We wrote about how advertising agencies should know more about their client’s KPIs, metrics and revenue. They also need to be in deep with how the business grows in general, right? Well that got us to thinking, what about the other side of the coin? Businesses need to know a bunch when they are looking to engage with a digital advertising agency, right?
The first thing you need to do is feel comfortable with any agency you are going to depend on. You need to know the people, you need to feel comfortable that there is more than one person working on your account and you need to feel comfy that they know what they’re doing. Why? Chances are you’re hiring them because you’re either are a fish outta water with digital marketing or you just don’t have the time to devote to it.
And you’ll want to feel like you can really trust them since you’re giving them access to the key things that are important to your business.
So here are 5 high-level questions you need to be asking any digital advertising agency you are thinking of engaging with:
1. Who will be working on my account and what experience do they have on understanding digital metrics?
Look, you’re working with people who may come and go, but you need to make sure you’re comfortable with who is going to be your point person and bottom line, they understand your business.
2. What KPIs do you currently report on for other clients?
You’re looking for answers like website traffic and social media growth, how many customers a month they may be getting other clients and what the conversion rates are that they’ve seen, how they’re tapping into other client’s to understand revenue to understand if they’re moving the needle. An open-ended question like this will give you an idea of how savvy they are with KPIs.
3. What is your reporting like and how often is it updated?
In this day of blazing fast digital marketing, many agencies have built websites you can log into to look at your up-to-the-minute metrics. And to the extent you can give them access to your revenue, etc. the more information both parties have the more successful you’ll be!
4. What do you know about my company? What would you change?
Your new digital agency should have gone through en entire customer experience whether it’s your shopping cart, a lead flow process, before they meet with you. They should have visited your website, your store, purchased something to see where it is you might need some help. If they haven’t done this, the meeting where they pitch you should be very short.
5. Do you work with any other companies in my space?
This could be bad or good. Bad would be that there might be a conflict of interest. Good meaning they have some experience with what you do. You might want to look for an agency that has done work with your targeted customer but maybe doesn’t compete with you. For instance if you’re selling servers and your target market is the Director of IT you might want to get an agency that has a client who sells a software product to the same Director of IT.
And always get references. Get them two ways, if they give them to you great, call the references and ask how their experience was. Also go to their LInkedIn company page and see who they’ve done work for in the past. You might find you are connected to them and you might reach out to them as well.
So go and vet those agencies but make sure they understand how you grow and you’ll have an agency for life!