We couldn't get around the topic of how clients choose contractors for context. We talked to advertisers whose campaigns are run by agencies, looked at several tender tasks and found out which parameters are decisive.

Actively looking

At the very beginning of the search for an agency, the advertiser faces a huge choice. And here criteria and characteristics come into play, designed to narrow down the circle of potential performers, for example, participation in ratings, certificates of specialists, price segment.

It is difficult to assess the professionalism of the contractor before the start of work, says Nikita Freyuk, head of the marketing and advertising department of the SM-Clinic holding. Therefore, when choosing an agency for the context, marketers of the network of medical centers paid attention to the participation of the agency in professional ratings employees have certificates.

The status of a certified agency of Direct and AdWords and a place in the ranking of the best agencies are also found in the requirements for tenders of the largest companies, for example, Sberbank. In this case, the developed placement strategy, the experience of the project team members, the team’s experience in the ecommerce market and the agency fee are still decisive.

Count on the representativeness of certificates and ratings, according to Head of the Online Sales Department of the Moscow Jewelry Factory Daria Veligodskaya, not worth it. “Places in profile ratings are bought, the same with certificates, experience in the subject turns out to be (and in our case this is almost always the case) experience in promoting a jewelry store with silver and an average bill of 3,500 rubles, etc.,” says the top -manager.

By the way, in the document on the conditions for holding tenders in contextual advertising in 2017, the committee on performance marketing and related markets of IAB Russia also emphasized that there is no agency rating on the market that the association can recommend.

All agency selection criteria fromIAB Russia

Another parameter for choosing agencies is experience in the subject. Ilya Konoplev, Director for Development of the World Gym Fitness Club Network in Russia tells that one of the criteria during the search for a contractor for contextual advertising was precisely the experience of working with a business comparable in product and scale. According to him, the closer this experience is to the customer's industry, the better. Nikita Freyuk from SM-Clinic notes that he was also interested in which companies the agency had already worked with, how long the cooperation had lasted and what results had been achieved. At the same time, portfolios and cases, in his opinion, should not be particularly trusted: unscrupulous contractors can simply invent them.

Ilya Konoplev notes two more advantages of agencies - the willingness to work during the test period and the availability of recommendations drawn up not on paper, but in the form of a mobile phone number.

First meeting and acquaintance

When the pool of potential applicants for the role of the contractor is collected, the stage of acquaintances and negotiations begins. It was the face-to-face meeting that was the most important step in choosing a contextual advertising agency, says Elizaveta Ivanova, marketing and PR manager for formwork and scaffolding manufacturer Peri. Therefore, when meeting, the agency should show business qualities as much as possible, show its adequacy and competence. Here, attention is paid to both the approach to work and the ability to communicate.

Head of the online sales department of the Moscow Jewelry Factory

How the tender is carried out, using the example of M.Video

media and CRM director M.Video:

What advertisers value

Ilya Konoplev from World Gym also expects depth of immersion and the ability to adapt to clients from partners: “When a contractor starts bombarding me with special terms, demonstrating my deep knowledge of the topic, I lose interest in him, because you sparkle where it will be appreciated.

The current agency Peri delves into the campaigns, into the tasks set, offers options, advises and shows new tools. “In this way they develop us and give us the opportunity to get a greater effect, sometimes without even increasing the budget. We believe this approach is correct and productive, and cooperation is long-term,” says Elizaveta Ivanova, marketing manager of the company.

Therefore, competitors who want to oust the existing contractor will have to try and avoid mistakes in communication. Peri receives a lot of proposals on the context, but according to Elizaveta Ivanova, absolutely everyone requests access to running campaigns and justifies this by saying that this is the only way to select the right queries, form a budget and bring campaigns to top positions. “They do not offer any ready-made solution, ready-made study just for us. This is the main difference between such companies and our partner,” says marketer Peri.

When choosing a contractor for the MJZ, the main thing was to find someone who shares a real understanding of what advertising is for, emphasizes Daria Veligodskaya. Good times large advertising budgets in order to get a site visitor who just looked at the pages and left, gone, now, in her opinion, the main thing is earnings.

With the participation of Sofia Bitkova.

Respondents, who were selected from among marketing department specialists with at least a year of experience in the digital segment, were asked to complete an online survey.

The questionnaire consists of a presentation block, clarification of the level of induced knowledge (with a hint) / cooperation, a qualitative assessment of specific contractors in 15 segments, and general questions on the use of digital tools.

FIRST BLOCK provides for obtaining the necessary and sufficient identification information, as well as clarifying the level and profile of the specialist, social characteristics and experience in the segment.

