Who should make my ads? Here are your options – and pros and cons

Who should make my ads?: the DIY approach

Pro #1: It’s affordable.

If you have the skills and time to design your own ads, you could save yourself a lot of money! This works best if you have an in-house creative team. No need to outsource the work if you know you can do it already.

Pro #2: You know your brand best.

Nobody knows your business like the people who work for it. You spend your days immersed in your brand – and that’s expertise that takes time to be communicated to a creative partner. You already know the strengths and struggles of your business and can easily incorporate that knowledge into your creatives.

Con #1: You might not have the time.

Good creatives don’t grow on trees. (And even if they did, it would take time!) Many small-to-mid-size businesses are already stretched thin, and adding creative work on top of everything else might be too much for your team.

Con #2: You might not have the expertise.

Not every business has a full marketing team, and many marketing teams don’t have people who specialize in the kinds of design you need. And that’s okay! But if you really want HTML5 creatives, for example, and your marketing team doesn’t know how to make them, you’ll either have to pay them to learn how (which can take a long time) or you’ll need to outsource anyway.

Who should make my ads?: the vendor approach

Pro #1: It keeps things streamlined.

No two ways about it: the fewer hands your creatives must pass through on their way to being trafficked, the simpler things are for you. Fewer touchpoints mean fewer opportunities for miscommunications and points of failure. At the end of the day, this will make your job easier.

Pro #2: It tends to be affordable.

One of the main reasons this is a popular setup is simple: in exchange for agreeing to run a sizable portion of your ad budget with a certain vendor, they’ll usually give you a good rate on the creative work. If you have a limited advertising budget, this can be a lifesaver.

Pro #3: Vendors are experts on platform requirements.

Since they’re the ones who will be running your ads, vendors can build your ads perfectly to spec. No need to scramble to convert files to different formats or sizes – they already know what to do, because they do it every day!

Con #1: Vendors don’t know your brand.

Like we said earlier – no one knows your brand like you do. But a dedicated creative team has the time to get to know your brand, your struggles, and your goals. And since vendors are not primarily creative focused, they may not be able to devote as much time to learning those crucial facts. This doesn’t mean that the vendor is guaranteed to miss the mark, but it does make it more likely.

Con #2: Your vendor likely won’t be media neutral.

Let’s face it: most of the time, vendors aren’t offering to do your creative work merely out of the goodness of their hearts. Most of the time, they agree to do creative work for you in exchange for a guarantee that you’ll place a certain amount (or all) of your media spend with them specifically. It’s smart business for them, but it does mean that your reach may be limited. We’ve discussed the importance of media neutrality before – if you need a refresher, check out our article here. But the bottom line is that they’ll be placing your media with themselves because it benefits them, not necessarily because it’s the best choice for your business.

Con #3: You may not own the work vendors do for you.

The biggest risk you take when choosing to work with a vendor for your creative work is that, often, the vendor will own the rights to whatever work they do for you. Work done by a vendor is usually owned by the vendor, with the understanding that you will run your ads with them. This can result in situations where you’re locked into spending your advertising budget with a certain station because they own your work – even if they’re not the best fit for your needs.

Before you sign any contracts to have vendors do your creative work, make sure you understand what you’re agreeing to. Some vendors may not let you have their creative assets at all. Some may release them for a fee. Regardless, it’s important to know before you sign anything. You don’t want to get yourself in a situation where you want to run your ads on a different station, but you don’t have any photos, videos, or completed creatives to work with.

Who should make my ads?: the agency approach

Pro #1: Agencies are staffed with experts.

People who live and breathe advertising are going to be the people best equipped to create excellent work. They know what’s effective and what’s not, and they’ll have both the knowledge and experience to make high-quality ads. The best agencies can succeed from both a visual and strategic perspective, giving you ads that are well poised to deliver on your goals and look great doing it.

Pro #2: You own any work they do for you.

When you work directly with a creative agency, the work they do belongs to you. You won’t be locked in to placing your ads on a certain channel just because that channel owns your creatives. This gives you the freedom to take your ads wherever they will perform best – and that will likely be seen in your results.

Con #1: Agency work can be expensive.

Of course, the fact that you’re getting the best work possible is going to come with a corresponding higher price tag. Expertise costs money. Of course, expertise can also get you better results. Whether the extra cost is worth it to potentially get more effective performance is something each individual business will have to decide.

Con #2: Agency work can be expensive.

When you either do creative work yourself or have a vendor do it, the chain from your business to trafficked ads is much shorter. No way around it – working with an agency for your creative needs adds one more link in that chain, and with that link comes the potential for miscommunications and delays. A good agency will have processes in place to avoid this, but you can’t avoid the fact that this is a risk.