Choosing an advertising contractor and brief him competently is a whole art. How to find a reliable partner, avoid common mistakes and make advertising campaigns as effective as possible?
Death cannot be developed
“Agencies are dying” – such conversations have been going on for ten years. Subjectively, it seems that it is so. Small teams leave the market, especially if the basis of their work was a stack of tools that came from large foreign companies. Market pressure is also increasing – working conditions with platforms are becoming more rigid, the margin is falling. The most intelligent, highly organized and professional agencies remain – camels, capable of running through the entire digital desert on one thorn and finding an oasis of leads.
At the same time, the number of requests for brand promotion to agencies does not decrease. Yes, in-house teams are much stronger than ten or even five years ago. But the market is highly competitive everywhere, and they solve other problems, continuing to look for a “good digital contractor”. Especially since the consumer “grazes in oases of marketplaces”, where the tools are so complex that, according to research, only 1% of specialists know and know how to adjust the feed. Another 3% do it “more or less”. Such data gave VB.
A mistake in a million
With CJM becoming more complicated, changing formats and methods of optimization on sites, growing automation helps, but does not save. And here it is easier to turn to those who are already immersed in these changes and complexities. The team on the advertiser’s side simply often cannot afford to invest the necessary amount of resources in training and mastering the tools, recruiting – the lead is needed today. In addition to the use of current inventory, including the same neurons, the agency can shift the risks: selection of a quality strategy and effectiveness of the RK, timely release of budgets, communication with the site and advertising marking.
There are two main risks if a company makes the “wrong choice” of an agency. The first, of course, is a plum. But for brands, it is not only him, but also the lack of budget unwinding that is critical. It may be related to poor organization of processes, which will result in untimely start of RCs, or improperly configured RCs. And this is not an economy, but a decline in business due to the lack of traffic.
Other fears of companies, for example, the blocking of accounts or the banning of advertising offices, have not remained in the past: on current platforms, the rules are softer than those of social networks, but the danger is still there. Penalties for non-marking are in most cases written by the agency in the contracts. There are still cases of delays in the moderation of advertisements by platforms due to the fact that the agency did not take into account some details of the law on advertising.
Of course, any agency error can be costly. But for the company, it is better to talk not about the choice between “bad guys” and “beautiful guys” (open unprofessionalism will not survive today in the competitive digital market), but about the choice of “the most effective in a specific field”.
How to choose a digital agency
Almost everyone owns a tool, someone slightly better in certain categories. And it is this small difference that can be critical and important for business. And you also need to be prepared for the fact that the sought-after “good” agencies, capable of meeting business needs, also choose a brand with which they will work: they are looking for such tender conditions (terms, budgets, RK goals, depth of interaction with the client) in which they can maximize your potential.
What are the key criteria for choosing a company and how to prepare for work so that cooperation with the agency is as productive as possible?
Goals and expectations. Define clearly what exactly you want to achieve. These should not only be general goals, such as improving SEO, increasing traffic to the site, increasing the quality of interaction with the consumer in social networks, promotion on marketplaces, but rather specific tasks in a calculated format with an indication of budget possibilities. So it will be easier not only to choose an agency that specializes in the right directions, but to immediately calculate the reality of harassment and a possible stack of tools for achieving it.
Experience and competencies. It’s important that the contractor understands the specifics of the business, but don’t focus on “home industry” agencies only. Broaden your search to agencies that have a successful track record of working with companies of a similar scale. Often, strategies that are not standard for your business work better. It is important that an individual solution tailored to your needs is offered. To search for information about the work of the agency, you can request “case agency name”, this will lead to results in company blogs or specialized publications. You can search for competitor case studies to find out who they work with and what tools and relevant metrics are being used in your industry.
Reputation and reviews. Ratings on independent platforms can give an idea of the format and overall quality of services. The digital industry as a whole strives to provide as much information as possible about itself, so industry ratings such as Adindex, Sostav, Ruward will help you orient yourself. The methodology of each described, as a rule, takes into account customer feedback on the results of the work.
Approach to communication. Make sure the agency offers a clear feedback mechanism, regular performance reports and the ability to interact with in-house marketers promptly. Does the agency give permission to the task tracker is one of the best tools for monitoring the efficiency of the processes, which allows you to see all the stages of the processes. Another indicative process is onboarding, transfer of cases, because the accuracy and systematization of information about previous campaigns and their results makes work easier for all participants.
Flexibility and adaptability. Digital is constantly changing, and it’s important for an agency to keep abreast of new trends and technologies. How often does the agency train its employees, is there an up-to-date certification on the sites, for example, on marketplace (she appeared quite recently).
You can ask a question at the start about how and with what equipment they work: do they use neural networks? The answer is “yes” is the chance for additional efficiency that everyone is looking for. Their use should theoretically make the product cheaper. But at this stage, the neural network does not do the job completely, it perfectly solves micro-tasks, such as, for example, drawing an element of an advertising banner. And it is about freeing the specialist’s time from the routine, which can be spent on searching for new individual solutions, testing new combinations of digital tools, etc.
How else to test flexibility and adaptability? Take a look at the rating of the domestic software. Does the agency use solutions from there and its own developments? Analytical base on foreign inventory is a risk for business in case of possible closure of access, they should be avoided. And the desire to deploy analytics on the company’s servers, in its own IT perimeter, is completely normal. This is an additional point of control, so that the software belongs to the company and there is an opportunity to work with the received raw data independently. A strong player (agency) will always agree and be there when product support is required.
How companies prepare for quality cooperation
Companies need a clear understanding of what budget they are ready to allocate. And what they want to get for it, based on their unit economy. These are the key questions for a successful start of work with the agency. If the task is set incorrectly, for example, RK is calculated for 10 million with a certain result, and after a successful defense, the agency sounds a request to launch for one million, it means that the previous work was done in vain. A new strategy is needed.
Another important point is the transfer of current cases and information on which the RK passed earlier. How much is a lead worth now, how does the company get it, what KPIs did it set for itself before, what creatives and UGPs worked well with which set of sites for placement, and what went “into the milk”. In fact, it is necessary to share the history of the promotion, which will be useful for testing new hypotheses already by the agency.
Checklist for choosing an agency
- Before starting the search, clearly define the goals of future RCs and the resources that you will be able to use. Focus on your unit economics, calculating abstract media plans is a waste of time.
- Explore ratings and case studies. Don’t limit your choice to agencies in your industry, compare results for investments of the same scale.
- The relevance of the certification is important – the advertising offices of the sites are complex. It is important that the contractor knows about innovations before everyone else. Plus, certified agencies have access to beta versions of new promotion formats.
- You can try to start cooperation with an audit of your already existing promotion by a potential contractor. So you will be able to evaluate the comfort and efficiency of communications with a new close partner.
- Give preference to those who are ready to provide access to all processes through the task tracker, show results online, ready to implement end-to-end analytics and deploy software on your servers. Transparency and flexibility are in most cases an indicator of a strong team.
- Choose flexible and adaptable.
- You don’t need out-of-the-box or custom analytics, but one that fits your business.
- For efficiency, be prepared to hand over “historical data” to the agency, and perhaps even access to the CRM system. The deeper the contractor will be immersed in the business, the more opportunities to find the most effective solutions.