency peeps, we've chatted about $0-$10K/mo, $20-$50K/mo, $50-$150K/mo, $150K-$500K/mo & how to know if you might be ready for an exit (link to all in comments). Today, we are continuing with the series...#agencyacquisition - how to find a buyer. Things to know: 1. Selling your #marketingagency is not fun. (Apparently, I was on vacation with my family at the tail end of my 1st acquisition...truly, I do not remember a minute of it, and I don't recognize any of the pictures of me from that vacation). 2. Selling gets easier when you know what you want to get out of the sale. The chances of getting FU money is pretty low. But you can absolutely get money that will change your life. So you need to start with what is the minimum amount of money that it will take for you to stop chasing your dream and start supporting someone else's. Assuming that you know what your floor is, there are a couple of buyers types to think about: 1. Strategic: You do something they don't, or you serve a complimentary market that they don't. Usually, you get the best acquisition terms here. 2. Marketshare Buyer: This is a buyer who does what you do, and they want your top line revenue. This is usually the easiest kind of sale, but they tend to be less lucrative. The strategic buyer will likely want you, as the CEO of the biz, to hand around and lead the team since they don't do what you do. The marketshare buyer probably wants you to go away. When you are searching for a potential buyer, sort the world into two --> Strategic Buyers & Marketshare Buyers. Getting a buyer to know you exist isn't complicated. Just email the CEO or Corp dev or head of sales...they will get you in front on the right person. But generally speaking, before you need to talk to anyone, you should have a sense of: 1. Their size (if they aren't at least as big as you are, it is going to be hard to swallow you) 2. How you fit: • Marketplace buyer is pretty simple - we will take your revenue from X to Y, and add $Z in EBITDA to your biz • Strategic buyer is harder - you need to create a story about how your service aligns with what you do, and how easy it would be to cross sell what you do to their existing clients and vice-versa. A great place to look for a marketplace buyer is anyone that is bigger than you are that you respect. But they can't be too much bigger - a $1mm agency means nothing to a $15B agency holding company. Start looking for strategic buyers amongst the other agencies and service providers at your existing clients - that shared connection makes for an easy starter convo.

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If your agency's pulling in $1M to $5M in revenue, don’t settle for a basic exit. Most agencies in that range sell for 3-4X EBITDA, but there’s a better strategy. Think acquisitions. When you bring another agency into the fold, you’re not just adding revenue—you’re multiplying your value. Play it right, and that 3-4X can turn into 6, 7, or even 9X. The key? Position yourself as a serious buyer. Make it known that you’re in the market—update your LinkedIn, add a page to your website that clearly states what you’re looking for, and let the world know you're ready to acquire. It’s not just about growing; it’s about growing smart. Want to take your agency to the next level? Check out agenciesx.com and join the waitlist. #businessgrowrth #acquisitions #Ukentrepreneur 

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I've sold $1m+ in B2B media campaigns If I was a B2B marketer with ~$100k-200k budget This is the exact podcast marketing playbook that I would run Sponsors 10 up-and-coming industry-specific podcasts for a full season Here's why... 1. Niche B2B Rising Podcasters Metrics to look for: - ~500-2k downloads/ep + 500-5k YT views/ep - 5-20k followers on their main social pages - 1-20k Youtube subs - Strong engagement across channels Most importantly the content actually has to be good and well produced How to find them: Search "(industry keywords) podcast" across all social platforms and Spotify Go down a rabbit hole One creator will lead you to another Make a database of potential pods and start sending emails 2. Campaign Packaging Since they are smaller podcasts, you are likely their first sponsor This gives you: - Negotiating Leverage: More value ads - Great Pricing: Increases ROAS - Upside Potential: If they go viral so do you Bonus tip: Ask for value ads, not discounts Value adds make your campaign better when discounts just make you look cheap Package Details: - Pre/Mid Rolls ads (give them full creative freedom) - Show notes hyperlink - Logo on cover art - 2-3 Licensed UGC ads - Founder as a guest on the pod Value adds to ask for: - Watermarking short form vids - @'s on social when they post pod clips - NL mentions 3. Founder Led Content Flywheel - Each pod allows your founder to share launches, founding story, vision, and mission, with a new audience - 10 podcast appearances gives you 50-100 short-form clips that your founder can post on social media 4. Conservative Outcomes - 1k downloads/ep x 100 eps = 100k downloads -1k YT views/ep x 100 eps = 100k views - 50-100 brand mentions on social media = 50k+ impressions - 20-30 UGC videos to run as ads Double down on the pods that performed Scrap the others Wrap-up notes: - Find undervalued podcasters - Recognize your leverage to do high-value, not low-price campaigns - Focus on creating founder-led content to boost your organic social presence If you like B2B media riffs like these, make sure to give me a follow 😃

