How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency

Why am I writing this? Easy, I’m passionate about improving standards in the digital marketing field. I, like many marketers, are in a constant state of learning – me even more so with setting up and running a digital marketing agency. So I know the challenges you face working with the likes of us.

I hope this article will help your business out. Although I’ve shared my opinions and experience below, I unfortunately don’t have all the answers. I only hope this will at least make you think differently when choosing a digital marketing agency.

Here’s what questions and points I will cover:

Firstly, why should you listen to someone who runs a digital marketing agency?

I’ve thought about writing this article a hundred times. As a digital agency owner who provides digital marketing services, I’ll admit I’m completely biassed. If you don’t want to take my advice on this basis I totally understand. Please head to the other thousand results on Google on this subject. Choose from a large proportion of websites trying to drive revenue from ads and think, “why am I waiting for these ads to load” and “is this any more helpful than the post you’re reading now from someone that’s had actual experience in working in digital marketing agencies?”.

Continue reading a few more of these overly SEO optimised listings. You’ll soon discover contradictions and lack of any useful information. I suppose you could always look to ChatGPT to summarise if you’re in a hurry. If so, good luck to you.

If you are still intrigued let me put your mind at ease. One of the main reasons why I set-up The Wonder Agency was to give sound advice to clients. “Honesty” I insisted, be one of our core values of the agency. I appreciate that putting a word on a website doesn’t make you any more honest than the next agency that does so. In fact, even using the word honesty could mean that we sound inherently dishonest; being a ploy to cover up this fact.

What I really meant was that I didn’t want us to ever give clients inaccurate advice to simply line our own pockets. One of the first clients, who are still with us today, refer to us as the “bullshit police” because we were able to give the advice that helped them drive profit. Denouncing any marketing activity that was currently in place that didn’t work.

We’ve since updated our values and strive to only work with brands we can genuinely help. Wonder is a digital marketing agency. We’re not trying to be disruptors or inflate our own importance. Or, create the next best marketing model to reform the industry. We’re simply trying to create wonder for our clients. That means rolling our sleeves up, putting our thinking caps on and getting stuck in. We love what we do. We all want to work on projects that get us out of bed in the morning.

So, what is a digital marketing agency?

I’ll drop the sales pitch but I’m going to have to tick this box. Yes, I’m jumping through Google’s SEO hoops in hope to get this article to rank. Although, I do think it’s important to include. You need to know whether you actually need a digital marketing agency. The phrase “digital marketing” covers an array of competencies with differing skill sets. It’s why this subject matter might cause you to break into a sweat just thinking about picking up a phone and starting a conversation with one of many hundreds of agencies out there.

“Don’t let digital jargon baffle you. Your chosen agency should be knowledgeable in marketing, digital or not.”

Digital marketing agencies will often provide the following services; SEO (search engine optimisation), paid media management and optimisation, copywriting, CRO (conversion rate optimisation), UX (user experience) – to name a few. Some agencies will call themselves ‘full service’. Some say they provide integrated marketing; meaning they provide solutions across all or most digital marketing channels. They’ll claim they’ve figured out how to bridge the gap between offline (e.g. print, OOH, radio, TV) and digital. Usually agencies are great at providing a few services. Others specialise in specific areas of marketing. If an agency says they can do everything, I would question how and how well.

Hang on, why is it still called “digital” marketing? This is an argument that gets more traction with time. Why not drop “digital”? I agree, we do marketing. Most marketing channels have a digital element so it doesn’t seem like a necessity to define. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit. Don’t let digital jargon baffle you. Your chosen digital marketing agency should be knowledgeable in marketing, digital or not.

An in-depth knowledge of tools and systems used in digital marketing is without doubt useful. In fact, it’s a huge challenge to stay on top of available technology. Although remember you’re working for them based on their expertise in marketing. I often see agencies’ digital capabilities outweigh their knowledge of marketing. This will likely become clear from their proposal. Try not to focus on what they will do but why they are doing it and how they will connect with your audience.

How do I trust a digital marketing agency?

Trust should be top of the list. But how do you trust a digital marketing agency? Sorry, there’s no quick fix for this one. You’re just going to have to focus on developing a good relationship with them. I appreciate this is difficult because digital marketing is technical and often esoteric. If an agency is trying to baffle you with the latest digital marketing jargon then I’d go with your gut reaction. It’s a red flag.

Never trust someone who can’t explain a complex subject in a simple way. Especially marketeers. It’s our job to understand complexity and deliver this to consumers in a concise, understandable and engaging format. Those that can’t probably don’t understand the jargon themselves and you’ll likely have a tough time communicating with them generally.

