A specialist digital marketing agency is aiming to create at least 15 new roles this year after enjoying record sales on its fifth anniversary.

Middlesbrough-based Mabo Media is set to achieve sales of £1.4m after growing from a one-man-band to a 25-strong team.

Now the pay-per-click (PPC) agency has set its sights on getting staff levels up to 40 this year and up to 100 within three years.

Turnover has doubled year-on-year since the company was formed and 2018-19 is set for a record £1.4m.

Mabo is already the largest PPC specialist in the North-East and works with more than 300 clients up and down the country, offering a no-strings, contract-free approach to paid search management services.

Managing director Lee Mableson, who formed the company in May 2013, said: “I’ve seen a lot of firms struggle to cope with growth, especially in the digital sector, but it’s been very much a controlled growth for us – sensible and manageable.

“We’re big believers in promoting from within and giving current members of staff more responsibility, knowing they’re capable of doing the job with them already having already established themselves within the business, and this is proven with the recent promotions of Stephen Cumberworth to senior PPC account manager and Matthew Soakell to senior PPC trainer.

“The PPC side of the business will continue to give us the growth we’ve seen over the last five years, and now we have key people in position to make sure that continues.

“We’re about delivering a return on investment for clients. We’re in a performance market, our clients need to generate income online, it’s as simple as that, and it’s all data driven.

“People know us as a good, specialist PPC management for the SME market, which is our core business.”

Mabo, which works with high-profile brands including Montane, Lifestyle Fitness and Totes, has enjoyed remarkable success in its first five years – a 97.5% retention rate throughout 2017 speaks for itself.

“In digital marketing that kind of retention rate is almost unheard of, especially considering we don’t ask our clients to sign any contracts,” added Mableson.

“It’s glowing testament to our team which is delivering our services so well. If we see a weakness or inefficiency within the business we’ll tackle it immediately. Efficiency is absolutely key in what we do and what we deliver, both in terms of our own businesses but also in the work we do for our clients.”

Mabo Media was named best small PPC agency in the European Search Awards, held in the Czech Republic capital of Prague recently.

It’s Mabo’s third award this year as the fast-growing company marks five years in business and gears up for major growth.

The company is recognised by Google as one of the UK’s Premier Partners, as well as being one of the first recruits to Bing’s partner programme, and has been shortlisted for no less than 11 awards in 2018 – winning Best Digital Business at the FSB North East awards and Sales Team of the Year at the Biddable Media Awards.

Mableson is celebrating his firm’s latest award by elevating four senior employees to director level, with Rob Jackson (operations), James Lees (marketing), Dean Yates (technology) and Craig Griffiths (sales) all being promoted.

Managing director Mableson, who had previously been the only listed director, said: “All four who have been made directors had been made heads of departments last year, and this only reflects their contribution to the company.

“We have some significant growth plans. We expect to grow quite rapidly over the next two-to-three years, and people needed to be assigned responsibilities to take us forward and prepare us for a big push. We’re putting more fuel on the fire.”

Find out more about Media Media at mabo.co.uk