Digital Horizons
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Digital Horizons
Building Trust and Measuring Success with Your Agency
Unlock the secrets of maximizing collaboration with digital agencies as we reveal insider tips from our own experiences in running successful agencies. Ever wondered how to align your goals and expectations with your digital agency to prevent misalignments? This episode promises to arm you with strategies to ensure both you and your agency are measuring meaningful metrics like revenue and cost per acquisition, working together towards shared objectives. We'll also spotlight the indispensable role of having the right stakeholders involved from the outset and the importance of fostering open lines of communication about lead quality and industry trends.
Building trust with your digital agency is essential, but how do you maintain it while ensuring your business insights are fully utilized? Join us for a compelling discussion on striking the perfect balance between trusting your agency's expertise and sharing your unique knowledge to boost campaign outcomes. Learn how to set clear expectations and objectives from the start to cultivate a partnership based on both personal rapport and the agency’s capabilities. We'll address the frustration of unsolicited audits and discuss when it might be time to reconsider your partnership if results fall short of expectations. Tune in to discover how to create a thriving, trust-filled relationship with your digital agency.
The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:
James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous
Making sure that you have the right people in the room in those initial meetings, because there's been times where we've done a whole onboarding thing and one person might be the guy from the sales team and then we're building stuff all based on what information we've been given. But then down the track we might be in a three month strategy review and then that person's turned up and they're like Whoa, hold on, you've missed a whole important piece here. That's not our current target audience. It's not who we're getting our most sales from. It's this. Welcome back to Digital Horizons, the channel for marketers, small business owners and e-commerce entrepreneurs, and today we're talking about how to get the most out of working with a digital agency. Both Brian and I own and run our own digital agency, so I guess, from firsthand experience, we can tell you what it's like from agency side, as to what we find when working with clients allows us to get the best results for you.
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of things that seeing clients over the years work with us that if I was in their shoes I would do differently to get the most value out of us and there's been a lot of clients I've seen that the way they operate does generate the best version of the relationship and gets the most value out of us as an agency and other agencies they work with. So we've just got a few tips that we can run through of how we would do it if we were in the shoes of the marketer or the marketing team or the business owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. So, starting off, I think that the first thing that we look at is making sure that expectations and goals are aligned. Nothing worse than going into an engagement and then either what we're measuring isn't aligned in terms of they think we're measuring something and we're actually measuring something else, and so it's impossible to get expectations aligned because you're not even looking at the same thing or there's expectations that X results are going to be achieved within X timeframe, which has not been set or discussed.
Speaker 2:That's probably the key overarching one. The rest are helpful and going to be useful, but this one, I think if you're both on the same page with your goal setting and what you want to achieve as a business, not just vanity metrics that you want to see from the advertising itself, share those goals. Is it revenue? Is it a return on ad spend? Is it cost per acquisition? What do you track as a successful client or a conversion and share that with the agency so that they can work on the same targets you're working towards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's obviously more value in different measurements that you can use and different agencies are going to work differently.
Speaker 2:And that's fine.
Speaker 1:Just be sure that what you're measuring and what the agency is measuring is the same and that it's a meaningful metric for your business's growth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that leads into another suggestion, which is track the performance together. So it's not just getting the report from your agency on a monthly basis. Have a look at your results. How's it working on your business's side and what's the quality of the conversions and the leads that you've had? What's the feedback from within the business and how can you enrich your agency's understanding of what they're seeing from the website analytics and campaign dashboards?
Speaker 2:We don't have the whole picture of how those leads have converted and flowed through the business.
Speaker 2:We might be looking at the results and thinking we've done a really great job, we've got a low cost per acquisition, but the margin might not be as high if the conversion metrics or the revenue isn't tied to the campaign dashboards. So we rely on our clients to come to those reporting meetings with real feedback about what they saw from the leads or the conversions. And further to that, it's not the agency's industry. They're helping you within your industry. So if there are ebbs and flows within your industry, they're part of the running general day-to-day running of your business. Your agency is just attempting to work within that industry. So if there is an increase in demand or a decrease in demand, it's not something that the agency can generally manage your brand demand, but there are going to be ebbs and flows within the industry. That's just the normal running of business. I think understanding that and sharing the challenges with your agency, rather than blaming each other for those challenges, will result in a better and more connected outcome between yourself and your agency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that ties in with setting expectations, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is something that I guess, making sure that when you're going Oracle, we want, say, 1,000 leads a month, but your budget is only $100 a month, yeah, they're getting making sure that.
Speaker 1:And if you're being told so, if you're interviewing agencies and you're being told, yep, I've got a budget of $1,000, say, for example, and you're saying you want 1,000 leads and one agency is saying, yeah, of course we'll get you that, but then nine out of 10 are saying that's just a ridiculous number, those metrics don't line.
