Fire your agency if they can't answer these 5 questions
How can you tell if you’re getting the most out of your marketing dollars? Ask your marketing/branding/advertising agency these 5 questions. If they can’t answer all 5, you’re getting cheated.
(Also, I used “marketing/branding/advertising” on purpose. No matter how many agencies are involved in your campaign, they ALL need to be able to answer these questions.)
1. What’s the strategy?
Sure, viral content is a thing. The main ingredient… luck. And even when the objective isn’t virality, many campaigns lack any strategy at all.
A successful marketing campaign is built on a clear strategy that puts the customer at the center.
The end goal of any campaign is to build your brand or make sales. So, stabbing in the dark when creating content isn’t enough. You need a tested and tried strategy that points you in the direction of clear results.
Too many campaigns are built on a wish and a prayer that it might move the needle. Don’t settle for work that is built on “cool” or “viral” or “might.”
Make sure you hire an agency that can clearly outline end objectives and how the campaign is a great path toward accomplishing those objectives.
2. What segment of my audience is this content for?
In 2019, there is ZERO excuse for creating content that isn’t strategically designed specifically for particular demographic segments of your audience.
It is better to create 5 audience-specific ads for $2,000 each than 1 general ad for $10,000.
Is it smart to deliver the same ad to these three groups of people?
The answer is “absolutely not!”
If an agency is setting out to create a piece of content, and they can’t answer this question, you know who they are making the ad for? Either themselves or you. They’re either making the ad because they think it’s a cool concept that they’ll have fun making. Or they’re making an ad they think you – the client – might like. Don’t throw your money away on ads that don’t have a narrow subset of your audience in mind.
I remember growing up as a kid and being a 12 year old boy seeing ads for tampons on television. You know who isn’t buying tampons? 12 year old boys.
Today, we have the ability to deliver specific content to specific people at specific times and in specific places. If your agency isn’t doing that, you’re wasting money.
3. Which of my audience’s needs does this piece of content meet?
The end goal we focus in on at The Memoir Agency is to help your brand become an indispensable part of your customer’s life-long story.
The best way to become an indispensable part of your customer’s journey is to empower them to meet their needs and move into a place of thriving.
Sometimes brands lack the boldness to really understand how they can transform their customers’ lives. You need an agency who can help you understand and clearly articulate the important role you play in the life of the customer.
Whether you sell a product or a service, there’s a way to help tie what you do to the most basic human needs. When we do this, we win the customer and begin the life-long relationship.
4. How is my ad performing this week?
We have INCREDIBLE tools at our disposal in 2019. Gone are the days of deploying a TV or print ad and hoping someone might see it AND THEN go to a store or online and do something about the ad they just saw.
In 2019, we have real-time data that shows us how ads are performing on social platforms. And, with that real-time data, finding the right agency is more important than ever.
For ad campaigns to be the most successful, they have to be actively managed. This begins with deploying 4 to 5 ads for a given demographic per campaign. Each of these ads have different creative (video or photos) and unique copy.
If your agency is doing their job, they will be tweaking these elements during the first week.
In today’s climate, we can see how doing something as simple as tweaking a single word in an ad can affect its performance.
After the tweaking phase, it’s time to cut the fat and go all in on what’s working best. If we deployed 5 ads a week ago, we’ll cut the 3 that are performing the worst and put all the money into the 2 that are performing the best. This is the way to make sure your marketing dollars are truly spent well.
5. What’s the relevancy score for this campaign?
As we discussed above, a successful campaign delivers demographic-specific ads to the right people in the right places. This is gauged on Facebook and Instagram as “relevancy scores.”
The performance of your ads against other ads on the platforms is right there in digital black-and-white.
If your agency has segmented properly, and if they are actively managing your campaign responsibly, they’ll be keenly aware of the relevancy score.
If they aren’t you’re wasting your money. Find a new agency.
