The dream of any company leader is to find a specialist who can bring customers from contextual advertising at minimal cost. But not everyone knows how to recognize a professional among dozens of applicants, what to look for and what questions to ask. After reading this article, you will learn how to choose a contextual advertising contractor.
Choosing a contextual advertising contractor: an agency, a freelancer or a full-time specialist?
The main question asked by anyone who chooses a contextual advertising contractor is: what is better – to hire an employee, conclude an agreement with a freelancer, or contact certified contextual advertising agency? Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
Staff contextologist
An employee in the company’s staff creates the illusion of control for the manager.
Pros:
Deep dive into the topic. Your own employee gradually delves into the details of the business and over time will be able to independently make decisions and set priorities;
Painstaking work on each advertising campaign. The attention of the employee is not scattered on diverse tasks set simultaneously by several customers;
Constant control over the process. Many managers find a connection between control and results, so when they hire a specialist, they want to avoid surprises;
The ability to select an artist. If an employee performs duties with insufficient zeal, he can always be replaced by another.
Disadvantages:
Limited knowledge. In a team of like-minded people, there is an exchange of experience and ideas. The one who works alone has to put in much more effort to maintain an adequate level of engagement;
Low awareness of innovations. The rules and mechanisms of contextual advertising are constantly changing, and without new knowledge, you can quickly lose your qualifications. But not all employees have enough self-discipline to train regularly;
Dependency on a single employee. Illnesses, vacations, and finally, dismissal – if the only employee in the state is engaged in contextual advertising, then the risk of not finding a replacement for him quickly increases many times over. This is true for all employees;
High incremental costs. With an average salary of a contextologist in the capital of UAH 18,000, the company must additionally pay taxes, rent of premises and workplace equipment, which increases costs by another UAH 9,000. Not everyone is ready to go to such expense when freelance work is cheaper.
Let’s summarize. It is worth hiring an employee only if the company has built a staff development system, allocated a decent budget for Internet marketing, and has an idea about the tools used.
Freelancing Specialist
The level of professionalism, as well as the cost of one hour of work, varies among freelancers. Sometimes the amount of remuneration for a self-employed contextologist is comparable to the amount prescribed in the contract with the agency. But, if you are lucky with a specialist, then working with him will be more flexible. He is available on weekends and holidays, can set up an advertising campaign at any time of the day, quickly responding to requests.
Agreements with a freelancer are often fixed only in words. Their execution is difficult to monitor due to the lack of monitoring tools. If the percentage of the advertising budget is taken as the basis for determining the amount of remuneration, then the result can be a high cost per click, an inefficiently spent budget, and an incorrectly selected audience. Often this situation occurs when a specialist has little experience or no time for your advertising campaign.
An additional drawback is the insecurity of the account. Sometimes a freelancer disappears for an indefinite period, sometimes – forever, and with him the money from the account of the advertising account disappears.
Context advertising agency
The agency provides professional-level services without interruption. In the event that one specialist suddenly falls ill or quits, there will always be someone in the state who will pick up the current project. It is most likely that you will achieve the desired results if you use this option. The concluded contract serves as an additional guarantee.
Pros:
Full ownership of information about contextual advertising systems. Employees of modern agencies are almost always certified. This does not guarantee the quality of the services provided, but allows you to judge the level of knowledge of specialists;
Versatile experience. Agencies are divided into those who work in one or two niches, and those for whom the customer’s industry is not critical to achieve their goals. Both those and others gain impressive experience, but this experience each has its own specifics. The former are well versed in the business processes of customers, while the latter, having a broad outlook, quickly solve heterogeneous tasks;
Transparency of activities. Systems actively oppose unclean methods of promotion, punishing cheaters for many years. Therefore, we have not heard about fraud in contextual agencies for a long time – competition has put everything in its place. Companies surviving until 2021 are doing honest business;
Relationships are documented. Serious companies conclude contracts with customers, which gives the latter written guarantees that the agency will fulfill all promises.
Single window principle. It is easier to work with the agency due to the clear organization of the interaction process – one contact person, all accounting documents and reports are issued in the required format in a timely manner.
