When AEA needed to reach regenerative ag leaders without overspending, boa delivered results: 116% more site visits, 44% lower costs. See how precision beats volume in B2B marketing.
From the time it was founded in 2006, Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) had steadily proven the effectiveness of its regenerative solutions on farms large and small across a wide range of growing regions and crop production methods.
To scale further in 2023, the company needed a marketing partner focused on media who could match the scientific rigor it brought to farming to the way it introduced itself and engaged growers in the U.S. and Canada. These farmers are highly capable, pragmatic decision-makers running multi-million dollar operations, and boa’s precision-targeted approach met the need with precision, transforming how AEA engaged qualified agricultural leaders throughout North America.
Founder John Kempf started to improve soil health and empower today’s farmers with regenerative growing systems. When AEA’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Lissy Matthews approached boa in 2023, AEA needed a paid media partner that could navigate the unique challenges of marketing to these business decision-makers.
“We were looking for a digital partner to work on brand awareness and specific messaging and marketing to particular grower markets across North America,” notes Matthews. “We needed a very precise way forward because our budget is not huge. And so we were really looking for a very effective way to be able to use digital marketing to increase brand awareness.”
AEA faced several significant obstacles in reaching the right farm owners through digital channels:
Before implementing any tactical solutions, the boa team invested significant time in understanding these challenges. Rather than proposing generic marketing approaches, the team conducted deep research into agricultural business cycles, technology patterns among farm businesses and decision-making specific to regenerative agriculture adoption. This strategic intelligence phase established a foundation for success that standard media buying could never achieve.
Rather than following conventional broad-targeting approaches that waste impressions on unqualified audiences, boa developed a precision strategy built on transparent performance metrics aligned with AEA’s business objectives. This wasn’t reactive optimization. It was proactive strategy design from the ground up.
The strategic framework had three key components:
The boa team mapped rural farming regions across target states, strategically eliminating urban areas where farm business owners don’t live or operate. The team implemented a complete campaign restructuring that moved away from high-level, general personas to a more targeted approach focusing specifically on rural regions.
The team implemented an 80/20 budget split between the U.S. and Canada, with state-specific allocations based on observed seasonal patterns. Data showed that certain states performed well in summer/fall but dropped off in winter, while others showed the opposite trend. By recognizing these patterns, boa adjusted budget allocations to match target audiences in different regions based on when they’re most active, rather than following platform-suggested generic timing.
boa implemented a comprehensive overhaul of AEA’s keyword strategy. The team restructured Google search campaigns and keywords to match the customer journey presented on both AEA’s web properties.
The new keyword schema was built around specific farming challenges, regions and seasonal activities. By analyzing search patterns of agricultural businesses, boa created more relevant keyword groupings that captured farm business owners with immediate problems to solve. The impact was immediate and measurable: CTR (Click-Through Rates) more than doubled after implementation. This approach effectively directed qualified traffic toward both AEA’s e-commerce platform and their consulting services.
boa applied a rigorous data-driven approach to campaign optimization based on performance metrics rather than assumptions. Through rapid test-and-learn cycles, they were able to effectively narrow the audience to a true representation of the highest qualified targets. boa implemented systematic A/B testing across creative formats, messaging approaches and targeting parameters to identify the most effective combinations. When tests revealed different performance patterns across regions, boa adjusted resource allocation accordingly.
This analytical approach allowed for continuous refinement that maintained campaign momentum. After making strategic adjustments to both Google Ads and YouTube, the team established a foundation for targeted budget increases. These budget shifts focused on maximizing qualified site visits rather than raw impression volume, moving from general awareness metrics to more conversion-focused indicators.
The campaign restructuring delivered significant improvements across key metrics:
Performance data shows a clear transformation. Earlier campaigns generated high impression volumes but relatively low engagement. After boa’s strategic overhaul, impression volume was intentionally reduced while click volume increased substantially, improving both efficiency and effectiveness.
boa’s approach to measurement and reporting provided clear visibility into these improvements. Transparent attribution of results established a data-driven foundation for future campaign refinements.
“From day one, the boa team felt like an extension of the AEA team, functioning from a place of passion for our business and a drive to achieve our objectives,” explains Lissy Matthews. “The team is incredibly creative, gracious and understanding and very effective in how they’ve gone about things. They have worked with us when we’ve needed to change our budgets or when we’ve needed to make allocations in different places. It’s been a good balance of strategic insight and guiding us through this process while also being nimble and responsive.”
The partnership went beyond typical agency-client relationships. As AEA worked to develop its e-commerce platform alongside its consulting services, boa adjusted the media approach accordingly. A key consideration is that farmers are less likely to purchase product in bulk online. In-person is preferred. Understanding this, boa developed targeting strategies that supported both the consulting services and laid the groundwork for e-commerce growth.
The partnership continues to evolve as boa’s strategic insights help support and shape AEA’s broader marketing initiatives.
The success of this partnership offers valuable insights for B2B brands looking to elevate their digital advertising effectiveness:
boa’s investment in understanding agricultural business cycles and audience patterns before campaign deployment demonstrates how strategic analysis—not just tactical optimization—drives superior outcomes.
Well-defined audience targeting doesn’t merely reduce waste—it fundamentally transforms campaign economics by reaching only the most qualified decision-makers when they’re actively seeking solutions.
By establishing clear attribution frameworks that connect media activities directly to business outcomes, boa created strong accountability that built trust with AEA leadership while driving continuous performance improvements.
While platform-provided AI tools promised simplicity and scale, boa’s analysis revealed the limitations for specialized B2B audiences. As boa founder Avril Tomlin-Hood explains, “Whenever you use AI and automation in a closed media system, let’s say Google, there can be a lot of impressions delivered at a very cheap rate. But it’s not targeted towards the exact audiences that you want to engage.” For AEA’s specialized audiences and best prospects, boa’s strategically managed approach outperformed platform automation by focusing on quality over quantity.
When a media partner understands and embraces a client’s core mission — in this case, advancing regenerative agriculture — it creates strategic advantages that transcend typical agency relationships. boa’s commitment to AEA’s mission allowed for strategic pivots that prioritized long-term business building over short-term media metrics.
For AEA, this partnership represents a model for how digital advertising can be reimagined to meet the unique demands of specialized B2B operations with precision and transparency. As regenerative agriculture continues to gain momentum, AEA’s strategic partnership with boa demonstrates how precision media strategy can help advance even the most specialized B2B missions and deliver superior business results.
About boa
boa is a sustainable media buying agency helping mission-driven brands boost awareness, increase site traffic and drive sales. To learn more about reducing waste and optimizing media for long-term sustainability, book a discovery call today.