Why I Started Rascal Media

Hi! This is my origin story. Like Spider Man getting bit by a spider, Batman losing his parents, or a budding Karen being told that Kohl's coupon expired 3 years ago, everybody has one. 

Google Has All the Answers

I started my career at Google and it was exactly as they say it is: free meals, plus shuttles to work, a branded Snuggie when I accepted the offer; the works. It was a great gig, and I spent 5 hours a day on the phone with SMBs from every industry helping them fix their Google Ads campaigns. Often these were Mom and Pop shops that had been lured in with an appealing “Spend $150, get $150” promotion from Google and couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t made money yet. Or it was a (plumber, electrician, hairdresser, etc.) calling to yell at me because they were SURE their competitors were clicking on their ad and driving up the cost. How were they so sure? Well, they were doing the same to their competitors. Can’t argue with that logic. 

Mostly I saw people struggle. Struggle to understand the difference between a keyword and search term. Struggle to grasp the concept of an ad group or an automated bidding schedule or an impression share report. All of Google’s early success was built on the Google Ads (née AdWords) platform and it made sense! It’s an incredibly sophisticated platform with a million aspects to modify and it was being billed as a DIY tool to bring businesses into the digital age. No wonder people struggled! What’s more, sometimes the campaigns actually were performing but the business wasn’t getting leads or phone calls. Well that wasn’t our department, best to consult your webmaster.

After Google I worked at Box, a budding unicorn with a highly sophisticated marketing team comprised of lead gen, product marketing, brand, comms teams, and more. As the executive assistant to the SVP of Marketing I got an inside peek into how a successful marketing team ran: all pieces working together to capture the attention of potential leads and move them through a sophisticated marketing funnel. It all clicked. Google ads was just a piece of the puzzle, and landing page copy and gated assets and conversion tracking were some of the other pieces of the puzzle that Google Ads doesn’t even touch. 

Businesses Need More than a Freelancer

I moved to LA in 2016 to start out on my own as a freelancer. I started consulting on Google Ads and the more I worked with small companies, the more I realized how much help they needed elsewhere. They didn’t understand what a marketing funnel was, they didn’t understand the importance of SEO and branded content, heck most of them didn’t have Google Analytics installed on their website. They wanted help with social media. Now they want to be on TikTok, did I help with TikTok? 

At first I was hesitant to consult on these things. I didn’t think I was qualified. But the more I talked about these issues with my clients the more I realized I had to offer. I had spent 5 years in Silicon Valley working with some of the best marketers in the industry and I had learned over the years how digital marketing can be an exceptionally powerful tool for small businesses. When done correctly. 

The problem with much of digital marketing is that it’s billed as a DIY: “sign up for Facebook ads and get $50 off.” “Download this how-to guide on setting up funnels that convert!” Why are these incredibly sophisticated systems being billed as something you, a business owner with a million other demands, can do in your spare time? Or even learn in the time it takes to do it effectively before you run out of money or get beaten by the competitor? 

Get a Strategist who can Help you Fill in the Blanks

Digital marketing is a beast. And after a failed startup of my own (shout out to Hedgehog Trivia: you were a blast), I realized I should’ve outsourced much of the stuff I didn’t know. Why are we teaching business owners they can do it themselves? Business owners need experts they can rely on to do the activities they don’t have time to learn. That is my biggest takeaway from my years consulting with SMBs: hire smart people to do the thing you can’t do yourself. Learn about it, definitely, and set KPIs with your consultants so you’re not just throwing away money on an “AdWords Consultant,” but don’t think this is something you can do in your free time. It’s not. 

And I’m no expert. I didn’t start Rascal Media to tell you that I’m an expert on TikTok and Google and Social and SEO and on and on and on. I started Rascal Media because I’ve spent enough time with clients to help them decide what they need, and I’ve spent enough time working with professionals to know who’s doing it the best. 

When you work with me at Rascal Media, you get a marketing strategist who has spent over 10 years in the digital marketing field, seeing it evolve, and seeing customers fail when doing it wrong. You get someone who’s worked with the best (and not the best) and has vetted professionals who can execute the strategy we come up with together. I don’t claim to be able to do all these things myself, but I’ve compiled a team of experts who can do everything to the highest industry standards. I oversee every project personally and make sure that KPIs are met and the strategy is sound. Every digital marketing campaign has many moving parts, and to manage everyone of those parts in house you’d have to hire a director of marketing with specialists in each area, and still they’d probably outsource most of the work to an agency. Skip all that and work with someone who knows how to find the best talent in the business and put it to work for you. 

You’ve built a great product. Or maybe you offer a service that’s best in class. It’s not your job to be able to figure out sophisticated platforms that have raised tech companies to valuations of $2 trillion dollars. Let me figure that out and bring you the customers you need to help your business grow. 

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Rob Warner

Founder & Owner

Rascal Media

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P.s. why “Rascal” media? One of my earliest pets was named Rascal. And don't you want someone a little rascally to help with your business?

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