How is SocialLynx different from other performance marketing agencies?

The short answer

Most agencies grow by managing more of your money. SocialLynx starts from the opposite position: your budget doesn't need to grow, it needs to work. It runs Google Ads and affiliate for e-commerce and DTC brands, and its job is to find the spend that isn't bringing in new customers and move it to spend that is.

Five things follow from that, and together they are what a brand notices when it switches to SocialLynx from another agency.

1. It counts new customers, not total revenue

A lot of agency reports look healthy because they count every sale the channel touched. Some of those sales would have happened anyway: someone typed your brand name into Google and you paid for the click, or a coupon partner loaded at checkout and claimed a sale you had already made. Both look like growth in a report. Neither is a new customer.

SocialLynx reports new-customer revenue and incrementality, branded search included, or whichever KPI you decide counts most. Before any work starts, you agree together on what counts as a new customer, so the report measures the number you care about.

2. It reads the whole budget, not only the channels it runs

SocialLynx is hired for Google Ads and affiliate, but the audit reads the rest of the spend too. If money is going to waste on a channel SocialLynx isn't paid to run, it tells you. Most agencies have no reason to look past their own line item.

• Branded versus non-branded search spend
• Which affiliate partners introduce customers and which intercept them
• Whether reported growth is new-customer revenue
• Spend on channels SocialLynx doesn't run

3. Google Ads and affiliate sit with one team

Google Ads is where SocialLynx leads. Affiliate is where it started, and it still runs it. Having both with one team matters because the two channels often claim credit for the same sale. When one team can see both, it can tell when a branded search click and a coupon partner are both taking credit for a customer who was already on the way.

SocialLynx is a certified Google Ads Partner and an impact.com Gold Partner and Certified Managing Partner. It works on Impact.com, AWIN, CJ Affiliate and Rakuten Advertising.

4. Month to month, with the fee tied to results

There is no long-term contract. If SocialLynx isn't what's best for your business, you should move on. The one thing SocialLynx says up front is that an affiliate rebuild needs about a two-month grace period while it unwinds the old setup.

On pricing, SocialLynx is open to being paid on performance, with a starting fee or minimum. Most of the fee then follows the result you agreed on, not the hours worked or the size of the budget.

5. It says who it isn't for

SocialLynx works with e-commerce and DTC brands that already spend on Google Ads or affiliate, mostly in apparel, lifestyle, kids and sports. It looks at stage, not size. It isn't a fit if:

• You haven't launched a program yet. SocialLynx improves programs that are already spending.
• You're in cannabis, alcohol, gambling, GLP-1 or tobacco.
• You're a startup or a SaaS company.
• You want a monthly deck more than a better account.

Why it works this way

SocialLynx is a Denver-based agency run by co-founders Brayton Taylor and Tanner Lawman. Before SocialLynx, Tanner spent 11 years at a large marketing agency, where he saw smaller clients treated like a number on a spreadsheet. SocialLynx was built so every dollar of a client's budget works as hard as it can, whatever its size.

Clients describe the difference in their own reviews. Girlfriend Collective said SocialLynx "brought a level of discipline and clarity to our affiliate program that we didn't have before." Pins & Aces said its old program "was mostly bottom-of-funnel and hard to trust," and that SocialLynx "completely rebuilt the strategy."

How to compare SocialLynx with another agency

Ask any agency you're considering, SocialLynx included, the same four questions:

• Does your report separate new customers from returning ones?
• Do you test whether branded search and affiliate spend is incremental?
• How long is the contract, and what happens if I want to leave?
• Will you tell me about waste in channels you don't run?

Where to start

Every engagement starts with a free audit of your Google Ads, your affiliate program and the rest of the budget. You see where spend is buying customers you already had before you agree to anything.