I’m the client, what questions should I be asking my agency?

Posted by Darren on Jun 29, 2009 • (Comments)

The inspiration for this post came from an adhoc face-to-face meeting with one of our senior clients.  We began speaking about digital in general and then he dropped a bomb, “Am I asking the right questions?”

I had two options here.  I could have said yes (even though this was not the right answer) or I could have said no (with risk of upsetting him).   I gave the direct answer of “no” but then started to give him pointers and then thought to myself, that this is an amazing topic/question for a blog post.

While I am not going to cover every single question that one could think of for their ad agency, I thought I’d write a few that strike me as important these days:

Campaign Operations

  1. Are we using a third party ad serving system and if so, is my [brand’s] site setup properly with Atlas Universal Action Tags or DFA’s Floodlight tags?
  2. How are we scoring users as they consume my site’s pages?
  3. Are we creating individualized re-targeting segments?
  4. Are we taking advantage of dynamic landing pages triggered by either search (paid and organic) or display activity?
  5. What are the attribution windows for post-view & post-click?

Media Plans

  1. If we are using ad networks, where is their inventory coming from?
  2. How do we plan on frequency capping across multiple networks?
  3. Even though it’s sexy, does it pay to use rich media?
  4. Are we geo-targeting our campaigns (even at the USA level)?
  5. If the plan is multi-dimensional (search, display, social media, etc), are all of the pieces cohesive?

Creative

  1. Does the creative match contextual placements?
  2. Is the creative pulling dynamic information from the pages they are on, or the actions the user is taking?
  3. Has the creative been tested pre-launch?
  4. If we are using web properties with social features (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc), what happens when the campaign is over?
  5. How many creative refreshes will be needed for the campaign?
  6. Where is the creative driving people once they engage?

Measurement

  1. How are we measuring the digital media plan both quantitatively and qualitatively?
  2. Is digital receiving the correct attribution for overall impact to my brand’s sales?
  3. Who is optimizing?  Humans or technology?  If humans, what is the schedule?
  4. What is the primary KPI and is that metric being carried through to all measurement and optimization?
  5. Are we moving beyond the click?
  6. If we’re optimizing on a CPA-type metric, have we drawn a yield curve to figure out the most optimal efficiency metric that yields significant quantity of actions?

I could write a blog post on each question here and over time, I’ll be sure to answer them.  These are purely thought starters and hope that you start questioning your agency for your brands’ future in the digital space.

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , + Categorized as Advertising & Marketing, Internet & Web X.0
  • Jo
    Should I be using banners and buttons, or is digital about much more than that?
  • Lee F
    Couple of creative questions to add:

    When and why do you recommend digital display advertising?
    When and why do you recommend Rich Media creative? Including, when and why to use which Rich Media creative format?

    Some feedback on your "Even though it’s sexy, does it pay to use Rich Media?" question...

    Perhaps this is a question that should live in the "Creative" section above? "Rich Media" is really "Rich Creative", the media is the same.

    Rich Media creative is anything a marketer wants to do beyond the limitations of the typical 40K banner site spec. It does not mean "complex interactive, expandable, and expensive ads".

    A major challenge is that most agencies do not know how to use display effectively. In most cases, display does not fit well into the agency business model. Agencies make big $$$ building web sites, not Rich Media creative banners. Rich Media requires more thought, planning, and education on the media side as well... What do we really want to measure? How will the formats we recommend impact metrics?

    Today's Rich Media creative enables any functionality of a web site to be distributed to users across the web. It provides one of the most scalable and measurable content distribution strategies available. Marketers should look at the successful distribution (over destination) strategies of video content producers - think YouTube, Hulu, Revver, Viddler, MySpace, etc - as an example.

    Rich Media creative is also high impact, high resolution images well beyond the restrictive visual limits of typical site specs. Rich Media frees creative people to do creative things.

    Rich Media creative is also dynamic ad content providing massive efficiencies by streamlining production, ad versioning, and optimization to Boost results...fulfilling the true potential of the web.

    Rich Media creative increases the reach of innovative micro site, social, mobile, search, ______ (fill in the blank) digital programs, makes them larger and more discoverable.

    While Click Through certainly is a good thing, more often than not, it is a means to an end and not the marketing goal. When developed correctly (i.e. format, structure, usability, call to action) display advertising can achieve nearly any tactical marketing objective.

    With media pricing declining everyday leaving more budget to invest in higher quality creative, the question should be "does it pay not to use Rich Media creative?"
  • Darren,

    I love the spirit of this post. Meeting the client's expectations is one thing, but being willing and able to advance the client's expectations is the hallmark of a forward-thinking agency. And it's not like the agency has all the answers easier; if the agency and the client can have a honest, continuous meta-dialogue about they really want to achieve in digital marketing and how to measure that success, both sides are going to think smarter.

    Some of your most important questions (e.g., Am I making sure the impressions for my US-only brands are targeted only to the US) are taken for granted not just by clients, but by agencies themselves, and that's a mistake.

    The question that resonated most with me is : "Even though it’s sexy, does it pay to use rich media?" I think this applies to a lot of the discussions between agencies and clients: "Even though it's sexy, does it pay to {blank}?" For example, does it pay to devote lots of man hours to project management of a one-off sponsorship with limited reach, or would that time be better allocated to long-term media strategy? Someone needs to be asking, does it pay?

    Clients often push agencies to "move beyond the banner." If agencies are willing to pass along "beyond the banner" opportunities that don't really pay, the steak of the media plan moves further and further away from the sizzle of the media plan. And if agencies continue to lead their clients down that path, disappointing the client is inevitable.

    -Greg
  • Darren - this is a super great list. But now I'm curious to know the "best" answers. Look forward to follow-up posts!

    st
  • Darren,
    These are awesome -- and very media specific. I think you should definitely add one more category (one which digital shops, especially, tend to forget): overall business campaign goals and strategy.

    Also think about integration into the marketer's business operations, including CRM, sales, internal employee communications/activation. And this one's super basic but often overlooked...does the campaign resonate with the home page? Does the message of the campaign actually agree with the most basic customer touch points, like the 800 number or live chat? So often the campaign operates in a silo, detached from the reality of the brand.

    Cheers.
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