We catch up with local entrepreneur Stephane Ganache, Founder of AdsVentures, after business growth forced a move into a brand-new Chapel Allerton headquarters.
Getting the most of an online presence is something that is vital for brands in an extremely digital-centric world, and its exactly what Stephane Ganache, Owner of AdsVentures, excels at: “We’re a digital marketing agency. Digital marketing is a very broad sector, it can involve a website, search engine optimisation (SEO), or branding.
We specialise in paid advertising, specifically Google ads, where advertisers pay to have an ad at the top of Google’s search engine so that they can increase leads and sales. We don’t do SEO. Sometimes people get confused between the two, SEO is the organic promotion of your website, where you don’t pay for the clicks.”
France born Stephane gained his experience in the digital marketing sector in a Leeds-based team working for Google: “I moved to Jerusalem for a few years working as a journalist and met my wife, who came from Leeds. Jerusalem was very exciting, but it was long hours, very stressful, and not good money, so I came to Leeds with my wife and gave it a go here. I was in an Israeli team, based in Leeds, supporting Israel’s digital marketing agencies for Google. I was the point of contact for hundreds of digital marketing agencies based in Israel.”
After six years of working with Google, Stephane felt it was time to start up his own business in digital marketing: “Our role was officially a support role, but it was still considered a sales role as well and we had targets. Our targets were increasing all the time, which was exciting at the beginning, but after a few years I got tired of it. Also, I felt I was ready, I had the contacts, and I wanted the flexibility of being my own boss.”
Stephane has recently expanded the business by bringing onboard new talent, and so has set up a brand-new headquarters in Chapel Allerton, across the road from where the business first began: “It’s a great place to work. I live in North Leeds and didn’t want to commute into the city centre every day when I worked at Google and deal with the traffic. It’s convenient enough if I have any meetings in the city centre and also an area that I’ve always liked since I arrived in Leeds. It’s vibrant, it’s young, and it has a lot of cafes and restaurants. I prefer that over being in an industrial estate or somewhere where you’re cut off from the world.”
Moving to a new building and expanding the team has brought many cultures together in one place, something that Stephane values for his business: “We work with international clients, so we need a team that speaks multiple languages. Only two of our team were born in the UK, so we’re bringing a lot of cultures together. That helps us because we have different approaches and mentalities. It really helps us grow as a business.”
