Oliver Ball — Founder of Signal Marketing
I’m Oliver Ball. I founded Signal Marketing in September 2023 in Manchester. Before Signal, I built and scaled NoSnore — a DTC brand — from £500 to seven figures in under 12 months. Below is the longer version.
The short version
- Founder of Signal Marketing (UK growth studio, Manchester)
- Founder of NoSnore (internal DTC brand, scaled £500 to 7 figures in under 12 months)
- Documented £0 to £250k in Meta ad spend across own brands
- Active operator on SEO, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Shopify development
- Based in Manchester, work UK-wide and internationally
- No formal C-suite titles, no investor optics, no agency theatre
The NoSnore story
In 2023 I started NoSnore with £500 of my own money. The plan wasn’t to build the next big DTC unicorn — it was to test, in real-world conditions and with real money on the line, whether I could build a profitable consumer brand from a standing start using the playbook I’d been refining for years.
The starting stack was simple: Shopify for the storefront, Meta ads for traffic, a basic creative testing system, proper conversion tracking via Conversions API. The differentiator was creative volume and creative quality — not clever targeting, not “growth hacks”, just shipping more good creative than the algorithm could fatigue.
In under 12 months, NoSnore went from £500 starting budget to seven figures. We documented £0 to £250k in ad spend along the way. Every framework Signal Marketing now applies to client work — campaign architecture, conversion tracking discipline, creative testing structure, scaling logic — was tested first on NoSnore with my own money.
When I tell a client to ring-fence brand from Performance Max, or to fix conversion tracking before doing anything else, those aren’t textbook recommendations. They’re scars from running my own money through the system. Full NoSnore case study here.
Why I started Signal Marketing
After NoSnore was profitable and scaling, friends and former colleagues started asking me to look at their own brands and ad accounts. Most of them were paying agencies for work that wasn’t getting done — broken tracking, badly structured campaigns, juniors running accounts without supervision, account managers buffering them from the actual operators.
The pattern was identical across every account I looked at. The agency model was broken. Senior operators pitched, juniors delivered, account managers buffered, reports dressed up thin output. The clients who were paying for outcomes were getting theatre.
I founded Signal Marketing to apply the same operating model I’d run at NoSnore to client work. Founder-led delivery, no account managers, rolling monthly retainers, work that’s defensible on first principles rather than dressed up in slideware. Full Signal story here.
What I work on day-to-day
- Strategy across all client retainers. Strategy isn’t outsourced to junior staff. Every retainer’s plan goes through me.
- Senior Meta Ads delivery. Active in ad accounts daily. Campaign structure, creative briefs, scaling decisions.
- Senior Google Ads delivery. Account audits, structural rebuilds, weekly optimisation cadence on key accounts.
- SEO direction. Technical audits, keyword strategy, content briefs, link building decisions on every account.
- Conversion tracking architecture. Server-side GTM, GA4 setup, CAPI configuration. The plumbing under everything else.
- Client comms. I’m in every Slack channel, email thread, and monthly call. No buffer.
What I don’t do
- Charity speaking circuits and conferences. Not interested. The work happens in ad accounts, not on stages.
- “Personal brand” content for the sake of it. No daily LinkedIn carousels, no Twitter threads about “10 SEO truths”. The work speaks for itself.
- Hiring just to scale. The team grows when there’s a clear capability gap. Not on the back of a sales push.
- Lock-in contracts. Every Signal retainer is rolling monthly with 7 days’ notice. Same on every service.
- Guarantees on numbers. No agency can guarantee specific rankings, ROAS, or revenue. I won’t pretend otherwise.
Where to find me
- Signal Marketing: the work I do daily — signal.marketing
- Email: team@signal.marketing
- Companies House: Use Signal Marketing Ltd, 16564879
- Trustpilot: 5★ rating with verified reviews
FAQs
Did Oliver Ball really build NoSnore from £500 to 7 figures?
Yes. Documented in the NoSnore case study. The numbers are real and substantiable under NDA.
What was Oliver doing before NoSnore?
Operator-side marketing roles in ecom and DTC. Less interesting than NoSnore — that’s where the real test happened.
Is Oliver still running NoSnore?
NoSnore continues to operate. Signal Marketing is now my primary focus.
Where is Oliver based?
Manchester, UK.
Will Oliver be on my account?
Yes. Strategy across all retainers. Senior delivery on Meta, Google, and SEO accounts. Active in client comms throughout.
Does Oliver speak at events?
Rarely. Most of my time is in ad accounts and Search Console, not on stages.
Can I email Oliver directly?
Yes — team@signal.marketing reaches me. After kickoff on a retainer, you’ll have direct contact.
Is Oliver Ball the only operator at Signal?
No — there’s a small team of senior operators. Team page here.
“Before I met Oliver we were getting 2/3 leads a day. Their strategy led us to 10 leads a day.”
— Caroll, verified Trustpilot review
More about Signal Marketing
Let’s chat
If working with the operator directly is what you want, drop me a message.
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