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We talked previously about when to expect results from advertising , which is one of the most frequently asked questions anyone who works at an agency will hear. In this post, we’re getting more practical and digging into the obvious question clients have before getting started: “How much should we spend?” The short answer is “it depends”. That’s undoubtedly the most frequently used answer in our field, by the way. It’s not a deflection, and there’s a good reason why it’s esp

Every business wants to have an edge on their competitors, and sometimes the perception of being different is all it takes. There’s a scene from Mad Men that illustrates it well; Don Draper comes up with the “It’s Toasted” slogan for a client, and they’re confused because their competitors all toast their product too, but Don’s point is that merely sounding different is enough. There are many businesses currently labelling themselves as being “ AI-powered ” or " AI-centered

Everyone wants their business to show up when people search for their name, product, or service online. Search engines are a key driver of high-intent traffic, conversions, and revenue for businesses, and we all understand that, yet we still get asked: “Is search advertising the same as SEO?” The short answer is no, but the conversation doesn’t stop there, because SEO (search engine optimization) and search advertising (aka paid search or PPC, short for pay-per-click) fall un

Running dynamic inventory ads on social media is a go-to tactic for automotive dealership marketing. Sometimes referred to as catalog ads or “AIA”, short for automotive inventory ads , the setup and presentation have evolved over the years, but the core concept of proactively getting inventory in front of eyeballs is the same. While the campaign type is most commonly run on Meta Ads , showing vehicles on Facebook & Instagram, it’s also available on other social media ad platf

Google has been pushing smart bidding for a long time now, using everything from prompts in the ads manager interface, to employing call centers that contact advertisers and strongly advise them to adopt it wherever possible. They always sound confident in this being the right move, warning that you could be missing out on better performance from your campaigns. As if we didn’t have enough FOMO in our lives… It’s worth clarifying the difference between “automated” and “smar

We all know what a click is, and anyone who has talked about marketing for more than five minutes understands customer acquisition cost. Within the interface of any digital advertising platform, however, there are literally dozens of metrics available to sift through; some seemingly redundant and some hyper-specific. Depending on a given person’s comfort level, they may stick to the default metrics and never venture beyond them for fear of overcomplicating reports and confus

“If you ain’t first, you’re last!” Some of you may know this quote from Talladega Nights , others may have heard it from a boss/client insisting that appearing at the very top of search results is the paramount goal of their online advertising. While no one would object to placing first in any sort of competition, whether sports or marketing, it’s quite the generalization to say that’s the only result of value. Is that idea based on real business outcomes , or is it more a ma

Choosing an agency is about compatibility . Not only do you have to determine if they have expertise in the right areas to help you, you’re looking for alignment in how they operate. Do they understand your goals, brand voice, and day-to-day communication style? Those intangibles can be difficult to find, but once you’ve got that part settled, the dollars and cents should be the easy part… right? If you’ve never hired an agency before, you may only have one fee model in mind

Say a child grew up in a family passionate about cars, and always loved Audi. As far back as they could remember, their father drove Audis, told stories about saving up for his first Audi, they admired other Audis on the road, and the child had many fond memories of road trips in their Audi. That seed of brand preference was planted, and they one day bought their own Audi. Would it be accurate to say that the search ad they clicked on when they Googled “Audi dealership” shoul

Should you advertise on multiple platforms or stick with just one ? Everyone likes the idea of their brand showing up in more places, the question is whether you actually get better performance dividing up your budget to do so. Most of our clients at IBA use multiple platforms because addressing all parts of their marketing funnel has many moving parts, and a diversified approach is useful. However, in some cases there are reasons to keep it simple and focus on one thing. We