In this interview, host Robert talks with Brian Foltz, CEO of Peak Innovation, about the evolution of his niche competitive‑intelligence and innovation consultancy and how adopting the WebFindU digital‑marketing platform transformed his business. Foltz explains that his early DIY efforts on GoDaddy generated many clicks but no qualified leads, leading him to switch to WebFindU’s marketplace of certified experts. The platform’s formulaic approach—covering landing‑page design, keyword density, negative keywords, and ongoing algorithm updates—boosted his return on ad spend and delivered consistent, bona‑fide leads. Foltz contrasts WebFindU’s certified‑expert marketplace with generic services like Fiverr, emphasizing transparency and a “true digital marketing model.” He also shares how he leveraged WebFindU for his own city‑council campaign, rebuilt a mayoral candidate’s site, and began offering WebFindU‑based website and marketing services to other small‑business clients, creating a new revenue stream. The conversation closes with Foltz expressing optimism about continued client growth and the strategic partnership with WebFindU.
Chapters
Hey everybody, welcome again to another segment of Interviews with WebfindU. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Brian Foltz, the CEO of Peak Innovation. He is an experienced business owner, uh, and Peak Innovation does— is a competitive intelligence and marketing research company. Brian Foltz, welcome to the show. How are you?
I'm doing well, thank you for having me on this morning, Robert.
Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about your company, about Peak Innovation, about your background as an experienced and veteran business owner, and what led you to WebfindU.
Sure. So I started Peak Innovation in 2008, and it really was serendipity that we kind of landed on some of the services that we've come to offer, like the competitive market intelligence research that you mentioned. We also offer new product and service innovation, and we help big companies find small companies to acquire because of their unique intellectual property. The, the business, our clients have come really from relationships that I've had. It's been word of mouth from people I've worked with during my career, and that served us well and has served us well, uh, all the way since 2008. But along the way, I kind of decided, gee, you know, I want to grow the business more intentionally than what comes from waiting for the phone to ring because somebody moved from one company to another, uh, and wants to bring us in. So a couple years ago, um, I started doing digital marketing on my own and did some research and taught myself a little bit about launching Google PPC and whatnot and had my very simple site on the GoDaddy platform. And the thing that I found was that I could get impressions, I could get clicks, I could get a lot of clicks. In fact, that cost me a lot of money. but I didn't get leads, not leads that were bona fide opportunities to sell business. And so I knew of WebfindU or came to know of WebfindU and their true digital marketing platform that encompasses more than just a platform for hosting your website, but a whole variety of other tools that, you know, you can certainly look on the WebfindU site to see everything that's packed into the platform. And so we We transitioned over to the Webfindu platform and we started making use of the marketplace resources that Webfindu has. And so we went from just lots of vanity metrics of impressions and clicks to actually getting bona fide leads. And, you know, we're a specialty business. There's not a lot of companies that do what we do, so it's not like we're competing for a huge piece of the pie. The pie is actually rather small. So every lead is a gift in this business and you have to treat it, you know, just like that. And so for us to get, you know, even 1 to 2 bona fide leads on average per month is a really good thing. And our clients stick with us, generally speaking. And we've been really blessed to land some fantastic global clients. During the time that we've been on the WebfindU platform and utilizing the resources from the marketplace to manage my PPC. And so, you know, I went from, you know, basically no return on ad spend to, you know, an attractive return on ad spend. So it's really been a good decision for me.
Great. Now, it's also— I remember speaking with you on looking at analyzing your pay-per-click setup. but also in addition to getting a return on ad spend on your pay-per-click, as you just mentioned, you actually get, uh, some consistency as well on the organic side. Is that, is that not true?
Yeah, uh, we're, we're starting to see a little bit more organic activity. Um, you know, the PPC works, right? Uh, so it, it really comes down to what does the, the user choose to click on, whether it's the ad that now encompasses more than half the page on Google, thank you very much, or whether they click on the organic. So, uh, we're definitely continuing to make progress, uh, on organic, but PPC is really what drives it.
Now, for everybody listening here today, uh, what Brian's talking about with the WebfindU marketplace— so WebfindU, we are true digital marketing technology. We're extremely unique in the market. 92% of the market actually fails at digital marketing. And Brian's story, just like many others, actually, you know, prove that that is actually what occurs. A lot of people think that, "Hey, I'm gonna launch a website, start doing pay-per-click," but what they end up finding out is they're actually sending money straight into the trash can. And so there's actually a right way of doing digital marketing. That right way is what we call the True Digital Marketing Model, and WebfindU provides true digital marketing technology. But with that, we actually provide a marketplace of people that are certified WebfindU that know the exact steps because WebfindU provides a formula and you can then tap into that marketplace because business owners like Brian, they don't have the time to actually follow the formula themselves. But with the formula, it allows a Brian to know that, hey, if somebody is certified WebfindU and just following these steps, I know that the process is transparent, I know that they're gonna be doing what they're supposed to be doing to be able to give me results. And Brian just shared with us that it's, you know, he's another use case, another testimonial that the WebfindU Formula and the marketplace are a perfect combination to make his business as well as your business successful. So, Brian, show this— go ahead, I'm sorry.
