You Can Certainly Run Your Own Digital Campaigns… But Should You?

By: Zachary Krassin, Digital Marketing Director

3 Reasons Why You Should Choose an Agency Partner.

You are an entrepreneur. You are resourceful and resilient. You have built a company with sustainable growth and you’re looking to continue that growth through marketing. You’ve taken your company this far, so you say to yourself: let’s learn how to run our own digital outreach efforts. We’ll save money and grow the business. A win/win, right?

While this is certainly a possibility, many entrepreneurs and C-Suite executives have discovered that there may be more value in collaborating with an advertising agency in order to manage your outreach efforts and achieve your goals. In today’s blog, I’m sharing a few reasons why you may want to choose an agency partner (and for the record, we believe in you regardless of what you choose).

1. The right strategy > The ad dollars you put into a campaign

Often, entrepreneurs don’t necessarily think about the strategy involved but more so the ad dollars behind a campaign. The campaign does not start when you select a platform and place a budget. It starts well before that at the assessment phase.

Advertising agencies have access to several vital research partners that can help dictate a campaign. Competitor spend data, keyword analysis (for search efforts), media consumption habits, online usage data, target audience behavioral data, and much more. This data is analyzed to determine which channels make the most sense based on the target audience, the budget, the competitive landscape, and the campaign goals.

We firmly believe that no two campaigns should be treated the same. These data points are vital to the success of a campaign. Time and time again, we have been able to achieve stronger results with less funds simply because of having the right plan in place.

2. Optimizations > Set it and forget it

You’ve managed to launch your ads. You’ve entered your targeting, your ad dollar amount, and placed the media. Now what? Many entrepreneurs take the “set it and forget it” approach. The platform has artificial intelligence (AI), and it will optimize based on your goals, right? This is partially true. Platforms like Facebook offer robust targeting opportunities and powerful AI technology to help you find success. However, these platforms have a lot of unique areas of opportunity beyond this technology.

As marketers, we look beyond just platform analytical data (clicks, impressions, views, etc.). We test everything. All campaigns should have multiple creatives (for A/B testing) and multiple creative types (video, static, a carousel of images, etc.). These creatives should be tested to understand what your audience engages with most. And the data will often surprise you.

After this, we do it again. We continue testing. We test messaging (short form vs. long form) and we test content (sales offer, value proposition, brand messaging). We know that testing will lead us to better results and insights we can glean and carry through to other platforms.

We also track everything with trackable links, vanity phone numbers, etc. This data is also tested. We look beyond just the platform metrics and see what people are doing once they’ve landed on your website – are they filling out the form, are they browsing, what are they browsing, how long are they active on your website, are they calling? All this information is used to determine the success of a channel.

Many times, we see positive platform metrics (the ad is performing well on Facebook) but isn’t driving results once a user lands on a webpage. There are several ways to optimize these campaigns to ensure success carries through, from outputs to outcomes. This process takes time — more time than most expect or can fit in their schedule. In order to find success, our team is in these platforms daily, carefully monitoring and analyzing the data.

3. Connecting the dots

There is a common misconception in marketing that stems from attribution modeling. Most will look at the last touchpoint, or last click, and place all value on that channel. For example, before working with us, one of our clients was running a campaign through Facebook and Google Search. Google Search was driving the most calls, so it was presumed to be the most successful channel. As a result, the business decided to focus their efforts there and stopped running Facebook. This logic is flawed. Marketers understand the digital ecosystem, and we understand how channels interact with each other to determine where the success lies. In that same example, once the client stopped running Facebook, the calls decreased dramatically. The client came to us, and upon further review, we discovered that individuals were first seeing the ad on Facebook, and this caused them to search the product or service, and call.

It’s important to understand how channels interact with each other. Some channels are designed to convert. Others are designed for outreach. Often you need both. Knowing how to efficiently and effectively guide prospective customers down the marketing funnel is very important to both your bottom line and to be able to truly understand the success of your campaign.

As marketers, we believe in taking a strategic lens to all campaign efforts, from the initial research phase through attribution modeling. We recognize that campaigns are living and breathing, and they require care daily.

While you may have the ability to run a digital campaign, working with an agency partner will allow your money to be spent more efficiently and effectively. You’ll be able to rely on a team of experienced professionals who will be monitoring and optimizing your campaigns on a daily basis. And your time will be used in areas better suited for your business. We are happy to connect with you and do an initial assessment to see how we can help you achieve your goals. Contact us today!