Disadvantages:
Surface approach. The main complaint of advertisers is the superficial attitude to details on the part of agencies, and there is some truth in such complaints;
Working at a fixed speed. Contractors often work under regulations that sometimes prevent them from responding quickly to unexpected problems. Agency employees are far from always ready to solve problems in an emergency mode;
Lack of quick communication with the manager. Agency employees participate in business meetings, and you can get to know each other personally. But in the course of the main work, the manager will not be on your territory, and the tasks of the immediate supervisor will become more priority for him than yours;
Minimum budget limit. Contractors cooperate only with those customers whose advertising budget exceeds the specified minimum level. Each agency has its own bar, and if you plan to spend less, you may be denied a contract;
Lack of initiative. The principle of work of most agencies is based on the precise fulfillment of the tasks set by the advertiser – no more, no less. At the same time, customers want specialists to treat their projects as if they were their own, to offer improvement and optimization plans.
Summarize: you should conclude an agreement with an agency if you plan to place ads in a competitive topic, you need general reporting or statistics detailed on different traffic channels. Working with such a contractor will be a lifesaver if the company does not have the internal resources to pay sufficient attention to Internet marketing.
No matter what your choice, no one will relieve you of the responsibility for project management. Leading an advertising campaign and being responsible for it are not the same thing. The representative of the customer must be directly involved in all processes: control intermediate results, track deadlines and set priorities.
Important! The absence of a person responsible for the project on the side of the advertiser can become an obstacle to achieving the goals.
What to consider when choosing a contractor for contextual advertising?
To answer the question of how to choose the right contractor for contextual advertising, let’s look at several significant aspects that should be focused on:
Access to the advertiser’s account. A serious performer without any conditions will give you access to an advertising account, at least in read mode. If the contractor does not provide login data, it is worth considering. Only by having access to your campaigns will you be able to track how your money is being spent;
The level of competence of the agency representative in the negotiations. He must clearly and clearly answer all questions. If it is not possible to reach an understanding at the sales stage, then more significant difficulties may arise in the process of work. Work with those who have trained employees to speak the language of the customer;
Analytics. Find out in what form and with what frequency statistical reports are provided. You can easily do the standard unloading of analytics from contextual advertising systems yourself. A good indicator of the professional approach of the agency is advanced analytics with information on targeted actions for each channel, broken down by campaigns and keywords. An additional plus will be reports on the experiments;
Reward. You should pay close attention not only to the cost of running a campaign, but also to how exactly the calculation is made. Find out what services are already included in the reward. The agency must provide a list of activities aimed at developing accounts – the so-called map of the path you have to go;
Cases and portfolios. Reputable contractors with experience in working with interesting projects post their description on their website, which certainly gives them additional advantages when looking for customers. Feel free to ask your manager to show the company’s portfolio;
Interaction. It is important to know whether you will have a connection with a technical specialist, in what format and how often you can contact him, and whether it is possible to arrange a personal meeting. So you will immediately understand whether the agency is an employee or a freelancer, whether the agency is interested in personal interaction and solving emerging problems, because often important issues are resolved much faster during a meeting;
Reporting. Discuss the reporting with your manager, give your own assessment and tell us about your wishes for the format of the data provided. This will positively affect the course of the advertising campaign. It is important to understand that the result of marketing activities depends not only on a technical specialist and an account manager. An essential component of success is teamwork with your participation, full input and regular feedback;
The start date of the campaign. It is impossible to set up a high-quality advertising campaign overnight. For a specialist, this process takes 5-10 working days, but sometimes the launch period reaches 30 days. If the agency promises to make an advertising campaign in 24 hours, then most likely during this period you will receive a couple of ads for a couple of dozen keywords.
What should be alarming when choosing contractors?
The choice of a contextual advertising contractor must begin with the answers to the following questions:
Is the specialist interested in the goals of the advertising campaign and gives his own assessment of the possibility of achieving them?
Does it talk about plans to track and measure conversions?
Does it discuss the form and frequency of progress reports?
Does the campaign cost forecast take into account targeting?
Important! If the specialist does not take into account location targeting, then the estimated campaign budget will be higher. Here we can talk about his desire to get large sums of money at his disposal, and, consequently, to increase the commissions of advertising systems.
If you answered “no” even on one point, then think about whether you are really ready to work with such a contractor or it is better to look for other options.
But with whom you definitely should not deal, it is with performers who guarantee one hundred percent results. This approach is for beginners or amateurs. Experienced professionals know that success is influenced by many factors. Some of them are not able to change even professionals.
