Strike Overview
- Deciding to engage a team of experts from a social media advertising agency can seem like a hefty investment.
- Yet, if you believe that handling your digital advertising efforts in-house is a cost-saving measure, think again.
- Opting out of a social media advertising agency might incur even greater expenses. Investing an additional, say, 50%, to enlist the services of top-tier talent can yield substantial savings and superior outcomes in the long run.
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Why Do You Need a Social Media Advertising Agency?
Before you even begin your search for a social media advertising agency, you must define your objectives and establish your priorities. A clear understanding of why your brand requires a social media ad agency partnership will guide your agency selection process and lay the foundation for a successful partnership.
Key Reasons to Consider a Social Media Ad Agency
Lack of In-House Expertise
Social media advertising requires an in-depth understanding of various platforms, algorithms, ad formats, targeting options, and analytics. Collaborating with an agency specializing in paid social media advertising can bridge this knowledge gap and provide the necessary expertise to optimize campaigns effectively.
Time and Resource Constraints
Managing effective social media advertising can be demanding. It requires constant monitoring of campaigns, evaluating their performance, and allocating budgets appropriately.
To alleviate these time-consuming tasks, consider outsourcing to an agency. This can free up your team’s valuable time, allowing them to focus on core business activities.
Scalability
One of the key benefits of working with an ad management agency is its ability to help you scale your social media presence effectively. They can provide the resources and expertise needed to expand your campaigns and reach a wider audience.
For example, if you are currently focused on organic marketing on Facebook and Instagram and are seeing success, an agency can help you determine if it’s best to continue investing in these platforms or if there are other platforms where your target audience is more likely to engage.
Data-Driven Results
Agencies have advanced analytics tools and provide detailed insights into campaign performance. This data-driven approach optimizes campaigns and supports decision-making.
Social media advertising companies utilize dedicated tools to track all your social media ad campaigns across platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, streamlining the monitoring and enhancing the efficiency of your campaigns.
What Are the Qualities to Look for in a Paid Social Media Advertising Agency
It should come as no surprise that there’s a crowd of social media advertising agencies eager to work with you in this world of digital advancements and technologies. To find the perfect partner that aligns with your goals and values, it’s essential to identify key qualities that set the best agencies apart.
Experience and Expertise
- Industry Experience and Track Record
- Look for a social media advertising agency that has experience working with businesses in your industry or niche. They should understand your target audience, competitors, and the latest trends. Request examples of successful campaigns they’ve executed for other clients to gauge their skills and results.
- Platform Specialization
- Considering that different social media platforms have distinct audiences and content formats, it’s important to choose a social media ads agency that specializes in the platforms your business engages with and aligns with your brand’s content style. If your brand prefers to express its messages creatively through short-form videos, you’ll benefit from an agency with substantial expertise in video ads such as Reels, Shorts, and TikTok.
- Additionally, seeking an agency that understands how to harness videos in searches by extending to Google and YouTube advertising can be an advantage.
Services Offered
- Campaign Strategy and Development
- A good social media advertising agency will help you develop a strategy that aligns with your goals, target audience, and marketing budget. If they have experience managing campaigns in a similar industry and with a comparable strategy, they can tweak and tailor it to fit your brand, thereby driving success for your campaigns as well.
- Paid Media Management
- The social advertising agency should be adept at launching and managing paid social media advertisements, including target audience selection, bid optimization, and performance monitoring.
- A crucial aspect of the agency’s role is campaign pacing. This involves ensuring key metrics such as clicks, views, and budget are maintained throughout the campaign duration. By maintaining consistent metrics, the agency can mitigate ad fatigue and increase the likelihood of successful ongoing campaigns.
Communication and Transparency
- Clear Communication Channels
- The right social media ad agency should have established communication channels, like weekly meetings, email updates, or project management tools.
- Typically, your social media ad agency should send weekly or monthly reports in PDF or PowerPoint format to provide updates on campaign performance. These reports are then presented during scheduled meetings to foster open dialogue and discussion.
- Additionally, project management tools like Asana or Trello can be employed to enhance transparency and collaboration. By utilizing these platforms, both the brand and the agency can track campaign progress efficiently, eliminating the need for excessive email exchanges.
- Responsiveness
- Your chosen advertising agency should promptly address your inquiries and concerns. The usual timeframe should be 24-48 hours for any changes or updates needed. For urgent matters, a team member from the agency should also be available for a quick call to discuss immediate issues.
Considering these qualities, you can narrow your choices and find your business’s best social media advertising agency. Remember, the right agency is more than just a vendor—they’re a strategic partner who can help you achieve your social media marketing goals.
How to Find the Right Paid Social Ads Agency
Further into your search for the right social media advertising agency, you’ll find it’s not just about hiring a group of strangers to execute and monitor your ad campaigns. Instead, it involves finding a partner whose values, expertise, and communication style resonate with your own.
Choosing a social media advertising agency means entrusting them to represent your brand on social media. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a profound connection between your organization and the selected agency.
