Meet the brains (and guts) behind the results

In a world of algorithms and stats, we’re a tight-knit team of real people who care about your growth as much as you do. We have pretty radically different personalities, but each of us thrives on momentum, takes smart risks, and isn’t afraid to make the first move when the rules start changing.

Agency Leaders

Neil Welsh

Neil Welsh

Chief Executive Officer

Neil Welsh is the Founder and CEO of Silverback Strategies, a leading performance marketing agency built to close the gap between marketing metrics and real business results.

Silverback has been recognized by Ad Age, Inc Magazine and The Washington Post as a top workplace, and Neil has been named a DIGIDAY Top Boss. Neil serves on the executive committee of the YPO Global Marketing Network and the Board of Directors of iFoster.

Allyson Cochran

Allyson Cochran

Chief Revenue Officer

Allyson Cochran is the Chief Revenue Officer at Silverback Strategies, where she leads revenue, partnerships, and growth strategy for one of the most respected performance agencies in the U.S.

She started her career selling radio advertising—long before dashboards and attribution—learning how to connect intangible campaigns to real business outcomes. That mindset still drives her work today. With 15+ years in media and marketing, Allyson is known for helping brands navigate platform shifts, AI-driven optimization, and modern measurement with clarity and confidence. She’s been a featured partner at the American Marketing Association, MarComm, Digital Summit, and executive marketing forums within Pavilion and PartnerStack, where she explains complex changes in performance marketing in practical, no-fluff terms.

Jordan Crawford

Jordan Crawford

Senior Director of Client Services

Jordan Crawford specializes in helping clients find the right strategy to hit their performance goals. With 10+ years of experience in digital marketing, she brings expertise across Paid Media, SEO, and Measurement.

Her hands-on background supports effective cross-channel collaboration, ensuring clients get the most out of every activated channel.
Jordan has led marketing strategy that drove 2x YoY revenue growth for a PE-backed company and has been featured in Search Engine Land’s daily digest. She was recognized as a 40 Under 40 honoree by Charlottesville Weekly.
A key part of her role is translating complex marketing performance and strategy into clear, simple language that resonates with marketing leaders, C-suites, and boards alike.

Mat Ingham

Mat Ingham

Senior Director, SEO

Mat Ingham is the Senior Director, SEO at Silverback Strategies, where he specializes in turning real business goals into performance-driving strategies.

With over a decade of experience driving business growth, he brings expertise across a variety of channels, including SEO, AI Search, Paid Media, and Measurement. His testing mindset helps drive the innovation necessary to drive growth in today’s evolving landscape and ensures clients reach their goals. He helps clients turn complex SEO topics into actionable strategies that drive meaningful results.

Client Leaders

Haley Nininger

Haley Nininger

Director, Performance Creative & Strategy

Haley Nininger is Director of Performance Creative at Silverback Strategies — part analyst, part creative strategist, and firmly convinced that the best marketing lives at the intersection of both.

With over five years at Silverback and a background spanning paid media, creative strategy, and UX design, she helps brands stop guessing which ads will work and start building the systematic testing programs that find out.
A James Madison University graduate, Haley’s blend of analytical and creative thinking showed up early. While at JMU, she captained an all-female team that became a finalist in the 2018 Global Online Marketing Academic Challenge (GOMAC), earning an Honorable Mention for excellence in Google Data Studio reporting. That same year, she won a design competition to create the 40th-anniversary bus wrap for the Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation — a piece celebrating the Shenandoah Valley that was seen by the entire city. She also co-founded the first national Digital Marketing Honors Society, built to connect top-tier digital talent with the recruiters and companies looking for it.
Haley writes on the power of psychology in advertising, media and creative strategy, performance creative trends by channel, and activating research insights in paid media campaigns

Terry Guttman

Terry Guttman

Associate Director, Ad Ops & Data

Terry is a seasoned marketer and strategic thinker with extensive experience in paid media, data analytics and measurement.

He enjoys digging deep into complex issues to uncover insights and develop actionable solutions that move organizations forward.

Sarah VanLandingham

Sarah VanLandingham

Associate Director, Media Strategy

Sarah VanLandingham is the Associate Director of Media Strategy and has over seven years of industry experience and four years of management expertise. In that time, she’s mastered the art of bridging the gap between “big ideas” and actually driving business results.

