Questions to ask yourself before working with an agency

What is a web agency?

“Sorry, we don’t have the budget for that” or “We can probably do it in-house” are among the many objections that businesses – quite logically – tend to raise when the subject of working with an agency comes up.

Most are not convinced of the value of the approach and are sometimes worried about the loss of control it implies.

In practice, what is the reality? What are the downsides and upsides of handing your digital marketing over to an advertising agency?

But first of all… what exactly is an advertising agency?

Advertising agency, web agency, acquisition agency: these are all synonyms that describe roughly the same activity, which essentially falls under digital marketing.

To put it simply: it is a group of experts specialised in online advertising. Their clients are brick-and-mortar businesses with shops, e-commerce stores and sometimes lead generation companies.

Generally, to reach these goals, we use advertising platforms that may be familiar to you:

• Facebook Ads (which also covers Instagram and WhatsApp, since this is the big Facebook group of Papa Zuckerberg)
• Google Ads and all its placements: Search Network, Display, Shopping, YouTube etc.

These two giants are the most important platforms, and it is almost unthinkable for you not to be present on both at the same time, so essential are they. However, to support your acquisition strategy, other equally important platforms will be useful to you:

• Snapchat Ads
• TikTok Ads
• Pinterest Ads
• Twitter Ads
• LinkedIn Ads
• All the other relevant social networks and search engines that have their own dedicated advertising platform ending – you guessed it – in “Ads”

Usually, the end goal is linked to growing the company’s revenue. To do so, some businesses prefer to increase their brand awareness, others to build customer loyalty, but the usual practice remains advertising your website to attract traffic and therefore potential customers.

“OK, but how exactly does it work?” you may ask. Here is a quick summary in 4 steps:

• The discussions between the agency and the business lead to the development of a strategic plan.
• After that, both parties determine the advertising platforms that make the most sense for the end client.
• From then on, the agency takes care – with the help of the business – of coming up with and creating what are known in the trade as “creatives”. This covers all the photos, videos and assets used for advertising purposes. Just like a classic TV ad, really.
• Finally, the best agencies then set up monitoring to collect and analyse the results, draw conclusions from them and optimise the advertising campaigns.

“Is that it? If that’s all it is, it’s nothing too complicated for our employees, is it?”

If you are ready to train them and dedicate them 100% to this goal, or to recruit an entire team for the occasion, then most certainly yes. But most start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses and DNVBs cannot afford to allocate that much human and financial resource to training or recruiting such profiles.

All the more so because the agency package comes with other unexpected benefits that could very well guide you towards an informed choice.

The benefits of a digital marketing agency

When you consider using the services of an agency, it is obviously for the expertise it has, which could greatly benefit the business in its advertising and acquisition goals. Indeed, an agency can easily have between 10 and 50 clients in very varied sectors. With every ad an expert runs for a business, they sharpen their 360° vision and their overall knowledge of the advertising platforms, their algorithms and the current best practices.

This is actually why agencies are recognised as a hotbed of acquisition skills. It is hardly surprising, since most advertising experts have previous experience in conventional advertising, data or growth hacking. This army of experts can therefore put its skills and experience at the service of your company, perhaps bringing a relevant angle acquired in the field.

Finally, it goes without saying that, by creating visuals for every ad, agency experts develop a graphic sensibility and a creativity that can very easily come through in your ads. When you know that the creative is one of the pillars of advertising, someone who has created (or commissioned) hundreds of them will have a very seasoned eye in this area.

But perhaps you already have graphic designers and growth hackers on your team? So what is the point of calling on an agency when I may have just described expertise and skills that your employees already partly have?

Why work with an agency?

Well, generally the reason is one of the following two points, if not both.

• Lack of time: it sounds silly put like that, but advertising involves far more processes and tasks than simply creating a visual and running a campaign. You have to monitor the results, analyse them, fix errors, optimise campaigns, change audiences and creatives when ad fatigue sets in, run A/B tests, build UTMs to track the data, drink 6 coffees every half-day etc. In short, acquisition is a whole job, and above all a job that requires 100% commitment; you simply cannot run ads AND do another activity while giving your all to both
• Lack of skills and/or expertise: even if you had the time needed, if you do not have a full team dedicated to SEA & Social Ads, it is very likely that recruiting or training would not be cost-effective for you. An agency offers the convenience and flexibility of a team dedicated to advertising without the drawbacks of recruitment or training. What’s more, with the many contacts between the agency and the business and the regular check-ins on the health of the ad accounts, you will feel as though they are almost part of the permanent team.

Summary

So, in most cases, small and medium-sized businesses, start-ups and DNVBs have much more to gain from working with an agency for their digital acquisition and advertising goals. This is not necessarily true for very large companies, which often have the means to recruit and train without counting the cost. But for the types of business mentioned above, it is almost certain that choosing an agency is the most informed and logical choice.

Going further

Incidentally, if this sounds like you and you want to work with a responsive, ROI-driven agency, feel free to send us an email or book a free discovery call with one of our experts. We can discuss your project together and look at whether an agency is the right choice and at the different strategies available to boost your growth and increase your revenue.

See you very soon. 😉