Speaker 1:Then just be cautious of that, because there are some agencies who are just going to set your expectations very high and fall very short and they just live on low on churn and they have a great sales team because they'll sell you everything you can think of, but they're not going to deliver. Whereas if you've got realistic expectations outlined from the start that don't seem out of control and also are justified because if we're working out expectations we want to look at, if you'd run a PPC campaign, what is your cost per click? What is it that you're going to be expecting to having to pay for a new lead based on conversion rates on the current conversion rates, but also expecting that it might be different based on this channel compared to others. So setting your expectations based on numbers and then looking at it being aligned, and then get realistic growth patterns based on budget increases that are realistic in terms of timeframe as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I think that trust piece I would say is our next recommendation is to trust the agency expertise, and that can only come if you've selected the right agency or a trustworthy agency as well.
Speaker 2:So looking for those flags upfront. Are you being oversold or are your expectations being set too high on what the agency can deliver? Is an agency promising you results from an SEO campaign, for instance, when it's really unlikely that you can promise or even forecast results from SEO? Is the agency over-promising an increase in volume of leads for the same budget? There's a certain series of flags that you can use there to select the right agency.
Speaker 2:Then, once you trust that agency, the next step is to not micromanage the management of your campaigns. Entrust in that agency that they know what they're doing within the platform. They know what they're doing within the campaign testing and optimization process. Any suggestions or additions to technical optimizations in the campaign is just taking their focus away from doing their job. But bring what they don't have, bring that information about the last set of leads, what that quality was like, information about the industry and pricing and high value jobs that you want to be getting leads for the type of stuff that they don't already know about your business.
Speaker 2:That is worth sharing. But where I think clients will start to waste their time that they're investing in the agency or they're paying the agency for optimization on is in micromanaging of campaigns themselves. So asking so many questions about targeting options and ad types and getting into the nitty gritty well, that's what you're paying the agency for. But if the brief and the objectives are clear at a top level, you should be trusting that agency to deliver within those limitations or those guard rails.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a really hard one because there is the trust that you need to provide, but you need the results as well, right?
Speaker 1:So I guess, from a business owner point of view or something, if you're paying an agency and you're not getting the results you want, it's really hard just to sit there and trust. If the expectations have been laid out from the start and you're aligned and you've decided what you're measuring, and then you're looking at the results and you're going, hey, we're just not doing this. I guess that's where it's hard to be like all right, cool, what are we doing? And so I guess that trust, whilst it is important to trust, it has to be earned to a degree. But I think that, as you said, once you've got that confidence and you should have the confidence I think if you're engaging someone, you should be doing your research, making sure that you're working with the people that you want to be working with anyway. But if you are confident you've made the right decision, then going through and having the confidence that they've got your best interest at heart and they are doing the best thing in your account to get the results that you're after, you're after.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's two levels to why you should trust an agency, or two categories I would say that you need to consider when deciding if you're going to trust your agency. There's the personal relationship with someone. They're a good person. I do believe that they're working hard on trying to get me the results and we come across that where clients come to us from another agency but they trust the person and they really are trying their best for the client. But the other side of it is capability and experience.
Speaker 2:It's not enough sometimes just to be doing the work and making the changes and implementing optimizations as an agency. You have to have capability. You have to have experienced team members who know what they're doing and can implement custom or tailored structures to get better results. So we see both in terms of clients leaving their agencies coming to us. Some they might have the capability, but the agency is built for scale and volume, so there's just no belief that the work is happening on their account. I'm sure there's a senior person at that agency that could do it, but they don't have the time to do it.
Speaker 2:Then there's the other side, where it might be a smaller agency where they have trusted the person that's worked on their account implicitly for years. Whenever they call them up, they try to react and figure out ways to improve, but there's never any shifting in the results. That, to me, says that the person is trying, but the capability isn't there, the strategic view or brain isn't there to make the right changes. So, yeah, we're not suggesting you just sit back and let the agency do whatever they want. There has to be those moments where you call it and go. I do trust you, but I don't think you've got what we need to get there, or I don't think the work is happening on my account. That needs to happen, and in that case it's time to make a change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's nothing, but just on the trust pieces, nothing worse and more frustrating that we find is I don't know if you guys get this, but we'll get a email from a client and normally it's in the earlier days where maybe they haven't got the trust and confidence in what we're doing at that point. And we'll get an email and be like oh hey, I've just had some unsolicited email from some agency or something that's just gone. Hey, look at your account, we can do this, this and this Is your agency doing all these things. And it's like they've offered a free audit, they've said yes, but just because they're like oh sure, why not?
Speaker 1:And then we get an email that then takes us an hour to reply to all these stupid things that have been suggested by this place. Who's trying to get your business? So of course they're adding all these ridiculous things in here to make it sound like yep, we're going to just get you to come work with us, and then we've just had to take an hour out of our day to go respond to this ridiculous thing. So now we've got a policy that we just don't respond.