When evaluating agency fit and establishing a collaborative relationship, consider the following key factors:
Aligned Core Competencies and Values
- Define your business goals and non-negotiables. Does the agency’s expertise and experience align with your industry and target audience?
- Research their existing clients and case studies. Are they known for working with businesses similar to yours?
- Assess their company culture and values. Look for a social media advertising firm prioritizing transparency, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.
Questions to ask:
- Have you collaborated with brands in the [e.g. automotive] sector? If so, which specific target audiences would you suggest focusing on?
- Do you have an existing database of brand-safe YouTube channels where our ads can appear?
- How do you decide when to turn off or back on an ad creative?
- Can you make decisions without our involvement to increase views on our YouTube Video Views campaign? How will we be informed of such changes?
Further Reading
Prevent Wasted Ad Spend by Excluding Ads from YouTube Kids Channels
Running ads comes with the risk of unintended exposure, and you don’t want your brand associated with content that doesn’t align with your messaging. Recognizing the importance of excluding your ads from YouTube Kids channels is crucial to protect your brand’s image and ensure a more effective advertising strategy. Here’s why taking this precaution can benefit your overall campaign.
Software and Supporting Tools
- Ask about the agency’s technology stack and proprietary tools. Do they use advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning algorithms to optimize campaigns?
- Will you have access to their reporting dashboards and analytics? Transparency is key for tracking progress and understanding the impact of your investments.
Questions to ask:
- I’m looking to promote my Amazon shop on my TikTok catalog. Is there a way to link my Amazon catalog directly to TikTok without manually entering individual products? What methods are available to track clickthrough rates and visits to my page?
- Will we have access to the reporting dashboard? If not, how will we receive updates on the campaigns’ progress?
Reporting and Feedback Loop
- Set clear expectations for communication and reporting frequency. Find out how often you will receive updates on campaign performance.
- Understand their feedback process, including how they gather insights and communicate recommendations.
Questions to ask:
- Who will be the primary contact for our campaign requests or questions?
- Can we receive automated reports to track the progress of ongoing campaigns?
- Can you provide an expected timeline for receiving the earliest report on our campaigns?
- How can we provide our feedback, and how quickly can the feedback be implemented?
Staffing and Team Structure
- Inquire about the qualifications and experience of the team members handling your account. Do they possess the necessary skills and certifications to effectively handle your specific marketing channels (e.g., YouTube, TikTok, Google Ads)?
- Determine if the agency performs all work in-house or outsources to third parties. In-house teams typically offer better communication and more control over work quality.
- Consider whether a smaller agency, which might offer personalized attention, or a larger agency, with more resources and specialized expertise, better suits your needs.
Questions to ask:
- How many team members will be working on our account? Will there be dedicated individuals for each platform (YouTube, TikTok, etc.)?
- Do the team members have relevant qualifications? For instance, does the individual handling Google Ads hold a current Google Ads certification?
KPIs and Core Metrics
- Clearly outline your success metrics related to brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, or sales.
- Ask the agency how they measure success and what KPIs they track based on your campaign objective. Do these metrics align with your goals?
- Discuss how the agency uses data to optimize campaigns and make data-driven decisions. A strong agency will have a robust analytics framework and provide clear insights into campaign performance.
Questions to ask:
- For a video ad campaign on YouTube aimed at driving website traffic, what metrics do you suggest we monitor to gauge its effectiveness?
- Brand awareness is my objective for the ad campaigns, but my priority is to stay within the campaign’s budget while maintaining 100K monthly impressions. How can you guarantee that the budget will be evenly distributed throughout the campaign period while achieving the desired number of impressions?
Further Reading
Why You Should Work with a YouTube CTV Advertising Agency
As YouTube Connected TV emerges as a key player in audience engagement and viewership, brands are eager to secure ad placements on this platform. Working alongside a YouTube CTV advertising agency can streamline your shift from social media to Connected TV, all while maximizing your advertising budget.
Your Next Move in Finding a Social Media Advertising Agency
With the steps outlined to help you find the right social media ad agency, you are ready to seek an expert team to elevate your brand’s presence. Interestingly, the solution might be closer than you think.
At Strike Social, our goal is to enhance the performance of your ad campaigns, not just monitor them. Our proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, leverages machine learning and historical data to reach your target audience effectively through hyper-granular targeting. It optimizes campaigns round-the-clock and focuses on achieving the best results while targeting brand-safe channels, managing campaigns efficiently, minimizing costs, and maximizing performance.
Our approach combines Campaign Lab’s advanced capabilities with the expertise of our media buyers. This constant oversight ensures real-time optimization and prompt adjustments when necessary.
Our data-driven approach and transparent outcomes have established Strike Social as a trusted provider of social media advertising solutions. Explore the success stories of our client in our latest case study:
Download our 2024 YouTube CTV Case Study
With the surge in YouTube TV’s viewership, an industrial service brand successfully expanded its audience and achieved a 13% improvement in cost efficiency for its Connected TV campaigns.
Unlock up to 25% or more growth in your ad performance. Reach out to our team today and discover the untapped potential of your advertising campaigns.
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