4 minutes read
Oftentimes, performance agencies feel like the underbelly of the digital ads ecosystem – they’re less talked about than standard paid media agencies, and they’re less recognized as viable contenders against the big guys for awards, in RFPs, etc.
Although we might be a little biased, here’s why we think performance based digital marketing agencies often represent a smarter choice in the new era of digital ads.
Performance based digital marketing agencies – as simple as it sounds – have one top priority: performance. Not just for one campaign, not just to reach your KPI and put their feet up – but to continuously increase performance for as long as you’re their client. And with all of the attribution changes that have taken place over the past year and continue to shake up the industry, a captain at the wheel of the ship who has more levers to control the boat makes for a smoother ride than one who does not.
What are those levers? Data.
In the most non-fluffy, non-buzzword way, performance agencies are quite literally fueled by data. They go beyond surface-level analytics and optimization in order to provide the most relentless and meticulous tracking, analysis, optimization, and reporting. And at the end of your campaign, what this gets you is invaluable; performance agencies unearth statistically sound learnings that provide substantial evidence that your paid strategy is or isn’t working. There’s no guesswork – you can be certain that your campaign did well as a result of your ad creative, not because of random marketplace costs that month, seasonality, or competitor activity.
As a result, your outcomes become replicable, and those learnings can be confidently applied to future campaigns. For example, our agency pairs MMM with experimentation to understand the true impact of channels for our clients – a conversation that is often a game of smoke-in-mirrors for brands solely relying on cookie-based attribution.
And because digital performance agencies are so heavily reliant on this data, they often also have much more attentive, round-the-clock campaign monitoring, including nights and weekends (see this example where one of our analysts saw an unexpected spike in our client’s results during after-hours, and jumped into action to decrease costs by 10% all while scaling spend by 3X for the evening). Whether adjusting bids, optimizing your creatives, or fine-tuning targeting parameters, performance agencies ensure that your campaigns are consistently optimized for success.
This level of informed decision-making maximizes your return on investment, often making digital agencies the most cost-effective option.
The flexibility and close agency-relationships are also attractive points for clients. For us, we boast a ‘plug-in’ method of collaboration with brands. This means we don’t only pair you with the experts on our team based on your media needs, but also on things like industry, time zone, etc. Our team customizes reporting so it’s more relevant to your stakeholders, offer a wide range of communication types (whatsapp, slack, email, teams, personal phone numbers, etc.), and come in-office to meet with your team more often if desired.
Lastly, because performance agencies are really focused on one thing, they typically work really well along-side standard paid media agencies who may be more focused on large creative production, non-digital channels, events, etc.
We pride ourselves on collaborating with media agencies, allowing our clients to deliver their ATL assets, campaigns and brand vision across digital mediums, supporting planning, execution and optimization to deliver the highest possible level of performance.
If you’re interested in learning more about if a digital performance agency is right for you just tap the link below to speak with our digital experts. Alternatively you can email Tyler@realtimeagency.com if you want to get straight into his inbox.
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