You know effective digital marketing is crucial to your business success. But how do you know if you are getting effective work? Digital marketing is complex and full of jargon. Here are tips to make sure your digital marketing agency is delivering the goods and that both sides know what to expect.
Demand reports that you understand
Your agency should provide program reports at least once each month. You should also expect them to explain what the reports mean. Your agency should provide you with direct access to Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and other data for your website, your digital advertising programs, and your social media. You deserve to know what you are getting for what you pay for.
Important metrics that you should demand your agency to report:
- Website traffic
- Sources of website traffic
- Goals or conversions for leads or sales
- Digital advertising costs, clicks or traffic generated, cost per click, and cost per goal or conversion
- Social media interest or impressions, followers or likes, engagement or engaged users
There are many more points of measurement your agency could report. Simply demand to know what they mean.
Demand your agency explain what it is doing
Digital marketing can be complex. No matter what, your agency should provide you with non-technical explanations for what it is doing, why they chose the strategies they did, and the results.
If your agency tells you it uses secret formulas, secret tags, or refuses to share details about various strategies, then it is time to find another agency. Those are red flags that your agency is playing games.
Demand to know what you are getting billed for
Billing must be transparent and understandable.
Agencies generally bill either a flat fee or by the hour. E-Power Marketing bills with a flat fee so there are no billing surprises. We start with a proposal, describe deliverables, and what our fee will be. If we recommend or you request a change in deliverables, we update the proposal and do not move forward until you authorize the change.
If your agency bills hourly, it should provide you with details of services performed by hour. Invoices may not include all the details. However, the agency should give you those details upon request.
Demand explanations for the jargon
Being a digital marketing professional, I often do not realize when the person I am talking to does not understand what I am talking about. I always strive to be non-technical to non-technical people, but that still does not mean the person I am talking to knows what I am saying. Don’t be afraid to say you do not understand what the jargon means. Speak up and ask for an explanation.
Demand knowing when there are problems with your program
Things happen that cause a program not to perform as expected. There are technical hiccups, human error, seasonality, and algorithm changes. You should know about the problem, what happened that caused it, and what steps are taken to correct it moving forward. It is a good sign if your agency is proactive and tells you this. It means they are being transparent.
If you are not satisfied with the explanations your agency is giving you, contact E-Power Marketing. We pride ourselves on making the complex world of digital marketing easy to understand — and being transparent every step of the way.