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If I had to make $1,000,000 with a landing page, here's how I would do it - LightStim A breakdown: 1. Display social proof first --> Show how many customers are satisfied --> Link to a "reviews" section --> Back up every claim we make 2. Headline that hurts --> Target pain points people know they have --> Spark curiosity with "one simple step" --> Show the final benefit/result 3. Feature-based bullet points --> Read negative reviews & extract data --> Map out customer thoughts from reviews --> List features customers care about 4. "Dream Come True" CTA --> Show the ultimate result people want --> Make it stand out on the page --> Back it up with a guarantee 5. Before & After --> Show how we fixed other people's lives --> Make the image visible above fold --> Let visitors compare two images What do you think about this? Yay or nay?

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I spent 6 years growing an agency from $20M to $150M. Here's our biggest discovery: While 100% of agencies fight over the same 3% of actively looking prospects... ...there's a goldmine in the 80% who are "happy enough." It's called the Zone of Indifference. These are prospects who: • Aren't thrilled with their agency • But aren't unhappy enough to switch • Like having an old iPhone that works "fine" The opportunity? They're yours for the taking. Next Tuesday at 10:30 am PT, I'm teaching a 20-min workshop on how to: 1. Identify these hidden prospects 2. Get their attention (without being annoying) 3. Turn their indifference into interest No theory. No fluff. Just the exact system that helped us land major clients who "weren't looking." Plus: You'll learn the 1-hour daily habit that unlocks this entire strategy. Want in? -CQ

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Hey DTC founders, here’s the 5-step plan we use to boost revenue (and revive stale email lists) even after months of silence...👇 👉Do a sweep. Before anything else, clean out any ‘bad’ addresses (I recommend NeverBounce)… This avoids poor performance across the board. 👉Take a minute to segment. As eager as you might be, don’t blast your whole list with emails. Instead, focus on those who have already purchased something or signed up for promotions and/or your newsletter, and put off communication with the rest of your list until it’s back in good health. 🦾 👉Re-introduce yourself. If you haven’t emailed in over 3-4 months, many won’t remember signing up. Remember - on the other side of your list are real people, and ignoring your absence could lead to low open rates or spam complaints, damaging your deliverability. Instead, treat your contacts like a cold list and start from scratch. 👉Personalize your messaging. If you know their purchase history, segment even further… Relevancy increases the chances of re-engagement and brand loyalty! This is a super important step, yet not a lot of brands take the time for this. 👉Test, test… and adapt. Keep a close eye on engagement rates and adjust your approach accordingly. Once you’re happy with your open rates, now’s the time to start expanding into your less-engaged segments. Ready to enjoy considerable profits via email revenue? My team is experienced with every level of list engagement… and loves to bring a list back to life! So send me a connection request, and let’s see how we can get you there.

