While many things are constantly changing in the modern advertising world, with DIY tools available for most if not all digital channels, there is still a strong role for full-service advertising agencies to partner with brands and companies of all sizes. An agency is an ideal partner when it comes to complete advertising and marketing solutions, offering competitive rates for buying media, expertise on the different formats, copywriting skills, design, and more.
What do full-service advertising agencies do?
The first area in which advertising agencies can help a business of any size is in media buying. It can be a massive undertaking for companies to get individual quotes and negotiate the terms for each of the channels they’re interested in advertising on: from social media to radio, TV to search engine ads, banner ads, and more, full-service advertising agencies can provide the convenience of taking care of everything with one person or group–which saves time and money both.
Another area in which the modern digital advertising agency can lend a hand is expertise in ad creation. Making ads takes time, creativity, and expertise–and a badly made ad can become the thing of nightmares for a brand. By partnering with an agency, businesses can rest assured that the different areas of expertise all exist in one team and that each level of the process from the design of the creative to the development of the ad copy, is taken care of and top quality. While there is a certain cachet–and sometimes viral appeal–in low-quality ads, for brands that want to put their best foot forward, working with full-service advertising agencies makes the most sense.
For brands that aren’t sure what their goals are, what their brand identity is, or other material concerns when it comes to advertising, full-service advertising agencies also offer a great deal of help with the legwork. A good full-service agency can assist with developing a marketing plan, performing the research to determine the best demographics for products and services, and all the other before-the-campaign work needed to ensure success. By partnering with an agency, businesses can rest assured that no matter where they are in the process of advertising to consumers, the agency can partner with them and develop everything into a finished campaign–or multiple campaigns.
Speaking of success, an added benefit of working with advertising agencies is that tracking and metrics are included automatically. A good agency will provide information upfront on how they calculate the success of their various campaigns (as an example, important metrics for email marketing include open rates and click-through rates, which gauge how many recipients of a given email opened it and how many of them clicked the link provided in the email, taking them to the company’s website). Each marketing channel has its own relevant measures of success for campaigns, and a good agency can–and will–keep track of them all, providing regular reports.
How to find a good agency
When it comes to advertising agencies and the role they’ll play, it’s important to know what to look for, and how to screen for the best fit. There are a few key guidelines for companies to follow:
- Know exactly how much involvement you want the agency to have in the process
- Look for advertising agencies that provide details about reporting and metrics up front
- Ask lots of questions regarding the process and how the agency checks in (and how often they check-in)
- Know what kinds of advertising you want to get involved in before you meet with the prospective partner.
With those guidelines in mind, it’s easy to make a great choice from among different advertising agencies and feel comfortable with the relationship.
Conclusion
Advertising agencies have transformed with the digital landscape to offer more services than ever before, offering services at all levels and all parts of the campaign development process. For businesses of all sizes and types, it is a good idea to partner with a great full-service agency to develop a marketing plan, build a campaign with clean copy and stellar design, and even incorporate branding principles into such areas as company website development and social media profiles.