Nowadays, people are increasingly spending more time online. Whether it's to keep in touch with friends and family on social media, to search for products and services on Google, or to connect with your favourite brands - it all happens online.

This means that we simply can’t ignore - online advertising is an indispensable part of marketing for any business that strives for continuous growth and strong positioning in today's market.

By reaching customers at the right place and time, with the right message, businesses are able to achieve their goals effectively. Think about:

• Increasing your brand awareness and online visibility
• Driving more engagement with your brand with a specific target group
• Attracting more visitors to your website or webshop
• Boosting your online sales

If you want to take your business to the next level, online advertising is simply essential. But how do you invest your marketing budget as efficiently as possible in order to achieve the best results?

Do it yourself or partner up with an agency?

Once you’ve made clear what exactly it is that you want to achieve, it’s good to ask yourself what skill and knowledge you need to have access to, in order to achieve these goals.

Effective online advertising isn’t easy. Randomly running a bunch of ads on Facebook or Google will end up costing you more time and money than you ever intended to.

That’s why it’s important that you have someone on the job with experience and expertise. Someone who knows exactly what works and what doesn't work for your business and objectives, and how this can be done in the most cost-efficient way.

There are a few ways you can go about this. You can hire an in-house marketer, work with a freelancer, or collaborate with an advertising agency.

Which choice is best for your business depends on the resources you currently have at your disposal. When making a choice, consider the following:

• Your marketing budget
• Your medium/long term ambitions
• What phase of digital maturity your business is currently in

Of course, we know that we’re a bit (or quite) biased when it comes to outsourcing online advertising. Yet it’s important that we bust some myths when it comes to working with an advertising agency!

• "It’s always cheaper to keep advertising in-house, agencies are too expensive."

False. It is often thought that working with advertising agencies is only for major organisations with gigantic marketing budgets. Fortunately, this is not the case!

Hiring an in-house marketer (with the needed skill set and experience) costs money. For an experienced marketer (or freelancer) you can easily spend around €3,000 to €4,000 per month. This is separate from your actual media budget.

In addition, it also costs you time and money to properly onboard and train new employees and to familiarise them with your business and industry.

• "Keeping advertising in-house allows for more flexibility than when working with an agency"

False. Although the idea that you secure more flexibility if you leave your advertising efforts to someone within your team is certainly not a crazy thought, it definitely also has its own downsides.

In the event that your employee or freelancer leaves or is temporarily absent (for example due to illness or holidays), you’ll be stuck with the problem to fill the gap by yourself. You might be faced with having temporary gaps in your advertising, having to go through the hiring process again to find a new marketer, or having to eventually outsource it anyways.

When you work with an agency, you are assured that you have an expert on the job at all times. This way you never run the risk of downtime due to resignations, illness or holidays!

So, working with an agency isn’t exclusive for large companies with big gigantic marketing budgets. If you choose to team up with an advertising agency, it’s important to find a partner that best fits the goals and ambitions of your business. But what makes a partnership with The Next Ad different from other agencies? And how can your business benefit from? We have all the answers - read on to find out!

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What makes The Next Ad different?

Sure, every advertising agency says they’re different from others and undeniably the best choice for your company - "what's new?". It's easy to say, but hard to prove.

What does it really mean to be "different"?

At The Next Ad, we don’t like to beat around the bush, so we will explain exactly what extra/exclusive benefits a partnership with us can bring to your business!

1. Our partnerships: Transparent collaboration

When you choose to outsource your digital advertising to another party, it’s important that you know who you’re working with, what their way of working is, and how your budget is going to be spent.

At The Next Ad, we take pride in the solid and close relationships with our clients. Instead of a black-box approach in which your budget is spent in an ambiguous way every month, our team focuses on transparent and strong partnerships where you know exactly:

• Who will be working on your accounts
• What our strategies are based on
• How your budget is invested
• What kind of results are being achieved

If you choose to work with The Next Ad, you can be assured that our experts will set up and execute a tailor-made advertising strategy for you, in which you’ll only invest in the best-performing channels and audiences for your business.

Get monthly insights and/or evaluations about your campaigns, continuous optimisations and personal advice based on your results.

Our experts truly become part of your business, so you can actually see them as an extension of your own team!

2. Official Partner of Facebook and Google

The Next Ad is as an official Partner of Facebook & Google, which means that we’re constantly subjected to strict quality checks.

Not only our (own) ad technology is regularly tested, but our certified specialists are also continuously monitored and our performance is assessed with the results of the campaigns for our customers - this way, you can be assured that you have the best team on the job!

Besides the fact that we have short lines with Facebook and Google, we are also in close contact with account managers from platforms such as Snapchat and Pinterest. This allows us to offer our clients extra service and help when needed.

Your results and success are our top priority!

3. Powered by our proprietary ad technology

Besides the fact that our team knows how to work the technology of platforms such as Facebook and Google, one of the most important distinguishing factors of The Next Ad is that we can leverage the power of our own advertising technology.

The Next Ad originated from ad-technology and thus controls the development and management of smart tools. After all, the best digital marketing is based on data - what better way to achieve the best results than through an algorithm ?! With us, expertise and technology go hand in hand! 

Our ad technology allows our experts to:

• Apply exclusive campaign optimisations
• Set up campaigns more efficiently and faster
• Reduce unnecessary manual labour

4. Optimal investment in the best performing channels and target groups

Thanks to our years of experience in digital marketing, our team knows exactly how and where they can best reach your target group in order to achieve your goals.

To ensure that we put together an approach that perfectly matches your goals, we will always draw up a strategy based on an audit that looks at areas of improvement and growth opportunities for your company.

When implementing multiple advertising channels, we work according to the cross-channel approach for maximum return. We do this so that the channels used are able to reinforce each other, and so that content per channel is tailored to the right target group and is served in the right phase of the customer journey.

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We’re all about the action!

There you have it - The 4 most important benefits of working with The Next Ad as your advertising agency! With these points, we hope to paint a better image as to what makes our service and team different from others.

Not completely convinced of our skills yet? No problem! Feel free to send us a message and speak to our team - they’re happy help!

Completely blown away? Don't wait any longer and send one of our account managers a message to learn more about the possibilities for your company with The Next Ad!