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In 2017-2020, Russel Brunson bootstrapped Clickfunnels from $0-$100m ARR. How? Negative CAC. Here’s the crazy thing - we did it for RB2B and two week’s in we’re negative CAC too! Here's the breakdown: To Set The Stage:   - Brunson achieved negative CAC by driving traffic to a weekly webinar with ads - He taught affiliate marketers how to grow their business - The close bundled courses, community, and software and paid for the ads x5 - He plowed the excess back into more ads, the cycle went on to $100m ARR Here’s RB2B’s 2024 version that I’m calling our “Russell Brunson Playbook”: 1. Become the Expert Through working in public with a level of transparency, authenticity, and honesty that no other CEO seems capable of, combined with my track record of bootstrapping $25m ARR PLUS creating and launching the fastest growing early-stage SaaS of 2024 (outside of ai), I have earned the status of someone early stage founders (and SaaS revenue leaders) would pay for advice. 2. Viral core offer Everybody should read Alex Hormozi’s "$100m Offers" and look at your core offer through that lens. Do you have something that is so good your prospects would feel stupid saying no? I believe that at RB2B we did when we launched and we still do (for now). This drives 500 weekly signups with a 10% conversion rate at around $275/mo. 3. Viral content Our audience grows ever larger in our ICP by reinforcing the persona of “SaaS Founder Building in Public” + “New-Way GTM”. This drives top-of-funnel to the entire machine. 4. Weekly Webinar We drive signups and outside traffic to a webinar about how we created the fastest growing SaaS of 2024 on Linkedin. I share three secrets, then present a “done-with-you” course, community, and coaching offer, and bundle with an annual plan of RB2B. 5. Over-Deliver in the Community I was obsessed with Drift in 2019 and would have paid anything to get a real look under the hood, so that’s what our new RB2B Insiders community is built around. We’re telling you everything we’re doing, what we’re spending, and we’re helping you do it with us. I’m actually moderating it, I post content every day that won’t work on LinkedIn (because it’s valuable, not viral), there is a teardown channel, monthly trainings, and you get my four courses. 6. My $100m Offer = Talk To the Full RB2B Team Weekly I would have paid $15k EASILY to speak to the Drift team every week. So, that’s what I’m offering (but for WAY cheaper). Get weekly coaching from the entire RB2B team: me, Santosh (unicorn builder), Diana ($0-$10m ARR 2x as the ONLY REP), Pete and Robb (RB2B growth and ai support), Alec (my Linkedin guy), Taylor (cold email), Ali and Alex (LI Ads). All for LESS THAN THE PRICE of an RB2B Pro+ Annual Subscription. We're calling it the $10M ARR Club. It's application only. We have 20 spots. If you want the RB2B team as your personal startup advisors, comment CLUB below. *Make sure we're 1st degree connections so I can DM you.

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I've generated over $500M in Email & SMS Revenue How? By optimizing EVERY single flow to maximize revenue But there's one flow that stands above the rest: The abandoned cart sequence. It's mind-blowing how many brands neglect this goldmine. I've personally generated millions with this flow alone. Want to turn cart abandoners into loyal customers? Follow this simple structure for your abandoned cart emails:

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70% of DTC brands will never reach profitability. Nothing will save you... except this: Lie about revenue, become a DTC influencer, scale your newsletter & pod. Build a founder community. Then? Shill SaaS to those founders. Who cares if it works or not—you’re cashing in. Forget other SaaS—build your own. Shill with no remorse. 💸 Profitability, unlocked.

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"What should I test first?" is one of the most common questions I get from DTC brand owners. Here's how I always attack the highest impact tests first:

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Beware of free audits from agencies. They’re a big red flag. Why? They do it to win your retainer. They take little effort and offer similar value. No stakeholder interviews. No real account analysis. Just surface-level AI fluff. It’s like buying a lemon b/c the salesman filled it with gas. It feels like a deal—for 30 seconds. Then the regret sets in. We charge for audits. We pour ourselves into them. They bleed quality. 30+ years of marketing experience. Hours studying your brand, your history, your market, your future. Our audits stand alone. They get our best. *There’s no retainer assumed. If you don’t need us to execute the findings, we’ll tell you. One client saved hundreds of thousands. Our audit empowered them to bring ads in-house. That’s the difference. Audits to max profitable growth. Not to cut corners and waste time.

