You’re in review for a new agency, digital marketing, creative, media buying, whatever it is, it’s a process no marketer looks forward to. If you are on this path, it’s either because something went wrong, or didn’t go right enough, or your organization has a policy that requires you to go through this process on a scheduled basis. Either way, it’s additional time added to your already full workload.
There is plenty of information out there to help you work your way through the agency review process, but what I want to be sure you consider is the difference between working with a large, let’s call it big-box agency, versus a smaller, mid-size, or independent agency.
There are plenty of agencies available, no matter what category you’re reviewing. I highly recommend you have a mix of large, medium, and small agencies on your list, no matter how large your organization is.
So, before you sign that shiny new agency contract (you know the one with the 47-page SOW and a “team” of 19 people you’ll never meet), ask a few simple questions.
1. Who is actually touching my business day-to-day?
Is it the A-team you met in the pitch… or the B-team, C-team, or someone named “resource pool or contractor”? It’s a fact that agency teams change, but to start with, are you being assigned the most junior team member because you don’t have the most well-known brand or the largest annual budget? In reality, the agency may not know who they will assign to your account on the day of the Pitch, but they should know pretty quickly afterward.
The most important question is, what experience does my team have related to my business or the work we need done to achieve our goals?
2. Where does my money really go?
Not the slide. Not the summary. The actual path.
Are you buying media for your brand, or are you buying someone else’s margin layered on top of it?
Ask how inventory is purchased and whether bulk discounts are shared or used by the agency.
3. How fast can you pivot when something isn’t working?
Is it hours? Days? Or “Let’s revisit this in our next scheduled call”?
In today’s environment, speed isn’t a luxury; it’s the difference between wasting money and making it. Your agency team needs to be flexible and agile when it comes to optimizing your campaigns for issues and efficiencies. Those changes can’t be made after multiple discussions internally over days, or after checking in with you.
You also need to trust your agency team to make the call and the adjustment, knowing it’s for your benefit.
4. Is this strategy built for my business, or your time-savings?
If your plan seems like it was created for someone else, it probably was.
Customization shouldn’t be an upsell. Hiring a team based on category expertise is a benefit, but that expertise shouldn’t come with a templated approach.
Every business has its unique challenges and goals. Your strategy should be built around those personalized needs.
5. How will you prove this is working?
Not just impressions. Not just clicks.
Actual business outcomes, and the data and transparency to back it up. Discuss tracking, attribution, reporting, and how you will know that your strategy is working, before you get started on your first campaign.
Dashboards are table stakes, but performance-driven results are what you really want.
Big agencies aren’t bad. They’re just built for a different game…scale, layers, process.
If you care about:
- Working with an experienced team
- Knowing where your budget is going
- Moving quickly when needed
- Building something tailored, not templated
- Transparency and confidence around the outcomes
Ask questions a little more carefully. Because the answers usually tell you everything you need to know.
We’ve built Vision Media around a very simple idea. We offer transparent, agile, performance-driven media services connected to each client’s business outcomes.
Turns out, that resonates.
