For agencies and media sellers serving local and regional markets, it’s crucial to understand the needs and expectations of businesses that are leveraging local advertising. Whether you’re trying to land their business, secure greater commitments, or retain them as a client, you need to ensure that they feel good about your ability to deliver.
Recently we surveyed 500 digital ad sellers about their challenges, which we published in the 2024 Local Advertising Sellers Index. Their take on client expectations was particularly interesting, shedding light on what local advertisers are seeking from their partners.
In general, it's clear that local advertisers are demanding more comprehensive solutions and results-driven strategies, signaling a growing maturity for digital advertising. Here’s what we learned.
First, it’s important to understand why advertisers are turning to local digital advertising in the first place. While the survey showed that the challenges they seek to solve can vary, in general businesses are looking to increase awareness and find new customers.
In particular, advertisers seem concerned about competition. This sense of a competitive threat might be the motivating factor that convinces them to spend resources on advertising solutions, rather than rely on just organic growth.
Best practice: Sales teams can meet this expectation with convincing research and strategies that incorporate competitor intel. Where are the gaps in the competitor’s reach? What are they spending, and on what channels? Does the client’s territory overlap for ad exposure? This kind of information can make your proposal all the more convincing.
While the above goals might act as a north star, local advertisers are dependent on measurable outcomes that can justify their spend. Small businesses often have limited budgets for marketing, and they need to get a good return or they simply cannot afford to advertise anymore.
So what metrics are they most likely to focus on? Not surprisingly ROAS was the number one response. More so than other cost metrics like CPC, the ROAS on a campaign can make or break a clients’ commitment.
Directional metrics like total impressions and conversion rate are also very high in importance. These metrics signal a campaign’s visibility and efficiency, respectively.
Best practice: Sales teams should project ROAS in proposals based on historic information, demonstrating their ability to deliver while also establishing realistic expectations that they already know they can meet.
To complicate metrics even further, advertisers expect all of the above across multiple channels. Our report shows that 71% of media sellers now have clients that value omnichannel marketing. If you're able to support multi-channel campaigns, then this is a boon for winning more budget — but it does introduce complexity.
In fact, 31% of respondents said proposing the optimal mix for omnichannel ad campaigns is the biggest stressor for them while working with clients.
Best practice: Take some of the guesswork out of media plan proposals with tools that leverage AI and machine learning to generate the ideal media mix.
All of this comes at a cost to campaign managers and media sellers that need to deliver, and our survey suggests that the pressure continues to increase. 61% of respondents said they felt moderate, significant, or extreme pressure from clients to drive better results.
Given these expectations, sellers are also spending a lot of time analyzing data in order to demonstrate the impact they’re making. 40% of respondents spend 1 - 2 hours a day just analyzing data. Over 30% are spending even more of their day sifting through performance information.
If local advertisers are looking for direct impact for their money, and media sellers are spending multiple hours each day to meet that demand, scale becomes an issue for teams. There are only so many hours in the week and therefore only so many clients they can support.
Technology provides the answer. Automation, AI-driven intelligence, all-in-one workflow management, and proposal tools make it easier for resource-strapped teams to deliver on expectations while growing their book of business.
Want to learn how? Talk to an omnichannel expert.
You can also download the full report from Frequence, our Workflow solution.
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