eBook Chapter 3: The Basics to Trusting Your Marketing Agency and Vendors
The following is an excerpt from the recent eBook, How Do You Make Online Display Ads Work for Automotive Dealers, discussing how online display advertising has evolved and is changing the way some auto dealerships and their marketing departments approach online advertising. This third chapter focuses on the basic details you need to establish trust with your marketing agency and vendors.
You’re investing a lot of money and placing your trust in your marketing agency and vendors, so it is essential that you know the basic details of the advertising approach and know what to ask about.
Make sure you’re comfortable with the goals they have set and where they’re targeting to affect your sales funnel. In addition, while your agency partner might be staffed with knowledgeable professionals, they still need to be responsive to your questions and help you understand their approach. You’ll know that they’re on track if they can elaborate on these topics:
Are they serving truly dynamic inventory ads. The simplest way to determine this is to ask if they are using ad tags to serve your ads. If not, then your ads cannot be truly dynamic. Note – it is possible to use an ad tag and not serve dynamic creative.
The variables they use to dynamically assign ad content. A complete list of criteria involved in the process of delivering ad content (including contextual targeting, behavioral targeting, and retargeting methods) means that the company’s display ad solution takes user behavior and context into account.
The services that are in-house and those outsourced. There’s no reason to be concerned if your agency reports that they rely on certain services from a third party. On the contrary, it’s a good sign that they recognize their weaknesses and realize that a partner can bring certain strengths.
The dynamic nature of their ad creative. Here, the distinction is made between standard banner ads and truly dynamic display ads. You want to ensure that the ad content being delivered is absolutely up-to-date. For this to be the case, your provider will need to update your inventory listing daily, or better. This can be done with a direct feed, or, in some cases, with web scraping technology.
Whether they offer automated tools. With thousands of custom impressions presented on a daily basis, automated tools are essential. You cannot be making changes to each ad every time an offer or vehicle changes. You’ll also want to know how quickly changes to your display ads can be accomplished – ask if they can make changes in real time or if campaigns will need to be redeployed.
Assignment of a campaign manager. You’re likely going to be in constant contact with your display partner to analyze performance, tweak your campaign and make other adjustments. Dealing with a different person every time you contact them can be frustrating, so make sure you have a campaign manager assigned to your account.
