Ordering a meal from a delivery app, you think it costs one number, but get to the checkout, and surprise! It’s now double what you expected thanks to additional charges. Suddenly that leftover casserole in your fridge looks a bit more appetizing… We all prefer to know what something is going to cost ahead of time, and that’s no different in the agency space. To help new clients unfamiliar with digital advertising, we use the analogy that there is essentially a “ parts and la

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

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

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

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

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

One of the main advantages of digital advertising is that you essentially choose how much you’d like to spend, and you’re able to start and stop as you please with no commitment. While that flexibility is great, it’s also a double-edged sword because the expectation can seep in that you’ll always get big results with a small budget. Yes it’s possible to go viral with a good ad on social media or land a big sale with just one well-placed search ad, but luck is not the same as