On the hunt for a new digital agency? Having trouble communicating with your current one? Or just taking a look around to see what’s out there? Regardless of which, we have compiled a list of questions that you can (and SHOULD) ask your digital agency.
“How do you communicate with us?”
Your agency, like any business, is only as good as the quality and frequency of its communication. It is extremely difficult to have a successful business relationship if there is not effective communication from both parties. There is nothing worse than constantly trying to get hold of your agency contact / account manager and getting no response or answers to your questions.
Between you and your agency, there should be transparent and regular contact that both celebrates the wins and discusses the misses so that a path to continued growth can be achieved. Your agency’s job is to provide the highest possible ROI (Return on Investment), whilst giving you access to detailed insights through reporting and being a collaborative partner to grow your business.
“What is your approach to helping our business grow?”
The digital landscape provides you with so much opportunity for business growth, but it also has its pitfalls if a data-driven approach is not utilized. Using a more anecdotal approach will only get you so far and will result in a struggle to find consistency and scale.
You should expect a bespoke strategy based on data-backed insight that addresses your business goals and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). This strategy, like market trends and customer behaviour, should change over time. It is important to work with an agency that is at the leading edge of innovation in digital marketing so that they can produce consistent results. Working with an agency that is proactive, as opposed to reactive to change will allow you to make better business decisions in the long run.
“When will I see the results?”
As everyone’s business and goals are different it is important that your agency understands this and takes the time to understand your business and industry. Each industry will have various seasonal trends, dips and troughs throughout the year. Managing expectations is vital for sustainability; this is done by setting clear objectives and milestones together as a great way to keep the relationship healthy and long-lasting.
As a guideline when starting out, you would expect to see meaningful results within 3 months using paid media like search and social. This gives enough time to collect data, test theories and learn. With SEO, meaningful results can take a little longer when initially getting started as search engines will take time to crawl your site for updates and changes to index it properly. About 6 months is the timeframe here.
“What kind of reporting can I expect?”
Transparent and readily accessible reporting is essential to be able to see what has happened with your account. From an agency perspective, it also serves as the springboard for the optimization of your account for the future. Making decisions based on data rather than guesswork will yield more consistent results over the long term.
You should expect to see custom reporting showing the metrics that are important to you. Typically with eCommerce, you will want to see ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend), Conversion rate, Purchases and revenue. If you are a B2B client that needs lead generation, the metrics that matter will be CPL, number of leads, Conversion rate, ROAS as well as an end-to-end lead scoring system to manage the quality of leads.
“How do I know you are the right agency for me?”
It should come as no surprise that this question can be answered based on your experience of the above questions. You need to be confident that you are receiving transparent and effective communication that addresses your business goals and OKR’s. Your business must be provided with a custom strategy for growth rather than an off-the-shelf, cookie-cutter approach that may not maximize your ROI. The digital landscape is ever-changing. Your agency needs to stay on top of regulatory changes, upcoming trends and use tried and tested data-backed decision-making that is results-focused.With these questions in hand, you should be able to start the conversation with your current or potential digital agency to get a better understanding of whether they are aligned with your business goals and the ways in which they intend to meet those goals.
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