iProspect Reviews

Pros

Amazing training - great insights. Great place for starting a career. Gives amazing training and alot of education about the job

Cons

Decent compensation. Very few job opportunities towards desired advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Would help if recognition is given beyond the so called "favorite" people.

Pros

It is an excellent place to start working on paid search campaigns for large clients. I was able to quickly get exposure and experience working with large budgets and driving revenue and leads through client websites using paid search. It was a great introduction to the growing industry of paid search.

Cons

Many managers and directors do not truly know the ins and outs of paid search marketing. The niche has developed so fast that iProspect fell behind. iProspect does not have firm best practices in place, resulting in mismanaged accounts and confused employees. People at the top want to be told what works by the people at the bottom, instead of making the insights and taking action themselves. The result is that poor account management is the norm and different suggestions come from every direction.

Advice to Senior Management

To build an organization around paid search, you better have people at the top who really know search. Otherwise, you end up hiring and promoting people who are good at talking instead of working and give bogus recommendations on how to improve accounts.

Pros

iProspect gives pretty much all employees and interns the opportunity to gain significant experience in search marketing. PPC oriented employees will work intimately with the engine interfaces and related programs that allow for bulk adjustments. SEO employees will gain experience with the major industry practices and programs. Almost everyone will leave iProspect with advanced Excel skills - some will become genuine experts being able to write complex macros and program in VBA.

Additionally, most of the people are great. Everyone is pretty friendly, and given the way the office is set up, it's very easy to become friends with the people in your area.

There are also a lot of vacation days - but for some people, it may be hard to find time to use them.

Cons

The iProspect experience varies by client. For some (most?) clients, the roles are very detailed oriented. In these positions, you'll work with large data sets, make frequent and large adjustments to the accounts, and update tedious reporting documents.

Clients can be very demanding and will often have never ending requests. It's not unusual for people work late into the evening because of the volume. Many employees have had to quit just to maintain sanity.

Training varies. It really depends on the situation, but if you're placed into a role in which you have only limited familiarity, don't expect much serious assistance - you just better learn your role and learn it fast.

It may be worth suffering through this ordeal if you can pick up some helpful experience, but as soon as you have put in enough time (roughly one year) to be attractive to other employers, it's time to leave.

Advice to Senior Management

The lack of automation is insane. There should be serious, customized systems developed to easily implement marketing strategy (particularly PPC campaigns). Commercially produced front ends aren't enough.

This would increase costs and possibly reduce iProspect's competitive advantage with bargain hunting marketing departments. I can understand that undercutting the prices of competitors is IP's business model, but if this is the case, don't complain when the rate of attrition remains high because your employees are underpaid and overworked.

Pros

iProspect is a great place to work. The people are some of the best in the industry- dedicated, enthusiastic and highly intelligent. We work with great clients (Adidas, Neiman Marcus, Gap and many more) who are savvy about online marketing and eager to take their display, PPC and SEO programs to the next level.

In my 4 years with the company, I have received regular training, encouragement from management and opportunities for promotion. Management listens and the employees really drive the company. Clients stay with us because we hire smart, competitive people who love to be the best at what they do and are dedicated to client success. My experience at iProspect been highly rewarding- personally and professionally. I look forward to a long and satisfying career with the company.

Cons

Agency life isn't for everyone. Your work life circles around the needs of clients and helping them achieve success in the marketplace. When you look at this as an opportunity to be creative and push the limits- then it becomes a rewarding and challenging career. For that reason, we focus on hiring the best in the industry- those with the spirit and enthusiasm to embrace the challenges and take our clients to the head of the pack. Agency life isn't for the faint of heart.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to build a company focused on employee and client needs. iProspect is a great place to work because management focuses on what matters most - people.

Pros

iProspect is a great training ground for all those new to the search marketing industry but in reality, you can get paid so much more working elsewhere. Most people take what they learn after a year and can make 20 - 40% more elsewhere.

People are fantastic and the workplace is really relaxed. You'll meet a lot of smart, driven and fun individuals.

Knowledge sharing is great. Lots of excellent training.

Cons

There is a lot of favoritism that goes on in the workplace here. People who are favorited by upper management will typically get promoted even if their search knowledge is lacking.

Low morale at the company due the lack of career growth. People who are promoted by the company are obviously very happy. Everyone else (Search Marketing Coordinators and 90% of the company) are kind of stuck where they are -- it's hard to be promoted. Most people are working above and beyond their job title without more pay or the promotion. However, the company LOVES bullshitting and pretending like they do have great opportunities for career advancement.

Poor business model in place. iProspect also has terrible employee retention because frankly, they do not compensate their employees enough. You can work your tail off everyday and still not be recognized.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect and pay your employees better. If you want to retain and keep your great talent, compensation is important. Be aware that most companies can pay 30-40% more after a person works at iProspect for a year.

Don't rely too heavily on the internship program. You still need people who can actually train them and teach them search engine marketing. You also need fresh ideas from people who have been working long in the industry.

Pros

lots of vacation days to take

Cons

immature employees that don't act like adults

Pros

Strong compensation package; good location; strong enthusiasm in some parts of the company

Cons

One specific department does not have the appropriately qualified individuals in place, and lack of employees who put forth the necessary effort to improve things; Subsidiary of a much larger company; Very inneficient practices; lack of a team atmosphere and strong positive leadership.

Pros

fun to work at, learn a ton, great people

Cons

pay, pay pay - they tell us we are at or about market value, but I doubt that.

Advice to Senior Management

in order to keep the good ones around you will have to fork out the dough.

Pros

Lots of good, smart, young people here. You can tell they are trying to improve culture and trying to invest in people. Good client list.

Cons

Senior management is terrible. CEO is smart and driven, as are most of the managing directors, but the COO is very lost and doesn't know what he is doing - and unfortunately he tends to be closed off to outside input. Promotions seem to happen when something is open more than when the person is ready. Seems to be a mass exodus from this place lately.

Advice to Senior Management

Replace your COO with someone that knows how to move the business forward...or at least someone that knows true digital marketing and not just search.

Pros

Most of the people are fun

Cons

They expect employees to work long hours with minimal compensation. Promotions are given to the most incompetent employees, typically the ones that suck up the most. The new client services model removes all power from employees in terms of career growth within the company. The intern to hire program is entertaining. Each month a few college-aged kids are hired to replace the interns that were promoted to replace the employees that left due to how unhappy they were. The interns are immediately excited because they can drink at work, not realizing that it's inappropriate to get drunk in front of coworkers.

Advice to Senior Management

Revisit your qualification requirements for mid and upper level management.
Slow down or stop the intern program and actually hire educated, mature employees.
Provide a better salary to employees who deserve it.
Go back to the original client services model.
Implement a training program that actually works.