Why you should hire an advertising consultant
Running advertising campaigns can be confusing, time-consuming, and costly -- which is precisely why you should consider hiring an advertising consultant.
An experienced ad consultant helps you build effective ad campaigns that drive the ROI you're aiming for -- all while helping your team perform at their best by enhancing their skills and experience with added expertise.
If you own a business or run a marketing department, you might want to hire an advertising consultant if you:
- Lack of internal expertise on specific advertising channels (e.g; Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.)
- Need an objective and unbiased perspective
- Want to improve advertising and marketing strategy
- Aim to save time and resources
- Want to target new audiences
- Want to make sure you're up-to-date with industry trends and technology
- Aim to increase brand visibility and recognition
- Want to measure and evaluate advertising effectiveness
- Want to manage advertising budget more efficiently
- Aim to achieve specific business goals, such as increased sales or market share.
- Need help to make an extensive marketing plan happen
These are just some potential scenarios, but as a general rule, if you need an extra pair of eyes on your ad campaigns, you should hire an advertising consultant.
What is an advertising consultant and what do they do?
An advertising or marketing consultant is a professional who works with companies to improve their advertising efforts. Many consultants focus on specific industries and niches, such as clothing, retail, automotive, food service, B2B advertising, and so on. Also, many consultants specialize in one or two channels (like Google Ads, social media advertising, and so on).
Here's what an advertising consultant can do for you:
- Provide you with expert advice on ad campaigns
- Support your business in its advertising and marketing efforts
- Help you understand your target audience
- Help you drive clearer business objectives
- Help you overcome unique challenges
- Implement advertising strategies to help you achieve your goals
- Develop ad campaigns
- Select the right media channels for your business AND target audience
- Conduct market research
- Track, analyze, and report on ad campaign results
- Make recommendations for ongoing improvement
- Work with your team to complement their skills
- Help your team grow into their roles and gain more experience
This is not an exhaustive list of tasks and projects advertising consultants can help with, but you can contact an advertising consultant and discuss any other needs you may have.
How much do freelance marketing consultants charge?
Many freelance marketing consultants charge between $50 and $200 per hour. The price depends on the consultant's skills and experience, as well as the industry and types of clients they serve. A freelancer's reputation, portfolio, and proven track record might also influence how much they'll charge.
5 steps to hiring the perfect advertising consultant
OK, let's say you're keen on hiring an advertising consultant. Here's how to make sure this process ends with a good hire:
1. Come up with your goals
You can't find the right person if you don't know what you're looking for. What, more specifically, do you need help with? What type of projects will you involve your advertising consultant in? And what are your expectations from this professional relationship?
Once you have clear business and hiring goals, you can narrow your options and decide whether you need a consultant, a freelancer, or an advertising agency.
2. Pick the right channel
Most advertising consultants specialize in industries and/or channels. Someone who's very good at Google Ads might not be that good at social media channel advertising, for example -- although many can do both.
To make sure you're getting the most value for your marketing dollar, decide which advertising channel you want to target, and hire someone who's highly specialized in it. If you're not sure which channel to choose, try and run experiments on different networks to see what works best for your business.
3. Ask your network
Word-of-mouth recommendations are likely to yield great results. So before you turn the internet upside down, ask your network: do they have any recommendations for an ad consultant who delivers results? See if any experienced marketers you know are looking for a new opportunity
4. Search on Mayple
Are your network recommendations not working?
Searching for an advertising consultant on Mayple is just as efficient (if not more!) We work with vetted, experienced advertising consultants who have a proven track record of success. So if you want to get a leg up on the competition and have the best experts on your team, Mayple's a great choice.
Don't believe us, hear it from the brands we've worked with. Their stories speak for themselves.
5. Interview and hire
Once you have a short list of candidates, it's time to interview and hire. Make sure you are very clear about your expectations, budget, and scope of work (write a project description before the interview). Also, remember to check your consultant's portfolio, recommendations, and online reviews to assess their compatibility with your project.
20 questions to ask your advertising consultant before you hire them
If you're not sure what questions to ask when hiring an advertising consultant, consider the following:
- What is your experience and expertise in advertising, specifically in [your industry]?
- Can you provide examples of successful campaigns you have managed for previous clients?
- Did these campaigns bring any results? If so, can you share some data with us?
- How do you measure the success of an advertising campaign?
- How do you approach target market research and target audience analysis?
- Do you have experience running customer interviews?
- What tools and software are you experienced in?
- Provided we hire you, what are some of the tools you'd need to deliver your best work?
- How do you stay up-to-date with the latest advertising trends and technology?
- How do you collaborate with prospective clients to develop advertising strategies and campaigns?
- How do you handle budgeting and financial planning for advertising campaigns?
- How do you track and analyze advertising results, and make recommendations for improvement?
- Can you provide references from previous clients?
- How do you approach transparency and communication throughout the advertising process?
- Do you have a reporting process, or will we share ours?
- How do you prioritize and allocate advertising resources and marketing budgets to achieve the best results?
- Can you help with creative direction and production for ad campaigns?
- How do you handle changes or unexpected developments during an advertising campaign?
- Can you provide case studies or metrics demonstrating the ROI of your advertising work for past clients?
- Can you work with other marketing and branding professionals, such as web designers or email marketing pros, or public relations specialists, to create an effective marketing strategy?
Of course, you should make sure to adapt these questions to your project requirements, business, industry, and needs. But overall, this type of question will give you a good idea on whether a candidate's the right choice for you.
Remember that every business is different, has different prospective clients, and works in a different market. The best marketing professionals and business marketing consultants understand the bigger picture and know how to choose the right marketing initiatives to help your business succeed. The questions you ask now should be entirely related to where you want to go with your marketing campaigns, as well as the types of marketing solutions you're looking for.
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