Should You Place Ads or Use An Agency? - Adult B2B Marketing Tip

How To Decide Whether To Place Ads Yourself Or Use An Agency

With all the dishonest advertising agencies out there, you may be wondering whether it's better to place advertisements yourself, or if you should even consider using an agency. That's a good question, and one that doesn't necessarily have an easy answer. It depends on the needs of your company and what you're trying to accomplish. For you to decide, you could use the good old Benjamin Franklin method. Remember the Ben Franklin method? That's where you get out a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the middle and write 'FOR' on the left side and 'AGAINST' on the right side, then simply list out the reasons FOR and AGAINST. In this case, we'll list all the reasons FOR using an ad agency, and all the reasons AGAINST using an ad agency. Whichever side ends up with the most points - FOR or AGAINST - wins. So let's do that to see if you should use an agency or not.

Reasons AGAINST Using An Agency: First, let's start with the reasons AGAINST using an agency. Here are some reasons you might NOT want to use an agency, and do it yourself instead. Reason number one in the AGAINST column is cost. It costs you a certain percentage of your advertising budget to use an ad agency. You need to pay something to use their services. Now that's not a bad thing necessarily, but it is money that in some cases you may be able to keep for yourself.

So why else would you not want to use an agency? The only other valid reason is that the agency might not be competent. They might be very proficient at making pictures that look pretty and possibly win awards, but they might not actually know how to make you money. That's a tough call, and it's going to require that you ask the right questions to screen them.

Reasons FOR Using An Agency: So what about the reasons FOR using an ad agency? For starters, there's a lot of specialized knowledge that goes into making a good advertising buy. Just because you have to be certified to be a doctor but not to become an ad agency doesn't mean you don't have to know anything to be an effective agency. There are a lot of things to understand. Good ad agencies usually have skilled people who know each of the different kinds of media...and how and when to most effectively buy each of them. They have experience that says, "You know, I don't think magazines would be such a good idea for this particular product, but maybe direct mail would be." They have people who know how to negotiate the best rates and buy for maximum effectiveness. In short, they really understand advertising.

Let's make a distinction right here. The ad agency has two specific - and different - functions, generally speaking. The first one is creating ads; the second one is buying ad space, or what's known as media buying. Media buying is a pretty big study. You need to get enough of an education that you can talk intelligently with an ad sales rep or an ad agency. But for you to learn everything important to know might not be worth your while. A working knowledge of media buying is adequate for most people.

When it comes to the creating the content of your advertisements, this is where you really have to know what you're doing. You don't need to be able to necessarily create your ads, but you do need to be able to look at what's been created and objectively critique it. Ad agencies are notorious for creating bad stuff. Stuff that looks great, but doesn't sell. Stuff that impresses artists, but not buyers. Stuff that emulates big business advertising, but doesn't invoke any kind of response to action. The bottom line is this: If the content of your ad is bad, it's going to ruin your chances for advertising success.

More on this subject tomorrow.

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