Forgive the aggressive title, but I need your attention. Our job at Brkthru is to do our best to enhance our agency partners’ relationships with their end clients. Great products, on-time and accurate reporting, campaign optimizations and results are extremely important, but what clients really look for from their advertising agencies is strategy!
A new study finds that 38% of U.S. advertisers are likely to end their current ad agency relationship within the next 6 months. The survey, conducted by SetUp, cited leadership changes and a perceived lack of strategy as the main causes for the imminent breakups.
“Generally, clients are less satisfied with their agency partners, and more particularly, their primary agency partner,” said Joe Koufman, founder and CEO of SetUp, adding there’s a “communication gap” that strains agency-brand partnerships. Many agencies surveyed felt declining client budgets was the main factor in severing a relationship. In fact, Clients attest the lack of strategy was the driving factor.
So why the change? Consider how the agency-client partnership has evolved. Partnering with an agency that was both familiar with the buying process and possessed the buying power to get discounted rates in premium television, radio and print, was a huge advantage to advertisers. As premium content on those platforms diminishes and demand decreases, it’s become less important. These platforms are making programmatic and self-service options more readily available, and traditional media far easier for companies to handle direct.
It’s no secret that paid digital is becoming the significant portion of clients’ ad budgets. Even more so than their traditional media, digital companies like Google, Amazon and other DSPs are making purchasing programmatic advertising seamless for advertisers, and more difficult for agencies to earn commissions for media buying alone.
So how do agency partners continue to earn and keep a client’s business when there might be cheaper options? Earn it with your strategic expertise. The most important factor in today’s advertising world is partnering with a paid digital media partner that provide insights, optimizations and a strategic focus on results. Moral of the story – demand more from your partners, because your clients will be demanding more of you.
At Brkthru, we know one size doesn’t fit all in campaign strategies and client relationships. That’s why we tailor both to a client’s needs. For help on implementing a consistent and effective strategy, and real-time campaign optimization and results, contact info@brkthru.com.