Case Study: AdCellerant Drives Millions of Clicks with Yext’s Integrated Platform

AdCellerant, an award-winning digital advertising agency, has grown rapidly into a 210-person team operating in five countries and more than 400 local markets. Tens of thousands of small business marketers rely on its expertise, and in 2018, Inc. Magazine recognized AdCellerant as the 83rd fastest-growing company in the U.S. Central to this growth has been the success of its Earned and Owned Media division, which has scaled efficiently and delivered measurable value — thanks in large part to a strategic partnership with Yext.

AdCellerant started as a scrappy team spun out of the newspaper world, aiming to bring digital services to clients without in-house capabilities. As the digital arm behind media companies and agencies, AdCellerant needed solutions that could evolve as fast as its ambitious growth goals.

Sam Rahimi, AdCellerant's Vice President of Earned & Owned Media, joined the company in 2018. He was tasked with transforming a modest SEO offering into a scalable, revenue-driving solution. But with thousands of listings and a growing client base that includes mom-and-pop shops and national brands, the company needed a smarter, centralized system to fuel its listings management.

"We used a third-party vendor then, and it just wasn't working. We needed a partner that could plug directly into our tech stack and scale with us, and that's what led us to Yext," Rahimi said.

AdCellerant's partnership with Yext began in 2022. As a key selling point, AdCellerant cited Yext's robust API integrations and tech-forward roadmap and immediately began using Yext Listings to improve its SEO presence. The partnership has expanded to include review management, social media, and niche vertical support like restaurant and healthcare-specific listings.

"Yext has really streamlined all parts of our day-to-day campaign management process," said Sarah Guenther, Senior Operations Manager, Earned & Owned Media. "The key advantage is its centralized platform, which simplifies how our team oversees every facet of an advertiser's online presence, from managing top-tier listings to monitoring reviews and scheduling social media posts. With over 2,000 advertisers to manage, the efficiency gains we've achieved with Yext are truly significant."

From a centralized dashboard, AdCellerant's Earned and Owned Media team can manage every aspect of an advertiser's online presence from one place. This includes updating business information across top-tier directories and responding to reviews in real time to maintain a strong reputation.

The team also uses the platform to publish social media content and location-specific updates efficiently, ensuring consistent channel messaging. Robust analytics tools help them attribute ROI more clearly, providing actionable insights that strengthen campaign performance and client relationships. Beyond the technology itself, the strategic guidance and partnership provided by the Yext team have been just as impactful.

"One of the biggest value adds has been the ability to tap into the Yext team," said Rahimi. "They've been really valuable in providing industry insights and helping us use Yext to increase retention and analyze and showcase reporting in different ways than we had thought."

In 12 months, AdCellerant saw significant performance gains across its digital operations through its partnership with Yext. The team achieved 94 million listing impressions for their clients, marking a 20% year-over-year increase, and drove 16 million listing clicks, a growth of 18% compared to the previous year. They also managed 81,000 total reviews, up 15% YoY, while maintaining an impressive 4.92 average star rating. Notably, the number of 5-star reviews climbed by 19%.

Operational efficiency improved, with 45,000 profile updates and 7,000 duplicate listings suppressed. These improvements contributed to significant time savings across campaign management and reporting efforts, allowing the team to scale more efficiently while maintaining high-quality service and results.

"In all seriousness, Yext is a true partner," said Guenther. "Not just a vendor or service provider. We've worked with a number of listing providers previously and the support provided by Yext is unmatched."

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