I was just going to say, I think a good example of that is, you know, if you want to go try to DIY this, no one's going to really teach you about landing pages or keyword target pages and keyword density and some of those tactics that are part of driving, you know, authority on your keywords when people are doing searching. And that was not something that I knew about. And, and things also like negating keywords, because when the day is done, Google's not your friend. They're here to take as much money out of your pocket as they can.
That is, that is true.
And if you're not on top of it with managing keyword negations, I mean, they'll steal you blind. So those are all you know, again, parts of the tactics, the platform, and the resourcing that we've brought in with Marketplace folks to improve our performance on our digital marketing.
Yeah. And to be clear as well to everybody, and very good point, Brian, you know, there's other marketplaces out there for, you know, digital marketing, you know, experts like a Fiverr, for example. But the big difference is on Fiverr, you're really sort of getting à la carte options out there. and they're really sort of following more of the traditional digital marketing model. But true digital marketing is the most successful form of digital there is. And so that's why we always, you know, let people know that's the main difference with Webfindyou and the Webfindyou marketplace. So, you know, I was just interviewing another individual as well. Same thing, started with GoDaddy and just sort of wasn't getting, you know, the visibility they were looking for. And, and to your comment on the Google side, you know, Google, I always mention that the, the internet is like a moving train, you know. And so there's so many things that are going on. You've got Meta, ads that their formula is constantly changing, the Google formula is constantly changing from the organic side to the PPC side. So again, one of the nice things about WebfindU is that as those changes are occurring, we update our technology, and then as well, the experts on the marketplace are adapting to those changes per our technology and per the instructions that allows business owners like yourself to always be on that right path. So, um, You know, we also just recently launched our NASCAR, what we call our NASCAR video. Check it out at WebFindYou.com, on our social media profiles, it's on the second slide on our homepage. And it really gives the best 3-minute explanation on, you know, what you really get with WebFindYou and following that formula. So, Brian, in addition, so I mean, you again, you are a seasoned business owner, a seasoned entrepreneur. So not just on the side of Peak Innovation, tell us about some of the other things that you you've done now dealing with WebfindU and sort of offering the digital— other digital offering, sorry, digital services now to your clients. And then I think also you had a political run, right? Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, we've come to make use of the WebfindU platform and marketplace multiple times over now in addition to Peak Innovations. So earlier this year, I entered the political arena, ran for city council here in the city where I live. And put my site up on the WebfindU platform. And courtesy of my team that I got through the marketplace, I had the best looking site of all the candidates and successfully won a seat. And then our mayoral campaign went to a runoff, and one of those candidates asked me to rebuild his site, which we did on the WebfindU platform. So we're 2 for 2 with WebfindU and political campaigns.
All right, all right.
And we've also begun offering, um, uh, essentially as a partner of WebFindYou, we've begun offering to build, uh, websites and manage the digital marketing, uh, for other small business clients. And we are in the process of launching our first client's website, which happens to be in the plumbing services space, and we're going to be launching that any day now, actually.
That's fantastic. And so that's one of the things I as well try to share with people is that because Webfindu provides a very transparent formula, all you got to do is follow the formula. And then once you do so, it's like riding a bicycle, right? The training wheels eventually come off. You're riding that bicycle fluidly and you become an expert bicycle rider. It's the same thing with digital marketing, the true digital marketing model, and with true digital marketing technology, which by definition provides that step-by-step guidance, that exact formula. And as long as you follow that, You can be like Brian, uh, utilizing people from the marketplace to essentially as well be able to offer, uh, true digital marketing services and ensure that businesses like his can now become successful in digital marketing. Because nobody at the end of the day wants to spend money in marketing and get nothing in return. We spend money in marketing because we want to produce a positive, uh, return on investment. So, Brian, anything else you'd like to add?
No, I think we've pretty well covered it today. You know, I'm pleased with where we're heading. Our trajectory with Peak Innovation is very good. I remain optimistic that we'll continue to add clients long term, which is, you know, was my initial objective for why work with WebfindU and then You know, once I saw that we could make it work, then I wanted to begin to offer WebFindYou platform to clients myself. So I view that as essentially a new revenue stream for my consulting business. So I'm very optimistic about that as well. So all good here.
Great. Well, you know, I know the, the audience here is just absolutely going to love your story. So thank you for sharing today and thank you for being with us. And, uh, so everybody, thank you again, uh, for being with us here today on Interviews with WebFindU, and we'll see you on the next segment.