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If you're close to $10,000,000 ARR? You can't afford the AVG 700k/yr growth team... Here's what to do instead. (BACKGROUND) For this example we're talking about DTC growth, for a CPG or retail brand. Your minimum viable growth team, looks like: • 1 x head of growth 120-220k/yr • 2 x directors of media buying 80-180k/yr • 1 x retention specialist 80-120k/yr • 1x head of creative strategy 80-120k/yr • 1x partnerships director 80-120k/yr Conservatively this costs 600k/year, or about 50k/month. This doesn't include hiring or training. for people on the lower end of the price range... you better plan on training. (so not cheap) If you are using "outsourced" talent, like an agency etc... You need to ask yourself these two things: 𝟭) 𝙄𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣-𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙? 𝟮) 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣-𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚? The answer to #1 should be pretty clear. You can get that by talking to peers who've recently built in-house. Ask them about hiring costs, training that was required and timelines to be up and running. The answer to #2 𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮 and how fast you need to grow. If you need to grow DTC channels this year, the right partner is critical. They can get you through bottlenecks that'd be impossible for a new team. It all comes down to your priority strategic initiative. Is bringing DTC growth in-house your #1 objective this year? If not, partnering is probably the right answer. This will allow you to leapfrog your competition by focusing on other strategic initiatives Things like: • retail expansion • revamping supplier pipeline • integrating supply chain • expanding product development • etc... So in addition to the cold math of growth team costs, there is the art of sequencing strategic priorities that drives this decision... Anyway, if you liked this, make sure to repost for your DTC network. and... When should you build a growth team? #dtc #marketing #paidmedia  

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"We turned $5k into $1M in ad revenue in just 30 days!" ...said no legitimate agency, ever. We've fielded several conversations lately from DTC startups with massive growth expectations and disproportionately low budgets. We've had to have "the talk" about why that's a recipe for disappointment. First, paid media shouldn't be the initial focus for new brands. It's a powerful growth lever, but it's most effective when you've already laid the appropriate foundation with email, automations, etc., and have some organic momentum. Second, building brand awareness and driving immediate ROAS are not the same thing. These are different goals with distinct campaign strategies, creative executions... and budgets. In many categories like apparel, you can't skip the first step and race to the bottom. Third, you need to budget for sustained ad spend to get the flywheel spinning. You can't realistically expect this month's sales to fuel next month's campaigns. It takes time and budget to build up data for both humans and machines to optimize. If you're trying to bootstrap with just a few thousand dollars a month, PPC might not be the best use of your resources. Instead, explore digital PR, content marketing, social media, or affiliate programs. Here's the hard truth: building a brand takes time and sustained investment. There's no magic bullet that will guarantee you'll go viral or 10x your revenue in 30 days. Anyone promising that is selling snake oil. If you're a newer brand considering initial paid media investment and need a realistic conversation about what it really takes, reach out to me and I can help. #MediaStrategy #DigitalMarketing #DigitalAdvertising #MediaBuying

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We helped a wellness brand drop CPA from $68 to $44. With a funnel strategy most DTC’s aren’t running. I’m taking about Publisher Paid Media. Here’s the breakdown of the test for last month: Standard Product Ads - CPA - > $68.27 - ROAS - > 2.13X Publisher Funnel Ads - CPA - > $43.85 - ROAS - > 3.44X 5 steps we took to make it happen: 1. Wrote an advertorial targeted at solution-aware buyers 2. Hosted the content on our own 3rd-party publisher site 3. Directed links on the article to drive back to the brand’s PDP 4. Created head-to-head style static ads 5. Ran the ads through our publisher’s FB & IG pages Your next big win can come from a publisher funnel.

