I have had a number of conversations recently where marketing teams are questioning the digital media plans proposed by their digital media agency, especially when it comes to gaining measurable results.
Here are some questions you should be asking your digital media agency before the proposed plan is approved. Asking a few questions now could deliver far greater results, and save a headache later.
Overall
- Are the campaign objectives clear?
- Is the proposed plan going to meet those objectives?
- How will success be measured?
- How will success be tracked? What attribution method will be used to evaluate the influence of various channels towards the goal?
The Details
- What placements? Run of site? or specific sections?
- What targeting options will be used? Behavioural / interest? Geo-location? Gender skew?
- What creative formats will be used? Banners? Text links? Content blocks? Advertorials?
- Will the media be ‘always on’ or just on certain times of days / weeks?
- Is the placement on a CPM, CPC, or CPA buy, or a combination of?
- Is this going to get us the best result? What would happen if we dropped [x placement] or improved targeting on [y] placement?
- What placements / channels are going to be known to deliver the best response? What is going to play a secondary role in results, but still will attract the right audience
- How do we know we are getting best rates for this placement?
- How will we evaluate the effectiveness of any online video promotion?
- What channels have been left off the media plan? Why?
- How does this online media plan support and complement the PR plan? How does it support and complement the offline advertising plan?
Optimisation & Performance
- How will performance be optimised over the scheduled planned period?
- Is the plan set in stone? Can it be changed dynamically as results are gained to push more of what works, and less of what doesn’t?
- Does it make sense for the campaign to be front-weighted, or should a soft launch with a ‘test and see’ approach be adopted?
- How will Creative + Media + Conversion align to the same objective?
- What creative optimisation will take place as the campaign progresses?
- What ‘optimisation’ will be performed ‘on-site’ to maximise conversion? How will landing page testing play a role?
- How often will the outcome be reviewed?
- What happens if despite best efforts it fails? What is an alternative plan?
Many times, digital media agencies have the answers and just need a little encouragement to draw the best thinking out of them. Ultimately you need to be able to measure tangible success – if you are not seeing success, the strategy needs to change!