Blog

Four Indicators You Are Not Able to Rent a Advertising and marketing Company

4 Signs You Are Not Ready to Hire a Marketing Agency

A few months ago we did a post about the 5 signs it’s time to hire a digital marketing agency. While strong partnerships between businesses and marketing agencies can be an effective way to increase sales, there are some cases where this option may not be the best solution – or at least it isn’t yet. Here are some situations when it helps to think twice before hiring a marketing agency.

1) Your paid search budget is too small

How important is paid search to your digital marketing strategy? Internet users lead more than 3.5 billion Google searches per day. In addition, 75% of consumers only read that first page of google results. Hence, it is important that your business website appears on the first search results page (SERP) for your relevant keywords. This is why marketing agencies devote so much time and resources to search engine marketing (SEM).

If your paid search budget is too small (less than $ 1,000 a month), you won’t see a huge increase in your web traffic as the competition for keywords can be fierce (and often expensive). Paid Google Search Ads (which appear at the top of the results page as in the screenshot below) are cost-per-click, with the price of a click being determined by the demand for the keyword.

If your monthly paid search budget is only $ 500 and the cost per click for a given keyword is $ 25, you can only get 20 clicks per month. That’s less than a click a day! Plus, with a small paid search budget, the agency can’t spend as many resources on keyword research and ad creation.

Screenshot highlighting the Google Ads dashboard in Analytics with a focus on CPC

Screenshot highlighting the Google Ads dashboard in Analytics with a focus on CPC

Bottom line – Since agencies often use search engine marketing as a core component of their overall strategy, a small SEM budget is not enough to have an impact.

2) You have not outlined realistic goals for what you can hope for from investing in marketing

Smart investments in marketing can produce positive results for your business. However, the only way to maximize your investment is to know what you want to achieve from the start. Before you get in touch with agencies, you should know how much you can spend and what your specific goals are.

Specific goals may include actions your audience should take in a given timeframe (e.g., a dental office wants to increase patient inquiries by 30% year over year from August to November). Other goals could be adding a blog to a website, starting an Instagram channel, or getting started with Facebook ads. To help you get started, HubSpot offers a free template for goal setting based on the SMART method (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound).

For example, getting a Coca-Cola-level advertising campaign by just spending a few hundred dollars is an unrealistic goal. The best way to get started is to research your competition to get an idea of ​​how much you should be spending.

It’s worth noting that it may take some time for the results to be reflected in your bottom line. This is especially true when you’re launching a new line of products, expanding into a new market, or starting something from scratch. If you have no goal in mind or a mindset that a one-time investment in marketing will generate the revenue you want immediately, an agency may not be the right choice for you.

Bottom line – The most successful marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It is important to be realistic about what a marketing agency can do and what time frame they can expect to help you achieve your goals.

3) You are not open to advice or experimentation with new marketing strategies

Part of what you get from a marketing agency is strategy and advice. This includes agency representatives who analyze your current marketing strategy and suggest new channels, budgets or optimizations based on previous performance.

If you’re used to having one or two people in-house driving the overall marketing strategy, there might be some resistance to having a voice from outside the company weighing up what you should do.

If the current internal marketing strategist is not open to suggestions, the partnership could be strained. Example: A customer who wants a full-page color ad in The New York Times may not want to hear from an agency that the money is better spent on a diversified mix of digital channels.

Additionally, the marketing landscape is constantly changing, and an agency is likely to be at the forefront of the latest trends. The willingness to try new things is important for a company’s marketing evolution. You need to be willing to let marketing agencies do what they do best: test and implement new strategies.

Bottom line – Working with an agency is a partnership and discussions are often associated with compromises. Be open about any agency partnership and your campaign is more likely to be successful.

4) You don’t have the time or team resources to manage the marketing efforts

One of the benefits of working with an agency is the ability to save your employees time by outsourcing much of your marketing. However, agencies cannot do everything on their own. You’ll need guidance from your branding and policy team, campaign launch approval, time to review analytics reports with you, and assets like photos and other materials.

We recommend having at least one person in your company, ideally from an in-house marketing team, who can act as the main point of contact with the agency and support the marketing activities.

Bottom line – Agencies still need input from your team to run campaigns. Still, if you want to work with a marketing agency, you still need to devote time, manpower, and resources to managing the relationship.

So when is it Law Time to hire an agency?

One of the greatest advantages of an agency is that you have a team of subject matter experts who can help you refine and execute your strategy at a much lower cost compared to hiring an entire in-house team. They can also suggest some ways to tweak your budget for the best results.

An agency may be the right choice for you if they have marketing experience in your industry and a track record with similar clients. We recommend this 15 Questions to a digital marketing agency in deciding if it’s right for you.

Are you ready to take the plunge and get in touch with a digital marketing agency? Contact Pacific54 today to speak to a representative.