WordStream Reviews

Pros

WordStream is growing due to the high demand that businesses require for an advertising partner. During my time at WordStream I've been able to save for my retirement, be promoted 4 separate times, and have a work life balance that allowed me time to start my own side hustle. The landscape in our industry has changed during covid, however, we've maintained our status as thought leaders in the digital marketing space. Trust by millions or business across the world. In order to succeed at this role you need to be able to multi task and stay organized, we have a lot of leads coming every single day. It's our responsibility to find the aces in the deck each month.

Cons

The 401k match program went away during covid, it would be great to see that come back

Pros

great people and environment. amazing company culture and trips planned alot of millennial workers lax dress code, can wear sweatpants if wanted

Cons

no real cons that I can think of

Pros

At present time: Great coworkers who genuinely care about customers and the quality of the product Customer-facing employees who genuinely try to do right by their clients Opportunities to work with clients across multiple industries and grow your skills as a digital marketer Support from (overworked) team managers In the past (no longer applicable): Excellent opportunities for early career growth Amazing coworkers and a great company culture - I used to love company-sponsored sports leagues, and the thought leadership promoted throughout the company Focus on SMBs and desire to support small business and help them succeed Cross-functional collaboration and success throughout the company Diversity across the team. High percentage of the CS/MS teams were female and/or minorities, and there were internal diversity initiatives

Cons

I'd rate Wordstream a 5/5 while operating as a startup, and a 1/5 under current leadership (since 2020). For multiple years, WordStream was a great place to work. The product was improving, the company was growing, and career growth was readily available for employees within their first few years at the company. Gannett acquired WordStream, and the company saw an initial boom in growth, but after 6-9 months it was becoming evident that Gannett was no longer treating WordStream as a high-growth acquisition, but instead just another one of many companies under its digital marketing umbrella, plagued by bureaucracy and "synergy". WordStream had multiple rounds of layoffs in 2020. The last round saw 30% of the company laid off, announced with no notice during a 15-minute meeting on a random Wednesday morning. During the next 10-15 minutes, employees did not know whether or not they had jobs until emails arrived with either an invite to a Zoom meeting as part of the "go-forward" team, or an invite from HR to discuss being let go. The remaining employees on the team became overworked, leading to further attrition, and the company was no longer concerned about employee wellbeing, but instead keeping customers as happy as possible, hoping they didn't churn. Prior to me leaving, there was little transparency about the future. Upper management never communicated job security for the long-term, and transition plans were kept in secret, if they were even being worked on. As more employees quit hoping to escape the worsenining day-to-day workload, little improved. Internally, WordStream (re: Gannett) leadership touts customer-centric focus and messaging, but that could not be farther from the truth. Upper management and leadership (re: Gannett) is only concerned with maintaining customer count and MRR as long as possible until the cracks grow too large and the plug is finally pulled. Compensation has always just been average to below-average for the field. There has historically been high employee turnover based on the quick early-career development but lack of long-term internal options. Benefits, though, pretty solid. Hard to go wrong with unlimited PTO, but taking time off on the Customer Success was always difficult, as customer expectations were always high and you had to overwork yourself the week leading-up-to and week-after PTO. The company culture that made this company one of the best places to work at is dead.

Pros

ZERO HORRIBLE RIPPING PPL OFF

Cons

Worst possible company on earth to deal with.

Pros

Hard to find. Used to be a good company with a positive atmosphere but everyone has completely lost morale. Reachlocal merger was like the scene in office space when they get rid of half the floor and then change everything Peter is doing.

Cons

Covid didn’t help considering the customer base was all SMB but at the end of the day the company completely lost its soul. We went from overnight telling customers that it’s a bad idea to let an agency own your account, to all of a sudden selling managed services with an absurd margin and the customer has zero ownership of account. If they leave they have to start from scratch with their advertising campaigns. They probably don’t even realize they’re being ripped off. The whole thing is just sad. Would feel better about selling used cars.