- Headline result
- $192K ARR
- Client
- A 7-figure SEO agency
- My role
- Marketing Operations Manager
- Scope
- 20-30 person team, 150+ clients, marketing team of 10
- When
- 2022 - 2023
The problem
The agency was growing fast and the systems had not kept up. Funnels were broken, so paid traffic landed on pages that did not convert or did not track. There was no real attribution. Nobody could say which channel produced which client.
Inside, the founder was the link. He talked to every editor, writer, designer and videographer himself. No clear pipeline, no workflow, files everywhere. Content got made late or not at all. The team spent its energy chasing instead of producing.
He wanted more content out and more outreach going. The business could not do either until the back-end stopped depending on him.
I had seen this shape before at my own agency, where I ran 15-20 contractors on written briefs, milestone tracking and output QA. The difference here was scale: 150+ clients and a marketing team of 10 that had to run without the founder in every thread.
What I did
Funnels first. The webinar-to-call funnel was dead, so I rebuilt it end to end: pages, follow-up, booking, handoff to sales. It was converting 15-20% of attendees to calls within weeks and back in profit at +$6,000 MRR.
Then tracking. I designed the attribution architecture across ads, funnels, sales and outreach so every lead carried its source all the way to a signed client. For the first time the founder could see which channel was paying for itself.
Then the pipeline. One content pipeline in ClickUp, on the free plan. Each step is a column owned by one person, with dependencies so the next person sees what is coming, deadlines set with buffer, tags and custom fields holding the drive folder and project links. Everyone clears their own column before passing it on.
Around it: KPI tracking sheets so the team understood their numbers, a weekly team call and close work with the founder to roll out his ideas using EOS-style frameworks. Warm outreach got the same treatment, which is where the +150% came from.
How it works
Rebuild the funnel before buying more traffic
More ad spend into a broken funnel is just a faster way to lose money. Fixing the webinar-to-call path first meant every later dollar of traffic had somewhere to go. That funnel alone came back at $72K ARR.
Attribution from first touch to signed client
Every lead carries its source through the funnel, the sales call and the close. Outreach is tracked the same way. When the founder asks which channel works, the answer is a number, not a feeling.
Every column has one owner
The pipeline is a CRM-style board. Script → edit → design → review → publish, one person per step. Nobody waits for the founder to tell them what is next. The board tells them.
Deadlines set ahead of the real date
Internal deadlines sit 1-2 weeks ahead of when something actually has to ship. That buffer absorbs client delays, missing assets and sick days. It is why content went out 2-3 weeks early instead of late.
Numbers the team can see
KPI sheets per person, reviewed in the weekly call. People hit numbers they can see. The founder stopped being the only one who knew whether the week went well.
Results
- $192K ARR generated by rebuilding funnels and scaling outreach
- Dead funnel restored to profit within weeks: +$6,000 MRR, $72K ARR
- Warm outreach output +150%
- Webinar-to-call funnel converting 15-20%
- Content shipped 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule instead of late
- Founder out of the day-to-day content loop, a team of 10 running on one pipeline
What this means for your business
If you run an agency and you are the link between every freelancer, this is the fix: one pipeline with one owner per step, deadlines set ahead of the real date and numbers the team can see without asking you. It does not need expensive tools. This ran on ClickUp's free plan. Happy to grab a call to see how content and outreach move through your team today and where they stall.
Tools
- ClickUp
- Google Sheets
- Google Drive
- Slack
Skills
- Marketing Operations Manager
- Marketing Operations
- Funnel Optimization
- Marketing Attribution
- Content Operations
- ClickUp
- KPI Tracking
- Team Management
- Agency Operations
- Integrator
Questions
How do you set up a content pipeline in ClickUp for an agency?
One list per pipeline, one status column per step, one owner per column. Add dependencies so the next person sees work coming, due dates with buffer and custom fields for the drive folder and brief. The rule that makes it work: you clear your own column before you pass it on.
How do you track marketing attribution at an agency?
Map the journey first: ad → funnel → call → close, plus outreach as its own path. Then make sure the source is captured at the first touch and carried on the contact all the way to the deal. The tools matter less than the discipline of never creating a lead without a source.
What does a Marketing Operations Manager do at an SEO agency?
Build and run the systems behind the marketing: funnels, tracking, the content pipeline, outreach, KPIs and the weekly rhythm. Work closely with the founder to turn his ideas into things that ship. Keep the team producing instead of chasing.
How fast can a dead funnel be brought back?
Weeks, not months, if the offer is sound. This one was back in profit at +$6,000 MRR within weeks of the rebuild. The slow part is usually not the build. It is agreeing what the funnel is supposed to do and who owns each step after launch.