How to Select the Right Digital Agency for Your Business

Digital marketing is the way of the modern advertising world. Teaming up with the right digital advertising agency benefits your business in many ways, including consistency, expert insight, and assured return on the investment (ROI). You get to save time and money while digital advertising experts help grow your business.

One glance or Google search and you’ll see there are tons of agencies out there. But in this crowded marketplace, one thing remains crystal clear — not all agencies are created equal. That’s why you should approach choosing an agency the same way you would approach choosing a new hire. Ultimately, you need to know how the agency will handle your campaigns. Even more so, you need to know you can trust those with whom you’re working.

To help you get to the heart of whether the digital agency you’re considering is right for you, we have compiled a list of five key questions you should ask.

What Level of Transparency and Accountability Can You Expect?

There are tons of problematic aspects to our digital world. Although having the transparency conversation can feel awkward at first, it’s best to know before you sign on with someone. After all, ad fraud, measurement miscalculations, and a lack of actionable data can pose serious problems for advertisers. You need to know how the agency you’re considering handles serious issues that could have an impact on your campaigns.

The bottom line is that you want to know how the agency will act on your behalf. Ask where your ads will likely run, and whether the agency will take any steps to make sure your ads aren’t displayed near content that could hurt your brand. Also, it’s good to understand how your advertising budget is spent. For example, if any discounts or rebates are offered, are the savings passed on to you? Ironing out all the uncomfortable details ahead of time lets you know exactly what you can expect throughout your relationship with the agency, and that’s the basis of building a positive, profitable partnership.

What Is Your Optimization Strategy? 

As the best digital agencies understand, there’s no set-it-and-forget-it, one-size-fits-all approach to digital advertising. That’s where a solid optimization strategy comes into play. This delicate balance of technology and an expert human touch allows your campaign to constantly change and evolve along with its performance and the newest trends and threats. The right agency can deliver meaningful results by individually tailoring each digital campaign, and leveraging the latest technology to spread the campaign across multiple media channels and platforms for maximum ROI.

Can You Describe Your Cross-Channel Campaign Management Approach?

Many advertisers believe cross-channel campaign management should be the top priority. Before technology exploded, businesses could pick one channel, such as display advertising, and call it a day. But with today’s digital smorgasbord, advertisers can choose from search, social media, display, and video advertising for mobile devices, desktop devices, or both. That’s why cross-channel advertising, or spreading your campaign across marketing channels and devices, is the ultimate strategy for boosting conversions and your bottom line.

What Are Your Attribution, Performance Metrics, and Reporting Process?

This is all about measuring consumer behavior and the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. All the data available to digital advertising agencies provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand the different touch points throughout the consumer journey, along with insight that can improve targeting for future campaigns. Understanding how the agency you’re considering handles all of this is key to building a well-rounded, professional relationship. Does the agency measure only key performance indicators like impressions, click-through rates, engagement metrics, and average cost-per-click? Or does it place a heavy emphasis on measuring a campaign’s success based on its conversion rate?

Can You Describe How You Approach Collaboration on Campaign Adjustments?

Once you understand the reporting process, you know how the digital advertising agency measures your campaign’s success. But how does it decide which adjustments to make? While many agencies might prioritize technology over everything, the best agencies understand the importance of the human element of collaboration — both with each other as a team and with their clients.

For example, Adtaxi wants to partner with clients, not simply act as a vendor. That kind of relationship building is only possible with a vibrant belief in collaboration for campaign adjustments and more.