You’re looking to grow your company and want to hire a digital marketing agency to scale your growth efforts. If you don’t have an in-house marketer with agency experience, the process of hiring a company might feel overwhelming – the market is saturated with digital agencies; how do you differentiate one agency from the next? After working in an agency for eight years, and staying in contact with former colleagues who have either gone on to work at different agencies or now work at Google where agencies are now their clients, I have a laundry list of recommended qualities and questions to ask agency prospects.
#1 on this list was not always #1. Due to COVID-19 and the impact this is having on my client’s business and the agency I’m working at, this is a quality I felt should be prioritized.
1. Ability to adapt
Algorithm changes, market behavior, change in business goals, economic environment You may not fully know how your potential agency is able to adapt to things such as a pandemic, a core Google algorithm update, a change in your business goals or a shift in market behavior, but this is something you want to understand before working with an agency. How are they going to think differently during times of uncertainty? How are they going to use the data and think critically to problem solve for your business? How has this agency adapted to factors outside of their control? Are they going to challenge you as a business when they notice a change in consumer behavior and user trends? In times of growth, how will they work to also safe-proof your business?
2. Agency structure
How is their agency structured and how do internal teams talk to each other? If there’s a separate paid search and paid social team, how do those teams communicate and work together? Is there a project manager or account manager driving team collaboration and overseeing how each strategy works together to drive their clients’ goals. Are the organic and paid teams working in silo or collaborating? What does that synergy look like in terms of keyword strategy? Is there a difference in the search terms driving revenue on the paid side to search terms you’re prioritizing content development and optimization around? How involved will the executive team be on the account? Executive involvement could depend on the level or revenue your business is driving for the agency, relative to other clients, which brings me to the next question.
3. Previous client work experience/ case studies
Can the agency show examples of strategies they deployed? Do they have case studies? If it’s a seasoned agency you’re looking for, they should have examples of work they’ve done for their clients, showcasing strategies deployed to reach their clients’ goals. Do they have a proven track record of driving positive YoY performance for clients? Can they provide you with these examples, ideally specific to your industry.
4. Growth trajectory
How many accounts do they get a year? How many do they close? What’s their growth trajectory? Are they going to have man power to manage your business and what’s the range or calibre of scopes they’re working with? Where will you fall relative to their highest paying client vs. their lowest paying client? What’s YoY growth look like for them?
5. Industry/Vertical experience
Do they currently do work for any of your competitors? Do they have experience managing clients in your vertical? If they’re actively managing one of your competitors, they may not be able to take on your business. This is information both parties might want to get clarity on before moving forward. If they don’t manage a competitor, do they have experience with a business in the same vertical or industry as yours? If your company is in the B2B space and you have a complex product or service, there may be a high learning curve to understand your business (financial services, Internet of things). If you’re interviewing a compelling agency and they don’t have experience with a company similar to yours, what processes do they have in place to learn your business? On the flip side, there’s value in an agency who has a ton of different industry experience even if it’s not in an industry that’s your own. If they’ve been around for awhile and have worked with different industries, there’s still a ton of data and knowledge that’s transferable to your business.
6. Are they a Premier Google Partner?
Google has a Partner Program that includes tiered levels, with Premier Partner being the highest level an agency can achieve. Only a small fraction of agencies receive this status and there are several requirements a company must meet to receive and maintain the status, including three main areas: certification, ad spend, and performance. Being a Premier Partner means the agency understands search strategy, giving you a higher chance of succeeding.
7. Platform Ownership
Will they allow you to own your website, as well as platform profiles such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, GTM and GSC. If you were to disengage with the agency, will you have full ownership and access to your accounts, websites and landing pages – regardless if they built them or not? This is important. You don’t want to have to rebuild landing pages unless they’re in dire need of a redesign. You want to make sure all your keyword and traffic data is transferable for historical reference.
8. Employee/Account turnover rate
What’s the employee turnover rate? There’s value in having the same team working on your business for a long period of time – I’m talking two years minimum. It takes time to learn the nuances of your business. You don’t want to work with an agency that’s re-assigning a new team every couple of months. Consistency and institutional knowledge is important to build the right relationships.
9. Pricing
What’s their pricing model? Is their media on a sliding feed scale? How do they compare against other agencies? If they seem lower than the market rate, it may be too good to be true. When negotiating, if the agency gives in too easily, it could mean they don’t value their employee’s time or you’re getting a B team. You’re also likely to experience an agency that wants to negotiate 3-6 months down the line if you ask too many questions or need more communication.
In summary
There’s additional criteria that might be important to you and your business that’s not listed here. Think through what that list of criteria looks like before embarking on an agency hiring journey and prioritize what’s important for you. Meet with stakeholders in your company to get their input as well. How does your boss or manager quantify your success? What metrics are you responsible for driving? A good agency will work with you to understand these questions and help you solve for them