Ultimate Guide to Working with a Digital Marketing Agency

How to Work with a Digital Marketing Agency

Are you at the point where you’re thinking about hiring a digital marketing agency but are very skeptical as to whether they can do what they say?

The truth is that a competent digital marketing agency can grow your business like they say.

However, for every one competent marketing agency there are dozens who will burn through cash like there’s no tomorrow.

In this guide I’m going to explain how to choose the right digital marketing agency, the procedures to have in place, and what you can do to ensure the best possible chance of success.

Real agency or just another online cowboy?

If you were born in the 1980s or earlier, you’ll have come across newspaper ads that said things like “Make $2,500 per month working from home.” Most of us assumed they were scams and ignored them:

(FYI Gen Z and later, the above is a newspaper. It’s similar to an Amazon Kindle or blog post, except it was printed and you had to go out and buy it each day.)

Fast-forward to present day and this type of ‘get rich quick’ marketing scheme has evolved to making money online in various ways.

One of the most popular ways (which has one of the lowest barriers of entry) to set up an online business is to create a social media marketing agency. There are thousands of people selling courses and guides on how anyone can start a business with nothing.

I don’t think there’s anyone more well known for helping complete newbies start their own social media marketing agency than Tai Lopez:

People with no marketing experience are taking these courses and winning clients, but then failing to deliver their clients the results they promised.

This isn’t because the courses aren’t of value but it’s extremely difficult to run successful SEO or paid social media campaigns if you’ve never done it before. You can learn paid social tactics in a course, but implementing them in real life is a whole different story.

Note: I am not saying Tai Lopez’s courses aren’t of value; I am merely making a point of how easy it is for anyone to start a digital marketing agency. There’s also a dangerous “fake it till you make it attitude.”

Every online business owner has had a negative experience with a digital marketing agency or freelancer who didn’t live up to what they said they could provide. If they haven’t, then it’s most likely they haven’t been in business long enough.

True story time:

A few years ago I was contacted by a digital marketing agency to run ads for a new client they had acquired.

Everything was sounding great via emails, but when we did our first call it all went downhill.

A few minutes into the call with the CEO of the agency, they asked me:

“Umm, so how do you pay Facebook to run ads?”

I was taken aback by the question and thought it was a joke. The CEO of a digital marketing agency who has won a client has no idea how to pay for the ads they will be running?

This is what I considered a red flag 🚩. A red flag is a comment or action taken by a digital marketing agency that reveals their lack of competence or unprofessionalism.

As the call went on I asked some basic questions about their client and their objectives. It quickly became clear that they had no idea what they were doing, and imaginary 🚩 were popping up in my head as we carried on the call.

The scary thing was that they had won two clients!

If you’re talking to a digital marketing agency and a lot of what they are saying doesn’t make sense, or they are slow to answer your questions or you feel like something is off, then these are all red flags that mean the agency will only be trouble.

As website owners, we’ll receive emails like this on a daily basis:

Becoming a doctor or fitness instructor requires you to pass exams and do years of training. To start a marketing agency, all you need is an email address and some gumption.

How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Agency or Freelancer

There are many factors to think about when deciding on which digital marketing agency to choose.

If you’re a local business, you may want to work with someone in your area as they’ll understand your market better and you can have face-to-face meetings. There’s still something so powerful in terms of accountability with even a quarterly face-to-face meeting.

Working with an agency that specializes in your niche is another factor to consider, as they will have experience in what does and doesn’t work to help you get results faster.

Related: 7 advanced ecommence marketing strategies to boost sales. 

Startup and monthly fees is another major factor in your decision making.

Usually, the more case studies (successful results) a digital marketing agency has, the more it is going to cost. Many of the best agencies only work with clients who have a high minimum spend of $10k-$100k+/month.

I would suggest never working with a digital marketing agency that has no experience in your niche; there are just way too many things that can go wrong. Experience counts for more than anything in the marketing industry.

For those of you working with limited budgets ($5k<), freelancers tend to offer the best value over digital marketing agencies as there will only be one person managing your account rather than a team.