While she’s got a proven track record of leading and developing teams of media superstars, her bread and butter is acting as a strategy maven on her accounts, and as the person who can translate complex technical data into something the C-suite can actually use.
Sarah has managed monthly budgets ranging from $40K to $1.5MM across e-commerce, legal, and finance, proving she can handle both a shoestring and a firehose. In 2024, she took $7MM in yearly spend for a legal client and drove a 105% lift in case volume—because who doesn’t love a triple-digit win? Whether she’s coaching her team on how to stay ahead in our everchanging media landscape or translating complex themes for her C-suite stakeholders, she ensures her clients and her team are positioned for scalability. She’s been told she’s a bit of a powerhouse; in fact, her boss once begged the question, “could the world even handle two Sarah VanLandinghams?” and for the sake of the competition, let’s hope we never find out.

Benjamin Johnson

Benjamin Johnson

Associate Director of SEO

Ben is someone who enjoys building things—both professionally and 
personally. With over 10 years of experience in SEO, Ben’s worked across the 
spectrum, from large enterprise organizations to small, family-owned businesses, 
which has shaped a practical, results-driven approach to growth.

He specializes in developing and executing SEO strategies that drive measurable impact, whether 
that’s scaling complex enterprise sites or helping smaller businesses compete effectively in crowded markets. Outside of work, Ben spends time on carpentry projects and experimenting with 3D printing, and he 
enjoys hiking, reading science fiction, and catching up on movies and TV. Fun fact: He builds most of his 
own furniture, including tables, chairs, desks, etc .

Thought Leaders

Featured Blog

How Google is Using Trust Signals to Personalize AI Results

Mat Ingham | June 4, 2026

How Google is Using Trust Signals to Personalize AI Results

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Featured Blog

What Separates Winning Paid Social Accounts From Stalled Ones: A Creative System

Allyson Cochran | May 28, 2026

What Separates Winning Paid Social Accounts From Stalled Ones: A Creative System

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Featured Blog

Google I/O + Google Marketing Live: Key Announcements & What They Mean For Marketers

Jordan Crawford | May 27, 2026

Google I/O + Google Marketing Live: Key Announcements & What They Mean For Marketers

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Featured Blog

What a Study of $1.3B in Meta Ad Spend Reveals About Paid Social Creative Strategy

Haley Nininger | March 18, 2026

What a Study of $1.3B in Meta Ad Spend Reveals About Paid Social Creative Strategy

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Featured Blog

AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Personalization. Are You Ready?

Jordan Crawford | February 12, 2026

AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Personalization. Are You Ready?

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Featured Blog

What is Agentic Commerce? How the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is Changing Commerce in 2026

Andrew Nelson | February 4, 2026

What is Agentic Commerce? How the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is Changing Commerce in 2026

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Featured Blog

Modern SEO Measurement Playbook

Mat Ingham | January 29, 2026

Modern SEO Measurement Playbook

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Featured Blog

YouTube is the #1 Source for Google AI Overviews: Is Your SEO Strategy Ready?

Mat Ingham | January 23, 2026

YouTube is the #1 Source for Google AI Overviews: Is Your SEO Strategy Ready?

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Featured Blog

The Causal Pivot: Why Google and Meta Are Giving You the Tools to Grade Their Homework

Andrew Nelson | January 15, 2026

The Causal Pivot: Why Google and Meta Are Giving You the Tools to Grade Their Homework

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Featured Blog

Reporting to Leadership: Translating SEO & Paid Media Metrics into Business Impact

Andrew Nelson | December 31, 2025

Reporting to Leadership: Translating SEO & Paid Media Metrics into Business Impact

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Featured Blog

Aligning Marketing Metrics with Business Goals: A Reporting Framework for In-House Teams

Neil Welsh | December 26, 2025

Aligning Marketing Metrics with Business Goals: A Reporting Framework for In-House Teams

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Featured Blog

Google vs. OpenAI: The Myth of Fragmentation and the Reality of 2026

Andrew Nelson | December 23, 2025

Google vs. OpenAI: The Myth of Fragmentation and the Reality of 2026

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Featured Blog

Creative is the New Targeting: How to Master “Entity IDs” and Unlock Scale

Andrew Nelson | December 22, 2025

Creative is the New Targeting: How to Master “Entity IDs” and Unlock Scale

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Featured Blog

Where SEO Ends and Paid Media Begins: How Both Channels Work Together

Neil Welsh | December 18, 2025

Where SEO Ends and Paid Media Begins: How Both Channels Work Together

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Featured Blog

AI-Powered Reporting: Making Monthly Performance Reports More Actionable

Andrew Nelson | December 17, 2025

AI-Powered Reporting: Making Monthly Performance Reports More Actionable

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Featured Blog

The Simplified Meta Ads Funnel: Why “Signal Density” is the Key to Unlocking Scale in the GEM Era

