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Creative Scaling

5 biggest performance marketing challenges for agencies (+Solutions)

In today’s world, it is needless to say that paid social advertising is an integral component of almost every business's marketing strategy. Ad spending on social media is projected to reach USD $384.9B by 2027 but here's the problem: only a fraction of that money is used effectively.

Many agencies struggle to optimize their performance marketing campaigns while working with brands. Whether it is the challenge of creating a large volume of personalized creatives, launching campaigns faster, or improving the results of retargeting campaigns, there are only a few agencies that are on top of their game.

If these problems sound familiar, you’ve come to the right place. Hunch specifically caters for agencies that are looking to manage and scale campaigns. By the time you’re done reading this blog, you will be equipped with valuable insights on how to drastically improve your performance marketing efforts.

Here are five major performance marketing challenges that plague agencies and how you can solve them.

#1 Improving the ROI on ad spend


If you’re a performance marketer, chances are this is one of your biggest pain points. Campaign optimization is becoming increasingly difficult due to the lack of transparency by ad-tech companies and complex regulations being set in place. How can you prove to your clients that their ad spend is being utilized effectively?

The most obvious solution to this problem is by creating contextual and personalized ads at scale. According to a neuroscientific study on contextual ad effectiveness, ads with the most contextual relevance elicited 43% more neural engagement and 2.2 times better ad recall. The net result? Higher CTR, an improved conversion rate, and more satisfied customers. In short, there is nothing more valuable than being able to deliver the right creative at the right time.

Personalized ads at scale Hunch
Adwise used contextual ads for their client Lucardi.

Now, this solution may sound simple but successful execution is the real problem. After all, most agencies or even large brands don’t have the bandwidth to hire large design teams for tedious and repetitive tasks such as creating countless variants of ads or creative testing. This is where creative automation has a profound impact.

By automating parts of the creative generation process you not only have the ability to scale your marketing efforts instantly, but you are also able to experiment with your performance marketing strategies. This enables you to find a winning strategy for your clients and showcase the improved ROI with the help of AI and analytical data. (Or maybe when they realize that leads/sales are starting to pour in they’ll figure it out themselves?)

#2 The demise of the third-party cookie


Online advertising (and especially retargeting campaigns) have been massively impacted due to the dwindling effectiveness of cookies. This is a result of both GDPR regulations in the EU and a “privacy-first” stance taken by large tech companies. Google has announced to phase out cookies from Chrome entirely by 2024. As an agency, you must have a strategy in place to ensure you are still able to target customers effectively.

If your advertising efforts largely rely on third-party data, you don’t need to panic. Even though third-party data allows you to place ads directly in front of an audience that matches predetermined profiles, you can place PPC ads on websites that rank for similar keywords as your ad with the help of contextual advertising. For example, if you’re selling musical equipment, your PPC ad could show up on all music-related websites.

To get the most out of your contextual advertising efforts, you must implement dynamic creative optimization. One of the best parts about dynamic creatives is that you can deliver personalized ads at a large scale while maintaining brand consistency.

#3 Cross-functional collaboration between teams


Consider the following instances where there is a high likelihood of delays or even errors while running a marketing campaign:

  • Back and forth with clients to get approvals for creatives
  • Internal collaboration between marketing and design teams
  • Dealing with external stakeholders

Centralizing your project management is the key to solving this problem. Having your entire workflow in one place where all stakeholders have the ability to collaborate seamlessly is highly underrated.

A unified project management dashboard also allows you to automate workflows and decrease the likelihood of any errors. You are able to oversee a project from start to finish, assign varying levels of access, and manage approvals all in one place.

on-brand templates Hunch
Create on-brand templates to maintain brand consistency.

Hunch provides a centralized hub for you to swap out assets, convert data into creatives, and maintain brand consistency. This is a boon for both small and large teams as it allows for much smoother collaboration and reduces the chances of any mishaps.

#4 Managing omnichannel media campaigns

Omnichannel campaigns Hunch

Omnichannel ad support is essential for any performance marketing agency. Your clients will likely require creatives for Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and perhaps even niche social platforms. Now imagine how tedious it would be to run multiple campaigns on different platforms concurrently!

It can be highly problematic for marketers to manage omnichannel media campaigns as there will be highly individualized formats and requirements for each. Having an integrated media planning system is highly recommended for being able to facilitate this.

This is yet another scenario where a creative management platform delivers significant value. Hunch’s creative export feature allows you to customize your dynamic creative assets according to the requirements of every channel you intend to export them to. These data-driven creatives lead to a more successful omnichannel campaign experience. Even if you do run into any issues, you will be able to identify and fix them swiftly.

#5 Bottlenecks in creative workflows and long turnaround times

Creative workflows


Features such as pre-built templates, multi-point integration, AI-powered resizing and PSD import support allow you to launch campaigns fast. This is highly valuable for performance marketers and agencies of all sizes.

Using a creative management platform such as Hunch, you are able to manage client campaigns seamlessly because the amount of manual and repetitive work is minimized. The chances of human error are also eliminated, which further decreases turnaround time.

The benefits of a CMP don't stop there: you can also access valuable product insights that help pivot your performance marketing efforts in the right direction.

ad localization example
Make your creative relevant using ad localization.

What if you’re a small agency with no in-house design team? Hunch’s Creative Studio allows you to create dynamic designs using product data without needing the help of dedicated designers.

Enhance your performance marketing efforts with Hunch

Enhance your performance marketing with Hunch

DCO and Creative Automation are the two pillars of Paid Social advertising which drastically impact the ROAS of any business.

We hope you found this article to be useful and gained a better understanding of how creative automation can solve challenges around creative processes for agencies.

As a Meta Business Partner, Hunch helps agencies deliver advanced, intelligent marketing strategies for their clients on Paid Social. If you would like to know more, get in touch and we’d be happy to showcase our product in action or answer any questions you may have!