When you purchase digital advertising from an ad networks, such as display or PPC, they are very happy to quickly send out an invoice. Following that they will have calls and send you data, typically in Excel or Powerpoint form, that shows how they are doing. “You’re getting a ton of impressions” or “We’re really seeing a ramp up in click throughs this month”. As an analyst I can typically always tell a good story with numbers, but is it the right story?

Take me to the finish line

It’s all about conversions! My gripe with the digital advertising industry has been that they are all too happy to leave the conversation at their data, or what they think they can control. However, what a refreshing change it would be if these firms also helped you out by guiding you to areas of optimization. Here are a couple of questions/conversations I wish I heard more from digital agencies:

• We feel the message in your ad should have more action-oriented terms.
• The color scheme of your ad really goes against what we have seen work in the past for other clients.
• Your landing page messaging/design really doesn’t match the ad creative we are using.
• If our focus is conversion we’d really recommend a larger call to action with more action terms.
• We noticed a few steps int he process where we think people may be falling out. Are you seeing this as well?

These are just a few of the things I would have loved to have heard from agencies the last few months. But instead it was the same old stuff; here’s your data, we’re showing a lot of impressions, yay! If digital agencies were more focused on your success perhaps they should bill by the conversion, or at least part of their invoice should be success driven. So the next time you have a call with your digital agency/network ask them how they might help you to improve conversions. After all, it’s in their best interest for you to be successful, not to see you leave after 3-months!