Jay Torrence

Jay Torrence is the founder of Persist Marketing, an Atlanta-based digital marketing agency operating since 2010. He has spent more than 30 years in sales, marketing, and technology, with the last 15 years focused on helping service businesses get found in search. Persist Marketing has offices in Alpharetta and Atlanta, and Jay leads the agency from Canton, Georgia.

From Software Implementations to Search

Jay's career didn't start in marketing. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Georgia College and State University, he spent years in technology and operations leadership. As Vice President of Services and Implementations at Emerald Software Group, he led a management team that, almost as a side project, started learning the emerging discipline of search engine optimization in the late 2000s.

What began as moonlighting became something more. In 2010, Jay launched PersistSEO as a part-time business serving small business owners who needed help getting found in Google. The agency grew quickly. Within a few years it was one of Georgia's fastest-growing SEO firms, and Jay made the full-time leap.

That technical and analytical background still shapes how the agency operates today. Jay approaches SEO and paid search the way a software engineer would: systematically, with attention to measurement, and with skepticism toward shortcuts and tactics that don't survive contact with reality.

15+ Years of Helping Service Businesses Grow

The agency rebranded as Persist Marketing in 2026 to reflect the broader scope of the work, which now spans local SEO, Google Ads management, Local Services Ads, reputation management, website design, national SEO, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for AI-powered search. The clients Jay serves today are largely the same kinds of businesses he started with: home service contractors, attorneys, healthcare practices, and B2B companies that depend on being found in search to grow.

Many of those client relationships have lasted more than a decade. A few exceed 15 years. Jay measures success the same way most agencies say they do but actually don't: by client outcomes that compound year after year, not by how many new accounts the agency signs.

Hands-On Technical Expertise

Jay is unusual among agency owners in that he still does the technical work himself. He has 15+ years of WordPress experience across themes, performance, and SEO architecture, where most client work happens. Persist Marketing's own site is built on a modern Astro static site framework with structured data throughout, serving as a working example of what's possible. Jay writes much of the schema, contributes to client website builds, and tests the agency's own technical setup.

That hands-on approach matters more in 2026 than it did even a few years ago. As AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews change how customers find local businesses, the agencies that understand the underlying technical work are positioned to help clients adapt. Generative Engine Optimization isn't a buzzword to Jay. It's a daily practice of structuring content and code so that AI engines can understand, evaluate, and cite his clients' businesses.

Owner-Led, Senior Strategic Oversight

Persist Marketing intentionally stays small. Jay is involved in client strategy across the portfolio, working alongside a team that combines deep search experience with modern execution. When clients call with strategic questions, they reach senior people who actually know their account. When clients need quick tactical decisions, those decisions happen quickly because there are no extra layers in between.

The model isn't for everyone. The agency takes on a limited number of clients, declines work in industries outside its four focus verticals, and maintains category exclusivity within service areas. Those constraints exist because they're what make the model work.

Beyond the Office

Jay has called Georgia home since 1978 and is based in Canton. He plays piano, with a fondness for 70s folk rock. He also leads worship in church and small group settings, and is active in his North Georgia community.

Jay is also a lifelong competitive tennis player. He was a Division II All-American in 1994, was inducted into the Georgia College and State University Athletics Hall of Fame, and currently competes nationally as a top-10 ranked player in USTA Men's 50s singles. A former USPTA Certified Pro, Jay also leads TennisMarketing.agency, a specialized practice within Persist Marketing focused on racquet clubs and teaching professionals.