Brad’s Video Testimonial

Owner, Paid Search Specialist at sempathfinder.com

Hey, I'm Brad and I'm a digital marketing specialist. I started my own consultancy, SEM Pathfinder, at the beginning of 2019. My focus was on Google Ads paid search marketing, and I work with small local businesses, mostly in home service industries like residential cleaning companies and tree service professionals.

In 2020, I shifted my focus to measurement and analytics services, spending most of my time in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. When Ahmad mentioned his Google Data Studio masterclass, I knew I needed to focus more on this area. Not only for reporting, but also to build tools to help me analyze performance of my client campaigns and offer services beyond traditional digital marketing.

When I first started the Data Studio Masterclass, I had only just scratched the surface of Data Studio's functionality. I had been introduced to it, but I wasn't using it in my own business. I was doing a lot of manual reporting: pulling up a Google Doc, analyzing Google Ads or Google Analytics, and summarizing my findings and insights. There was very little visualization, if any, and I was creating tables in a Google Sheet.

The biggest thing I was looking for when joining the masterclass was diving deeper into the functionality and what's possible. What I thought Data Studio could do is vastly different from what I now understand it can do. This is entirely thanks to Ahmad and his depth of knowledge with regard to Data Studio. The masterclass also helps instill a mindset: how to think about it, how to plan a dashboard, how to query data from the data source, and the best ways to visualize it to answer specific questions so that you can get insights from the data.

I came in with a little knowledge, but now I have much more. I can keep learning by rewatching the masterclasses and reaching out to the community. Whenever I'm stuck or don't know how to proceed, I know I can find help from people who can guide me to the right solution in Data Studio.

I'm a solo contractor with no co-workers or employees. All the work I do for clients is done by me so it's great to have a team around me with more knowledge in certain areas. The biggest benefit is that we can troubleshoot problems together and come up with solutions in minutes. I've already gained a lot of knowledge about how to use Data Studio, but it goes beyond the basics. It's also about how to think about using it.

I didn't know what to expect when I attended the Data Studio Masterclass. I had met Ahmad a few times through the Measurement Marketing Community, but we hadn't had any conversations or been on many calls together.

I was very pleased with the structure of the class. Not only did Ahmad present information, but he also provided examples to illustrate the concepts. These examples were clear and easy to understand.

What really impressed me was Ahmad's ability to understand our troubleshooting needs. He was able to quickly work through the situation, pull up sample data, and build a functional report in Data Studio that answered a specific question.

I found the experience of taking the Data Studio Masterclass to be great. The lessons were useful to revisit, and the community was very supportive. Before the masterclass, my work was limited to the hours I put in, so I couldn't scale my business.

Thanks to the masterclass, I was able to productize some of the reporting services I offered and build tools to analyze campaign performance and dive deeper into analytics. This not only allowed me to earn revenue without spending time on it, but also improved the quality of the services I provided to my clients. It also helped me get better insights from the work of other consultants, such as SEO, and the performance of their websites.

The masterclass thus impacted my business both from a revenue and quality standpoint.

I guessed I'd come into the Masterclass knowing I'd learn about Data Studio. It was a given. But the fact that I was part of a cohort was a huge factor. That's where I gained most of the value.

As a paid search consultant, I'm focused on traffic and understanding Google Ads traffic for my clients. But it was great to get perspectives from people coming from a conversion rate optimization or SEO standpoint. I learned about their services and how they use Data Studio in their businesses.

Since I don't have employees or coworkers, it's up to me to stay up-to-date with industry knowledge and platforms. Being able to lean on everyone in the Masterclass for their experiences and knowledge, and knowing I can turn to them when I need to troubleshoot something, has been huge for me.

Signing up for the masterclass was something I almost didn't do. I had just finished a year of diving deeper into analytics and tag manager, and had invested a significant amount of my income during a year when my revenue was down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But looking back, it was one of the best decisions I made to continue investing in my knowledge base, as it has helped me improve my business. It also opened up many additional services I can offer beyond managing paid search campaigns.

I do not regret spending the money on the masterclass. I have already learned a lot, and there is still more to learn. I'm looking forward to continuing this and learning from Ahmad and everyone else in the program.

My business is built on referrals. I'm not a fan of the sales process, so I knew I had to learn how to sell data and measurement services to clients. After all, measurement and reporting is usually expected. Whenever a client hires someone for a marketing service, they expect to see results and proof of the value they're getting.

The analytics part of it requires some work when selling the service to a client, since it's not something they're necessarily looking for from the start. It was helpful to have conversations about how others promote their services and discuss who owns the data, the report, and how to present the value of data management and analysis.