How to Choose a Digital Advertising Agency

Choosing a digital advertising agency partner is a tough decision. The research process alone can be intimidating — but add on hearing numerous sales pitches that all start to sound the same, wordy contracts, and promises of results, and the whole thing becomes a little overwhelming.

Here are a few items to keep in mind when you’re researching a digital advertising agency, and some things to remember when you reach out for that first sales call to hear how they can help you grow your business.

Goal Oriented vs Service Focused

Some agencies are focused on getting you to sign up for as many of their services as possible, without regard to whether or not it serves your business goals. So you get signed up for services you don’t really need, costing you time, extra money, and not generating the return you want.

You should look for a digital advertising agency that is goal oriented, not service focused. By focusing first on what you’d like to achieve, the best agency will help you determine which services will best help you reach that goal. 

Industry Expertise

It might seem counterintuitive to hire a digital advertising agency who has worked with your competitors or other brands similar to yours, but that can actually be a huge advantage for your brand. (For example, Blue Wheel is a leading beauty marketing agency and works with lots of brands in the beauty space, so we know the industry and consumer better than most and can leverage trends in our first-party data to help scale your business.)

In addition, if you’re a big brand with a large budget, you wouldn’t want to work with a digital advertising agency who primarily works with startups — you’d want to hire someone who has the staff, knowledge, and experience to manage significant spend and handle more complex campaigns.

Ad Partners

One easy way to tell if a digital advertising agency is worth their weight in gold is to see if they’re a verified Facebook Advertising Partner and a Google Advertising Partner.

Additionally, you can inquire if they work with technology partners such as Criteo, Adroll, and Outbrain to boost your advertising efforts. These partnerships aren’t necessarily the end all be all, but they’re a good indication that the agency is reputable and knows how to harness technology to better automate certain processes, freeing up valuable time for more strategic thinking.

Reporting

When trying to choose the digital advertising agency that’s best for your needs, inquire about how they report on the advertising they do. (Hint: just using Google Analytics is not enough.) Vanity metrics, such as likes, won’t help your brand meet your larger business goals or show how well your agency partner is doing.

The types of campaigns you’re running and your business goals will determine which metrics you should be measuring and reporting on. For example, for awareness and prospecting campaigns, you might want to report on Video Completion Rate. For retargeting campaigns, you’d want to know the ROAS. Make sure your chosen digital advertising agency is reporting on metrics that actually correspond to the results you want to see from a given campaign.

Your Digital Advertising Agency partner might be closer than you think... Reach out to the team at Blue Wheel today!