Interviews

Martech Interview with Co-Founder and CEO, LeadsRx – AJ Brown

 

“A good set of analytic capabilities, being “data-driven” triggers a fundamental shift in marketing approaches”

1. Tell us about your role in LeadRx?
I’m one of the two co-founders and the CEO of the company. To be honest, I think of myself as a “Jack of all trades” and do everything from writing code to building marketing programs, helping with sales, handling support questions, and even emptying the trash from time to time. It’s what you do at a startup!

2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
LeadsRx got start in April 2015 when my frustration with the lack of analytic insights reached a new high. I was doing consulting with a few different software companies on lead-gen programs, and the same question always came up from my bosses: “Hey AJ, how are the ads on Google working?” This seemingly simple question was nearly impossible to answer. I had great insights into click-through rates, but I didn’t know if someone who clicked bought our product somewhere down the road. It was impossible for me to associate revenue back to my various advertising programs, and so that’s when I decided to develop my own technology for capturing the customer journey. I thought if I could follow an individual all along their path from being a prospect to becoming a customer that I could get some really useful knowledge from this… especially if I could aggregate data across all customers over all time. And with this, LeadsRx was born.

3. How do you think technology is upgrading marketing Sector?
I’ve run across marketers for years who have deep experience and great instincts. But the problem is, it’s hard to share “instinct” with others in ways that build confidence and group consensus. That’s where analytics come in. AI is one of the primary drivers behind the removal of manual processes and inefficiencies in marketing. With analytics now readily available to all marketers, the entire sector should see an up-tick in terms of its contribution to revenue as well as to skillsets.

4. How has data-driven approach redesigned marketing functions?
Similarly to

A good set of analytic capabilities, being “data-driven” triggers a fundamental shift in marketing approaches.

While instinct and experience will always be required, these skills must be augmented by data. Data is king. Data is everywhere. When we use data, we make better decisions. Data is shareable where instinct is not. The bottom line here is that for marketers who have fully embraced a data-driven culture, their function has changed dramatically, and for the better.

5. Can you explain how your Attribution Segmentation empowers marketers?
The LeadsRx marketing attribution platform brings a ton of information right top the fingertips of marketers. Often the insights obtained validate assumption and instinct, and this empowers marketers to basically tell the story that they were right… a critically important step when trying to shift an entire company to be more data-driven. But even more empowering is when LeadsRx provides insights that might be a bit contrary from expectation… these are the nuggets that often “save the day” and empower marketers to be the real hero within their organization. Using LeadsRx helps marketers improve their total return on ad spend while reducing wasted spend almost immediately.

6. How do you define your Universal Conversation Tracking Pixel?
Our universal pixel is what allows our system to be 100% impartial in our analysis. It’s installed on an advertiser’s website to capture their own first-party, anonymous data about visitors who enter their sales funnel. So, really, our pixel becomes the advertiser’s pixel… it collects data as instructed by the advertiser, and then our attribution software provides the analysis with reports and such. What’s great about this approach is that instead of relying on what the ad-servers like Google and Facebook report, the pixel picks up the information automatically, and LeadsRx does the work to arbitrate between all the vendors. Universal capture of data is critical when you need impartial results.

7. What features of your marketing attribution platforms differentiates it in the market?
LeadsRx is known for fast-onboarding. Marketers sometimes struggle to find time to set up software systems. That’s why we built out our Universal Conversion Tracking Pixel to be easy to install (it takes a few seconds to do) and self-learning. The self-learning part means it automatically finds your advertising programs and adds them to the system… there’s no manual set up process for the marketer. The pixel also handles conversions as well as touchpoints, which means you only need the ONE pixel to do the work of several pixels from other vendors. All of this means that by using LeadsRx, you’re going to have a faster time to ROI… you’ll be optimizing your advertising campaigns in days and weeks instead of months.