Andrew Nelson | December 15, 2025

The Simplified Meta Ads Funnel: Why “Signal Density” is the Key to Unlocking Scale in the GEM Era

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Featured Blog

Why Your Competitor Analysis Is Missing the Mark

Neil Welsh | December 12, 2025

Why Your Competitor Analysis Is Missing the Mark

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Featured Blog

The Algorithmic Pivot: GEM, Andromeda, and How Meta’s $100B Bet on “Predictive Intent” is Rewriting the Ad Market

Andrew Nelson | December 9, 2025

The Algorithmic Pivot: GEM, Andromeda, and How Meta’s $100B Bet on “Predictive Intent” is Rewriting the Ad Market

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Featured Blog

Meta Andromeda Broke Your Paid Social Playbook

Allyson Cochran | November 19, 2025

Meta Andromeda Broke Your Paid Social Playbook

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Featured Blog

Last Click Addiction: How We Fucked Up Marketing

Neil Welsh | November 6, 2025

Last Click Addiction: How We Fucked Up Marketing

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Featured Blog

How AI Optimization Mistakes Fuel Ad Fraud and Waste Paid Media Budgets

Andrew Nelson | October 22, 2025

How AI Optimization Mistakes Fuel Ad Fraud and Waste Paid Media Budgets

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Featured Blog

There’s War in Your C Suite, And Growth Is The Casualty

Neil Welsh | October 14, 2025

There’s War in Your C Suite, And Growth Is The Casualty

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Featured Blog

How a Google URL Parameter Wiped out $3B in Reddit’s Valuation, and What Marketers Should Learn From It

Andrew Nelson | October 3, 2025

How a Google URL Parameter Wiped out $3B in Reddit’s Valuation, and What Marketers Should Learn From It

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Featured Blog

How ChatGPT Is Reshaping the Way People Search. And What Marketers Should Do About It

Neil Welsh | September 19, 2025

How ChatGPT Is Reshaping the Way People Search. And What Marketers Should Do About It

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Featured Blog

Creative Strategy in Digital Advertising

Haley Nininger | July 31, 2024

Creative Strategy in Digital Advertising

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Featured Blog

Your CRM Attribution Is Unreliable — Here’s How to Improve Marketing Measurement

Terry Guttman | July 30, 2024

Your CRM Attribution Is Unreliable — Here’s How to Improve Marketing Measurement

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Featured Blog

Why Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

Jordan Crawford | May 17, 2023

Why Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

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Featured Blog

7 Questions to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency

Jordan Crawford | May 11, 2023

7 Questions to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency

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Featured Blog

Why You Need Audience Research in Paid Media

Haley Nininger | May 4, 2023

Why You Need Audience Research in Paid Media

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Featured Blog

How to Generate Leads in Google Local Services Ads

Terry Guttman | March 1, 2023

How to Generate Leads in Google Local Services Ads

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Featured Blog

Creative Testing: How to Maximize Success

Haley Nininger | December 29, 2022

Creative Testing: How to Maximize Success

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Featured Blog

How to Convert Web Traffic into Leads

Terry Guttman | May 3, 2022

How to Convert Web Traffic into Leads

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Featured Blog

A Digital Marketing Team Structure Built for Performance

Andrew Nelson | March 24, 2022

A Digital Marketing Team Structure Built for Performance

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Featured Blog

Digital Marketing Objectives to Support Market Share, Revenue and Profit

Andrew Nelson | January 18, 2022

Digital Marketing Objectives to Support Market Share, Revenue and Profit

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Featured Blog

Measuring Marketing ROI for Mid-Market Consumer Businesses

Allyson Cochran | April 27, 2021

Measuring Marketing ROI for Mid-Market Consumer Businesses

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"Working with Silverback is easy. We see better engagement and more revenue for less spend."

Romain Coetmellec, Digital Fundraising Director

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Think of us as a senior-level extension of your team. We plug into your goals, align with your KPIs, and bring the strategy, creative, and execution needed to move the needle — consistently. From big-picture thinking to day-to-day delivery, we’re here to help you hit your numbers (and then beat them).

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Join a team that values thoughtful work, creative problem-solving, and real impact. We collaborate closely, move quickly, and care deeply about what we build — for our clients and each other. If you’re looking to grow, contribute, and do work you’re proud of, you’ll fit right in.

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