You must have seen various advertisements for multiple products and from different-different advertising agencies. But, have you ever thought of how all these ad agencies work? How do these advertisements pop out on your mobile screen and the hoarding board? Ad agencies and ads are now playing an important and inseparable role in our lives. They are everywhere, in your newspaper, on your phone, on your TV, and various other platforms. These all things go in a process according to the needs of the client. In this article, we will give you a brief guide on how an advertising agency works.
An advertising agency is a normal agency or a company that uses innumerable advertising strategies to create a marketing campaign. There are different components that work together and make a Business Plan. This marketing campaign is done according to the needs of the client. These agencies then gather information about the product, the needs of the client and pitch their marketing campaign ideas. There are innumerable ways to start an advertising campaign, like online ads, printed ads, and other creative ideas. All of these advertising agencies try to fit your needs from result to communication through product specifications.
How does an Advertising Agency work?
Any Client wants to convert their leads into customers. They want to capture as many leads as possible to increase their market value and to build trust among the people. After capturing leads, the real role of advertising agencies begins. They now focus on converting the conversion rate. Conversion rate means rate nurturing leads to purchasing decisions. This all is done after narrowing down the leads according to their interests and the need for the product. This whole process is called a marketing funnel.
This all goes in steps, which clearly define the working of an advertising agency. We can divide advertising agencies into four groups. They are client servicing, media planning and buying, creative, and account planning. Let’s first focus on how these subparts of an advertising agency work, and then we will group them to show you the working of an Advertising agency.
1. Creative Department
It is the most important department of an advertising agency. It thinks of brilliant ideas that can easily mark their place in customer’s minds. The ad ideas of this department are what we end up seeing. People in this department are usually creative, good at thinking, and brilliant in representing usual things unusually and interesting things.
This department is responsible for choosing the right words, the right context, whether humorous or not, the choice of models, music needed according to the visuals while conveying the message to consumers about the product. This department drives the agency. Good thinkers mean good ads and basically more reputation of the agency in the market.
2. Client Servicing
Any possible lead client is basically searching for ideas that can take his/her firm forward. The client servicing department of any agency interacts with the clients about their needs and possible outcomes. Senior client servicing people address lead clients and guide them about the marketing strategies that can work as input to give high output.
These marketing consultants sit with clients to talk about their needs, their demands and offer them the right guidance also. They are also responsible for providing the cost and the budget of the advertisement process. It works as an interface between the creative department and the client. They translate the marketing objectives to the creative department and give them a particular way to think. This department is also responsible for translating messages all around the other three departments about the project.
Good communication skills, excellent people skills, knowledge about marketing strategy, and management skills are essentially required to be a part of the client servicing department in any agency.
3. Media Planning
The media planning department is responsible to evaluate the perfect media platform that will give maximum results. There are multiple options available in the current world to show ads. People are everywhere, but searching for the right target audience is what media planning does. They decide which platform requires more investment and which does not. This job is basically searching various reports about the result and knowledge about each media platform. Some clients hire their own media planning team to continue unstoppable marketing campaigns.
4. Account Planning
The account planning department focuses on where to pitch the ads. This department prepares the agency itself for a new client. An account planning manager should have the best knowledge about consumer behavior and market research techniques. Usually, an account planning manager gives the agency its new customer.
Now, the whole process goes in steps. Below is the stepwise working of an advertising agency.
Step 1: Searching for Clients – Any agency needs clients to work for. It is the most essential step without which any company cannot survive.
Step 2: Account Management – An account manager then handles the situation by taking all the major decisions about interacting with the new client. The account planning manager will then give its shield to the client servicing department that will then handle the needs and the demand of the client.
Step 3: Creative Team – Client servicing team after gathering all the information about the need of client approaches to the creative team. The creative team would be responsible for managing the overall advertising marketing campaign. This includes the type of ad and the idea behind the ad. This team puts forward the advertising plan, the client servicing team rechecks the plan if it meets the demands of the client or not. If the plan passes, the basic skeleton of the ad is ready.
Step 4: Copywriting team – This team works in converting the idea of the creative team into written format. They are responsible for drawing, illustration making, layouts, effective ad texts, and other such things. This job is done by highly skilled and creative people so that the advertisement looks more appealing.
Step 5: Researchers – They figure out the situation of the client in the market and then figure out the budget and investments. They also test creative ideas to beat the competition. They gather all the information of the client’s background and the client’s product that will be visible on the ads. This team also figures out who their targeted audience is, and where to work more. They conclude research about the campaign.
Step 6: Media Planners – This department provides the option to show the ads. There are various media platforms where we can display ads. From so many options, this team figures out some best options that can give the maximum result. The platform on which you will display ads should be most helpful and suitable for the client’s growth. Once the advertisement is ready, researchers give their conclusions and then media planners suggest the platform. The advertisement cost at the different platforms is different. Some have high competition, low audience platforms ask for less money, high audience platforms ask for high money.
Step 7: Budget – Every advertising campaign has a budget that should be according to the needs of the client. Advertising agencies prepare budgets according to the demand of the client. These agencies make the best use of the budget with a good margin. Without a proper advertising budget, the client’s money would be at risk.
Step 8: Coordination – All the departments of the advertising agency then sit together, discuss the flaws if any, give suggestions and they all come out with the best ad campaign.
Step 9: Sales Promotion – Sales promotion work is also handled by an advertising agency. They work as a bridge between carriers and customers. Their main focus is to increase the sales of the product.
Step 10: Public Relations – It is the responsibility of the advertising agency to build the trust of the client’s product and company in the mind of the lead’s customers. It increases the goodwill between clients and other parties.
Step 11: Non-Advertising functions – Advertising agencies also suggest discounts, prices, designs, packages, and other things to the client so that the sales reach to its maximum. These all functions come under non-advertising functions.
This is how an advertising agency works. It is a tough and appreciable job. Stay connected for more updates.
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