Bring Your Agency In-house

In a recent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in-house agency penetration is rising.

78% of ANA members have an in-house agency in 2018, versus 58% percent in 2013 and 42% in 2008.
Top benefits of in-house agencies are:
- Cost efficiencies
- Better knowledge of brands
- Institutional knowledge
- Dedicated staff
- Speed, nimbleness

In-House vs. Agency Comparison

In-House

Total Platform and Data Ownership

Full access to media data and control over reporting
Direct Relationships with Media Vendors

Buying direct instead of via pass-through costs
Dedicated Resources

Team members specifically chosen by your company
Process Ownership

Build and follow end-to-end media management processes that set the program up for success

Agency

Agency-Managed Platforms and Data Access

Dependent on agency to access systems and data; reporting is a black box
Agency Handles Media Vendor Relationships

Optimizations happen at a pre-determined cadence
Agency Assigns Team Members

Shared resources, lack of control over assignment
Reliance on Agency to Follow Processes

Less transparency

The Approach Varies Based on Needs and Structure

Platforms and Data First

This is the recommended route; first gain ownership of your data and build reports in an environment where it can be joined with your other data and provide you with a comprehensive view of the customer journey.

Transition Platforms
Bring in Data, join, build reports

All-In

Full agency to in-house team transition done across all business units and geographies.
This approach is ideal for smaller companies or very siloed BUs.

Business Unit/Geo/Campaign

Full agency to in-house team transition done one business unit or geographical region at a time.

Channels

Full agency to in-house team transition by channel, with specialized media teams.

Paid Social (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
Display sponsorships, guaranteed inventory
Display programmatic
Paid Search (Adwords, Bing Ads, etc)
Shopping feeds, depending on vertical (Amazon, Google, OTAs)

Advertising In-housing Services

Gain Ownership of Platforms

Every company has its own unique platform and data needs. We can help drive forward your platforms strategy by starting with ownership, where you will have full access to media data and control over reporting.

Assess current platforms and measurement, diagram platforms ecosystem
Gap Analysis, recommendation, and roadmap
Initiate conversations with vendors, advise on rate discussions, terms, data. Assist with legal, procurement, finance
Guide through transition of systems from agency to company and/or advise for net new instances. Pixel transition plan

Report Creation and Expansion

Building a reporting plan to ensure seamless data continuity through the transition, eventually single source of truth. Ensuring all reports will bring actionable insights.

Meet with teams to determine best account structure, variable naming, reporting needs
Build Day One reports, augment existing reports, create roadmap for new data sources and future features
Inclusion of media teams campaign taxonomy
Documentation for all inbound data, rules, reporting, processes
QA Plan, error management, alerts

Advertising Operations

Ad Operations is at the center of the in-housing process and requires collaboration & coordination with the Media Platforms and Media Teams. Ad Operations is responsible for flawless ad tracking to bring clean data into reports and strategic tagging for measurement platforms.

Development of roles and responsibilities across trafficking and website tagging
Development of trafficking templates, Automated QA processes, Standardized Taxonomy, and documentation
AdOps Intelligence Implementation, blends both technology and process improvements to effectively present valuable insights in real-time

Media Platforms

Bringing much-needed structure to platform management so all teams will have clean data to help run and optimize the business. Documenting the processes helps teams to understand data, reporting, processes, etc. This team enables data collection and reporting.

Assess current data sources and capabilities, integration of disconnected journeys, build to scale across lines of business, campaigns, and geos
Enable daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, campaign wrap reports
Cost files, reconciliation processes for budget management and flighting

Media Teams

We will embark on the journey of helping you build your media practice from the ground up, defining success, and helping set up your program to get there.

Create processes: Research, goalsetting, budget management/tracking, planning, buying, QA, measurement, trafficking, pacing/delivery management, brand safety, discrepancies, reports, optimization
Development of campaign taxonomy
Set up of new billing processes
Measurement and attribution, synergy across channels
Campaign Management

Staffing, Training, Engagement

This team is the backbone of the data-centric culture. Staffing with right people who will work harmoniously with other teams and help the platforms realize their full potential.

Assessment of current staffing, help define roles and responsibilities
Create training plan
Build an engagement model with Media, Platforms, and Ad Operations teams to ensure alignment to common goals across disciplines