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𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐦 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 $𝟏𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎+ 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐀𝐝𝐬 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 You NEED this 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 checklist to create 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 that skyrocket your sales. I'm giving away my exact 𝟒𝟑-𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 for FREE. We’ve helped countless Amazon brands scale their listings to the top using this proven process. Now it's YOUR turn. This isn’t just another lead magnet... It's a 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 that can 2-3x your conversion rate on Amazon. PS: Like 👍 & Comment "List" I'll DM you the link 🔗 to the full checklist! Follow Meredith Judge for more valuable insights on optimizing your Amazon listings

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Optics. There's something out there for every need, and every budget. The question is this..."How does a 'budget friendly' optic stack up against the more expensive counterparts?'. Do you really need to spend $300-$600 on a Red Dot when there are less expensive alternatives? Will the Budget Friendly models hold up as well? What about the glass, clarity, ruggedness...are they tough enough to buy once? Well, we're going to be putting a bunch of Price Conscious Optics to the test and pitting them up against their High Dollar Counterparts. The War For Your Dollar is Heating Up...we want to make sure you don't get burned.

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Partnership ads are underrated on Meta. Especially for D2C startups. If you aren't doing it, try it out. There are plenty of micro-creators. Supply outweighs demand. And that's good for you. - Mass onboard micro-creators - 10x your content output - Get massive organic social media reach - Amplify it with partnership ads to reflect on revenue

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Setting up custom reporting is expensive. My agency charges new clients between $20k and $30k to implement the required infrastructure and build 3 - 7 custom reports. Ongoing support is $8.5k - 10k a month. Its a niche offering for DTC brands that check the following boxes: 1. Generating at least $25M a year in revenue --> A brand that's generating less than $25M can get away with using a combination of native reports, Excel and dedicated SaaS like Triple Whale or Polar Analytics. The ROI of custom reporting for sub-$25M brands is just not there. 2. A team size of at least 40 individuals --> The real pain of not having robust, custom-built reports is really felt once the team hits around 40 individuals. At this point there is typically individuals or small teams dedicated to different areas of performance such as CRM, email marketing, paid acquisition, SEO, operations, etc. Everyone is doing their own reporting and analytics which leads to a ton of friction and disorganization. 3. A desire to become more data-driven --> Bringing the data in-house and having full ownership over ones data and reporting is a resource intensive project. It takes roughly 60 days and cost $20k - $30k to set everything up. Most DTC businesses are focused on new custom acquisition and rolling out new products and aren't motivated to improve their analytics and reporting. Once there is enough pain, the motivation to make a change comes about. So why would a brand go through with such an expensive project? Well, the short answer is they get the following benefits once the work is done: 1. Automated, custom reportings --> No more manually work in Excel saves a ton of man-hours and significantly improves the accuracy of your reports. 2. The business owns all its data --> A well constructed data warehouse holding the company's business data is an asset that raises the valuation of the company, and provides high leverage on its data. 3. Speed to insight goes down from days to minutes --> Since the reports are automated and built to serve the exact needs of the decision makers, the speed to gain insights on the data is dramatically reduced. The faster a business can move, the better it will perform. 4. Easier to track the performance of the team and understand what's working and what's not --> A robust BI setup will allow managers to easily track performance KPIs of individuals and teams, and create more accountability in the organization. Setting up custom reporting is expensive and resource intensive, but the benefits far outway the costs. If your business checks the boxes above, then we should chat. Send me a DM here on LinkedIn, or visit https://www.projectbi.net and contact me via the website.

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In the last 5 Meta audits I’ve done for brands spending $100,000+/mo on ads, I’ve noticed 10 red flags pop up consistently: 1) Running ads not optimized for you end goal 2) Manually selecting placements 3) Leveraging interest targeting 4) Not getting out of the learning phase by achieving < 50 conversions per ad set per week 5) Not capping existing customer targeting on ASC campaigns 6) Spending too much on retargeting and/or existing customers 7) Not consistently testing new creative 8) Taking credit for sales that would have happened anyways 9) Running too many ads in a non-ASC campaign 10) Sending people to the wrong landing page It's still shocking to see how many brands and agencies still aren't following best practices. The above red flags are just the tip of a very large iceberg.

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