The Ad Lab · Creative think tank
Creative marketing agency · DenverFind out what the competition is doing. Then do something different. And better.
Being found is only half the job. The Ad Lab builds the brand, the page and the ad creative that turn clicks into revenue, the kind that pays the bills and keeps the lights on.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 60 Google reviews · A+ BBB · Founder-led since 2012
The hard lesson
You can buy all the advertising in the world. With the wrong creative, it will not sell.
Most agencies start with media: more clicks, more impressions, more budget. We start with what those clicks land on, because a forgettable brand and a confusing page quietly waste every dollar you spend to get people there.
“I have been burned by agencies and made plenty of bad marketing calls of my own. I paid top-rated firms and got reports instead of customers. I ran ads with the wrong message and watched the budget disappear. Every one of those failures is now a rule in how we work, and it is why we test everything on our own companies before it ever touches yours.”Zachary Wennstedt, founder. Former sales manager for multi-million-dollar plumbing and remodeling companies.
The Lab Tour
Two minutes that could change your marketing budget.
Tap through at your own pace, or use the arrow keys.
The Lab Tour · 2 minutes
Two budgets. One simple choice.
Every business spends money on marketing. The question is which kind of budget you are running. Let’s find out.
Question 1
Which budget would you rather have?
Where budgets leak
It is a simple choice. So why do so many run Budget B?
Because the leaks are invisible from the inside. These are the four we find most, each backed by published research.
Question 2
What is the leak costing you?
Be honest with yourself. How much of your marketing do you actually know is working? Move the sliders. This is your math, not ours, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Now the real question: what would you do with that money back?
A wise person once said
“Businesses that stay the same won’t be doing business tomorrow.”
We live by it. Since 2012 this website has been rebuilt roughly twenty-three times: upgrading, testing, learning and evolving as markets shift and technology changes, from the first local search to AI answers. The businesses that win keep getting better. We will help you do the same.
Question 3
How excited would you be if your website was a 24/7 salesperson?
Answering questions at 2 a.m., booking jobs while you sleep, never having an off day. Speed matters: in Harvard Business Review’s audit, firms that followed up within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify a lead. Picture that working for you every month.
Learn more: AI chatbots for businessQuestion 4
What if a custom tool made quoting easy?
Fewer phone-tag estimates, less time on the tire-kickers, and customers who get a real range in seconds instead of waiting days. Would something like that be valuable to you? To your customers?
Our specialty
We put small businesses on the same stage as the national brands.
That is what we did for ourselves first: our founder’s own company holds three listings on one Google page for a competitive search, ahead of much bigger names. The same playbook, built for your business.
A quick honest word
We are selective about who we work with.
We partner with owners who want to truly grow. That is not everybody, and that is fine. Tap what sounds like you.
Sounds like a match. We should talk.
The last question
Your competitors are being found right now. Let’s change that today.
If we can create the right, powerful marketing campaign at a budget that works for you, are you ready to get started?
Excellent. We are excited to help you win your market.
What the research says
People judge you before they read a word.
These are published findings, not our marketing. Each links to its source.
Every second of load time costs visitors
Increase in bounce probability as mobile load time grows from one second.
The first screen does most of the selling
Share of viewing time by screen, from eye-tracking research.
Anatomy of a brand that sells
Six things we look at before we spend a dollar on ads.
A strong brand makes every other channel cheaper. These are the six we audit first, and they are free to check yourself.
A promise in one sentence
If you cannot say what you do and why you are the better choice in one breath, neither can your customer. We write that sentence first.
A look people remember
Color, type and logo that are ownable, not borrowed from the category. The test: would a customer recognize you with the name covered?
A voice that sounds like you
Plain, confident and specific beats clever and vague. The same voice on the site, the truck, the ads and the voicemail.
Proof in the right places
Reviews, photos of real work, credentials and guarantees placed exactly where doubt shows up, next to the price and the button.
Consistency everywhere
The same name, promise and look on Google, the site, social and print. Consistency is how people and AI tools decide you are one real business.
One idea to own
Fastest, friendliest, most transparent, the one who answers at 2 a.m. Pick the idea competitors are not claiming, then prove it every day.
Anatomy of powerful conversion
Seven layers between a click and a paying customer.
Every page that converts well gets these seven layers right, in this order. Tap a layer to see what we look for.
The full playbook lives on our conversion optimization page.
Inside the think tank
Find out what they are doing. Do something different. Do it better.
A wise man once told our founder to find out what the competition is doing and do something different. We added one word: better. That is the whole method.
