DP Ball Advertising

Commission
When buying and placing traditional media, agencies work on a commission basis. This is commonly 15%. 
Hourly
When creative services requiring graphic design or production activities such as editing, adding graphics, and preparing files for specific media, billing is done at an hourly rate. We work hard to keep these costs below industry-standard fees, to benefit the dealers we work with. Our programming fees for website development and maintenance are some of the lowest in the industry, yet you receive high quality results. We understand small businesses, and work to keep costs down so your bottom line increases.
Transparency
Transparency in billing is important. We work hard to stay within your budget. Some agencies charge a monthly retainer to be available when you need them. Without it, you'll find your project fitting into a calendar of projects, that may have a waiting time of weeks or months. We don't charge a retainer. We charge by the project for the time spent. We provide these charges to you in a proposal before we start working with you. Many Agencies charge a 25-40% markup for digital media, such as AdWords campaigns. Be careful. If they aren't showing you their charges up front, they may be working this markup into your ad spend resulting in less actual advertising for your dollar.  At DP Ball Advertising we place the ad spend on your credit card, taking no markup. We supply a list of charges you will incur for ad, landing page, email, content, video creative and production. You remain in control, seeing your monthly ad spend charges on your credit card statement, and determining how frequently we change out your campaigns and promotions.

The best keep secret by businesses who use advertising agencies, is that they know it is more cost effective to outsource their marketing and advertising to an agency, than to hire personnel to do it in house. No doubt, the bigger the advertising budget, the more expensive and more 'in demand' the agency is that they select. But, relatively speaking, an in-house staff would still be more expensive.

Commonly, when small business owners and managers think of professional services they think in terms of advertising with a budget like Budweiser or Target. Small shops and businesses don't have these types of budgets, so they think ad agencies are out of their league. Nothing could be further from the truth. Typically agencies work on a commission basis when placing media. Usually it is 15%.

If you can purchase a billboard space for $1000 the agency can usually acquire it for $850.
If you can get the vinyl for the board printed for $800 they can get it printed for $680.

Billboard space and printing vinyl would cost you $1800.
If you use an agency, it will still cost you $1800.

Now, there is the fee for the creative work to come up with a concept, write the billboard copy, and layout and design the artwork. An agency knows to go to the manufacturer of your product for images, logos and branding slogans to expedite the process. The billboard company may expect you to provide the images, logos and branding slogans. And, they may expect you to provide high resolution images in a format you do not understand, which will cost you time, trouble and worry.

Professionals know the difference. And, they save you that time, trouble and worry. You would be paying the billboard company's creative person to generate the artwork, let's say $200. In fact, billboard creatives we have worked with in the past have charged between $150 to $250 an hour to generate your artwork. Or you would be paying the agency's creative person to generate the artwork that has been researched and developed by the ad agency with a strong message, excellent graphics, and all of their advertising knowledge and marketing expertise ---- for about $150 to $300.

So it could cost you a few dollars less or a few dollars more, but definitely in the same neighborhood.
Grand Total: Do it Yourself: $2000
Grand Total: Professional Agency: $1950 - $2050

That's basically how it works. As you can see, affording an agency, is like placing another member on your team, who is educated and experienced in advertising, and it doesn't cost you any more than you are currently paying. 

Transparency
Many Agencies charge a 25-40% markup for digital media, such as AdWords campaigns. Be careful. If they aren't showing you their charges up front, they may be working this markup into your ad spend. When budgeting $2000 for your ad spend, they may be delivering only $1200-$1500 worth of ads, while retaining $500-$800 of that $2000 spend for themselves. At DP Ball Advertising we place the ad spend on your credit card, taking no markup. Whatever other agencies are charging, you need to know so you can manage your budget effectively, and understand what to expect. We supply a list of charges you will incur for creative and production.

Creative Services and Production Charges
Creating display ads for digital campaigns, brochures, banners, outdoor media, newspaper ads and television overlays will incur a charge for the time spent. Production charges occur when creating television and radio commercials, which includes editing, and supplying the media channel with your advertising.

Digital Campaigns
Creating new display banner ads, text ad changes and creating landing pages all incur charges with each new promotion or event. We also charge for monitoring your campaign. This includes a/b testing of ads, changes we make to keywords, text ads, adding new ad groups that target specific consumers, We evaluate your ad performance, and work to improve the quality score of all of you ads to increase how frequently they are served and reduce your cost per click. We don't just 'set it and forget it'. We want you to get the most value for your dollar. You remain in control, seeing your monthly ad spend charges on your credit card statement. You should know exactly how much advertising you will receive for the budgeted ad spend. At DP Ball that amount is 100%. This makes a huge difference in the results you receive.