How to Vet An Agency Or Media Buyer in One Conversation
If Your Media Buyer Isn’t Asking These Questions, Be Careful.
Perception often illudes reality.
I can craft a persona on Instagram with curated content, and brand messaging, and position myself as an expert making millions of dollars even if I’ve never made a dime.
It’s the catch-22 of the internet.
The same tools that allow us to get in front of people can also be used in nefarious ways to persuade, make false claims and promises, and arm-wrestle people into buying.
As we develop our ‘bs’ detector, we learn how easy it is to slap a fancy logo and a list of services, featured in Forbes logos we paid for, and doctored testimonials on a website.
When they don’t always reflect the whole truth.
I don’t want to make it seem like everyone is out to get you or your client. Those people do exist. Rather it’s like a first date or job interview where people curate the best version of themselves to “make the sale.”
Agencies and media buyers might charge $5,000, $10,000, or over $15,000/Month for their services.
So it pays to know how to vet them.
What agencies ask (or don’t ask) can tell us more about their services than their websites and pitch decks ever will.
Consider this the next time you hire someone to run your Facebook ads whether it's an agency or a freelance media buyer.
Here’s what I recommend:
Don’t lead the conversation.
Before you send over your spreadsheets, google docs, and reports. Your funnels, offers, and email sequences…
…Let them take charge.
You’re looking to see what they ask you, or, just as importantly, what they don’t ask you.
Traffic is part of the solution, but it’s not THE solution.
Let’s pause for a quick moment.
I am making the assumption that you’ve hired (or inquired) with this company because you’re looking to scale or improve performance. To get more customers/clients and (or) get them for less.
(If you have different goals this may not be as relevant)
There’s a reason I identify myself as a marketer and not a media buyer. It’s because I help businesses sell more products, and courses, and fill their programs. Not drive traffic or buy media.
In my experience “ads” alone are never the solution.
They are a part of the overall solution.
Exponential results come from looking at traffic as well as:
Creative.
Offers, positioning, and funnels.
Profit economics.
Backend automation.
Email marketing.
Brand building.
And this is how we vet people.
In a casual conversation about your goals, the items above should come up.
Usually in an exploratory way like…
“Tell me about this…”,
“How you tried this…”,
“Walk me through that…”,
“Do you have this in place…”,
“When I worked with __, we found __ to help with __”
Think to yourself, have they opened your eyes?
Or, was their focus on opening up your wallet and penning a deal?
When they audit your ad account, WAIT, and see what follow-up questions they ask.
This simple action, or inaction, allows you to quickly vet them.
It shows you how they think about marketing and the approach they will take.
Do they do a quick ad account review? Or do they do a comprehensive analysis of:
Funnels, landing pages, and sales pages.
Conversation rates.
ROAS, MER.
Email marketing.
Social media profiles/podcast/YouTube
The products you offer (not just the one you hired them for)
Customer journey and sales cycles.
AOV, LTV.
CAC, nCAC.
CRM data.
Retention, Churn.
Yes, this is a long list. And it could be longer.
Are they taking a holistic approach to improving your performance? Or at least have a holistic understanding of what’s required to reach your goals. Are you even ready to run ads?
During my time mentoring young media buyers, I would often shock them.
They would come to me with a client whose performance was suffering. We’d rarely even look at their ads. Why? If the ads are struggling:
At best, better ads will provide a small improvement in performance.
At worst, better ads will make no difference.
Working from a bottom-up perspective, usually asking a lot of questions they didn’t have the answers to, we’d diagnose why the ads weren’t performing well. Once those roadblocks were removed we could then improve upon the ads and let the traffic flow.
If there’s a roadblock, traffic will never get through.
Even if they don’t do these things or you’re not hiring them to do them. If they understand their importance they will better manage your ads and become a better partner.
Ads alone can only move the needle so far.
And now that you know this, we need to make sure anyone you work with knows it too.
Feel free to hand them a copy of this book ;-)
Maybe you already know the importance of this or what needs to be improved. If so, you’re ahead of the game.
But trust me when I tell you it pays to understand the components of a successful marketing campaign.
Nothing stings more than pouring money into a funnel that has the cards stacked against it right from the start.
Landon
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