Founded in 2018 by Nick Banik, Mad Leads is a fully remote, 100% retainer-based boutique agency specializing in paid media. Focused on managing and growing profitable paid media campaigns, Mad Leads drives high-quality leads, opportunities, and sales for their B2B and B2C clients around the world including Booster Apps, ServiceTitan, Tipalti, and Podia. With a steady and predictable recurring revenue stream, experienced work-from-home employee base, and reputation for getting businesses “mad leads,” this agency had a low-overhead business model ripe for scaling.

An Agency Created To Solve An Industry Problem

With a background in working at traditional agencies, Nick started Mad Leads because he was fed up with traditional agency models that tended to offer services outside their area of expertise, overwork team members, overcharge clients, and put inexperienced team members in charge of client accounts. He realized there was a huge need and potential for problem-solving the dilemma of the typical agency model, and he created Mad Leads to solve that problem. Today, Mad Leads stays true to its roots as a boutique agency that works closely with partners’ in-house teams to ensure optimized revenue-generating campaigns.

Born from a place of passion, Mad Leads needed an owner who could grow the agency and mentor team members to their full potential. As much as he loved his team, other entrepreneurial interests were calling to Nick and he knew it was time for him to exit the business. With his current work at Mad Leads clocking in at about 4 hours a week, he was mostly absent and uninvolved in the day-to-day client work and running of the business – making the agency a great prospect for acquisition. He reached out to us at Barney to make the acquisition dream come true.

Taking Care Of His Team    

Nick wanted to find a buyer who could give his team the best opportunities within a larger agency ecosystem. With Mad Leads’ culture of self-starters and team experienced in successful execution without direction from the owner, the buyer needed to have a culture that wasn’t focused on micromanagement. Nick’s dream buyer was an agency looking to either offer paid media services to an existing offering like SEO services or an agency already offering paid media but looking to offer enterprise-level paid media as they take on larger clients.

He knew what he wanted, and he partnered with us at Barney to find it so he could shift into building software and algorithms for the trading world, knowing his agency and its employees were well taken care of.

We might be a little biased, but we think Nick made a great call. We help entrepreneurs buy and sell amazing businesses, and we have a long list of happy founders excitedly pursuing their next big idea to show for it. With over 150 successful acquisitions under our belt, a shorter timeline, industry specialization, and a database of over 20K strategic buyers, we knew we could help Mad Leads find their new home.

A Trailblazing Boutique Agency Ready To Grow And Scale 

At Barney, we’re game changers and trail blazers disrupting the tired M&A industry – so we love when we see other trail blazing, passionate entrepreneurs disrupting tired industries of their own. An innovator in the agency space, Mad Leads was changing the way paid media was done and their clients loved them for it. Clients could feel the difference through Mad Leads’ integration with their in-house teams, aligned culture fit, and happy team members.

With their specialization in paid media management, focus on driving revenue for clients, solid client-agency relationships leading to regular new business referrals, good quality value-fit client base, efficient internal processes and a semi-absentee nonessential owner, Mad Leads’ small, scrappy team was ready to scale and take on even bigger clients with the help of a larger agency.

Driven by the team’s tenacity and growth mindset, Mad Leads was looking at promising growth with new clients and opportunities to grow their high-demand design and conversion offering, enhance current offerings by adding in a DSP, and improving their current website with case studies and more marketing materials to attract new business. Their future looked bright with growth opportunities on growth opportunities, a close ratio close to 100%, and an average six-figure monthly client spend set to increase over the next year.

A Buyer With Aligned Values And Culture  

It was important to Nick that his team members stay on-board and flourish in their new organization. Thanks to a culture of deeply valuing employees (and compensating them accordingly), Mad Leads had never lost an employee for any reason and employees truly loved their jobs.

Whether the buyer was an agency looking to add paid media services to their existing offerings or an agency already offering paid media but looking to offer enterprise-level paid media as they take on larger clients, there needed to be a culture fit.

Mad Leads’ culture of being agile, innovative, and self-directed meant they were looking for a culture where leaders trusted employees to take action and get results without micromanagement. Their values centered around staying on target with goals, honing their craft, maintaining transparency and integrity, and working aggressively to win for their clients. We set out to find them a buyer that would be a fit in more ways than one – so Nick could focus on his next career with peace of mind knowing his team and business were thriving.

Looking Under The Hood At Mad Leads

Nick knew that selling your agency the old-school way was a miserable task, and he didn’t want to waste months of negotiations just to walk away with a bunch of legal fees and no deal. He partnered with us at Barney to make sure the agency he had built with grit and innovation could thrive with the new buyer – not crumble to the ground without him.

We got to work looking under the hood of Mad Leads and crunching the numbers to figure out the agency’s worth to buyers in today’s market. We fell in love with Mad Leads, and we strategically crafted amazing marketing materials to help potential perfect-fit buyers fall in love with them, too. We reached out to our vast network of buyer relationships and identified high-potential buyer targets, eventually landing on Mad Leads’ perfect fit: Locomotive Agency.

A Results-Driven SEO Agency 

A results-driven SEO agency based in North Carolina, Locomotive employed some of the most talented, technical SEO experts in the country to move their clients forward. Specializing in helping brands through the long SEO journey to build strong results, they were excited to expand into paid media with Mad Leads’ strong client base and amazing, experienced team fully capable of managing huge clients successfully.

With their focus on building strong client relationships, cultivating diverse skills, partnering with internal teams, and offering reliable, transparent, personalized service Locomotive was a perfect culture fit. For Mad Leads, Locomotive was just what they were looking for: a larger, culture-fit agency looking to expand into paid media that would be able to provide mentorship opportunities for the team and support their growth at scale.

From “For Sale” To “Sold” In 90 Days 

In 90 days papers were signed, cash was exchanged, and post-transaction responsibilities and requirements were in place. Locomotive was thrilled to acquire an aligned paid media agency to help them meet their goals, and Mad Leads had a partner to support their business’ and team members’ growth. With cash in the bank for his next venture, Nick was excited to see his employees become part of an organization that could support their growth and help them thrive for years to come.

At Barney, we make happy endings like this possible for founders all day long. We believe in giving trailblazing founders like Nick the exit they deserve – so they can move on to their next game-changing, industry-disrupting idea. All we do is sell agencies and with our industry specialization, simple and personalized process, shorter timeline, high success rate and awesome pool of buyers, the exit of your dreams could be just 90 days away.