My hottest take

I hate PR agencies.

And not just your run-of-the-mill PR agencies that handle everything from branding to social media.

No, I’m actually talking about PR link building agencies.

And before you come at me, I’ve tried several of them. And across the 4 that I’ve tried, my experience has been consistently average.

Why?

One, they are terrible at communicating. I mean weeks without so much as a quick update like “Hey, we’re actually still working on that thing you paid us a shit ton of money for.”

I understand that links take time to build — I do. But if I pay you $3.5k+ dollars, I expect you to keep me in the loop on things.

I communicate with my clients regularly — it gives them peace of mind & strengthens the relationship, which directly translates to a longer customer lifetime value.

I’ve only churned 2 clients in the 1.5 years that my agency has existed because I deliver results and communicate regularly.

Two, they’re careless. More specifically, they lack attention to detail.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to address simple spelling & grammar mistakes in some of their pitches and communicating documents.

If you want me to take you seriously, the very least you can do is use the written word correctly. I don’t care if Grammarly wasn’t working, you’re an adult operating a business — figure it out.

Third, and this is my biggest gripe — they’re way too expensive.

The cheapest PR agency I’ve come across is $3.5k per campaign, and they guarantee just 5 DR 80+ backlinks.

FIVE. That’s $700 per link and unfortunately, the cheapest you’ll find.

Most PR agencies are $7k+ per campaign — maybe these are better, I’ve not tried any of these.

In total, I’ve spent $15,000 on PR link building. I spent hours analyzing the links that were built and the “impact” of them.

I’m going to be honest with you, I wish I had every single dollar back.

“But Kai, you’ve only tried the cheap options, I bet the more expensive agencies are better.”

Maybe you’re right.

But I’m not alone. I work with one founder who sunk $24,000 into a PR campaign for his flagship product — they didn’t generate a single attributable dollar.

Here’s the other thing. I charge my clients half of what the top PR agencies do, with one key difference.

I directly contribute more revenue to my client’s brands.

I don’t just help them rank higher, or increase their traffic, which is what PR agencies promise.

I make them more money.

Would you rather pay $3500/mo for 5 backlinks or a full-stack SEO service that doubles, triples, quadruples, and even quintuples your organic search revenue?

This answer should be so painfully obvious to you.

I have spent the past few years obsessing over and refining certain strategies & systems that enable me to make this happen at the price point.

Could I charge more? Probably.

Will I? Maybe.

But I do know this — my combination of money page optimizations, topical authority building, internal linking, and a few $150-$500 backlinks is far more effective than anything a PR link building agency could ever possibly offer an eCommerce brand.

If you’re in the business of lighting your money on fire, by all means, hire a PR link building agency.

If you want your eCommerce brand to actually dominate SERPs and print cash, hit me up.

Catch you on Wednesday.

Kai