There are three key pieces of data that you need to demand from your marketing agency partner: target customer insights, sales metrics, and competitive analyses.

Maximizing your marketing reach is a must with direct-to-consumer health brands, and the best way to do that may be through partnering with an advertising agency. However, the key to making this a profitable partnership is in what your agency can provide to help you make actionable, data-driven marketing decisions. Here’s what you should be receiving:

You hired an agency to accomplish certain objectives, like optimizing PPC to get more sales, or helping launch creative social media marketing. The truth is that you really need, and should expect, more from your agency by way of actionable insights and proven guidance.

The only way you can eliminate the marketing guessing game is if you have data to drive your business decisions.

And the truth is…

You Should be Asking More from Your Ad Agency

Ad agencies have the opportunity to work on multiple clients and multiple types of clients. Your e-commerce marketing may have half a million keywords, but the agency has handled 100 million keywords over the past five years.  The reality is that anything you’re doing, they’ve probably seen ten times before. So, you’re buying all that experience which should translate into guidance in strategy and insights about the market.  

Here are some types of insights you should expect:

     1. Target customer insights

If you aren’t appealing to the mass desire, then you’re in left field. You need to know who your customers are and, more importantly, what your consumers want. Personalization is your secret weapon to do that. 

Your ad agency should be providing you with data-driven guidance around keyword messaging, graphic imagery recommendations, and marketing campaign strategies that will resonate with your target audience. 

      2. Sales metrics

Marketing supports sales. If you’re not selling more as a result of your marketing efforts, then you are failing. Your marketing agency should have a pulse on exactly how all of your marketing campaigns are doing at any given time. Know where you stand in the marketing landscape, then you can pivot early and often to boost conversion rates and sales. 

The key is staying on top of your numbers, so you can spot shifts that may be impacting your conversion rates. Direct response marketers excel in this regard. Want to know where your campaigns are making (or losing) money? Ask a direct response marketer.

     3. Competitor analysis

Your agency should be monitoring your top competitors for changes to offers, hero imagery, seasonal promotions, etc. The more you know about what’s working (or not working) in your industry, the more prepared you are to be able to position your marketing for success. This extends to knowing what channels to use to maximize your brand reach. If you’re not sure where you should be advertising and which are your most lucrative marketing platforms, then your ad agency isn’t doing its job.

Data Accessibility

Having the data accessible to you is just one small piece of the marketing puzzle. Data is nothing without translating it into actionable strategies.

Click-through rates trending down? Then make your marketing messages more click-worthy or benefit-driven to drive more traffic to your sales pages. See a spike in social media engagement? Run a promotional campaign to capture more sales.

Your marketing agency should work with you to create data-driven innovative strategies and best practices, in real-time, to help you increase your marketing ROI. Otherwise, you’re sinking money into shiny graphs and reports that won’t move your bottom line. Make your marketing dollars work for you.

The truth is… most marketing agencies don’t know your market well enough to know what you need to know. Assumptions are marketing kryptonite, but agencies do it all the time. Without an in-depth understanding of your business and your market, they’re taking a stab in the dark and trying to figure out what works. 

If you’re okay with mediocrity, then do nothing. If you are ready to scale and explode your sales, then hold your marketing agency accountable.

Ask, and you shall receive. Don’t ask, and you won’t. It’s that simple.