Where it all began

Cue dreamy flashback music. A young Ajay Pattani fell in love with AdWords when he was optimizing paid search campaigns for his family’s souvenir business. Like all true romances, this passion led to some big drama. No, not a race through the rainy streets of New York (we do love When Harry Met Sally, though)–a career change. Ajay went on to work at Resolution Media, FansEdge, and Dreams Corp. His obsession with building out “perfect” accounts with thousands of keywords sparked an idea. Why not start his own business?

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

2010

Perfect Search Media™ is born unto the world! Don’t worry, there’s no videotape of it. Perfect Search™ begins working with clients like Goodyear, The Chicago Tribune, and Bonobos. We set up shop in a building on 116 W. Hubbard and become frequent customers of Bub City.

2011

It takes two to tango. And in this case, tango means marketing services. Perfect Search™ partners up with Dex One and launches Dex’s first premium SEO offering.

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2012

Mo’ clients, mo’ team members. It’s pretty exciting. We can start doing bigger human pyramids. More great clients → more great team members → more great clients… You catch our drift.

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2013

Perfect Search’s™ numbers keep growing and our 116 W. Hubbard office gets cramped. The whole one-stall bathroom thing is getting a little old. Plus, we’re ready to explore some new restaurants and bars. Don’t worry, we still miss you, Bub City.

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2014

Perfect Search™ moves into a larger office space at 12 E. Ohio St. There’s way more room for activities (and more than one bathroom stall). Bonus: we’re down the street from Shake Shack. That’s not not the main reason we picked this location.

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2015

Perfect Search™ rebrands. Remember when Kim Kardashian rebranded from Paris Hilton’s sidekick to the Kim K we know and obsessively follow today? It’s kind of like that. We launch new logos, a new site, and continue to expand our team.

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2016

Perfect Search™ becomes a Premier Google Partner, an honor reserved for only 10% of Google Partners! We’re pretty proud of that, but it’s not like we got matching temporary tattoos of it. Yet. Plus, we expand our expertise in the education and e-commerce industries and work with clients like Columbia University, Stage Stores, and Dylan’s Candy Bar. Sweet. Good thing we have dental.

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2017

Another thing we’re pretty proud of: Perfect Search™ is recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies. (Again, no temp tats. Yet.) The Perfect Search™ Board of Advisors is also formed, marking a new chapter in the agency’s growth. Heyo!

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2018

Perfect Search™ is part of Inc.’s Best Workplaces of 2018. The seemingly endless supply of LaCroix and Pirate’s Booty may have something to do with it. We’re also showered with other awards–like Clutch.co and Hermes–just to name a few. Plus, we gave this very company history page a makeover. Queer Eye’s Fab Five would be proud. (Psst: Keep your eyes peeled for an Easter Egg of cartoon Ajay!)

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2019

Ajay began traveling the world to meet with current clients and form new business relationships (Ajay, that hang gliding client meeting looked awesome!). We proudly became a Preferred Partner Agency for Facebook Marketing and increased our expertise in the software/technology and healthcare industries. Lastly, we took our Amazon Prime obsession to the next level by now offering Amazon advertising services to our clients.

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2020

2020, wow, where to begin…

With plenty of remote experience already under our belts, we took the transition to work-from-home in stride (and Zoomed until the cows came home)! You can now catch our team working from the East Coast to Montana, and all the way back to Chicagoland. COVID-19 pushed marketing further towards digital, and we helped clients not only survive but thrive during the pandemic. Plus, we expanded our expertise in e-commerce, education, and association industries, all while embracing future-thinking tech like AI. Phew! Can someone say “Alexa, pass me a beer?”

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2021

They grow up so fast! Team members are having babies and moving to new cities faster than you can say digital marketing.

This year, we helped our clients show the pandemic who’s boss by staying ahead of the curve.

We also remained a leading player in the industry, and earned some shiny new awards including the Vega Design Awards and BuiltIn’s Best Places to Work.

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2022

It’d been too long since we’d gotten the company together, so the team traveled to sunny Scottsdale, Arizona for a much-needed retreat.

It was a weekend of bonding, tanning, and sunburns for some of us. We feasted like kings and queens and lounged poolside like lizards in the sun. But we didn’t just wear flip-flops, drink seltzers, and dance the night away this year…

Perfect Search flexed its marketing muscles and made impressive gains in the education, SaaS, and B2B sectors. Simply put, we work hard so we can play hard. Unfortunately, none of us got tickets for Taylor Swift.

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