How Emote Digital Manages $5mil+ in Media Spend Throughout the Year
Here’s something you might not know about Emote Digital: we manage over $5 million in media spend throughout the year. This amount is spread across various marketing channels, including social media, search engines, and other digital advertising platforms.
We’ve decided to share our high-level experience, insights and even a couple of strategies on how we manage such a variation in media spends through a multi-channel approach.
Want to know what makes us the trusted partner for marketing budgets across Australia? Read on to find out.
Our Pricing Structure
Insights from Senior Digital Strategist Ben
A big reason for our clients’ trust in us is that we offer fixed pricing across all advertising services. This means we will never try to bump up their media spend just so that we can make more money off the back of it. We will only recommend budget increases based on performance and strategy.
The same applies when we lower the media spend. If we think it should be decreased, we’ll do so. This gives us a fully impartial approach, something that our clients love.
We also love to report via a live dashboard so absolutely everything is transparent. Clients can see where every single dollar is spent. We want to involve them in the process so that they can learn from our insights and, in return, offer us their valuable industry expertise relating to their business.
Social Media Advertising
Insights from Senior Digital Strategist Ben & Social Media Manager Kath
Businesses are finally starting to wake up to the opportunity in advertising on social media. This is where the bulk of our managed media spend is, and it continues to grow at a rapid rate.
Our clients choose us for their Social Media Advertising because we’re a Facebook Preferred Partner. This gives us access to a range of resources, seminars and workshops to build our expertise and better manage their media spend. We have 24-hour access to Facebook support, which not all agencies have. This is invaluable in the context of media spend.
We also have a team of experts that live and breathe social media, with experience building and managing 10,000+ campaigns across all kinds of industries. Having more than one set of eyes on every account helps us to double check all work deployed. By having a close-knit team who share the same passion around social media helps us develop exciting insights and ideas in account optimisation.
“We have 24-hour access to Facebook support, which not all agencies have. This is invaluable in the context of media spend.”
Our team puts this expertise to good use by managing and optimising campaigns on an ongoing basis. We continuously test a variety of different channels, formats, audiences and more to really get the best outcome for our clients and their budget.
We don’t just check on accounts at the end of the month— it’s a constant process of optimisations that centres around the allocation of spend.
We then let performance indicators influence the work we do across other integrated channels, such as Content Marketing, Search Engine Advertising and more.
Platform Advertising
Insights from Senior Digital Strategist Ben
This is a massively under-utilised area for a lot of brands. Our managed media spend here is rapidly growing, but comparisons can be drawn with people’s position on Social Media Advertising a couple of years ago. That is, many brands are still either unaware or unsure of the opportunity.
This format of advertising has changed dramatically over the past few years. It used to be similar to large scale media buying and only available to huge brands. Now, it’s more transactional in a similar way to how Facebook Advertising and Google Ads operate. Any business can get started for a few thousand per month. However, the scale is still there for brands that want to spend big.
“We have no interest in trying to increase the media spend and activity just for the sake of our own financial gain. It’s all about the outcome that makes you happy and allows us to work with you on an ongoing basis.”
We’re in a minority of agencies across Australia that specialise in this area, and are therefore passionately promoting the benefits of these alternative marketing channels. We have direct contacts to all major channels, allowing us to gain insight and advice from platforms such as AdRoll, Taboola, Spotify and more.
We will only recommend channels likely to work for your business and relevant to your marketing budget. Again, we have no interest in trying to increase the media spend and activity just for the sake of our own financial gain. It’s all about the outcome that makes you happy and allows us to work with you on an ongoing basis.
Search Engine Advertising
Insights from Digital Coordinator Alex
The media spend on Search Engine Advertising is completely flexible. It can be increased, decreased or stopped whenever you like.
We achieve strong results for clients with vastly different budgets. The focus is on getting the best return, no matter the level of spend.
There’s great detail available for where your spend is going. It can be broken down by each ad, individual keyword, location, device, time of day. The possibilities are endless, and that’s where our expertise really comes in to play.
Not to mention we’re a certified Google Partner Agency, which means we’ve proven a high level of competence in Search Engine Advertising.
Boosted Organic Social Media Posts
Insights from Social Media Manager Jessi
Through our Organic Social Media service, we often boost the most appealing posts on a Facebook or Instagram page. This is somewhat similar to Facebook ads, but instead of using new copy and creative, we boost an existing post so the engagement and exposure is amplified.
We sponsor posts mainly for brand awareness and engagement. When a post is just organic, you rely on people liking, commenting and sharing for it to reach more people and to be seen. Unfortunately, Facebook restricts organic views significantly (due to new restrictions) so putting a budget behind it is a surefire way to achieve the reach a post deserves.
Boosting posts should make up a smaller portion of your budget than conversion-focused ads. We boost posts for around $50-$200 each month, and select an audience relative to the content.
“We achieve strong results for clients with vastly different budgets. The focus is on getting the best return, no matter the level of spend.”
Transparency and Account Control
Insights from Digital Marketing Director Matt
One of the biggest advantages of working with us is that we don’t charge commission. Some digital agencies charge upwards of 25% of the total media spend, or even hide the spending numbers in their account so the client is kept in the dark.
We believe in transparency, clear pricing and most importantly, letting the client have control of their own account. This gives us an agnostic view of each account, channel and spend because we’re not just trying to increase the overall spend (and our bottom line). We’re striving for the best result at a level of spending that the client is comfortable with.
Increases happen when we’re testing things or when we see good results and want to build on those. Decreases happen when things aren’t working, trials end, or even seasonally to match what is happening in their industry or area— for example, around Christmas or school holidays.
Our quarterly services also don’t lock clients into long-term contracts. They have the freedom to add and remove services as they require.
“We believe in transparency, clear pricing and most importantly, letting the client have control of their own account.”
We’ve had issues before where we haven’t been able to access months or even years of historical advertising data and insights because the client’s previous agency has tried to keep some sort of proprietary hold over their clients’ accounts.
This means the client doesn’t know what is being spent, what is working, and what isn’t, because their agency has used their own credit card and then invoiced the client separately— leaving open the risk for being overcharged.
If a client already has an ad account, we simply get invited to theirs as an admin or advertiser. If a client doesn’t have an ad account, we set it up on behalf of them. However, they own it and can remove us if required.