• Last name, first name
• Company name
• Field of activity
• Age
• Position
• work experience

STUDYED SERVICES

1 MEDIA SERVICE

1.1 direct Media Buying. Planning and purchasing banner placement by the agency directly from publishers and sites

1.2 Programmatic Buying. Programmatic media planning and purchasing, all formats and all media (CPM, CPC, RTB)

1.3 Digital video / Smart TV. Planning and purchasing video advertising: pre-rolls, post-rolls, in-banner video, overlay, video context, etc.

1.4 Non- standard Media (NEW!) Development and implementation of non-standard media campaigns (sponsorship, branded content, etc.)

1.5 Mobile Media Buying. Planning and purchasing mobile advertising (CPM, СPC, RTB)

2 PERFORMANCE MARKETING

2.1 Lead generation / CPA. Pay-per-action advertising (pay-per-click, pay-per-purchase, pay-per-survey, etc.)

2.2 Search Engine Optimization / SEO. Website promotion services in search engines, search engine optimization

2.4 direct Marketing & CRM. Strategy, development and implementation of large-scale direct marketing campaigns using CRM platforms and Big Data

2.5 Application promotion / CPI (NEW!) Comprehensive promotion services mobile applications(CPI, ASO, etc.)

3 CRAFT SKILLS

3.1 Creativity and strategy. Development of strategies and creative solutions for the implementation of outreach digital campaigns

3.2 SMM / Digital PR. Services for promoting and maintaining a brand in social media, the blogosphere, etc.

3.3 Special Projects (NEW!) Development and implementation of content special projects with brand integration

3.4 digital production. Design, design and development of complex web solutions (corporate websites, online stores, etc.)

3.5 Mobile production. Design, design and development of mobile applications (games, services, media)

On the SECOND STAGE knowledge (guided) of agency brands in all examined examinations, as well as experience and share of cooperation (market share) is found out.

Knowledge with hint(hovered) was found out on the basis of pre-compiled lists, consisting of the leaders of the ratings of cooperation in 2016, as well as agencies that provided a client contact for the survey.

Cooperation experience over the past two years, in addition to the formation of the corresponding rating, is Starting point to build a further scenario for a qualitative survey.

On the THIRD STAGE respondents on a five-point scale evaluate companies with which they had experience of cooperation, according to several criteria. With regard to qualitative criteria, a differentiated system of indicators was developed.

EVALUATION CRITERIA BY SEGMENTS

MEDIA SERVICE

Direct Media Buying, Mobile Media Buying

media service

· Customer service

· Price-quality ratio

Digital Video (instream, outstream)

level of expertise

· Customer service

· Price-quality ratio

Programmatic Buying

User data volume, connected inventory, connected platforms

Targeting quality, data processing capabilities, campaign optimization capabilities

· Customer service

non-standard media

· Adequate impact on the audience

PERFORMANCE MARKETING

Lead generation / CPA, direct Marketing& CRM, Application promotion / CPI

· Expertise and analytics

· Customer service

Pricing

Search Engine Optimization / SEO

Quality of analytics and reporting

· Customer service

Quality of traffic (audience)

Quality of targeting

· Customer service

CRAFT SKILLS

Creative and strategy, Special Projects:

originality, innovation

Quality of implementation, use of new technologies

The effectiveness of the impact on the audience

SMM / Digital PR

Speed ​​of work, responsiveness, ability and willingness to work with situational marketing

Campaign performance

· Quality of content, level of engagement

digital production, Mobile production:

Quality of implementation

Level of organization and process management

Pricing

On the LAST STAGE follow questions on the use of digital tools in the marketing budget in the dynamics of 2017-2018.

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METHODOLOGY

Rating: Rating of digital agencies according to a survey of customers of services 2017 (Digital Index 2017)

Today, the digital services market is represented by great amount ratings, which for the most part are not independent and are created exclusively either by the major market players themselves or by organizations affiliated with them. The goals of such ratings are not at all in the development of the Internet marketing industry itself, but in "hidden" obtaining a complete picture of the market about all its participants and using them in the interests of their business. And the methodology of such assessments often raises many questions and concerns only superficial criteria that do not give a qualitative cut of the market. The Ruawards Ranking introduces a completely new transparent methodology and concept based on a multi-stage agency rating system, which consists of several parameters. The project is designed to help market participants improve the quality of services provided, focus on reference companies in the shortlist, and potential clients choose a reliable and expert company to solve business problems.

1.Goals

Increasing the transparency of the digital market through a clear and multi-stage system for evaluating companies. Opportunity to choose a proven, reliable and expert company to solve the client's problems.

2.Methodology

The assessment is based on the project portfolio of each agency. Projects that the agency has been working on for the last 4 years are taken into account. The methodology is clear and transparent. The more current projects in the portfolio of a web studio and the higher customer satisfaction, the higher the company is positioned in the overall rating.

