For as long as there has been advertising, agencies and advertisers reporting has been one of the most common pain points in that age-old relationship. That makes a lot of sense really, the customer wants to know what return they got for their money and the agency wants to make their customer happy, but reporting hasn’t always been straightforward. Reporting from channels like of TV and Radio often focuses on the reach and frequency.

While this is important it doesn’t really tell the advertiser much more than how many people were exposed to their ads, when they saw them or how often. Print, letterbox drops, outdoor and even skywriting all suffer from similar issues. Then came digital and the truly mind-boggling capacity for reporting we have in this industry meant that our channel, perhaps more than all the others combined could answer the age-old question: “But what return did I get from these campaigns?” The long and the short of it is that with digital we can track all the touchpoints, interactions, and even views any audience member may have with a campaign on their way from blissful ignorance of your brand to being a fully-fledged brand ambassador.

This perhaps more than anything else is the reason that spending on digital marketing has grown in Australia so much – the final figure in 2018 being $16.5 BILLION! This is actually a full 348% higher than the paltry $3.68 billion that was spent on TV advertising in 2018.

What reports do I need?
So there is lots of data, how should it be reported? This data is clearly a fantastic thing to have, the type of data advertisers from the days of old could only have dreamed of. But if it’s not properly presented something very serious can be lost. Advertisers in Australia shouldn’t have to accept confusing, data solid reports that only hold any meaning to those with the training to read them. At the end of the day, this data has been bought and paid for with the customer’s own budget, so an agency’s customer should never have to struggle just to understand it.

Here at Direct Clicks, we promote a new normal, offering fully TRANSPARENT, live, online, and totally malleable reporting via our swanky dashboard. Unlike other agencies, this is provided FREE of charge to all customers. Access to this information helps to develop the relationship between both parties, it provides information in such a way that both parties benefit, campaigns become more effective and when that happens, companies grow.

Making the most of it.
To really wring the most from a campaign, both the agency and the customer need to work from the live dashboard on a regular basis. Testing the numbers returned, pushing the boundaries of the campaigns being run so that over time incremental improvements can be made. We encourage all of our customers to work from the live dash and to ask questions, to review the traffic, the changes, and the wins. If you have any questions about how your agency reports to you please feel free to contact the author directly to discuss via gary@directclicks.com.au