E-commerce marketing is competitive, technically difficult, and time-consuming. In many cases, hiring an agency is the most profitable move for your brand - and amazing for your time & stress levels. But you need to make sure that you’re working with the right people, as a bad agency hire will only compound your ROI woes further.

Here are 5 signs that your agency is negatively impacting your bottom line.

1. Poor Communication

Communication is key in any relationship, and that includes your relationship with your marketing agency. If you are finding it hard to speak openly with your agency or they take too long to respond to your requests, that's a sign of inefficiency. Poor communication leads to misunderstandings, which ultimately results in costly mistakes. Ensure that your agency has a clear communication system in place that you can rely on.

2. Vague or Inaccurate Campaign Data

Data is at the heart of e-commerce marketing. At Emotive, we consider our proprietary first-party pixel to be a huge driver of our success.

If your marketing agency provides vague or inaccurate data, that's another sign of risky incompetence. You need actionable data that informs your decisions and helps you optimize your campaigns. If you suspect that your agency is not providing you with accurate data, it's time to dig deeper and evaluate their performance.

3. Overpromising and Underdelivering

One of the most blatant signs of inexperience in an agency is overpromising and underdelivering. Bold claims, vague numbers, and catchy buzzwords are all fine, but if your campaigns are still struggling, you won’t convert. Evaluate the performance of your agency based on realistic and achievable metrics - namely, sales.

4. Using Outdated or Bad Marketing Tactics

Marketing strategies and tactics constantly evolve, and what worked a year ago may not work today. If your agency is still using outdated best practices, that's a sure sign of inefficiency. It's important to work with an agency that understands current marketing trends and is willing to adapt to change. Evaluate the strategies that your agency is employing and determine if they are up-to-date.

5. Lazy or ‘Set-and-Forget’ Campaigns

Marketing campaigns require effort, creativity, and adaptation to be successful. If your agency is delivering lazy campaigns that lack creativity and originality, that’s one way to sink a ship. Similarly, if your team isn’t getting the best data, A/B testing it, or relying on ‘intuition’ to qualify how they think your campaigns are going, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Stop working with marketers who guess. Get reliable data from first-party sources so you can create actionable metrics.

Emotive Growth Delivers Quantifiable Results

At Emotive, our goal is to grow your brand as efficiently as possible. This means not wasting your time or money on fluffy jargon while your ad campaigns fall flat.

We’ve partnered with Blotout to bring your brand true, first-party data so that we can identify more users - even those who shop anonymously. We also pride ourselves on having soft skills that match our marketing expertise. Real people working to get you real results that skyrocket your ROI. We even offer a 5x ROI Guarantee.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for a free demo today.