//San Francisco · Marketing agency
A marketing agency for San Francisco businessesthat starts with what is actually broken.
You already have a business. The question is why the marketing is not producing enough of the right customers. We look at how buyers find you, what happens after the click, and what your current reporting can actually prove. Then we tell you what deserves the next dollar.
Work directly with our founders. No account-manager handoff.
Already operating? You are in the right place.
We work best with businesses that have customers, a real offer and a marketing budget set aside. Still forming the company, or looking for no-cost startup help? Use our free San Francisco startup guide instead. It is the better starting point and it costs nothing.
What changes in San Francisco.
San Francisco packs a global technology and finance economy, a heavy tourism draw and a dense neighborhood small-business culture into seven square miles. The Financial District, SoMa, the Ferry Building, the Embarcadero and Union Square sit within a short distance of each other, which makes it one of the most concentrated business environments in the country.
It is also one of the most expensive, and that is what changes the marketing math for an established business. When rent, payroll and customer acquisition all cost more here than almost anywhere else, the tolerance for spend that cannot be traced to revenue is close to zero. The buyers are sophisticated and quick to judge credibility, so a thin site or an unverifiable claim gets discounted fast. The work that pays back is usually proving the case rather than raising the volume.
What we would look at first.
- 1Are the right people finding you?Search, maps and paid placement for the terms that carry buying intent, not the ones that only carry volume.
- 2Are you paying for the right demand?Spend against what converts, and an honest look at the demand you are buying that was never going to.
- 3Does the site finish the job?The offer, the proof and the next step, on the page the traffic actually lands on.
- 4Can the owner tell what worked?Calls, forms and bookings traced back far enough to make the next budget decision defensible.
Already have an agency? Good. Bring the report.
We will tell you what looks healthy, what we cannot verify and where we would look first. If the current setup makes sense, we will say that too. You do not have to fire anyone to get a second read.
Work you can check.
These are our clients, not San Francisco clients. Every number on them is published on the study itself, so you can read the whole engagement rather than a highlight.
What we would most likely run for San Francisco.
Founders stay.
The people you meet stay on the account. There is no sales handoff and no junior takeover after the contract is signed.
Yours to keep.
Accounts, domains, ad platforms and content are in your name. If we part ways you keep all of it.
Month to month.
No annual lock-in. We would rather keep the work worth renewing than hold you to a term.
//Common questions
What San Francisco owners ask us first.
Are you actually local to San Francisco?
No. Mining Wells is based in Irvine and serves San Francisco businesses from there. We are not going to invent a SoMa address to look local. The tradeoff is that you work directly with the two founders instead of an account manager, and that holds regardless of geography.
Do I need to know which service I need before I call?
No, and in an expensive market it is worth resisting the urge to guess. Most owners who ask for more traffic have a conversion or a tracking problem instead, and buying traffic first would have made the real problem more expensive rather than less.
What if I already have an agency?
Bring the report. We will tell you what looks healthy, what we cannot verify from the outside and where we would look first. If the current setup makes sense we will tell you to keep it.
How do you price?
We quote after the diagnosis, not before it. Work is month to month, and your accounts, domains, ad platforms and content stay in your name whether or not we keep working together.
Can you guarantee leads or rankings?
No. In a market with this much competition for the same terms, a guarantee is a sign someone is either buying the result with ads or chasing keywords nobody searches. We will tell you what we expect to move and what would tell us early that it is not working.
Get my free marketing plan.
Tell us about the business and where the marketing is getting stuck. We will write you a plan for it, free, and tell you honestly if we are not the right people to run it.
No cost. No obligation. No pitch if it is not a fit.
Nearby markets we serve
Starting a business instead? Read the free San Francisco startup guide.