I’m not asking you to read “How to meet friends and influence people” but don’t start a relationship on a bad note. Don’t negotiate us down on the fair price. Don’t steal our ideas. Don’t set unrealistic goals. I imagine this will come back to bite you. If you do, a digital marketing agency will likely never be able to please you. I guarantee they will spend most of their resources trying to prove their value to appease you than actually do the work you employed them for. Trust me, I’ve unfortunately seen this happen first hand.

A better use of time would be to get them to break down the cost into something that is tangible. This would be a test of how honest the initial quote was. It will help you to compare it with other quotes; if that luxury is available. Also, treat us with respect, we want to work with you and make sure the work is good for our own benefit. This is no secret. If agencies do good work, it often leads to more.

How to communicate effectively with digital marketing agencies?

Continuing my previous point, when building trust, communication is key. In a 2024 survey from ppcsurvey.com, communication was a big challenge in the agency-client relationship. Meetings I have found are key to developing a strong relationship with our clients. They’re helpful for teasing ideas to the surface. If an agency is hiding behind emails or deflecting questions, I would question why. At Wonder I always tell my team to be reactive to emails. We’re a service that you pay for. You want to know we will support and listen to you.

If you run a successful business you will likely offer something unique. It’s a digital marketing agency’s job to understand your offering as much as it is for you to understand ours. This can only be achieved through consistent communication. Your time is money but regular meetings will see a better return on your investment. Taking this time to educate your agency on recent updates and the ins and outs of your service or product will cultivate better results from marketing. The size of your investment will likely determine the appropriate frequency of meetings.

A large investment may see more regular meetings with several stakeholders from both sides of the relationship. A small account may be better handled with a few key personnel on a monthly basis to ensure the budget isn’t wasted. Eight people in an hour meeting may equate to a day’s worth of time. It’s best to clarify this upfront. You don’t want to waste all your time on meetings. You want your digital marketing agency to do what we do best.

How do I set project goals with my digital marketing agency?

Some projects can be fluid, low priority or proactive. Others are rigid, time sensitive and could unlock huge value. And so marketing agencies should be flexible to the differing styles of work. The one thing that will never change is the need to have a clear goal. There should always be a goal. Something that you’re working towards. If not, project value might get lost to inefficiencies and miscommunication. Work with your digital marketing agency on setting out a realistic plan that has a desired outcome. Think about why you need marketing and what the expected outcome will be. Here are some considerations that come to mind:

1. Inaccurate projections

As much as I’d love to send a client a chart with a line gradually increasing overtime with a smiley face on, it would be much better to gain an understanding of the market. Rather than trying to determine how much revenue your marketing will return in the next three years. Why? Because market conditions change. I’m not sure many digital marketing agencies predicted the impact on demand, and lack of, covid would have. Markets change, technology changes, new competitors enter the market. All you can measure accurately is the current state of play. How your business is perceived in the market and what share of the market you currently have. This would serve as a benchmark.

This benchmark will help you to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing agency. If you’re dead-set on using projections, please use statistical modelling and not a finger-in-the-air if it feels right spreadsheet chart. If you receive a projection, ask how they arrived at the result to determine its accuracy.

2. More money, more problems

If an digital marketing agency talks about promising unrealistic uplifts in revenue, that’s great as long as you don’t have to spend as much to drive promised revenue. Profitability is more important to your business than boasting a stat of “increased revenue by 136% year-on-year”. If a digital marketing agency starts with conversations about product margin, cost per lead and profit on advertising spend; it’s a promising sign. It means they are more focused on your business than on their own vanities.

That being said, even leading with the conversation of increased revenue could be short sighted in what the objective of your marketing activity is. As you should be aware, not all marketing activity is about driving revenue (or leads for that matter).

3. Business-focused goals

It sounds great when digital marketing agencies promise the earth. XX% uplift in revenue in the next year. XX% more traffic through implementing a new channel. A plan to get 10K followers on TikTok. Don’t be led astray from your business objective. You don’t need millions of website visits, if you’d be happy to receive 10 quality leads per month. What is your business objective? Share these with your digital marketing agency and ask how they will use marketing to help you achieve these. The marketing objective should align with the business. How is your marketing team going to better service your customers through engaging content or provide a better experience for customers through ad content?

3. Sell, sell, sell

The digital marketing agency is not your sales team. They do need to work together but don’t ask the marketing team to only focus on direct sales. Doing this will work in the short-term but you will see diminishing returns in the years to come. In The Long and the Short of it book, Benit and Field describe how focusing on brand building activity alongside sales activation drives long-term success. The research was carried out on 996 campaigns from 700 brands and shows campaigns which had a 60% focus on brand building were more likely to see consistent growth in performance. Those that had emotional associations outperformed those with rational product and price messaging.

