Economic forecasters are warning that the American economy may soon enter a recession if we aren't already in one. We're in a time of economic uncertainty, unprecedented inflation, and two straight quarters of GDP decline. Rising interest rates have businesses holding off on making significant capital investments, and that, in turn, is contributing to negative economic growth. This uncertainty is causing many businesses to carefully decide whether they need to cut some areas of their budget in favor of shoring up their cash reserves. Some businesses may start asking their marketing teams to decrease investment as a result. But is cutting down on your marketing campaigns the best idea for your business? Maybe, or maybe not. Companies that continue to market during economic slowdowns often come out ahead in the long run. The key is using that marketing budget wisely and knowing how to make the most of every dollar.  Why Cutting Your Marketing Budget Now May Be a Bad Idea It's normal for marketing and ad spending to decrease when the economy starts to slow down. Facebook and Google recently reported that they are seeing advertiser pullbacks. During the 2008 recession, ad spending in the U.S. dropped by 13%. But decreasing your ad spend may not be a smart move. In a survey of 154 senior marketing executives, one study found that businesses that took a proactive approach to their marketing during a recession achieved better business growth both during the recession and longer-term during the recovery period. Of the marketing executives that were surveyed, many of those taking a proactive approach actually increased their digital advertising investments during an economic slowdown.  But why is marketing during a recession a good idea? You'll earn [...]

Our previous article in this series outlined the three ways agencies can add programmatic advertising services within their organization to increase revenue: by in-housing, outsourcing to an ad tech vendor, or partnering with an agency that specializes in programmatic advertising services. Each option has its own unique benefits and drawbacks for agencies to consider, but as we concluded, we recommend partnering with an agency that specializes in programmatic to get your service offering up and running as quickly as possible without having to add headcount.  After finding the right programmatic advertising partner, how should an agency go about getting their new programmatic advertising services up and running for their clients? And what exactly does that process entail? While it varies from agency to agency depending on an organization’s size, number of clients, turnaround time on sign-offs, and complexity of ad campaigns to be executed, we provide our partners with the following guidelines—noting that when there’s a high level of engagement from both teams, things can also move faster. Below, we outline everything you need to know about adding programmatic advertising to your agency’s service list, including a programmatic onboarding timeline, pricing options, and the different ways you can choose to handle client relationships with a partner. Working With a Programmatic Partner The onboarding process with your programmatic service provider will look a little different depending on whether you plan to manage the client relationship yourself or refer your clients directly to your partner. For those who choose to manage the relationship, they can either let their clients know about the programmatic partner or keep that partner “behind the curtain.” Benefits of the latter include consistency for your clients, ability to manage your agency’s relationship with that [...]

There are three main options for agencies looking to add programmatic advertising to their list of client services: in-housing, outsourcing to an ad tech vendor, or partnering with an agency that specializes in programmatic. Each has its own unique benefits and drawbacks for agencies to consider. Below, we compare all three options before sharing our recommendation of the single most important factor to keep in mind when making your decision on how best to implement programmatic for your agency. Pros & Cons of Programmatic In-Housing Programmatic in-housing is trending up as programmatic itself continues to grow by leaps and bounds. According to the IAB, less than 20% of brands have brought programmatic advertising fully in-house as of 2021, but many have tested bringing a few programmatic capabilities under their own roof while partnering with another agency on the more robust elements of programmatic campaign management. “Given the complexity of programmatic, there is one issue that brands, agencies, and tech providers share concern over, and that is the recruiting, training and retention of talent,” the IAB’s 2020 U.S. Report on Programmatic In-Housing explains. “Programmatic talent will remain in high demand for the foreseeable future.” For large brands with the financial means to compete for that talent and license, learn, and integrate the programmatic ad tech that goes with it, the benefits of programmatic in-housing include:  Complete control over your digital ad supply chain. Fewer touchpoints between the client and the team running their ad campaign. A dependable long-term solution for all future programmatic campaigns. That said, the primary drawback of in-housing (and the most relevant aspect for most small-to-mid-sized agencies to consider) is the expense, particularly with talent in such high demand already. The complexity of [...]