It's 2024 now, I get a lot of emails from the visitors of the store asking if I can take over the store mostly saying: "Are they doing too bad, Nik", "Is my marketing agency worth keeping?"

I usually say yes and ask them to set a meeting and the first thing I ask them is WHY. Why do you want to replace your marketing agency and come to me. What is the exact reason? And most of them say that they have no idea, it's just not delivering results.

I mean that is justifying but it's too vague, maybe they are generating enough, maybe it's the market or maybe it's something else. That is the exact reason why I start to blog, I personally feel that small business-owners need a lot of information and a resources guide to help them with online marketing operations, and the key performance indicator metric was written for the exact same reason.

You are probably here also because you haven't read my article on whether you should hire a freelancer or an agency for your business!

Overview

The article will be short and split into 3 parts: why, how, and next steps. I will outline all the steps you need to assess the performance of the marketing agency that you have hired. The questions that you need to ask them, and what to do after that. This is what I usually do with my clients, so the article will be in a casual tone and may be unhinged.

Assessing the Performance of The Agency: Why?

Why not? You need to assess if they are effective in generating enough results and enough business for you. Marketing agencies are great; they give you a one-step solution, provide creatives, and can help you scale your business from bottom to top. But you need to make sure they are delivering the results that you are paying them for.

Benchmarking an agency always helps you compare it with other agencies (other options) in the market that can be available for you, or you can talk to them and get them to improve or renegotiate the deal for you.

Assessing the Performance of The Agency: How?

I have already covered it in detail on my key performance indicator post but this post is a little detailed on how to start off and what to ask from the agency.

I have made this quick graphic that has all the metrics you need to ask your marketing agency. I have summed up in 4 easy points that are good to gauge the performance of your agency. Google and Facebook use the same metrics, so they are summed up, but broadly, you need these 12 to get you covered.

These are important KPIs that you need. I have also written down the meanings so that you know what they mean. Having these will give you an idea of how your business is performing, as well as how the marketing agency is performing.

Facebook/Google Ads KPI Definitions

1. CPC: Cost Per Click: The average cost incurred each time a user clicks on an ad.

2. CPM: Cost Per Mille: The cost of 1,000 impressions of an advertisement.

3. CTR: Click-Through Rate: The percentage of users who click on a specific link out of the total users who view a page, email, or ad.

4. ROAS: Return on Advertising Spend: A marketing metric that measures the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.

Email Marketing KPI Definitions

1. Email Open Rate: The percentage of email recipients who open a given email.

2. Email Click Rate: The percentage of email recipients who click on a link or call to action within an email.

3. Email Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of email recipients who opt-out or unsubscribe from receiving future emails.

4. Email Conversion Value: The total value generated from conversions attributed to email marketing efforts.

Shopify KPI Definitions

1. Conv. Rate: Conversion Rate: The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired goal out of the total number of visitors.

2. CTLV: Customer Lifetime Value: The predicted net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.

3. AOV: Average Order Value: The average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order.

4. Returning Customer %: The percentage of customers who have made more than one purchase.

Once you have them, we will move to the next section of the article. But for now, your homework is to get these metrics from your agency, and we will see how it goes.

Assessing the Performance of The Agency: Next Steps?

After you have these metrics from your clients, you have a lot of options that you can follow, either you can move ahead with the audit and do it yourself or have a third party do it for you.

• Get Your Account Audited by a Third Party

Getting your account audited by a third party is a good move to assess the performance of your marketing agency, it can provide some valuable insights and can give you some tips that can help you grow.

• Get A Free Account Audit by Nikhil Sharma

I can audit your ad account for you and give you the actionable insights on your ad account to see if they can be any better of if there is any room for improvement. I have helped over 50+ businesses and I try to help out small businesses specially when they are starting up and can't figure out.

Conclusion

Assessing the performance of your marketing agency is crucial for the success of any business. By evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs) given in the blog post and asking the right questions, you can ensure that you're getting the results you need.