Why hiring a large ad agency might not be the right choice to manage your advertising

When it comes to choosing the ad agency to run your brand’s social media advertising, there are no shortage of options.

There are many large advertising agencies that specialize in digital advertising and promise to get you the best performance for your advertising dollars.

But it's important to evaluate whether this is actually the best option for your brand.

Why are brands drawn to large agencies?

I’ve been behind the scenes of agencies of all sizes since 2012 and I’ve seen it all.

A lot of the big agencies have the resources to pump out content marketing, case studies, and otherwise have an impressive presence online. They put effort into their brand and client acquisition process to make sure that their prospects are very impressed.

But that doesn’t mean that level of quality continues throughout the service implementation.

At one agency I was hired to streamline the systems for the advertising team and improve their processes. They had an impressive brand, a list of well-known clients on their site, and effective intake process to get new clients.

However, their churn was unreal. In the first month I was there, they lost one third of their clients in that one month. They were still signing on almost as many new clients to make up for it which is when I really saw first hand how clients hire agencies based on the agency image and not reality.

I’ve seen plenty of case studies made where the client wasn’t actually that satisfied, but the case studies cherry-picked the numbers that worked to make the agency look good.

Many brands also think that hiring a large agency is better than a smaller one because there will be more people working on their account.

I remember one client noting how impressed he was that there were always at least 8 of us on every Zoom call.

Who wouldn’t want a whole team of people that are helping to grow their business?

But more is not necessarily better and you want to know that the people responsible for spending your hard-earned advertising budget know what they are doing.

It's also exciting to get to the level where you can afford a large agency. A lot of brand owners feel like they've "made it" when they can afford to hire the same agency that a larger brand they look up to has worked with.

But working with a large agency isn't a silver bullet to success. And it can deplete your cash reserves before you get to the tipping point where the investment becomes worth it.

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Here are a few downsides of a larger team:

1. Miscommunication is more likely with larger teams

Larger teams means more back and forth between everyone working on your account and if this isn’t organized well, everyone will be playing one large game of telephone.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen in digital advertising agencies is making sure that the media buyers who are actually reviewing the data are communicating effectively with the creative team developing the ads.

Otherwise, you’re not really optimizing your ads based on previous learnings.

Miscommunication between team members can mean things get missed or overlooked, or work is happening in silos.

2. Project bloat drives costs up

‍All of that communication that’s required for larger teams means projects can often get bloated.

Suddenly you need more project managers to keep things moving along and account managers to be the go-between for the clients and the implementation team.

The costs for these extra hires, extra processes, and extra time spent will be passed on to you, the client.

3. Larger teams mean slower turnaround

Building on the previous two points, all that communication and project bloat takes time.

More people involved means the turnaround time is inevitably slowed down.

Longer time to produce new ads means money wasted on ads that aren’t performing while you wait.

Digital advertising moves at lightning speed and if your agency can’t produce new creative quickly, your advertising will fall behind.

When you notice something is working, you need to be able to move quickly to take advantage of it. When something isn’t working, being able to pivot quickly will prevent wasted ad dollars.

4. Most large agencies will put juniors on your account

‍It’s very common for large agencies to hire junior marketers, fresh out of school with little experience.

During the sales process with the agency, you’ll often be sold on the founder/CEO and their vast expertise and knowledge. But then you’ll be passed off to someone with little more experience than a freelancer you could find on Fiverr (only you’ll be paying 20x the price).

Although you’ll likely vet the agency itself, there’s often no way to know who will actually be working on your account and what their experience level is.

5. Over-systemization leads to cookie-cutter strategies

All agencies should have systems and processes to ensure a consistent and baseline quality of work for each client.

But relying too much on systems means that all clients get the exact same services, regardless of their specific needs.

The brands that win with their advertising are ones that recognize unique opportunities in the market and develop a custom strategy that plays to their strengths.

(I’ve also seen the opposite of over-systemization in large agencies which is just as bad — they don’t have any systems and each media buyer manages each client account differently based their own experience and preferences. This puts brands at the mercy of their account buyer's expertise.)

Your brand deserves a strategy that is custom crafted to help you succeed, not a cookie-cutter approach that’s also being used by every other client at the agency.

‍6. Employee turnover leads to inefficiencies

‍All businesses have turnover and with a large agency, you’ll inevitably have turnover with the team on your account.

When this happens, new team members will need to take the time to learn your account from scratch and get up to speed.

This kind of adjustment can slow down your progress and can be frustrating to manage as the client once you’ve already gotten familiar with your team.

Hiring a small agency (like Carousel Creative) as the solution

I’ve taken my 11 years of agency experience and built what I believe is truly the best option for brands that need a high-performing agency without the bottlenecks and frustrations of a large firm.

Here’s how I’ve addressed the above issues:

One small team of superstars

I keep my team size under 6 and I only hire the best.

Most of my team are contractors, meaning they aren’t employees who may be looking to clock in and out of a day job. They are true professionals and experts who take ownership of their work and pride themselves on the quality of it.

Our small size means:

• Nothing is getting lost in translation when communicating
• Projects remain nimble, preventing bloat and extra costs
• We’re able to move and pivot quickly
  

Expert-level strategy

I personally oversee and lead strategy for every single one of my clients. I’m Leah Mazur, the founder of Carousel Creative, and I’ve been managing digital marketing campaigns since 2011.

When it comes to ads management, I’ve seen and done it all — no matter your industry, company size, or ad budget, I promise I’ve worked with a brand similar.

One of the benefits my clients see from working with me is that I review their ad data, make decisions, and have my team execute quickly.

And everything comes together a lot smoother when it’s the same person looking at the data who is planning strategy and directing the ad production.

What this means for you:

• You’ll always have my expert eyes on your account and will never be passed off to a junior
• I’ll custom-craft your strategy based on YOUR unique needs
• You’ll always be working directly with me and will never be affected by team turnover
  

Want to work with us?

I may be biased, but I’ve designed my company from the inside out to help brands succeed with paid advertising, and I know that the way we do things is the best path to advertising success for many brands.

If you’d like to benefit from our team’s expertise, please click here to apply to work with us.

If you’re a fit, we’ll reach out to schedule a call and let you know if we have availability or can add you to our waitlist.