Semrush Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SEMR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Evgeny Fetisov: So of course, we’re using GPT a lot. But on top of that, we also use our own models. First of all, the trick is that you need to give GPT algorithm right input. So our algorithms define what is this right input, what will make content perform well. And then, of course, we use pure generative capabilities of GPT.

Parker Lane: Great. Thanks for the feedback. Appreciated.

Operator: We’ll go next to Scott Berg at Needham.

Scott Berg: Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess I have a couple here. I wanted to start on the churn comment. I appreciate that 30% of your customers that churn returned to the platform. But how should we think about the elevated churn in the quarter? Are you able to maybe isolate small customers versus large customers? Any particular region or vertical that maybe you saw some higher churn in particular?

Eugene Levin: Yes. So in Q4, actually, I think there is no particular region or segment that did stand out. I would highlight that a lot of customers who were on the larger end in churn in Q4 actually getting back right now in January and February. That was really more of a long renewal rather than real churn. Even though in December, they were telling us that they’re not sure. But a lot of them actually got back, so we’re already seeing them. And I think that’s in line with commentary that Oleg have provided. On the lower end, unfortunately, we don’t see that yet. But we’re optimistic based on what we’ve seen historically.

Scott Berg: Got it. Helpful. And then from the profitability comments, trying to help understand where the leverage in the model comes from this year, not the GAAP net loss in Q1 has been led fairly significantly in the back half of the year to drive your guided profitability for the year. Does most of that come from — that leverage come from G&A? Or is there something in cost of goods? You made some comments on the sales and marketing expense, maybe just trying to understand where that leverage will come from in the second half? Thank you.

Evgeny Fetisov: Scott, this is Evgeny. So the flexibility will be driven by, I would say, three main factors: One, the gross margin will be, I would say, like solidly above 80%; second, marketing spend will go down substantially as a percentage of revenue. And then the rest of the cost will, I would say, will also go down as a percentage revenue as well. So G&A will be lower and then in will be lower and sales costs will be lower as a percentage of revenue. The only I would say I would we will probably be R&D, which will go up slightly and then stay there, I would say, up slightly above 20%.

Scott Berg: Got it, very helpful. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator: We’ll go next to Michael Turits at KeyBanc.

Michael Turits: Good morning. A couple of questions. First of all, just in terms of relocation costs, where are we in terms of having an apples-to-apples comparison in the sense that you had the relocation costs this year? But you were fully operating this year in the higher expense region. So how much of a headwind do we have this year? And then obviously, as we go into ’24, that seems to be completely apples to apples, but — and therefore, no longer a headwind. So how much of an incremental headwind this year, how much of that goes away in the following year?