This will require deeper thought as to where you’d like to get to. Maybe you’ll only need to employ a digital marketing agency to take you to the next step. Either way, having a plan for your own direction and being able to communicate this will make your marketing more effective.

Should I trust a digital marketing agency’s data analytics?

I’m still shocked at the level of knowledge about data and analytics within the marketing industry. Fines for the unauthorised collection and misuse of data could cost you up to 4% of your annual turnover. Protect your profits and invest in data competency. It’s so important that your digital marketing agency has this knowledge. It’s a simple question to ask how they are going to manage the data compliance of your campaigns.

In March 2024 the Digital Markets Act meant tech giants had to comply with providing functionality to help users manage consent. You should now be collecting consent if you’re running remarketing activity. Digital marketing agencies should have a good competency and knowledge in this area. Also, Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) means it’s harder to track Safari users due to them blocking third-party cookies. Chrome is also looking to depreciate third-party cookies albeit they recently announced this will be delayed. With recent updates, analytics tracking that was once robust is now incomplete. Data modelling features help bridge this gap but from our own experience, we’re now providing alternative solutions.

Before starting The Wonder Agency, I was head of data at a large digital marketing agency in Leeds. I remember we had a wealth of data available to draw insights from, the GDPR only coming into play towards the end of my tenure. Before this, behavioural user data was easily accessible and unrestricted. Today, we face new challenges when measuring performance. Recently, Google released its Modern Measurement Playbook. This acknowledges that the attribution of data is inaccurate and where there are gaps in tracking, data is modelled. Digital marketing agencies should now look at different methodologies to form a clearer view of performance.

As important as it is to develop a clear picture using a combination of approaches, data can be used incorrectly by digital marketing agencies. Consider, you can use words to frame an opinion in a reader’s mind for and against any argument. The same is true for data. Don’t simply believe in a cool data visualisation or fancy data dashboard. I’ve seen data incorrectly interpreted. Data displayed in the wrong chart type. Data presented with no source to indicate its validity.

Data can tell compelling stories that I’m sure will lead you to taking action. If you ever receive data from an external source, always question its integrity. Go as far to ask for the raw data in a spreadsheet and make sure you have access to its source.

“There are limits to data, however, and some people rely on it too heavily. Analyzing it correctly is difficult, and it is dangerous to assume that you always know what it means. It is very easy to find false patterns in data. Instead, I prefer to think of data as one way of seeing, one of many tools we can use to look for what’s hidden. If we think data alone provides answers, then we have misapplied the tool.”

– Ed Catmull, author of Creativity Inc. and former president of Pixar

How much should I spend with my digital marketing agency?

How long is a piece of string? There are multiple factors that will determine how much to spend with a digital marketing agency. The amount will be dependent on the size of the project, technology and the number of channels. 

Digital marketing agencies have devised several models when charging clients. Agencies tend to have a daily rate. This will likely be a flat fee. Others have rate cards. Rate cards tier pricing based on the internal teams working on the campaign. This will consider the seniority and experience of the team or even the type of work. This is often employed by larger digital marketing agencies. It’s a myth that in larger agencies you pay a higher rate to only get juniors working on your account.

I can’t say I’ve witnessed this but it’s worth asking “can I meet the people working on the project?”. I will say, I have met and worked with junior marketers that have added more value on accounts than seniors. My advice, take time to get to know the team working on the account.

Other cost models consider the retained or project based work. Some consider perceived value, performance-based or even cost required based on technology used. Technology is an interesting one. Digital marketing agencies develop tech stacks by integrating off-the-shelf technologies or some even building their own. The main aim for this is to establish uniqueness which is useful in an industry that’s defined by skills and experience. Unfortunately this is likely to come at a premium but may give you a competitive edge in the market.

