10 Essential Questions to ask a Digital Marketing Agency

Congratulations! You’ve likely realized that digital marketing is the right strategy for you and your business. However, there are a ton of options out there and not every agency will be the right one for your personal goals. We racked our brains and came up with some questions we would ask the agency when approaching them. We also included some of the most common questions we receive from clients when they contact us about work.

Questions to Ask when choosing a Digital Marketing Agency

1)What are their certifications?

Let’s start with the basics. This might not be a question you necessarily need to ask the company directly, however if they don’t have evidence of these certifications on their site in the form of stickers or banners then alarm bells may start ringing in your head. Being a Google Partner demonstrates that their team are well versed in managing Google Ads campaigns and associated Google tool-kits.

For example, Codedesign is a Google Premier Partner, and is recognized by Top Digital Agencies, Top Interactive Agencies, and as one of Design Rush's Top Digital Marketing Companies of 2020.

2) Do they outsource any of their work?

Hiring a good digital marketing agency is the equivalent of adding them to your own team. You want communication to be on the same page with a clear understanding of the tasks you want achieved. An agency which further outsources some aspects of their work needs to be completely transparent with you and ensure that their source is reliable.

3) How much do their services cost?

Although this is rarely stated outright on their website, agency details on sites such as Clutch.co often display this information in terms of Minimum Project Size and Average Hourly rate. The average rate you can expect to pay ranges from US$50/hour on the low end to US$300+/hour, minimum project sizes can range from US$1000 - $250,000. Rates can differ further by country, the worldwide average is approximately US$150/hour. 

4) What type of Digital Marketing services do they provide?

Hopefully you’ll have managed some of your own research by this point to the extent that you know whether the company you’re asking have a specialist focus on one particular area (such as SEO vs Mobile App creation). It’ll be useful if you’ve managed to formulate your own plan as to the type of services you’d like the agency to use for the type of project you're aiming to do.

5) How do they keep up to date with industry changes?

The modern world changes fast and the digital world can change even faster. Certain strategies that worked well in the past and were beneficial to your google metrics can now tank your rating hard. Any digital marketing agency worth its salt should be up to date on the newest strategies and if possible, demonstrate with fairly modern case studies.

6) Who are their previous clients?

Big name brands can be eye catching but make sure you note the type of companies and industries the agency has previously worked in. If all their previous clients were B2B focused and you’re selling your product or service directly to customers then it may be beneficial to find an agency with more experience in that field.

7) How will they cater their strategy to specifically suit you/your business?

In business as in life it can be tempting to adopt a one size fits all strategy. In order to get the most out of hiring a digital marketing agency, you need to know that they’ll cater their approach for your business. This also includes them doing research or having knowledge on your customer profiles as well as the overall trends that may be present. To this end, it may be beneficial to hire an agency that has already achieved success within your target industry but don’t discount the advantages of a fresh approach entirely.

8) What is the feedback on them like from past clients?

An agency might wax lyrical on their website on how they’re the best thing since sliced bread but if their customer feedback paints a different picture you might not believe them. Whilst you could try posing this question directly to the agency in question it’d be useful to search for customer feedback on third party independent review sites. Google Reviews can be one source but check out their Clutch.co (mentioned above) profile as well.

9) How will their tactics improve your conversion rate?

Whilst ranking #1 on google for your area of the industry might be nice, as a client your main concern will be whether this increase in visibility and traffic will lead to more visible results. Ask how they plan to implement specific strategies in order to deliver more inquiries, conversions and sales.

10) What Digital Marketing Strategies do they implement for their own brand?

Being able to practice what they preach is always a good sign. Given how competitive the growing industry of digital marketing is becoming, what are the strategies that they use and what have their results been like. Where do they rank on an organic google search for agencies within their location? That can give you a practical idea of how effective their own SEO strategy is for their self-promotion.

There you have it! 10 Essential Questions to get you started and help you on the search for your own agency. 

We'd love to get started on answering these and any other questions you might have. 

You could also check these local SEO services to boost your online presence.

Codedesign is a digital marketing agency specializing in data-driven online sales and lead generation solutions for brands in a variety of verticals. Contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our digital marketing experts.

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