At some point, every company needs marketing. For most small businesses, digital marketing is the most cost-effective way to go. But you can’t just be throwing money out there without any coming back in, which is why it’s important to choose the right digital marketing agency.

Every digital marketing agency has their areas of expertise, which is why you need to make sure that you choose the right one for the objectives you want to achieve. Want to increase traffic organically? You need a strong SEO (search engine optimization) company. Likewise, if you want to buy your traffic and make sure you’re getting a good ROI, you need a company experienced with PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. Or if you want something completely different or a mix of both, you need to weigh more than a couple of factors.

But what’s important is for you to decide. What we know is that four main components should be at the center of your decision. Let’s get into them.

Digital Marketing Agency Components

Are They Experienced?

Experience matters, especially when you only have a limited budget. Speaking from experience, every client has a budget and has things that they absolutely need, whether it’s traffic, conversions, or brand recognition. A lot of times they want all three of those, which can be difficult on some budgets. Experienced agencies can get you that. They’ve done it before and they will do it again.

If you’re in a meeting with an agency, they’ll often show you examples and give you anecdotes about other client’s problems and how they solved them. Sometimes, though, they’ll just give you a list of services and how much they can do them for, which might be lower. In that case, you’re probably one of their first clients. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. After all, we all had to start somewhere. It just depends on what you’re looking for.

Are They Experts?

Every agency has an area of expertise or a couple of expertises. Most of the time, they’ll tell you about it or the people on their staff and their credentials. It’s up to you to figure out what you need them to be experts in.

Make sure you have interview questions for the agencies. Most of the time, you won’t have the expertise to stand toe-to-toe with them. But if there are areas you want to concentrate on or potential problems that you know of, see how they would handle them. Each agency has a different philosophy, which means each one will most likely answer it differently.

Lastly, make sure you know what their plans would be if they won your business. How do they plan to approach the campaign and when do they expect results? With all of this information, you’ll figure out which is the right agency for your small business.

Do They Get Results?

In the end, the only thing that will matter for you is if you get the results you want. If you want results, then you should probably make sure your agency of choice can get results.

When it comes to seeing marketing agencies prior successes, there’s a couple of ways to go about this.

Case Studies

Almost every digital marketing agency has these in some form, whether it’s a video or a written case study. These are good because it gives you an in-depth look at some problems they’ve faced and how they would handle them. The best places to look for these on your own is on their website or their YouTube channel. Sometimes, you can ask them for case studies that relate to your situation and they’ll give you the most relevant ones.

Google Them

Are you wanting to see how they do in SEO or PPC? Look them up. Do they show up at the top or near the top for their most relevant keywords? Do they have ads above search results or are you getting hit with display ads after visiting their website? While not every agency is going to focus on themselves as much as their clients (a lot won’t), but it can help inform your decision.

Talk With Their Clients

Every agency has clients, past or present, that you can talk to. Now, you won’t get any bad reviews because of their handpicking who they let you talk to. So this needs to be more about how they handle problems and how their relationship with the client went.

Create A Total Image

Each of these is going to give you different results, so it’s best to do all three of these methods and create a composite image. The best agency to choose is one who can give you case studies, show up decently well in the search engines and have overwhelmingly positive reviews from their clients.

Cost Vs. Value

For businesses big or small, this is the deal-breaker. What will it cost you? Sometimes though, it’s best not to think in those terms because it could scare you away from any kind of marketing or even push you to the scammy ones that exist just to earn money without results. That’s why you need to think about the value good marketing can bring you.

Some marketing companies will promise amazing results for a high cost and some will promise amazing results for a low cost. The key is choosing one who can combine the other three factors we’ve talked about at the right cost for you. And it’s always going to be risky, just like it will be with almost any other decision. But with the right marketing company, the reward will far outweigh the risks and you’ll be comfortable putting more money into them.

Choosing A Digital Marketing Agency

Now you’ve got all the major factors, you need to figure out which ones are most important for you and your business. If you’re more cost-oriented, you can get a less-experienced, newer agency for cheaper most of the time. On the other hand, if you want a proven agency, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more.

Remember, though, there’s only so much you can do to distinguish agencies from each other. If you have a couple of marketing companies with similar resumes, go with your gut. In the end, your business acumen is what has gotten you this far, so trust it.

About Amplus Agency

Amplus Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency focused on making your business the best in its industry. We believe that each business has individual needs that should be based on specific goals. Since being established in 2011, Amplus has worked with over 200 businesses. Amplus Agency is located in The Near South Side in Fort Worth, Texas.