Red Flags To Watch Out For When Hiring A Digital Advertising Company
Are you thinking of hiring a digital agency to create ads for your company but are worried about choosing the wrong one? Here are the red flags to watch out for.
Choosing a marketing agency to help your business grow is an important decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly - online marketing is not only a financial investment, it’s an investment in your company’s future success too.
The right advertising campaign has the power to help you increase your brand awareness, boost conversions, and even secure sales. It’s no wonder 63% of businesses have increased their digital marketing budgets this year.
As a business owner, your focus gets tied up in many tasks, which can mean marketing takes a back seat. Getting marketing off your plate and into the hands of professional marketers can be daunting: it can be difficult to figure out if a marketing agency is the real deal or not.
To help you decide if a company is legit, we’ve created this list of common red flags to look for when hiring a digital agency. These flags are questionable traits some agencies have that raises questions about their intentions to deliver you real results.
Things To Look For In An Advertising Agency
Before we take a look at the red flags to look out for when hiring a company to run your ads, it’s important to understand the qualities of a good advertising company.
The top three positive traits to look out for in a digital advertising company are the following:
- Regular check-ins (monthly or quarterly) to go over your campaign metrics
- Transparency - are they open and honest about what’s working and what’s not?
- Integrity - If your ads aren't generating new clients for your business the ad agency should be the first to tell you
Now you have a better understanding of the qualities of a good ad company, let’s take a look at the red flags you should keep an eye out for.
Red Flag #1 - You're being sold on How Many People Saw Your Ad (impressions), Not On New Customers
Seeing that your latest business ads received a lot of impressions (people viewing the advert) and people clicking on them can be a great feeling. However, these analytics can be deceiving as they have the potential to trick you into believing your ads are more successful than they actually are.
If the marketing agency you hired to run these ads sells you on the high volume of visitors they receive without mentioning the amount of people contacting you as a result of your campaign - it's a major red flag.
Clicks and impressions do not necessarily equal success. Impressions indicate how often your ad appears on a search result page or Google Network sites, while clicks count the number of times users have clicked on these ads.
However, they are not a clear indicator of success and fail to show whether or not your website visitors are responding to your call to action.
The digital advertising company you hired should let you know when your goal has been achieved (whether that’s someone buying something or submitting a contact form). The more you see users taking your desired action, the more clear it is that your ads are working.
When the marketing agency you have hired sends reports during check-ins that only highlight clicks and impressions, there is generally a reason they are leaving out the rest.
There's a good chance the responses to your ads aren’t great, which means the agency is not doing the job you are paying them for.
Red Flag #2 - Too Much Of Your Money Is Being Spent On 'Management Fees'
When paying an agency to run your ads, your payments will be split in two. The first is the management fee, which is the amount the ad agency charges you to run, maintain, and optimize your ads.
The second is the ad spend, which is the amount you’re paying a particular platform to host your adverts.
For example, If you're spending $1500 a month on social media ads, it's important to know how much of this sum will be paid to the agency and how much will be paid to the platform.
If an ad agency doesn't make it clear where your money will be spent from the get-go, it's a red flag.
If you find that more than half of your money will be spent on management fees, you'll want to look elsewhere for an ad agency. Look for a fair split of at least a 60% - 40% split (60% ad spend and 40% management fee).
Red Flag #3 - The Ad Agency Is Unable To Tell You How Many Leads Your Campaign Has Generated
Conversions can take many forms, such as starting a free trial, filling out a contact form, subscribing to a newsletter, going to a particular link, or even watching a video.
To increase conversions, it's helpful to understand what brings more conversions to your business or website. To do this, you need conversion tracking.
Conversion tracking helps you understand exactly how many leads your ads have generated for your business.
If the ad agency isn't reporting on how many conversions (leads) your campaigns have generated, it’s definitely a red flag.
Without conversion tracking, the leads generated as a result of your campaign can not be calculated; therefore, you have no way of knowing whether your ads are effective.
Red Flag #4 - The company didn't do any work to your website or landing page
Your landing page plays a significant role in turning clicks into paying customers. When someone clicks on your ad, they expect to land on a page that's relevant to the ad.
In other words, your landing page should be an extension of your ad. If a user clicks an advertisement for a specific product, they should be taken to a landing page that continues guiding them on their journey towards a purchase.
Maintaining the same message from your ad to your post-click landing page helps create relevance and increases the likelihood of conversions and ultimately a sale.
Each stage of the marketing funnel should confirm to the customer that they have ended up in the right place and that the offer they wanted is only the click of a button away.
To ensure this alignment, the marketing agency working on your Google ads must be able to optimize your landing page.
Landing page optimization increases the worth of the ad spend significantly. If the company you hired is not optimizing your landing page to align with your overall intent, it’s less likely you’ll receive conversions.
Advice For Companies Working With Advertising Agencies
If you’ve already hired a digital agency to run ads for your business but are unsure whether they’re actually delivering what they should be, here are some questions you can ask to figure out what’s going on.
Questions To Ask Your Digital Advertising Company
Asking your digital advertising agency the right questions will help you figure out whether or not they are carrying out their job effectively.
If the agency running your ads can't answer these questions, then it’s probably a good idea to find a replacement agency to work with in the future. Questions to ask include:
- How many leads did my campaign generate last month? How many leads did my campaign generate in the last 90 days?
- What is my average cost per conversion (lead)?
- How much ad spend was directed towards my ads in the last 30 days?
- If the ad agency is providing 'all inclusive pricing' - How much is your management fee?
We hope you now have a better understanding of some of the biggest red flags to look out for when hiring a digital advertising agency - and have plenty of questions to ask to figure out if an agency is the right fit for you or not.
If you need some further guidance or help enhancing your visibility and getting your product or service in front of the right customers, we'd love to help.
At 406 Marketing, we are experts at helping small businesses just like yours flourish in the online world.
Start thriving online with some help from our team -
get in touch today.