The other capability that makes LeadsRx unique is that it covers probably the broadest range of advertising mediums. LeadsRx works with digital ad clicks, ad impressions, podcasts, radio, television, OTT, direct mail, offline touchpoints, and more. The impartial, cross-channel nature of LeadsRx allows marketers to evaluate more of their budget to see where the real opportunities are for optimization. Ultimately, this results in a higher return in ad spend compared to other solutions.

8. What advice would you like to give to the technology Start Ups?

I think it’s important to REALLY listen to your first few customers. Sometimes I see startups running full steam ahead in one direction, but the market is moving in another.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m a huge believe that we can actual create markets and don’t have to sell into an existing one. But it’s much easier to find your first few wins in existing one. More importantly is to listen to your early customers and let them help build out your product. I like to initially deliver a 70% solution and let the other 30% come from early users. This is the only way to “hit the mark” and build something really great and immediately useful.

9. What work-related hack do you follow to enjoy maximum productivity?
I take naps! Not because I’m over 40, but because they help me get away from hot topics, rest my mind, and get grounded. About 20 minutes is all I need to hit maximum productivity shortly thereafter.

10. How do you prepare for an AI-Centric world?
I’m not such a fan of the traditional definition of “AI”. I use the term differently and talk about how software will provide “augmented intelligence”, not “artificial”. Let’s not replace humans with computers or robots but instead find ways to help humans be more intelligent, tell their story better and to more people, and leave room for human experience and wisdom to be added. Artificial Intelligence is just that: artificial and rarely as smart as we would need it to be. In my opinion, humans are the conduit for knowledge transfer, and the more software can augment their abilities, the more useful it becomes.

11. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
There are a lot of ways we see marketing attribution contributing to the adoption of analytics in general and better marketing specifically. At this time, we aren’t publicly sharing too many details, but as one of the early leaders in this category, we feel LeadsRx is ideally suited to provide new innovations that will spark marketing performance.

12. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
It’s all about the team… seriously. With smart, adaptable, and enthusiastic folks working side-by-side, it’s hard to fail! My co-founder and I found each other on AngelList.co, and some of our staff came from there as well. Even though we all had no previous relationship, we jelled as a “team” instantly. Today, my team supports me mostly by each being entrepreneurs themselves. Everyone just does what is necessary to move the entire company forward… we don’t argue, we don’t play games or politics. The entrepreneurial attitude is essential to building a company that excels, and their ability to do this daily is what allows me a bit of much-welcomed rest!

13. What movie inspires you the most?
Most people aren’t even aware of the movie Jeremiah Johnson that came out in 1972 starring Robert Redford. It told the story of a man who tried his best to live life on his own terms, but who was pulled into adverse circumstances put upon him by others. He had a strong desire to persevere and demonstrated the three traits I think are most important in any entrepreneur: ingenuity, adaptability, and enthusiasm. The movie continues to inspire me to weather the storms while staying true to one’s purpose.

14. We have heard that you have a very joyful work culture, so can you share with us some of the fun pictures of your workplace?

15. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone?
I’m afraid my apps are pretty boring! I do use the Calm app daily to keep me grounded and also have been taking Italian lessons on DuoLingo. Pretty much all other apps I have are utilities to keep me productive.

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AJ provided the initial inspiration for LeadsRx, having been head of marketing for several businesses over his career as well as head of software engineering. His experience working with fast-paced Silicon Valley startups for the better part of two and a half decades has helped a number of businesses build early traction and high-impact lead generation programs.


LeadsRx is an impartial multi-touch attribution for enterprises and marketing agencies
LeadsRx is a marketing attribution platform used by B2B and B2C businesses as well as by marketing agencies. The system helps marketers understand how each advertising channel is performing in terms of driving revenue and customer acquisition events. Teams that
use LeadsRx maximize Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) by reducing wasted ad spend, improving conversion rates, and understanding customer journeys. LeadsRx helps marketers increase top line revenue and reduce wasted ad spend by providing side-by-side performance comparison of all marketing channels, both online and off. Teams that use LeadsRx improve conversion rates, reduce customer acquisition costs, and decrease time to convert, thus improving overall Return On Advertising Spend (ROAS) and the bottom line.

https://leadsrx.com/

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