Experience spanning broadcast television, influencer marketing and high-traffic digital media, alongside credits on Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. Founder of SearchSoda.
Why I started SearchSoda
Most digital marketing agencies charge too much, report too little and give clients a junior account manager when they need actual expertise.
I spent over ten years working in some of the most performance-driven digital environments you can imagine. Broadcast television where audience numbers determine whether you stay on air. Influencer platforms where conversion rates and lifetime value are tracked daily. Live digital media where cost per acquisition is an existential concern. In these environments, complacency is immediately visible in the numbers and there is no room for vague reporting or strategies that cannot be measured.
What I saw repeatedly when speaking to UK businesses was a consistent set of problems. Agencies charging a percentage of ad spend, which means their fee grows when your budget grows regardless of whether results justify it. Junior staff managing accounts that clients think are being handled by the senior people they met in the pitch. Reporting that looks impressive but does not tell you whether the money is working.
SearchSoda exists to do the opposite. Flat fees that do not grow with your ad budget. The founder overseeing every account. Reporting that tells you exactly what is working and what is not. Monthly rolling contracts because we want to keep clients by delivering results, not by making it contractually difficult to leave.
Where the experience comes from
Xpanded TV
Nicolas has a long-standing relationship with Xpanded TV, a broadcast television channel built around a live chat platform. The channel's audience development and retention depends entirely on digital performance: getting the right audience to the channel, keeping them engaged and converting that engagement into platform participation. There is no advertising buffer between the marketing activity and the commercial outcome. Every decision is directly measurable and the results are immediate. That direct accountability is foundational to how SearchSoda approaches performance marketing for every client.
SoSpoilt
Nicolas has an ongoing relationship with SoSpoilt, a platform that connects fans directly with creators, and creators with brands. Working in this space has built a precise understanding of what genuine audience engagement looks like from the inside: how fans interact with creators they trust, how those creator relationships translate into commercial outcomes for brands, and how to distinguish authentic engagement from inflated numbers. That perspective informs every influencer and social media campaign SearchSoda runs.
ChatRecruit
Nicolas has an ongoing relationship with ChatRecruit, a high-traffic live chat and digital recruitment platform. High-traffic digital platforms require a combination of SEO, paid acquisition, conversion optimisation and retention marketing working together continuously. The cost per acquisition and lifetime value of each user are tracked with a precision that most other digital environments do not demand. This performance marketing rigour transfers directly to how SearchSoda manages paid search and SEO campaigns for clients.
Games Industry and Xbox
Earlier in his career, Nicolas Comben worked in quality assurance on two shipped AAA titles: Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior, with credits on both, alongside platform work with Sega. Nicolas also worked customer-facing product demonstration at Xbox console launch events. These formative experiences built an understanding of how major products are built, tested and brought to market, and how audiences engage with new technology at the point of launch.