Speaker 1:We're like if you get an audit from an external place, we're not touching it. It's like you. You can trust we're doing the right thing or you can move to another agency, but we're not going to sit there and justify these things automatically. As a strategy, because we've already discussed strategy, we've already set the goals, we're getting the targets. We don't need to sit there and then justify some random email that's come in and that could be even from a Google rep Fucking.
Speaker 2:Google reps yeah, the worst. They're like hey call.
Speaker 1:And then they'll sit and talk a whole bunch of shit that is not in your best interest, why don't you turn up the PMAX campaign? Why don't you spend more to give you? And then again it's just us sitting there going. This time is better spent optimizing and getting the results for your account rather than justifying and giving you reasons why this list of shit doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I completely agree. I think the trust needs to go and be felt both ways. The agency needs to feel like they're free to spend their time focusing on the best thing for your accounts and your campaign. If their time is taken off that to spend on convincing you you're in the right place, the results will suffer. Yes, you're going to be distracting them. I'll give you a sort of a hint. It only goes on for so long that they'll do extra work on your account. If you keep being the squeaky wheel and asking for responses to audits and micromanaging the campaign, the good optimization work stops. So that they can spend their time that they've got allocated to you on answering your questions and doing your ad hoc reports and those little feedback moments that aren't really helping the campaign move forward. So that trust needs to go both ways and it can free up your agency to do the good work they need to do. But I think it is really important to be present in those reporting meetings to set clear expectations so that you don't fall to the back of the queue. There are some agencies that are built for volume that if you go quiet then you become the easy client. So it is important that you are of focus and you know what they're going to be working on next month and you know what they've worked on in the last month to help move you forward. You don't want to get into a position where nothing is changing on your account because you're the easy, hassle-free client.
Speaker 2:I had one more, and I think it's more for the beginning of the relationship with an agency.
Speaker 2:It's providing clear, accurate information and access so that the agency can get on with their job.
Speaker 2:What do I mean by that? So handing over of the accounts, usernames, passwords, access to information about the product, granting the agency time to brief them properly at the beginning so that they can get to the right answers in the ads sooner. There is so many occasions where the first two to three months are sometimes spent looking through or helping the client trying to find access to things like search console or the analytics or whatever it may be, or connections or data connections to their CRM things like that that if you could have your house in order and provide a clean and neat handover to your agency, they're spending less of the campaign setup and optimization time on organizing you as a marketing team. So keep a list or a, you know a one password or a password vault of all your accounts and all the access you might need. Make sure you own your accounts and you're giving agency access to your accounts, not it living with an agency and you have to extract it away from them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you want to make sure you're owning your accounts.
Speaker 1:That's a big thing that we find is when we talk to businesses and sometimes they'll be like, oh, yeah, but I've been working with this place for ages and we're like, oh, do you have access to your account? And they're like, oh, I think so. They've never even been in the account. And then, when it comes down to it, they want to move and and that's the biggest load of shit because it's your data, it's your business' thing. And there are agencies that just use this as a thing where it's just like, yep, we'll just keep your data and it's to keep you there. And again, it's the ones that aren't getting you the results and they feel that they need these tactics to keep you there. But that's something that it's really important to understand that you own your data. If you don't already. Continuation If you're working with a company for a while, there is so much value in that data that you've generated over the years pending that they're not just wasting it all on brand.
Speaker 2:If we're talking about Google Ads campaign, but making sure that you have access and ownership of your data, yeah, I think that's worth summarizing at the end If your agency won't give you access to your accounts, they're full of shit and there's bigger problems with that agency from the get-go. So, make them do it or tell them they're lying.
Speaker 1:One part there as well, just on that initial stage, when you're talking about getting all the access and everything.
Speaker 1:One thing that we found as well is that making sure that you have the right people in the room in those initial meetings, because there's been times where we've done a whole onboarding thing and one person might be the guy from the sales team or something like that who has critical information or knows just a little bit more about parts of the business that other people don't, and then we're provided in the onboarding. We're building stuff all based on what information we've been given, but then down the track we might be in a three-month strategy review and then that person has turned up and they're like well, hold on, you've missed a whole important piece here. That's not a current target audience, it's not who we're getting our most sales from, it's this, and it's only because they weren't in the room at that time. So I think that when you are in the onboarding stage, make sure that all the key people, all the people who have knowledge on what should happen, are there and have a say, so that way you're getting a really well thought out campaign from the start.
Speaker 2:And then finally, if all these things are happening well, you should then budget appropriately. So move away from just a set budget per month to a target based budget. What can we afford per lead or per conversion, and how far can we push till we go over that cost per conversion, rather than just setting monthly budget caps of, say, $5,000 a month or $50,000 a month. Once you trust the agency, the strategy is firing and you can afford $30 per conversion, you should spend as much as humanly possible until it costs $35 per conversion and then start looking at optimizations or things you can do or other channels you can enter. There's obviously more things you can do to get the most out of your agency, but they're the ones that we would work on right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to make your engagement, your enjoyment and even the results that you're getting throughout the engagement far better. Thanks for watching today. We'll be back with another episode shortly.