The massive negative impact of transparency in advertising on the humble SME advertiser

If you are from an MNC and have led or done advertising in any format with ad billings above 50,000/month in ads and likely used programmatic advertising, then you might be familiar with the transparency concerns in more advanced advertising formats. If so, skip this blog. 

While serving SME brands from Singapore, Japan, India, and China, I found a severe lack of awareness of advertising’s transparency and its negative impact on the hardworking SME ecosystem.

We are discussing advertising, not marketing; the difference is quite simple. 

This resource from the American Marketing Association defines the difference as:

 “Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the exercise of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. In other words, advertising is a component of marketing.” 

The key to getting this blog right is “paid channels,” i.e. if I pay someone to get exposure for my message, then such activities are considered advertising. 

Digital advertising and its scope

SMEs often pay for advertising on platforms such as Google, Meta Ads (for Facebook/Instagram advertising), TikTok, and LinkedIn (mostly B2B). One could also advertise in marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada, and Amazon. Other sophisticated technologies are often referred to as “programmatic advertising” could be used and with the evolution of digital technology, several more might appear, such as DirectTV. Generally, these ads are delivered online using digital devices, hence the name “Digital advertising.”

Impacts of transparency that Singaporean SMEs suffer from

In the process of building Mister Marketeer and offering pro-bono consultation, I found these kinds of brand owners to suffer the most:  

1. I want results and do not care about the process.
2. I will only pay you for the results, and only results.
3. So technical, I don’t care. Just tell me how much to give and what the end benefit is. 
4. I trust you, or since you have so many good portfolios, you must be good. 
5. Got government funding, ah? 

These buying profiles are typically less savvy, unwilling to learn, and often skimp on due diligence. To scale a business, one does have to let go and leave it to the experts. However, will you logically take the same step if the part you let go is an important business activity or a major part of your operating framework? Should you explore starting a major business activity using the above frameworks? While this creates marketplace offerings that fit the buyer profile, the long-term impact is quite dangerous. Remember, buyers create marketplaces, and supply simply follows. 

The access problem 

Depending on the client’s objective, an agency typically delivers a results sheet, PowerPoint presentation, or PDF showcasing the total advertising monies spent versus results (impressions/ clicks/ leads/ revenue). 

1. The client will not be given access to the advertising platform, so he/she does not have any means to cross-check whether the money claimed to have been spent was actually spent. 
2. Sometimes, the client’s credit card is used to pay for advertising, and the results sheet matches the amount deducted from the card. So it got to match? That is not true again. 

The key issue associated with an inability to audit will cost you more than the cash value of the transaction. As we progress through the article, keep reading to learn more about it. 

Suggested solution: Get access to your ads platforms. Besides audibility, there are other benefits that I will touch upon later. 

The who problem

Digital ad platforms are consistently under consumer fire about transparency, which is relatively less known to SMEs. Ad platforms offer machine learning and algorithms (AI), which is a great starting solution. Frankly, AI and machine learning campaigns have been around since 2010, and my experience is that these mechanics work to certain maxima and need human guidance and judgment to push further. Representatives of ad platforms offer great onboarding support and various campaign opportunities to new advertisers, and they will follow good practices including informing you that platform representatives do not take liability for the impact of their recommendations. This works well with agencies, too; however, they may not be great for a humble advertiser putting in most of his operational cash flow to grow. 

Key issues here:

1. An experienced campaign manager helps you make better decisions. 
2. Data changes often, and machines react brilliantly. However, without a skilled campaign manager, the machines’ performance will ultimately deteriorate when it cannot read real world information. 
3. We are unaware of who is targeted and how the ad message could be shaped to resonate and convert better. This creates an incentive to optimize for the machine, not for your audience.
4. The budget invested in advertising generates data about improvements that can be made to the product or offering, but since these insights are not transparent, advertising processes do not improve.
5. Often, agencies hide their technical team, so these ads could be run by someone equally good as yourself at the technical aspects of advertising. Hence, why hire in the first place?
6. Who owns the platform? And machine learning thus created with your monetary investment? You might say “obviously me”, think again.
7. The data generated by the platform, including leads: are you really the sole owner and user of those leads? You may say yes. Again, think again. 

Suggested solution: Ask an agency to create an ad platform under the brand’s ownership (please do pay for the agency’s work). Check associated work contracts/scopes and get clauses to protect the brand’s data and platforms. 

The WHEN problem

One has just spoken to an account manager about key changes or the application of certain recommendations made. You want to know the results of a test campaign that was executed (messaging, target audience, audience journey or offer). Without transparency, your key issues are: 

1. When was my change order executed? Time is money
2. When were the ads optimized, and what worked? After all, you want comparative information for business decisions. 
3. If something worked well, can we double down on what worked ASAP instead of the next month?
4. We often hear about creative fatigue and how it needs to be changed every 3 weeks. This is a myth, and I ask you to read up on advertising creative’s half-life. 
5. When is a particular ad strategy called a pass or a fail? A professional can offer good operational metrics to showcase the when aspect of every ad strategy. 
6. We have seen fully automated, machine-driven campaigns deteriorate in performance at a certain budget point, and they need to be broken apart. When does one execute a pivot? 
7. When can one pivot? Businesses grow in spurts and have stable periods. Without advertising data transparency, one is missing out on pivoting ability.

Suggested solution: Access to the platform forces alignment. Such transparency also improves operational efficiency at every level of the organization across all parties. 

The WHAT problem

While offering advertising audits, I found several reports showing clients that ads targeted “high-net-worth individuals.” On follow-ups for exactly “what” the configuration was, the answer often came back as “proprietary targeting” that had been gathered over the years. This so-called gathered information was from several websites, all feeding an ad platform that does not belong to these website owners. So, this does allow targeted ad platforms to work well. Others didn’t have any particular configuration at all (we found out via our own techniques). So the key issues are:

1. What other campaign configurations are possible to improve my results? 
2. What other target audience can I use? 
3. What is proprietary about a platform that cannot be built and owned by a brand themselves?

Suggested solution: Hire well-trained professionals, protect your interests, and use your own ad platforms. Data is the new oil and has been so since 2009.

The WHY problem

Curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction brought it back to life, giving it nine lives. As an ever-curious person, I ask myself why something works versus something that does not. Often, the answers arrive by combining insights and data from multiple sources.

 If your advertising budget and activities are a major part of your business, get in control.

So, HOW does one solve it?

Educated buyers demand better marketplaces, which is good for everyone. This is especially true for advertising. A generic machine-driven campaign will also automatically target your competitors, and so will their ads target yours. A generic, show my ad to everyone campaign is too broad and makes advertising expensive. Why: we operate in a world where we bid in auctions on each ad, and more auctioneers imply more cost. Read these resources from Google and Meta to deepen your knowledge. We do our bit to offer the best-of-the-class transparency to our clients using these processes: 

1. We help our clients become owners of their ads platform, data, and leads
2. It is mandatory for our members to get certified, and our hires go through extensive training before they work with our clients
3. Our team is accessible to our client (transparency of people)
4. We work closely with our clients to share all the data and insights they need to grow.
5. We document and record key lessons of success and failures that stay with our clients.

It is easier for our prospects to think of Mister Marketeer as an advertising agency, but our behaviors are otherwise. We are a marketing consultancy with an advertising forte. We act on behalf of our clients. An agent operating without transparency, by default, will not have the client’s best interests at heart. Mister Marketeer has operated its advertising trade with fundamental transparency practices and offers free consultations for clients who want a transparent and sustainable solution for their business. Contact us here.