You may face issues later on with freelancers when you want to scale up or triple your ad spend, as he or she may not be able to dedicate enough time to the project.

Note: Freelancers come with the exact same cowboy warnings as agencies.

When deciding on which digital marketing agency to choose, there are many things to consider. Here are six things you should consider before making your hire:

1. What does success look like to you?

What do you want to achieve by working with a digital marketing agency?

Success can come in many forms.

For example, if you run an ecommerce store, are you looking to increase revenue (growth), to validate a product fit for your market (testing), or for you to work less on your business and enjoy more time with your family (personal)?

 Success isn’t always defined by revenue.

Clearly define what you want to achieve so your agency knows the task at hand. If you’re unable to define success, the project is in jeopardy right away because neither you or the agency know what needs to be achieved and how to measure it.

2. Set goals

When working with a digital marketing agency or freelancer, set specific goals that you want them to achieve.

Poor examples of goals include:

• acquiring more customers,
• increasing engagement on Facebook and Instagram, and
• driving more leads.

These goals are too abstract. If they acquire one more customer than the month before, is that success? If your posts receive an extra two likes than before they started, is that success?

What if they collected 500 leads with a conversion rate of 0%. Is that success?

Better examples of specific goals include:

• increasing customer acquisition by 25% and maintaining the cost per acquisition below $30 over a period of 90 days,
• increasing message response on social media by 25% within 90 days, and
• increasing the lead-to-conversion rate by 15% within 90 days.

These goals have a date range and are number specific. After 90 days you can review the agency’s progress and see exactly how much they progressed.

Each agency proposal should include a plan of how they are going to hit each of your goals. If the proposal doesn’t contain such a plan, then that’s a major red flag 🚩.

3. What happens if goals aren’t met?

There should be a section in the contract that states what happens if your goals aren’t met.

There are many ways this part of your agreement can go, such as the following ways:

Termination of contract – If they failed to achieve your goals, you’ll want the option to terminate the contract with no further payment subject to your approval.

This is a must as you’ll want the option to cut ties immediately if they are doing a poor job. Hiring the wrong digital marketing agency is something that most business owners do, so you’ll want the option to easily cancel the contract if they are not living up to the requirements.

The termination should be subject to your approval and not automatic.

For example, if the agency was 95% of the way to reaching your goal but fell short because a national holiday or stock issue got in the way, you may still want to work alongside them. While they failed to reach your goal, they may have showed a lot of promise.

Just because they failed doesn’t mean you should give them the boot.

Working for free – Some agencies who fail to meet your goals may offer you an extra time period where they work for free until your goal is reached.

This may sound like a huge bonus, but it isn’t always the case. Agencies that are working for free may become less motivated and produce substandard work. Having this clause in place may demotivate them as they know that if they fail to meet your goals, they will have more time.

Having unmotivated employees managing your ad spend for free becomes incredibly expensive as you’ll still be paying for the ad spend, and you’ll end up wasting time because months go by without you being any closer to reaching your goals.

Partial/full refund – A popular incentive that agencies use is to offer results-based fees. If the agency is unable to get you results, you don’t pay them. In most cases, however, you’ll have to pay for the ad spend, and if you don’t have a proven funnel in place they’ll also ask for a non-refundable setup fee.

Stretch goals – On the flip side, what if your goals are reached or they go above and beyond and absolutely crush it?

Most employees at an agency are paid a fixed salary and don’t have much of an incentive to crush your goals. If they had a fight with their partner that week, are behind on bills, or someone spoiled an episode of Game of Thrones for them, they may not be in the best of moods, which WILL impact your results.

The right stretch goals can light a fire under your agency and push them that extra step. Keep in mind that if an agency fails on your account, they probably won’t be fired, and your contract will be replaced with another business.

Stretch goals or gift rewards can help develop a bond between you and the agency employees and can make them feel indebted to you, giving your account higher priority than others.

The relationship you have with your digital marketing agency is HUGE. If you treat them like a friend and take an interest in their life, they will feel more involved in your business.

Gary Vaynerchuk calls this ‘leverage’: be nice to people and they will be nice to you in return.

