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Kieran Hooton has managed around £1.2 million in advertising spend since launching KG Advertising a year ago. But his ambition isn’t to build a huge agency, take on dozens of employees or make growth the whole story.
He’d rather understand why someone buys a product and work closely with the business behind it – staying small enough to keep doing that well. From his office at The Business Village in Barnsley, that’s exactly what he’s building.
Kieran’s route into advertising wasn’t quite as planned as the results might suggest.
After school, he tried a few different jobs to work out what suited him. His twin sister managed Google Ads at an agency, and chatting about her work made Kieran curious about how businesses used advertising.
He took a job at a brewing company in Barnsley and soon realised that brewing itself wasn’t the part that interested him most. He was much more drawn to how the business promoted its events and connected with people through Facebook.
It gave him something to work towards. With no experience in digital marketing, he found a free Google course covering the fundamentals. After completing it, he started applying for social media roles and, within a couple of months, had landed a job working with organic social media.
Over time, he moved into paid Facebook and Instagram Ads. Enjoying the work, he wanted to offer it to more businesses and set up KG Advertising. He soon realised that successful advertising wasn’t just about putting adverts in front of people. It was about understanding why someone might buy in the first place.
Kieran works with businesses selling a mix of products and services, so finding the right customer is a big part of what he does. He spends a lot of time researching competitors, customer comments and the language people use when talking about a problem. He calls these “customer avatars” and says finding the right one is often the key to a campaign.
One example came from a client selling a similar product to Invisalign. Instead of trying to target a huge list of demographics, Kieran found a much more recognisable scenario. Adults who had lost their retainer.
Other useful ideas can come from much less obvious places. Kieran likes the story of a brand that found a new advertising angle by looking at the comments on its Facebook posts. Someone had suggested that a Paint by Numbers product would be great for a girls’ night and tagged a few friends. The brand ran with the idea.
“It became the winning ad,” Kieran says. “And it was literally from a single Facebook comment.”
That kind of detective work is a big part of what Kieran enjoys. A comment, customer complaint or throwaway observation can be a clue to a new audience or a different way of promoting a product.
“The main thing is finding that avatar,” he says. “It’s fun looking at all the creatives that people make and then thinking, how can you improve?”
KG Advertising’s initial service runs for six weeks, starting with the tracking and account setup in week one. The following five weeks are then spent testing different creative ideas, messaging and audiences. Kieran works closely with his clients throughout, sharing ideas and results as the campaign develops.
After six weeks, clients can choose to continue on a rolling monthly basis. It isn’t about promising an instant fix, though. Kieran says businesses need to be comfortable giving the advertising time to find what works.
Kieran estimates he’s now managed around £1.2 million in ad spend across the businesses he’s worked with, generating roughly £3.7 million in revenue. Those figures are based on the results he’s seen across his work, with a large proportion coming from the final quarter of the year.
Despite those numbers, Kieran has no plans to turn KG Advertising into a 50-person agency.
“I don’t see myself building a big agency and trying to serve as many people as possible,” he says. “I’ve seen larger agencies selling their experience and scale but then passing work down to junior staff. You lose that personal touch and that’s not how I want to work.”
For Kieran, though, staying small isn’t about standing still. It’s about making sure he can stay close enough to the work and the people he’s helping.
Technology is supporting that. He’s built an AI-assisted reporting system that pulls information from advertising accounts. He can then combine the data with his own notes to create a branded report for each client. It means less time spent pulling reports together and more time thinking about the campaigns themselves.
“I try and spend more time on the creative strategy for the brands that I’ve got, rather than other things like reporting and meetings.”
The decision to base KG Advertising at The Business Village came partly from Kieran’s experience of working from home. During COVID, he made YouTube videos for friends he’d met through cryptocurrency. With a desk in the bedroom of a one-bedroom house, the line between work and home wasn’t exactly clear.
A few years later, when Kieran started KG Advertising, he was keen to have a separate workspace. Two close friends had also gone full-time in their own businesses, so the three decided to get an office together. It gave them some company during the day and helped them keep each other accountable.
They started in one of the smaller offices at The Business Village. It was affordable and gave them somewhere to work rather than being stuck at home. There was just one problem: it had no windows.
When an office with windows became available, they decided it was time to move. And in true advertising industry fashion, they picked Black Friday to do it.
“I came in at 8am and think I left at 1am that day,” he laughs.
The move gave Kieran a proper space, but some of the most useful parts of being at The Business Village happen outside his own space. Random conversations while making lunch in the communal kitchen have introduced him to new businesses. And the fire alarm has shown him just how many people work on site.
“You don’t always appreciate how many businesses are in The Business Village until the fire alarm goes off,” he laughs. “Everyone goes outside and you realise how many people are actually in these buildings.”
Those everyday interactions can be useful too. Kevin Steel, Business Development Manager at The Business Village, helped Kieran and his friends move into the new office. He’s also been supportive as their businesses have developed.
And there’s another reason The Business Village works so well – it’s full of small businesses.
“There are a lot of smaller businesses here that I’d like to work with,” Kieran says. “For a smaller company, bringing in an advertising agency can feel like a big commitment. Having someone nearby to talk through an idea or answer a question makes it less daunting.”
It’s a good match for the business Kieran is building – close to the client, focused on the work and small enough to keep things personal.
