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About Us

TRACE Agency was founded by James Watling and Laura Hietala in 2015 to service the needs of select clientele moving away from traditional advertising and looking to strengthen their online brand presence organically on Google. Recognising that many modern businesses do not have a long lasting, well-built organic digital strategy integrated into their planning James and Laura created customiseable revenue focused programs for brands operating in the hospitality, wellness, health and lifestyle spaces.

James Watling

Co-Founder, Business Development

Throughout his career James has led teams managing high profile clientele in marketing and media. He has been a prolific publisher in luxury travel and lifestyle titles before founding TRACE to service businesses in highly competitive global industries. James leads the business development and management side of TRACE.

Laura Hietala

Co-Founder, Digital Strategy Director

Laura has worked as a certified Google specialist for over a decade managing all aspects of organic strategy formation and execution for high profile brands and businesses. She leads the technical team at TRACE responsible for ensuring campaigns are consistently profitable for our clients.

Why TRACE?
We focus exclusively on organic SEO campaigns that are built to last for brands and businesses that are best positioned to compete aggressively and profitably in their sector. Before making any offer of service we conduct a full, detailed and comprehensive analysis to ascertain ROI potential as well as timeline path to revenue generation which must be six months or under. TRACE is recognised as a Google Partner.

Bespoke strategies

Our data-driven organic Google strategies are fully tailored to meet your short and long term business goals with an approach that is consultative and supportive at every step of the journey.

Quality Traffic

Connect directly with your true online audience without the need for costly paid advertising campaigns. We drive proven lead conversion and sales revenue generation from quality traffic sources.

Competitive Advantage

Using bespoke in-house software we break out the strategies of your competitors and apply this to your campaign to take market share for your business. We only work with businesses that display potential to rank page #1 on Google in six months or under.

Revenue Results

We create a ROI focused strategy achievable in under six months showing you exactly how we will target your ideal target audience for the most cost effective revenue generation.

Always On Consulting

We work consultatively one-on-one with our clients - either client side or as a standalone addition to your marketing ecosystem.. All accounts are managed personally by the agency founders with monthly in-depth reporting and consultation calls.

Channel Audit

See what channels are performing and what your return is on every campaign Dollar spent stacked against your organic performance. We regularly audit media channels for our clients to ensure they are getting the best cross platform exposure for their business.

What our
clients say

From low page 5 placements to the #1 position on page one of Google in under six months. Incredible results.

Fleur Wood, Director - South Pacific Private

The campaign Laura and James have been running for over three years is the single most valuable channel for online reservations to my business.

Chris Salans, Owner - Mozaic

The TRACE team have secured top results for our dental and cosmetics practices and deliver consistently high levels of patient bookings.

Sita James, Director - ARC Dental & Cosmetics

By fixing our audience targeting challenges we surpassed our financial goals in the first year of engagement with TRACE and continue to grow revenue year-over-year.

Jian Mason, Director - Mason Adventures

Laura and James have set our pre-opening launch strategy impeccably. Their attention to detail and professionalism makes them the gold standard of agencies.

Demeiter Vaubell, Director of Sales - Kimpton, IHG

We believe that in such a hyper-competitive and connected world, businesses that strive to succeed deserve to work with providers that understand the value of human interaction.