Scott is Chief Revenue Officer at Adswerve. A long-time ad tech executive with previous experience at Microsoft, AOL, Google and more.
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The ongoing economic downturn is prompting brands to reevaluate marketing tactics and trim budgets. In turn, agencies are feeling increased pressure to demonstrate their value. But agencies should see this as an opportunity, not a threat.
At a time when brands are reducing internal staffing, agencies will have a chance to work with clients in new and creative ways. With a data-driven strategy and flexible attitude, you can strengthen your relationships with clients while positioning yourself as a trustworthy, indispensable partner.
3 Data Strategies To Demonstrate Your Value
Without question, it’s a challenging time for agencies. But your clients’ marketing teams are feeling pressure to demonstrate their own value to the C-suite.
You can help them show the value marketing delivers to the bottom line with data-driven strategies that support high-level business objectives. At the same time, you’ll position your agency as an essential partner for growth.
1. Abandon vanity metrics.
Letting go of vanity metrics (like click-through rate) is hard—for both clients and agencies. These metrics have served as a comfortable standard for years but frequently lack context. With tighter budgets all around, we’re seeing increased scrutiny on business impact and return on investment. With the right metrics, you can help your clients tell a positive marketing story that showcases the value your agency delivers.
To capture real value and growth, ensure your teams are using modern attribution models that go beyond last-click to track the customer journey across omnichannel touchpoints, including web, app, display and connected TV.
A 360-view of paid and organic touchpoints enables you to pinpoint the actions that lead to conversions. As a result, you can paint a clear picture of your clients’ most valuable customers and accurately measure KPIs like customer acquisition cost and lifetime value. When you have this actionable data, you can work with clients to develop strategies that align with business objectives and achieve meaningful results.
2. Get creative.
There’s renewed focus on branding now that new privacy measures from Apple, Firefox and others make it harder to track third-party data. An engaging brand design entices prospects to interact with the brand across the web and retail and share valuable first-party data that you can convert to personalized marketing efforts.
Strong creative and messaging can also compensate for shortcomings in other areas—including limited ad spend—by delivering a clear value proposition that resonates with target customers. Urge your clients to audit their existing creative and help them dive into the data to determine what’s working.
And remember to follow your own advice: Audit your own agency creative to make sure you’re highlighting your most compelling case studies—and be ready to present creative, flexible solutions to clients.
3. Bridge silos.
The most difficult task for an agency isn’t wooing clients, securing contracts or brainstorming creative solutions: it’s persuading clients to be transparent about their objectives and KPIs, and share access to data. Many clients are reluctant to extend permissions to vendors, especially if the teams that own data and analytics have been excluded from conversations with (and about) the agency.
Agencies can do a better job serving as the bridge that brings together stakeholders from various teams on the clients’ side. Request to connect with key members of your clients’ performance media, business intelligence, brand marketing and data analytics divisions. These teams often operate under different understandings of which metrics are important, but you can help guide them toward consensus.
For example, media folks and marketers have historically focused on optimizing for on-site metrics, while business analysts are concerned with profitability and customer acquisition costs. Those goals are disjointed and create an internal conflict between teams intent on proving their own value. But with the agency’s help, brands can level-set on what success looks like and focus on creating value for the brand.
Be A Partner For Growth
Economic downturns can mean lean times for agencies. But they can also spur innovation and creativity that leads to growth. Armed with the right data and a flexible, forward-thinking mindset, you can be the trusted, reliable partner brands need to guide them through this period of uncertainty—and emerge stronger on the other side.
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