Pricing Model	Pros	Cons
Hourly / Daily Rate – Price reflects hours or days worked	Hours equals cost of work completed Simple to understand costs Work can be more reactive	Time is fixed cost and not value driven Might be difficult to understand time and value added Costs could run away if not agree set of time
Retained – Agreed length of time to work towards several goals typically billed monthly	Digital marketing agency supports you for longer period of time May get additional work if fixed cost retainer Get consistent time from specialist as this time is booked in	Might lose time if project not correctly managed May stray from goal if additional services are bolted on Might be difficult to get more time if not available in digital marketing agency due to other commitments
Project – Single, focused project which has a clear goal	Know the exact project cost, if fully scoped Know the payment terms Work might be disengaged from what’s happening in your business	Limits opportunity for creativity along the way Request might incur additional costs if not defined Early estimates, sometimes not a true reflection of costs
Value-based – Pay digital marketing agency on the value they drive – e.g. number of leads	Both parties incentivised No concerns over costs if planned correctly	No need to pay if you don’t perform May be an issue if value driven doesn’t cover investment made
Performance-based – Share of profits from project	Big rewards for long-term performance The risk is shared when creating something new  Digital marketing agency focus solely on profit and makes themselves accountable	Clear expectations of performance need to be defined May not favour the use of small digital marketing agencies who rely on cash flow

Ultimately, you get what you pay for… if someone is over promising for a minimal cost. It’s likely their claims won’t stack up.

Does the size of the digital marketing agency I choose matter for my project?

Absolutely. If it’s a big project with many specialisms, a larger digital marketing agency would be more convenient but try not to write off the boutique ones. If you had the time and capability to work with small digital marketing agencies then it may be that you’re able to tap into more specialised skills. At a larger agency there would probably be more room for negotiation in terms of project costs. Although, the day rates could be a lot higher to start with.

Take us as an example, we specialise in website development and data analytics. We also love collaborating with digital marketing agencies to deliver work. There’s the option that small agencies can project manage workload for you and be more flexible to your needs. You’ll find the owners of the business more accountable for work meaning they’ll be more involved than at a larger one.

I’ve always said we’d be a small digital marketing agency. I believe small teams of creative people can be the most effective at delivering marketing. There’s a misunderstanding that at a large agency you get experience from all the team working there. You may if you have the budget to support that kind of activity. It’s likely you’ll get a team from different departments of varying experience assigned to your account. Then it’s completely based on those individuals’ experience and how well they work together as a team. Seems like more of a risk than working for a team that has developed cohesion.

Should I worry about a potential digital marketing agency’s experience?

Yes, of course but let’s put this into context. There are digital marketing agencies who claim the amount of total time they clocked up between them in the industry accounts for their experience. By simply adding up the years of experience the team has in the digital marketing agency to make it sound more impressive. If we did this we’d have over 50 years of experience in digital marketing. Wait, but the Internet is only 30 years old?

You also don’t want to go with a company that has over 50 years of bad or wrong experience. My point here is quality over quantity. This is easy to check. See if they have case studies listed on the website. See the type of brands they have worked with. The industries they’ve worked within and the quality of the actual case study. If you feel obliged doing more due diligence, contact the businesses they worked with for a reference.

“If we added up the marketing experience of our team it’d equal over 50 years. Wait!? Isn’t the Internet only 30 years old?”

I’d actually encourage that last point as I recently saw a digital marketing “disruptor” stealing another digital marketing agency’s case study. In the age of misinformation please double check the source for the sake of honest digital marketing agencies out there. I’d pay attention to the frequency of case studies too. You don’t want an out of touch agency that once did a project for a huge company once upon a time. Are they still working with the clients they say they are working with? A good test of trust to see if they are honest.

It’s worth noting that there are specialist digital marketing agencies who focus on specific industries. There are also agencies who have initiatives, such as providing environmentally friendly solutions in the digital space. Industry specific digital marketing agencies will likely have better relationships with relevant journalists and publishers. This could be useful if you have a niché offering.

Does location matter when selecting a digital marketing agency?

The Wonder Agency are a digital marketing agency based in Leeds. We’ve worked with clients in Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester, London, Miami and businesses that are remote. Although, based on who we have worked for and are likely to work with in the future, I would say location matters. There’s no doubt that there will always be anomalies for us and we will welcome them as we do with any other client so long as we can provide the best service possible.

The convenience of meeting in person and being able to interact with you in different formats helps us to deliver better results. Please note, I’m not against video conferencing tools. I’m an advocate. But when building good relationships, call me old fashioned. I like to do this in person over a brew.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to contact us.

…at least not for now. In conclusion, there’s considerable due diligence even before choosing a digital marketing agency. I’ve scratched the surface here but hopefully this has given you a better starting point. It may be that you’re happy with your selection because the agency is genuinely a delight to work with, they are a great cultural fit or they are already growing your business.

If you’re struggling to find a digital marketing agency, did you know 79% of businesses actually found agencies through word-of-mouth. Only a small percentage were found via online search. I wager even fewer from spam emails. So ask around your network and you may be able to rely on your connections to find a suitable digital marketing agency.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any thoughts or questions on the above let us know via hello@wonderagency.co.uk. Best of luck.