You have your products or services ready, and now the time has come to let the world know about your brand. For this purpose, you might want to hire an ad agency to help you introduce your brand to your target market.
Even those with in-house marketing teams would sometimes hire a separate ad agency for effective marketing strategies and brand awareness. And since there are many firms out there, you’ll need to know what you should look for in an advertising agency to maximize your time and money.
Types Of Advertising Agencies
Before exploring the factors in finding the right ad company, understand that advertising agencies in Belfast, like in other cities, can fall into different categories depending on their services. They can range from small to large corporations where it’s possible to have a few hundred people in one team.
While there may be some differences, however, they always have specific people in various fields to help you with your advertising needs. Here are the common types of advertising agencies:
- Full-Service Advertising Agency
Suppose you want an advertising agency that caters to different businesses with various services, this type of agency is for you. Full-service agencies offer traditional and digital advertising and marketing assistance. They have experts in content creation, print ads, social media management, search engine optimization, strategic planning, TV ads, and more.
- Social Media Advertising Agency
These ad companies consist of teams that focus on the function of creatives. They specialize in social media content and optimization in specific popular platforms. Typically, these agencies offer profile designing, writing engaging blogs to entice an audience, photography, and videography services so you can post high-definition images and videos. They know how to work with social media algorithms so you can maximize your ad spend.
- Media Buying Agency
This type of agency concentrates on media planning and buying. They specialize in specific strategies such as establishing markets, determining the best time frame for ad exposure, and proposing budget recommendations for their clients. Often, these agencies tend to have an extensive connection with publishers so they can arrange value-adding placements. They also track ad campaigns so you’re well aware of the kind of audience your company should target.
- Digital Ad Agency
An agency specializing in online advertising offers the following services: SEO (search engine optimization), lead generation, social media marketing, marketing automation, web design and development, account-based marketing, and more.
These companies know how to get the most from advertising on specific platforms by creating targeted ads and continually testing them. If your business targets a particular audience and wants to improve your online presence, seek out this type of ad agency.
- Creative Boutique Agency
A creative boutique agency is for businesses that know the type of creatives they want to implement in advertising. It’s a company that concentrates on innovative design services and lets the client control advertisement monitoring and performance tracking. If you need creatives unique to your branding, they’re the best ones to work with you.
- Traditional Advertising Agency
Businesses aiming to advertise locally should seek out a traditional ad agency. They’re responsible for planning and strategizing ads for television, radio, billboard, and print ads. Note that they’re not for businesses that wish to focus on web traffic enhancements.
Considerations For Choosing The Best Agency For Your Business
Remember, selecting the best agency for your business needs time and careful analysis. Knowing the different kinds of advertising agencies allows you to distinguish the services they provide. Now, it’s time to narrow down your options according to your needs. Here are some questions to guide you in your decision.
- What Are Your Marketing Requirements?
To properly choose the right ad agency, you need to understand and find out about marketing or advertising needs, so you’ll know what to enhance or improve. For instance, if you need more leads or website traffic, then you may go for a digital marketing agency, but if you could use ad placements, then you should hire a media buying agency.
Also, for your brand to be successful, you need to assess your potential buyers and the scope of your market. When you learn these elements, they’ll help you determine your marketing needs. Here are ways these aspects can help you:
- Potential Buyers
Do you know who are your prospective clients or your target market? The target market pertains to possible clients to whom you can sell your service or products. They’re the community whom your brand can aim your marketing initiatives at. Learning about your potential buyers will help you design your marketing plan and evaluate which ad agency suits your needs.
- Scope Of Your Market
On the other hand, evaluating the scope or size of your market is essential when you’re developing your marketing plan. Learning market size is vital to better leverage marketing resources, formulate optimal pricing, and improve product distribution.
Remember, there’s no such thing as a comprehensive marketing requirement. One brand will have different needs as compared to other brands. Once you determine your answers to the above factors, they can guide you in selecting the appropriate ad agency.
- How Much Is Your Budget?
To find out how much budget you will need, discuss the needs with your chosen advertising agency. You need to allocate your finances in three categories. You’ll also need to consider your ad spend and production costs so you can better align your business to the right agency and the services you need.
Remember hiring an ad agency is an investment. With investments, there are a lot of risks, that’s why you shouldn’t use an amount that’s beyond your means. More so, you shouldn’t take money from what’s allocated for running other business operations. Setting a budget will help you identify the amount of money you can allot for getting advertising services and set boundaries so you won’t overspend and lose money in the process.
Regarding ad or media spend, media pertains to the medium used, such as digital or traditional means. On the other hand, production is where you’ll spend on marketing materials. Lastly, you’ll need to provide retainer fees to the agency as some will charge a fraction of your ad spend.
In particular, an advertising agency retainer is a contract or agreement between the client (your business) and the agency, which is commonly set for 18 months for various projects. The retainer fee is the set fee agreed upon as a monthly rate for the agency’s time.
- Can These Ad Companies Provide A Sample Proposal?
If you have a few options of companies to work with, it’s best to meet with them one by one and discuss the background of your business, the history, and your available budget. They may look into your current marketing and advertising campaigns if there are any. An ad agency presentation will allow you to analyze a few things such as team quality, strategic-level ideas, their fit in your business, the types of media they propose to use, and their reporting expertise.
Once you’ve assessed them all, you can now choose the advertising agency you want to hire. If you’ve been working with an old agency, the transition will keep you busy, as you need to inform your team. For weeks, you’ll be brainstorming ideas on campaigns with your new ad agency to launch or relaunch your business into the spotlight.
Conclusion
Finding the right advertising agency can be tricky. But you can avoid being overwhelmed by identifying the types of ad agencies that can best help your business. You can make critical considerations such as your available budget and marketing requirements to narrow down the choices you have. By doing so, you can make calculated decisions depending on your budget and get favorable results in your return on investment.