4. Talk to the people running your ad account

Most of your communication with digital marketing agencies will be with the project manager, who isn’t always running the ads or doing much of the hands-on work.

You’ll want to talk to both the project manager and their team. If it’s their first time working in your niche or promoting a specific product, talking to them will help them better understand your brand, products, and audience.

A good communication stream will give the agency more ammunition to do the job to the best of their ability. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, to ensure the best chance of success, you also need to put in the work and pass everything to the agency. Don’t expect them to know everything about your audience and products; give them as much information as possible.

Don’t assume the project manager knows everything that’s going on either. They usually compile the reports while the technical employees are the ones doing the work that defines whether goals are reached or not.

5. How often will they communicate with you?

Communication is a must when working with a digital marketing agency as you’ll need to show them that you care about what they are doing and provide accountability.

Communication is all about getting the right frequency.

For example, if you’ve hired a digital marketing agency to run Facebook ads for 90 days, then a daily report and call is unnecessary and a waste of everybody’s time, as it often requires a few days at least to make use of the data collected.

A chat every 7-14 days is a good starting point, with the option to email or call about any minor issues.

If the agency is spending several thousand dollars per day in ads, then weekly calls are ideal. If they are running an SEO campaign or are redesigning your entire website (tasks that can take months), then a longer period of 7-14 days is also fine.

This is something you’ll need to figure out for yourself based on budget, project goals, and your own time.

I usually start with a weekly call, and if things are going the way they should be, then after a few months I’ll chance it to bi-weekly or even monthly calls once they have demonstrated they really know what they are doing.

6. Audit yourself

Sometimes the biggest friction point between a digital marketing agency and a business is the business owner’s ego and not understanding their role in the entire process.

When you hire a digital marketing agency, understand that you’re giving them control to reach your desired goal. If there are things you want or don’t want them to do, clearly state it before any work begins.

If you find yourself telling the project manager what they should be doing, then that will impact your relationships and results.

For example, if the project manager failed to respond to your email in a timely manner or missed a meeting call, then you’re within your rights to make a comment that it is not acceptable.

But if you’re giving your input on ad copy and telling them how they should be targeting audience X instead of Y and disagreeing with them on what they think is best, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

You hire an agency to reach a specific goal because:

• you don’t have the time to do it yourself, and
• you don’t have the skills or expertise to do it.

By getting actively involved, you’re sabotaging your own project. I’ve witnessed first hand when an online marketing agency becomes confused and isn’t sure whether they must follow the business owner’s advice because they are paying them, or to go with their own methodology which has proven to work in the past.

In my earlier marketing days I worked with clients who could not help but micromanage everything. Some days I’d go into work and they had edited work I did without telling me (major 🚩).

If you have these traits as a business owner, you’ll need to work on removing yourself from the process and have total trust in the marketing team; otherwise it will never work.

Reply to the agency’s emails in a timely manner and never be late or miss meetings. If you show them you don’t care about the project, why would they?

You may think that missing a call or replying to an email three days late is no big deal, but three days is a lot of time in the marketing world, especially when the marketing agency has deadlines to meet.

What Are Your Experiences with Working with Marketing Agencies?

There are many awesome digital marketing agencies that can help you with paid marketing, SEO, website design, lead generation, and everything else in between.

Sadly there are ten times as many that have no idea what they are doing but are happy to take your cash.

The two key ingredients for success when working with marketing agencies are:

1. Agencies who can provide you with 10+ referrals
2. Communication

By asking agencies for a list of 10 companies that they have worked with that you can have a chat with, it will push them beyond their typical safe super-happy clients who may have worked out simply because the timing was right or they had a very easy product to sell.

Also, don’t rely solely on case studies because the agency can cherry-pick the best ones.

With a little bit of vetting you can easily verify whether a marketing agency has a history of success.

The hard part is ensuring that communication between you and the agency is healthy and positive. That’s why, before you work together, it’s important to talk about how often you’ll be in communication and what time frame is needed to answer emails.

Make them feel part of your business, build a rapport, and together you’ll steer your ship in the right direction.