Tear down the competition
We pull your top competitors’ ads, pages, offers and reviews and map what everyone in your market is saying. Usually, they are all saying the same thing.
Find the open lane
The promise nobody is making, the proof nobody is showing, the fear nobody is answering. That gap becomes your angle, your headline and your ad.
Out-execute, then test
Sharper creative, a faster page, a clearer offer. Then we test it against the old version and keep whatever wins on calls and click-through rate.
What everyone runs
Sponsored · example-plumbing.comQuality Plumbing Services | Call Today
Professional, reliable plumbing. Serving the area for years. Licensed and insured. Contact us for all your plumbing needs.
What the Ad Lab writes
Sponsored · example-plumbing.comBurst Pipe at 2 a.m.? We Pick Up in 3 Rings
Upfront price before we start. Photo of your tech before they arrive. 400+ five-star reviews from your neighbors.
- Answers the real fear: nobody picks up
- Specific proof instead of adjectives
- A promise competitors are not making
Illustrative example. The difference is the method, not the plumbing.
Our unfair advantage
We test it on ourselves before we ever use it on you.
Our own companies are the lab. Every tactic we recommend has already been run on our own money, our own pages and our own ads.
- Our founder’s own company holds three listings on one Google page for a competitive Denver search.
- New page layouts, headlines and ad angles run on our sites first, and only the winners get recommended.
- You get what already worked, with the failures paid for by us.
See the sites we have built on the our work page, or play with the free marketing games in the Ad Lab arcade.
The chain that pays the bills
Different gets you noticed. Noticed gets you sales. Sales make money.
Ordinary advertising skips the first link, and the whole chain fails quietly. Everything the Ad Lab does starts with being different, on purpose, in a way customers notice.
Free tool
Run a quick brand and conversion X-ray.
Eight honest answers. You get a score, the weakest part of your funnel and what a small lift would be worth. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
Could a customer describe what makes you different in one sentence?
Does your look (color, logo, photos) feel like yours, not generic for your industry?
Does your homepage say what you do, where, and for whom in the first screen?
Do your ads say something your top three competitors do not?
Are real reviews and photos placed next to your prices and buttons?
Would a stranger believe you are established and local within ten seconds?
Can a phone user call you with one tap from any page?
Do you know which ads and pages actually produce calls?
Your X-ray
The best bang for your buck
Big-agency thinking without the big-agency invoice.
Average agency retainer
$3,209 / moThe average across 439 SEO providers surveyed, before creative and ads are usually billed on top.
Source: AhrefsEye To Ad Media
$500 – $3,000 / moMost campaigns land here, sized to your budget, with a $100 entry option. Some clients even get bonus advertising at no charge.
Quoted after a short call. Details on how we price.When the work includes paid campaigns, the Ad Lab’s creative pairs with expert PPC management, so every ad dollar lands on a page built to convert.
Straight answers
Questions owners ask us
What is the Ad Lab?
The Ad Lab is Eye To Ad Media's creative think tank: the part of our team that studies what your competitors are doing, finds the angle they are missing, and turns it into a brand, website and ads built to convert. It works hand in hand with our SEO and AI search work, so the traffic we earn lands on something worth clicking.
Is this branding, web design or advertising?
All three, pointed at one number: revenue. We look at your brand, your website's conversion path and your ad creative together, because a great ad sending people to a confusing page wastes the budget either way.
How do you measure whether creative is working?
With calls, form fills, booked jobs and click-through rates, not opinions. We test new headlines, offers and layouts against the current version and keep whichever wins.
Do you test ideas before using them on my business?
Yes. We run our own companies on the same playbook, including local search, landing pages and ad creative, and only bring tactics to clients once they have worked for us.
What does it cost?
It depends on scope, and we quote after a short call. For context, an Ahrefs survey of 439 providers put the average agency retainer at $3,209 a month. Most of our campaigns run between $500 and $3,000 a month, with a $100 entry option, and some clients get bonus advertising at no charge.
Do you guarantee results?
No honest agency can guarantee rankings or revenue, and Google says so in its own guidance on hiring an SEO. What we guarantee is honest work, clear reporting on calls and conversions, and telling you plainly what is and is not working.
Sources: Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek and Brown (2006); Stanford Web Credibility Research; Google/SOASTA Research (2017); Nielsen Norman Group (2018); Ahrefs SEO pricing survey. Linked where cited above.
If we can make your brand the obvious choice, within your budget, are you ready to start?
Yes or no. Getting started is one call, about twenty minutes.