Digital Marketing Agency Buyer’s Guide
Top 10 Things to Look for When Shopping for a Digital Marketing Agency
1. Experience
How long has the agency been in business? More specifically, how long have they focused on Digital Marketing? Many marketing agencies claim to do SEO, manage ads, and design web sites. If in doubt, ask to speak with some current or former clients, preferably ones in similar industries to yours and who have been receiving similar services to the ones you need. Market Vantage was founded in 2002 as a Digital Marketing agency. That’s all we do.
2. Strategic Focus
When the agency representatives talk about the benefits of working with them, what do they talk about? Is it clicks and traffic or actual revenue generated? Anybody with money and time can attract website visitors, but you should be interested in visitor engagement and conversions that result in orders. We’re businesspeople so our attention is on helping you improve your bottom line.
3. Data-Driven Decisions
Attribution is critical. One of the wonderful things about Digital Marketing is that most of the results are trackable. What brought in that lead? Was it an organic or a paid click? What was the search term or ad creative that worked? Answering these sorts of questions helps digital marketers decide where to place their bets so that campaigns are constantly being optimized and improved. Does your Digital Marketing agency know how to configure analytics tools? Can they make inferences and draw logical conclusions to produce meaningful reports, or do they just dump data each month and leave you to decipher it? We decline projects if we can’t have access to the necessary data.
4. The “A” Team
Ever get pitched by agency rock stars, only to find out after the contract is signed that you’re now going to dealing with interns? Market Vantage hires the best, brightest and most experienced we can find, and then we cross-train on our culture, approach and methodology. The result is that you’ll always be dealing with people that know more about Digital Marketing than you do.
5. Bespoke Service
That’s the word the British use for “custom tailored” and that describes how we scope our services for each client. Your situation and needs are unique, so the approach your agency takes should reflect that.
6. Collaboration is Key
Digital Marketing is not something to be thrown over the wall to outsiders. We don’t like to work that way and you shouldn’t either. It needs to be a collaboration. Maybe you have in-house people or another agency that should partner with us. That’s great! We want to provide just the expertise and resources you need.
7. Who Owns the Data?
We can’t tell you how many times we’ve been approached by a prospect that has a hunch that their online marketing could be doing better. So, before we make recommendations, we ask to look “under the hood.” That’s when we find out their current agency has control over their Google Ads or Analytics account and won’t let the client in, let alone a competitor like us. That’s just wrong on so many levels. We believe that it’s your data. Your agency should be a guest in your accounts, and if you get tired of the company, you should be able to show them the door.
8. Non-Compete
With very few exceptions, it does not make sense to hire a Digital Marketing agency that’s working for any of your direct competitors. Having two organizations fighting over the exact same keywords in the same geographic territory is great for the ad platform but bad for you. Digital Marketing is generally a zero-sum game. When they win, you lose. Do yourself a favor and hire the smartest folks you can and make sure they don’t work for your competitor. If we’re working for you, we’ll ask you for a list of your competitors right from the start and, while you are our client, they will not be.
9. Service Pricing Based on Effort
Most agencies that do Pay-Per-Click work base their pricing on a percentage of click spend. Market Vantage has never done that. Google and other digital platforms encourage advertisers to spend more. We work for you, not for Google. In many cases, we help our clients reduce their click spend significantly – while increasing quality conversions. It takes a lot of work to achieve that. Why would you want to pay us more because we persuaded you to spend more? Here at Market Vantage, we want to make sure our objectives are aligned with yours.
10. No Long-Term Lock-In
What happens if, a few months into an agency relationship, you find that things just aren’t clicking? Not much If you have a one-year (or longer) contract. Well, we don’t like being unappreciated either. That’s why our contracts offer a clear termination options that can be as short as 30 days.
Next Steps…
Let’s talk about how our top-notch marketing agency may be able to help you exceed your goals. Schedule your free, no obligation consultation today.
Newsletter Sign-Up
Sign-up for our VantagePoint newsletter to get insider tips and expert advice from our team on SEO, PPC, Web Analytics, CRM, Marketing Automation, Email and Social Media Marketing.
