George writes about growth strategy, execution, and funding.
In this article, we’ll learn how to best manage that agency to ensure both parties are aligned on key goals and performance metrics. As you’ll learn, it’s not as simple as turning on “autopilot,” crossing your fingers, and hoping everything goes right. If your agency veers off course, you’ll need a watchful eye to help you get it back on track. Let’s find out more.
1. Set the business goals
It all starts with the business goals. Your agency needs to be clear about the budgets it has to work with and what you define as campaign success. Sometimes these are top-of-the-funnel goals, like increasing your overall brand awareness metrics. But most often they are bottom-of-the-funnel goals, like reaching a desired revenue level and adjusting return on ad spend (ROAS) or customer acquisition cost (CAC). It’s very difficult to manage everything at once, so set a very specific goal that you’re aiming for. For example, a ROAS in the 5-10x range or a CAC that doesn’t exceed 33% of your average order value (AOV).
2. Determine the target customers
Every company is different. If you’re a B2B company, you’re usually targeting specific companies that would be logical buyers of your products. Or, more likely, specific employee roles within those companies. For example, if you sell a social media marketing software, you might target a chief marketing officer or a director of social media at those target companies. Remember that no two businesses are alike. Maybe you’re targeting employees of large Fortune 500 companies, or you’re targeting employees of small and medium-sized companies who can better afford your products. So determine the size of your target company and the target roles of employees within those companies, and be aware that you may need to target more than one target persona.
If you’re a B2C company, you’re most likely targeting a specific customer demographic that would be most interested in your products.
- Are they men or women?
- Are they high-income people, well-educated people, or more of a mass market?
- Are they 21-34 or over 55?
- Does geography matter?
- If so, include your target states or cities of residence?
And if you can incorporate persona information from different psychographic data sources, that’s even better. For example, is your customer more of a “fitness fanatic” or an “arts and crafts person” to enable media targeting at that “interest” level. The better you understand your current customer base, the easier it will be to identify the right lookalike audiences to target. Once more, multiple personas could exist.
3. Determine the media mix
Mastering your marketing funnel and media mix is a more in-depth topic that I’ve written about in the past.
But at the highest level of understanding, your marketing funnel is made up of three parts:
(i) Upper funnel: which drives awareness of your brand
(ii) Middle funnel: drives consideration of your products
(iii) Lower funnel: drives transactions and sales for your business
Also, for each stage of the funnel, there are different media tactics to consider. For example, you might consider television media for the upper funnel, social media for the middle funnel, and search engine marketing for the lower funnel. That’s why it’s so important to understand your goals so we use the right media to help you achieve those goals.
So, in this stage, you decide how much of your budget to put into each funnel stage (e.g., 20% top, 30% middle, and 50% bottom)
What tactics to use for each funnel stage (e.g., social media for middle funnel), and what specific publishers to use for each tactic (e.g., split social media budget evenly between Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter).
4. Set up analytics and reporting
The best advertising agencies today are as much technology and analytics companies as they are creative and branding companies. They make sure your website and campaigns are set up so that almost all clicks, contacts, and transactions can be traced back to their original source, including assigning cross-channel marketing attribution metrics. And they create the dashboards that make it easy to see which marketing efforts are helping to achieve your desired goals and which aren’t.
This allows them to easily “ramp up” or “ramp down” any successful or unsuccessful tactic within the campaign. It’s important that the key business goals are measured in these reports, by funnel stage, by channel, by publisher, by campaign, by creative department, etc. Make sure you get these summary reports at least weekly so you can track their progress and make quick changes before you waste a lot of money on an “unsuccessful” campaign. At every stage of the funnel, ensure sure you’re utilizing the appropriate metrics (e.g., CPA lower funnel, CPL middle funnel, and CPV upper funnel).
5. Establish communication frequency
Your communication with your agency will depend on the size of your budget and how often things change. You might be able to get by with monthly meetings if the campaign is largely optimised and static in terms of modifications, and the budget is very small. If it’s a large budget, the campaign is still being set up, and there’s a lot of testing and changes going on, you’re more likely to need weekly meetings with your agency. But meetings are necessary for two-way communication. You want to make sure the campaign is meeting your goals, and your agency might need your guidance on any ambiguities or if there’s a “fork in the road” that requires your input.
6. Establish roles and responsibilities
Think about setting up multi-level roles and responsibilities in both your company and your agency.
These layers will most likely include:
(i) executive oversight (e.g., a CMO at your company and a Head of Strategy at your agency) who aren’t too involved in the day-to-day operations but are kept up to date on the big picture
(ii) day-to-day project leadership and management (e.g., a VP-Media Buying at your company and an Account Executive at your agency) who “lead” their subordinate teams and make sure everyone sticks to their tasks and plans
(iii) the front-line teams who live and breathe the campaign and the data that comes from it (e.g., a Social Media Marketing Manager at your company and a Head of Social Media at your agency). Make sure you have the appropriate teams in place at both your company and your agency to optimise at each level – strategy, planning, and execution.
7. Repeat and repeat
Just because you’ve followed the process above doesn’t mean your work is done once you’ve completed the six steps above. This is an iterative process – every quarter you should go back to step one to re-examine and adjust everything for changes in business goals, customer insights, media insights, etc., and then adjust the campaign to the new insights in steps two through six. Schedule quarterly campaign review meetings with your agencies and internal teams at this more strategic level.
Final Thoughts
I know this sounds like a daunting process, but it’s necessary to ensure you don’t needlessly flush any of your marketing budget down the toilet. A strong, well-optimised relationship with your advertising agency could be the difference between revenue and profit being stagnant or increasing 100% this year. If you need help here, don’t hesitate to contact me, as I’ve worked with many agencies in my past and know those who are currently “the best of breed” when it matters – with smart teams that deliver a high ROI on your investment. You know who to call if you need assistance navigating this process!
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