There are too many companies today claiming to be digital marketing experts. They often elaborate on their extensive experience, familiarity with the subject at hand, and different types of software they use to help them “achieve” results or at least “measure progress.” Despite all the noise and bragging, most of them fall short of numbers! They fall short on actual representation of success story, including brands that they have built, followers that they have acquired, keywords they have ranked, and finally positive ROI campaigns they have accomplished.
By paying attention the different numbers, we can help decipher actual experts from mere exaggerated claims.
Factors to consider
Below we are listing several factors to consider when choosing to work with a digital marketing agency:
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Number of followers on social media
Despite claiming to be experts, most digital marketing agencies hardly have several hundred followers on their own social media accounts. Most agencies claim to be experts in growing a brand following, but when it comes to proof of concept, they completely fall short even on their own marketing channels.
The easiest way to distinguish experts from non-experts is to request follower and engagement growth of the marketing agency on their own channels or on the client channels they have grown from scratch. For example, A&E, a social media agency NYC, has over 2 million followers that the agency founders have amassed themselves.
According to Forbes, they are the masters of identifying the “epicenter” of influence, or those who influence the influencers, and they are able to secure brand growth and relevance by applying this tactic in their campaigns.
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Keywords ranked on Google
Another simple key metric in determining agency ability is the keyword ranking of their own pages. If the agency has failed to rank on Google and accomplish digital marketing for their own company, chances are that they will fail to do the same for any of their clients.
By simply analyzing rankings for different competitive terms in the marketing industry, brands are able to determine agency competence in Search Engine Optimization or other digital marketing strategy that allows brands to be noticed by potential customers.
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Campaign ROI Metrics
When it comes to client portfolio, many agencies simply fail to provide examples of their work all together or limit their experience to simple project description. For example, they sometimes name the brand and the project details, but they fail to provide hard numbers that would allow brands to determine whether the campaign was a success in regards to the campaign ROI.
When analyzing campaign metrics, it is often helpful to look at the hard data that indicates before and after the campaign results. Wells Fargo Study influencer campaign is a great example of branding agency NYC measuring the before and after foot traffic that occurred as a result of the influencer campaign clearly indicating the result obtained.
Final Thoughts
By focusing on numbers rather than campaign descriptions, brands are able to better understand the capabilities of an agency and predict to a certain extent success of their own campaigns if choosing to work with the same agency.
Hard numbers are sometimes the best indicators of agencies ability to deliver on promises, including their own social media success story, agency own ranking result, and campaign ROI metrics that are not omitted but rather displayed as the focal point of that agencies ability.
Interesting related article: “What are keywords?“