We built the agency we'd want to hire.
Senior operators. No handoffs. No junior teams learning on your budget. Systems we build ourselves. Month-to-month contracts. Full transparency on what's working and what's not.
Our story
We started Sum Digital in 2014 with a simple idea: what if an agency actually stayed engaged after the pitch?
Before this, we ran paid media for 7, 8, and 9-figure brands. We saw the pattern: agencies pitch the founders, hand off to juniors, and phone it in after month three. Performance drifts. Communication slows.
Over time, we realized performance rarely breaks because of strategy or platforms. It breaks when momentum breaks — when collaboration slows, decisions drag, and feedback loops stretch too far. That insight shaped how we built Sum Digital.
We built Sum Digital to be different. We designed the agency to be high-touch and nimble, with no layers between you and the people running your campaigns. Since 2014, we've scaled brands from startup to PE exit and managed over $250M in ad spend.
The newest chapter is systems. What a small senior team can build changed completely in the last two years, so we went deep on it: reporting shaped to each client's business units, creative pipelines fed by their own reviews and assets, ad builders that ship validated campaigns, and a measurement discipline that checks every account every morning. An agency today has no excuse for mistakes. The budget decisions still go through a person. The rest, we design and run.
What makes us different
Senior operators only
Everyone on your account has 10+ years of experience. No trainees, no recent grads.
You meet the people running your campaigns on day one. They're still there on day 100.
Full transparency
You see everything we see. Real business metrics, not platform vanity stats.
MER, CAC, contribution margin, reconciled against your store. No black box. Transparency isn't about reporting, it's about keeping momentum high so decisions don't stall.
Honest reporting
We tell you what's not working, not just what is.
If something's broken, we say so. Every account is checked every morning, so we usually say so before you notice. No spin, no excuses.
Founders stay engaged
We didn't build this to disappear after the pitch.
We're in your ad account, on the weekly call, answering messages. And building the tools your account needs.
Who you'll work with
Terry Whalen
Co-founder, President
15+ years in paid media. Runs accounts personally. Known for scaling brands from $10M to $100M+.
Account leadership + performance oversight
Joey Muller
Co-founder, Vice President
15+ years in paid media. Still in the ad accounts. Still on client calls. Builds the systems that run underneath them.
Systems + strategy + client communication
Our operating principles
Tell the truth fast.
Do the work, then report it.
Creative is targeting.
Measure what matters (profit, not vanity).
Build the system where the work repeats.
Keep humans on the decisions that matter.
Experience that matters
15+ years running paid media for ecommerce brands. We've been through every platform change, every iOS update, every attribution shift.
Combined Years
Been there, done that