Social

4 Ways to Tell if You Should Hire a Facebook Ad Agency

By Tinuiti Team

You’re running Dynamic Ads. You’re retargeting your ecommerce site visitors. You’re building lookalike audiences off every list you own.

And you’re still not seeing the ROI you hoped to see from Facebook ads.

It could be that you’re making some big mistakes that are holding you back–but it could also be that you’ve just reached a point of diminishing return.

That’s where a retail-focused Facebook ad agency comes in. If you choose the right team, you will find they’re a secret weapon. They do this every day for multiple clients, so they already have knowledge you don’t.

Free Survey: How 1,500 Facebook Users Engaged With Ads in 2017

However, as with any business decision, bringing in an agency needs to make financial sense. So let’s dissect the facts, pros, and cons of working with a Facebook ad agency.

A Facebook Ad Agency Doesn’t Have to Replace Your In-House Team

Let’s get this out of the way first:

An external agency doesn’t necessarily have to replace your in house team.

An in house team is a huge asset for an agency. They provide access to:

 

All of these would be virtually impossible for an agency to secure without the help of at least one point person. Simply put–if an agency can’t access even something as simple as the brand’s image catalog, they’re not going to be able to do their job. Bring your team in to collaborate with and help manage that agency, and you’ll see far more success.

Where are You Experiencing Pain?

A good doctor doesn’t prescribe meds when he first walks into the room to see you. Typically, they’ll start by asking questions to figure out what the problem is.

In the same way, it’s important to first diagnose your problems before proposing an agency as a solution.

Here are a few clues that you have a Facebook ads problem.

1. You’re Spending Too Much Money Without a Measurable Return

Are you spending $10k+ a month on Facebook ads without being sure what the return is?

Just because Facebook ads feel complicated doesn’t mean you should keep throwing money behind ads to see what sticks–after all, you wouldn’t do that in any other part of your business.

Start by determining what your business goals are, then match those up with Facebook’s ad types and goals. There are myriad options for advertising targeting and formats, so an agency that specializes in this is invaluable.

While it may seem that spending more to hire an agency may be the opposite of cutting spend, it can actually be a budget-saver.

Just take it from women’s apparel company, Halsbrook. We partnered with the Halsbrook team to manage not just Facebook, but also Google Shopping, Bing, and CSEs. One of the main goals was to cut the average cost per acquisition across all managed ad channels.

We partnered with Halsbrook to tailor-design dynamic remarketing campaigns across both Google and Facebook. Not only were we able to help cut the average cost per acquisition, we also managed to fly beyond the minimum ROI goal.

2. Your Team is Spread Too Thin

Is your team too busy with other ad channels to focus on Facebook?

We hear this a lot from our clients–there just isn’t enough time for their team to focus on just one channel. While you may be able to get fairly solid results on Facebook while running basic ads, over time, you’ll notice the channel trending downward.

There are plenty of other advertisers vying for your audience’s eyes–and if you’re not giving Facebook your full attention and getting detailed in your strategy, you can bet your competitors will.

Apparel company Vuori, one of our Facebook clients, is a great example of a business that was doing a great job running paid Facebook ads, but were ready to take Facebook ad marketing to the next level.

Our Social, Google Shopping, and Technology team members met regularly to custom design conversion-focused Dynamic Ads, which gave the Vuori team the ability to target specific audiences based on actions they took on the Vuori website.

As a result, Vuori saw a 219.40% increase in Facebook revenue and a 192.44% increase in Facebook (GA) transactions.

3. You’re Unsure of Best Practices

Does your team seem unsure why some ads perform, some don’t, and others just get disapproved?

The thing is, when you’re juggling multiple channels, it’s almost impossible to stay up on all of the best practices and updates.

Facebook ad agencies have a unique advantage here.

Consider them the deep diving team, with the agility and in-depth knowledge to stay up with Facebook’s fast evolving changes and best practices. A good agency will even have direct access to a Facebook rep who can answer questions and offer solutions.

“Our account manager keeps us up to date with cutting edge advertising technologies, that help grow our customer base and keep returning customers engaged.” – Mark Richards, Director of Sales and Marketing, Alp-n-Rock

In addition, Facebook ad agency team members will consistently share knowledge with each other on the tests and tactics that work well for their clients–which could mean big leaps forward for you.

We used some of our rigorous testing processes while audience prospecting for apparel client HYLETE.

First, we leveraged internal and external data weighed against months of creative testing to position HYLETE in front of new audiences that closely resembled the brand’s ideal customers.

Through strict creative testing schedules, our social team was able to identify and target defined audience prospects and what they are most responsive to in HYLETE’s Facebook advertising strategy.

By increasing the amount of qualified traffic being driven to HYLETE’s site, we saw performance boosts of +22% in average order value, +68.43% in the average session duration, and +20.84% in pages visited per session.

4. You’re Lacking Expertise Around the Pixel and Product Feed

Are you feeling the strain of technical limitations?

There’s only four steps to installing the Facebook pixel. But if you’ve attempted to go through this process on your own, you know it’s not that simple. Well, you’re not alone. Take a look at the related searches for “setting up facebook pixel problems”:

problems setting up the facebook pixel

Then there’s the product feed, which is entirely necessary for setting up Dynamic Ads–but optimization and setup can be a pain.

A great Facebook ad agency will be able to help you set up your product feed and pixel, and more importantly, help you out when anything goes down.

Conclusion

If you answered yes to more than two of the above questions, you may have a problem that could be addressed with the help of a solid Facebook ad agency.

Looking for the right agency is complicated, and it’s even more complicated for brands and retailers.

We’ve all heard about businesses being swindled after months of working with an agency on unclear metrics when what they really needed was actual results.

But that doesn’t have to be you. Ready to take the next step?

Start by checking out our list of things to look for in a Facebook ad agency.

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