In-House Media Buying Vs. Managed Services

Are you looking to execute a new advertising campaign, but not sure the best way to carry it out? Should you ask your team members to add this to their to-do list or should you find a managed service provider to take care of it?

And if you choose to outsource the task to a managed service provider, how do you know whether the agency is reliable in actually getting the work done and meeting all of the objectives you’ve set?

Managed services vs. in-house media buying is a popular debate. What are the benefits of each? How do they differ? And when do you choose one over the other? In this article, we’ve broken down each of these questions to help you decide.

Difference between managed services and in-house media buying

When you hire a managed service provider, they can manage paid advertising campaigns for you from start to finish. They often offer a distinct set of services together with a corresponding price tag.

On the other hand, in-house media buying means the execution and management of your ad campaigns are performed within your organisation without any help from an external source if you have the resources.

Benefits of managed services

Why do companies hire managed services? Here are a few potential benefits.

Access to advertising experts

Employing an external source to manage your campaigns means that you’ll have experts in online advertising who will manage all of the planning, buying, and optimisations necessary for your ad campaigns.

Having a team with a proven track record in paid ads collaborating with you will ultimately result in better performance.

Cost-efficient approach

Managed services can assure not only results but also the cost-efficiency of your ad campaigns.

Selecting the right agency to work with gives you the confidence to know you aren’t spending more than what is required for your campaign to fulfil all of the objectives you’ve set.

Massive time savings

The biggest benefit of hiring managed services provider is time-efficiency. By outsourcing your advertising to an expert agency, you free up your team to work on other tasks in your marketing funnel.

Benefits of in-house media buying

The number one reason you should consider in-house media buying is when your team already has the expertise and your primary concerns are transparency and regulating costs. The main benefits of in-house advertising are:

Control

When your in-house team works on your ad campaigns, this means you can track and monitor every little thing at all times. Even though many top-notch managed services teams provide you with the same level of process transparency, in-house offers better visibility of what’s happening.

No outsourcing costs

If cost is a big problem, keeping things in-house could be a better option. This may mean more money to be dedicated to advertising itself, which increases the campaign budget, instead of requiring that money to pay for external services. There are no additional charges for your own employees working on your campaigns.

In-house vs. managed services: which one to choose?

As mentioned earlier, if your team already has the knowledge and expertise to execute an effective advertising campaign, then staying in-house is perhaps the best opportunity. After all, why would you look to external sources when you have the talent right in front of you? Having experienced professionals in your team means you don’t have to go searching for a managed service provider to match your values.

However, not every company has the right talent or resources to pull off successful ad campaigns. Often, the in-house team is overburdened with work, which leaves them with little time to innovate and come up with new campaigns that add value to the business. That’s when hiring a managed services agency is the right decision.

What to ask when choosing a managed service provider?

Once you decide to go with managed services, you need to ask the right questions to make sure you’re partnering with the right organisation. The last thing you’d want is for the values and goals to not match, which can stop you from achieving the desired results within your budget.

To make things easier, we have compiled a list of questions you should ask when deciding on which managed service provider to use.

– Do they offer complete transparency? Can you see everything going on within the account? Do they carry out all operations within your own accounts or provide you with access to the accounts they use?
– Do the solutions they offer support the main objectives you need from this organisation?
– Do the platforms and software they use make a visible difference in your campaign outcomes? What other insights can they provide in addition to figures?
– Do they draw the right acumens from your ad campaigns? Do they understand which KPIs best demonstrate how your objectives are being fulfilled?

The answers to these queries will specify whether or not you’re selecting the right managed service provider and if you should keep looking around. There are countless organisations in today’s digital advertising landscape. You shouldn’t just choose anyone at the drop of a hat.

Questions to ask when choosing in-house media buying?

Before you choose to keep everything in-house, ask yourself these questions:

– Does your team have the skill, experience, and past performance to execute campaigns with exceptional results and delivering within budget?
– Can your internal team drive insights from the campaign to carry out the optimisations required?
– Can you save money that could be reinvested in your marketing budget by using resources you have accessible internally?
– Do you have the right solutions and software to create, manage, optimise, and drive the best results internally?

See if the answers to these queries reflect positively on your team managing your ad campaigns compared to the queries asked above for managed services. Whichever list has more positive answers and could bring more encouraging results is the option you should select.

Let Eskimi’s managed services take care of your advertising

Managed services vs. in-house media buying – eventually the best choice is the one that best aligns with your business, objectives, and budget. It all boils down to finding a team, whether internally or an external group, that has the competence and solutions to provide the right results.

If digital advertising is a new concept for your team, it may be best to find a managed service provider like Eskimi that can achieve all of the objectives you want at the right price.

We are a team of ambitious professionals with a proven track record in developing high scale, high-growth businesses worldwide.

We can help centralise your media buying and data under one dashboard using the Eskimi Single-View platform. Whether you need help with programmatic, Facebook, YouTube, AdWords display, or search media management, we’ll consolidate everything under one platform.

With a white-label platform using your own brand name, you’ll be able to optimise reach across all channels using one reporting dashboard.

At Eskimi, we love to take on experiments and create innovation for our client’s needs. We are flexible and always seek to provide the best results. Even if we don’t have a solution yet, we’ll make one for you that suits your budget and requirements. Get in touch to learn more about our managed services capabilities.