The Truth About Advertising Agencies
It is estimated there are over 69,000 advertising agencies in the United States. That means there are at least 50,000 more advertising agencies then there are McDonald's in the US ... let's take a minute to take that in. With all those "agencies" out there, there's a lot of inconsistency in the industry, which gives it a bad wrap. In any industry, there are bad apples that give you a bad name, but that's just an opportunity to prove them wrong when given the chance.
So to help clear about some of the clutter, we wanted to help bust some of the myths about advertising agencies.
1. It costs more money.
"Advertising is the biggest expense on my bottom line next to overhead." Hold your horses, advertising is only an expense when it's not effective. When you know what you're doing and track the results, it's an investment that increases the revenue on your bottom line, period.
"But don't we have to pay you?" - We're business people, not social workers so yes we do get paid for our services. However, because we have awesome partners that have trusted us to scale their advertising efforts, we receive a discount from the media due to the volume we buy in. There's no "monthly fee" or "agency charge". What your budget is, is what we will place the buy for and what your advertising cost will be.
2. You're just a media buyer.
If we were just buying media on your behalf, we would have time to take a vacation once a year. Making advertising work, means understanding the strategy behind each media outlet to create a message that will make the audience react how you want them to. You're busy running a business with purchase orders, patients, customers, blah blah blah blah. We are an advertising agency. For over 40 years (combined - we're not that old) we've created campaigns with messaging that tracks results so you know what is working and how to duplicate it so it continues to work in the future.
3. You guys are just fun and games, we have an internal marketing department.
If we did have a ping-pong table (Hey Todd - hint hint we're talking to you), it would undoubtedly be covered with AdWords reports, market research analysis, creative design sketches or sticky notes (again talking to you Todd). Clearly, we like to have fun. If you don't enjoy your job, you aren't going to be able to do it successfully. The thing is when the ball drops and it's time to get results, we know you need these campaigns to work. We don't apply for all the fancy advertising awards. We're more interested in being a part of the process of taking a business from A and growing it to Z by doing what we do best.