The assessment is based on criteria such as:
-Relevance of the project (attendance, refusals, positions in search engines and other factors). Our partner helps us with these issues: pr-cy.ru
- Customer satisfaction. Our interviewers will interview agency clients using a specially designed questionnaire.
- Development of the agency itself. We monitor the dynamics of the development of the agency online. We analyze publications, site traffic, links from other companies and many other factors.

Our calculation formula according to the methodology for web studios, digital agencies, seo companies:

∑Relevance of the project - The total indicator for all projects of the company. The criteria includes indicators of Attendance, Bounces, TIC, Site loading speed. All data is formed according to the indicators: www.pr-cy.ru.

by clicking on the link.

Our calculation formula according to the methodology of mobile developers:

Score = ∑Project relevance + ∑Customer satisfaction + ∑Agency development

∑Relevance of the project - The total indicator for all projects of the company. The criteria includes app download rates and app rating in the markets.

∑Customer Satisfaction - The total score for all company projects. The criteria includes indicators from 1 to 10, according to the data filled in by each client of the agency. Satisfaction criteria include: level of service, meeting deadlines, professionalism of implementation, competence of managers, identification of customer needs and many other parameters. A complete list of questions can be found by clicking on the link.

∑ Agency development - Agency website index: citation of agency materials, agency website traffic, frequency of publications by the agency and positions in search engines. All data is formed according to indicators: www.alexa.com. The higher the score, the higher the place in the ranking.

3.Participation

Any company represented on the digital market and having at least 15 projects developed since 2014 in its portfolio can take part in the rating of web studios. To do this, you need to register on the site, fill out a questionnaire and through Personal Area enter the necessary data, including the projects themselves.

For each submitted project, it is necessary to confirm the fact of the provision of services in one of several ways:

4.1. On the home page of the implemented project of the client, a link to the website of the company ready to confirm the fact of the provision of services should be placed.

4.2. Place a special meta tag on the main page of the client's site.

4.3. Send a scan of the act of acceptance and delivery of works on the developed site. The financial component in the transmitted documents may be hidden.

The agency can hide the address of the developed site and information about the client if the developer has a non-disclosure agreement with the client confidential information(NDA).

Respondents who are selected from among the specialists of marketing departments were asked to complete an online questionnaire.

The questionnaire consists of a presentation block, general questions on the use of digital tools, finding out the level of knowledge (with a hint) / cooperation and a qualitative assessment of specific contractors in 12 segments.

FIRST BLOCK provides for obtaining the necessary and sufficient identification information, as well as clarifying the level and profile of the specialist, social characteristics and education received:

• Last name, first name
• Company name
• Field of activity
• Age
• Position
• Education

On the SECOND STAGE follow questions on the use of digital tools in the marketing budget in the dynamics of 2016-2017.

In order for the respondents to act within the framework of a single conceptual field, wordings are given of what is meant by one or another type of service.

MAIN DEFINITIONS ADOPTED IN THE RESEARCH

Planning and purchasing banner placement. Includes display advertising (media), text and graphic blocks and media contextual banners.

Website promotion services in search engines

· Creativity and strategies

Development of the idea of ​​an online campaign, as well as proposals for its implementation

· Web Production & Support

Design, design and development of Internet projects and services, including corporate and promo sites, e-commerce, landing pages. Services for support and development of Internet projects: operational support, functional improvements, content marketing.

· Mobile Marketing

· Mobile Production

Design, design and development of projects in a mobile environment, mobile applications, services, etc.

· Digital PR / SMM

Services for working with groups, applications in in social networks, creating and sowing viral content, working with bloggers and opinion leaders on the network.

· Lead generation

Services for organizing direct contact with potential buyers or providing information about consumers (demographic, contact, behavioral). Companies in the rating are divided into agencies and specialized services (technologies).

· Programmatic Buying

Automated media placement technologies that use big data of users, mathematical algorithms for buying an audience, predictions for predicting conversions and the auction principle of forming bids for advertising impressions (RTB). Companies in the rating are divided into agencies and specialized services (technologies).

· Direct Marketing / CRM

Development, design and support of customer relationship management systems, including specialized solutions in the field of email marketing.: E-mail Sending Platform, Marketing Platform and Telecom / SMS Platform.

On the THIRD STAGE knowledge (guided) of agency brands in all examined examinations, as well as experience and share of cooperation (market share) is found out.

Knowledge with hint(induced) was found out on the basis of previously compiled lists. The pool of participants was based on the results of the 2015 study. Respondents have the right to include in the ranking up to five companies outside the proposed list.

Cooperation experience over the past two or three years, in addition to the formation of the corresponding rating, is the starting point for building a further scenario for a qualitative survey.