In this interview, Andre Kempe, founder of award-winning performance marketing agency Admiral Media talks about essential points in the advertising world.

Andre Kemp : I founded Admiral Media in May 2019. Before that, I was already freelancing for various companies but figured I got too many requests from my network but could handle only a few of them. So, I decided to create a company and hire a first pair of helping hands.

Our positioning is pretty simple: we help companies to scale their customer base. We decided early on that we’d focus on paid marketing only, and that comes with a number of skills you need to develop to be successful: technological setup, creative production, and mastering the processes to get international campaigns up and running successfully.

You managed to grow your agency and customer base during difficult times, COVID-19, and major ecosystem changes, lots of uncertainty all around – what were the factors in your success?

To be honest, the pandemic didn’t have any impact on our business – maybe some clients saw an increase in usage and therefore media spend, but from a client perspective nothing has changed. We had our strongest year during the pandemic, but that was driven by the great success we showed with our clients – all leads and clients we get come from our network, so I believe the dedication we put into every client’s project is what makes us successful and makes us win more clients, and a few awards to boot.

You’ve mentioned a remote-first model, why did you choose that route, how does it look in practice, and what are the benefits you see?

Well, at the beginning I was quite traditional. Hired locally, opened a small office. When COVID hit us hard in Spain I obviously closed the office and never looked back. I realized that I hired an amazing team that is self-driven, engaged, and motivated to work together as a remote team. I do not see any reason to re-open an office – we all benefit from being available for our families if we are needed, and to get private things organized during regular work hours while still being able to continue working into the evening because this fits our lifestyle or day-to-day situation better. Increased flexibility is an incredible win for all of us, including me.

Lastly, what are the biggest mistakes you see in performance marketing today that companies should avoid at all costs?

There are three...

• 1) In-house everything. Yes, as an agency, I’m biased here, but it’s never the best decision. Make use of external resources and best-in-class agencies. If you don’t like to hire agencies, then hire freelancers to get a fresh perspective, challenge your existing setup, processes, and teams. You can’t do this often enough.


• 2) Sticking to monthly budgets while the market is dynamically changing every day. If you have an outperforming campaign, why not exceed your monthly budget even by 300 per cent when your current customer acquisition is outperforming at this very moment?


• 3) Not investing in design and copy. I can count on one hand how many copywriters I met in my career. Although brands spend millions of dollars every month, they regularly don’t spend a single cent on professional ad copy. “Click here” is not building your brand and won’t have a lasting effect. In performance marketing, most companies have ignored or even forgotten centuries of expertise in good copywriting and converting campaigning. Creativity should have a stronger standing in every company.

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