Free Download: Marketing Automation Playbook
Get the ultimate guide to marketing automation
Understanding How Large Language Models (LLMs) Work
Understanding How Large Language Models (LLMs) Work Large Language Models (LLMs), such as GPT-4 and Gemini, have revolutionized the way we interact with technology, transforming tasks from content creation to customer support. But how do these powerful AI tools really operate? How LLMs Process Prompts When you enter a prompt into an LLM, the model doesn’t actually “think” like a human. Instead, it processes text statistically: Tokenization: Your input text is broken into tokens, small units of words or sub-words, converting them into numerical representations. Embedding: Tokens are mapped into a higher-order numerical representation that adds semantic meaning and syntactic…
How to Prevent AI from Being a “Yes-Man”
How to Prevent AI from Being a “Yes-Man” Generative Artificial Intelligence platforms, particularly large language models (LLMs), have rapidly become valuable partners in everyday decision making. However, new research indicates AI might be overly cooperative, often mirroring the ideas of users without offering essential critical feedback. This cooperative nature—dubbed the “yes-man” effect—can limit the value of AI as a tool for unbiased decision making and critical thinking. Why AI Acts as a “Yes-Man” AI models, including popular ones like GPT-4.5, are fundamentally designed to assist and align with user requests, inherently incentivizing agreement and positivity. Discussions on platforms like Reddit…
AI Agents in Marketing for 2025
AI Agents in Marketing for 2025 You may have seen that atmospheric TV ad: a well-known actor, standing in a rain-soaked restaurant, pondering how one decisive interaction might alter the path of a customer relationship. The question that inevitably comes up is, “Wait, what exactly could these new AI-driven ‘agents’ be doing in such a dramatic setting?” It’s a fair question, and the ad wants us to wonder. What’s different in 2025 is that many mid-sized businesses—especially those in B2B markets—are no longer just imagining. They’ve started taking practical steps to deploy AI agents as part of their marketing playbooks. …
Google AI Overviews and the New Search Reality: What Marketing Leaders Need to Know (2025)
Google AI Overviews and the New Search Reality: What Marketing Leaders Need to Know (2025) Why this matters now In just one year, Google’s AI Overviews (AIO)—the multi‑sentence, AI‑generated summaries that sit above the familiar “blue links”—have gone from limited pilot to a core element of mainstream Search. As AIOs roll out globally, many publishers report traffic declines, even as Google insists that “higher‑quality clicks” are flowing to sites that do earn a tap. For CMOs and senior marketers, understanding the new rules of engagement is no longer optional; it is a board‑level issue affecting reach, media budgets and measurement. …
The Power of Marketing Scorecards: Aligning KPIs with Business Objectives for Enhanced Performance
The Power of Marketing Scorecards: Aligning KPIs with Business Objectives for Enhanced Performance Marketing teams have always faced the challenge of demonstrating their impact on overall business success. Now, more than ever, results need to be measured accurately and reported instantly. One effective way to achieve these mandates is through the use of marketing scorecards. Scorecard tools not only help in measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) but also ensure that marketing efforts are aligned with sales and broader business objectives. Done correctly, they add visibility but not overhead—day-to-day use of marketing systems and processes delivers scorecard reporting automatically. By leveraging…
Google’s Latest AI Innovations Are Startlingly Good
Google’s Latest AI Innovations Are Startlingly Good—Here’s Why It Matters to Your Business Google Marketing Live 2025 didn’t just deliver another tech update—it unveiled a transformation. Let’s unpack what these groundbreaking updates really mean for your marketing strategy. Google’s AI is Your New Co-Strategist Gone are the days when AI was merely an assistant. Google’s latest round of updates is remarkably powerful, smarter, and feels distinctly human. Think about an AI capable of autonomously running your campaigns, dynamically adjusting bids, or crafting compelling creative assets on its own. Marketing Advisor, for instance, is a new AI agent that lives right…