The Truth Behind Hiring Cheap Marketing Agencies
Cheap Marketing = Cheap Results
What do you think about homeowners who choose to go with the cheapest home services business? Rather than partnering with a trusted home services business like yourself with an impeccable reputation, years of experience, quality people, and first-class tools, they simply ask, “What’s it going to cost me?”
You probably know that those homeowners may end up calling you shortly after to FIX what the cheap home services business messes up. Regardless, you know that by opting for the cheapest home services business, those unsuspecting homeowners will most likely experience:
- A lack of communication
- Delayed service
- Late, rude, and unprofessional technicians
- A shoddy or incomplete job
- Upsells, add-ons, and an invoice with “gotcha” fees
Yet, even though there’s a giant chasm between the quality work your team performs for a fair price and your area’s cheapest option, there will always be homeowners who only look at the price.
The same can be said when it comes to comparing a cheap marketing agency and a quality marketing agency.
Why Chasing “The Cheap Option” In Marketing May Be Tempting
Considering the cheapest option, no matter the product or service, is always tempting. However, you learn through experience. Otherwise, the roadways would be swarming with Kia Fortes and Nissan Versas rather than the popular Honda Accords and Tesla Model Y’s. Everyone would be drinking Sam’s Cola rather than Coke or Pepsi. Americans would be wearing Great Value sneakers rather than opting for Nike or Adidas.
But that’s simply not the case. People want VALUE. They want a return on their investment. They want quality. They want results.
Just as some homeowners will seek out the cheapest home services business, some owners of home services businesses will source the cheapest digital marketing services from a digital marketing agency for home services. Yes, it’s always tempting, and here’s why.
Cheap marketing offers:
- The illusion of a bargain — Everyone wants a deal. Low upfront marketing costs make the barrier to entry feel nonexistent.
- Low risk — Most home services businesses have tried multiple marketing initiatives that haven’t brought in qualified leads. Rather than risk investing more money, they seek out low budget solutions.
- Control over cash flow — Too many owners start with their budget in mind. They know they have X dollars to spend on marketing. However, the goal should be to focus on the marketing ROI rather than your marketing budget.
What You Get (And Lose) By Hiring A Cheap Marketing Agency
As the owner of a successful home services business, you’ve learned what it takes to make a profit. You must hire a solid team and pay them well. You need quality products that your techs depend on. You need insurance and licensing. Perhaps you need trucks. The list goes on. However, if you slashed your price to the bone, something would have to give.
The same concept applies to today’s digital marketing agencies, especially when evaluating marketing agency cost versus the marketing ROI and results you receive. They also must invest in a team, tools, and technology. Therefore, your area’s cheapest marketing agencies must cut their own costs somewhere.
If you are considering signing on with one of these cheap marketing agencies, don’t be surprised when this is what you get:
Cookie-Cutter Service Packages
Cheap marketing agencies often use a “one-size-fits-all” package for all of their clients. The results: your marketing becomes a carbon copy of your competitor’s marketing. What’s worse, the cheap agency approaches your business the same way they approach marketing the donut shop down the street.
Outsourced Labor
In order to keep their prices so cheap, many of these discount marketing agencies outsource their labor. This means that you’re not working one-on-one with an account manager. Rather, your business’s website, ads, design work, and writing are all handled across the world where it’s 3 o’clock in the morning and they don’t speak English. Beyond the communication barrier, these overseas workers are often entry-level and have no clue about your business or your goals.
Vanity Metrics Instead of Metrics Focused on Marketing ROI
Any digital marketing agency for home services worth its salt cares about getting you results. However, cheap marketing agencies have a track record for caring about the wrong results. Rather than qualified leads, phone calls, bookings, and sales, they focus on vanity metrics. Views. Likes. Follows. Traffic spikes. These vanity metrics may look good in a report, but they don’t impact your bottom line. At month’s end, your revenue and profits are still weak while you may be setting records in Likes and Shares. Yawn.
Generalization Rather Than Specialization
Because these cheap marketing agencies charge so little for their services, they need volume to make ends meet. Therefore, they sign every client that comes to them. Their clients can span from a roofing company in Detroit to a makeup manufacturer in San Diego to a home chef in Miami. Yet, somehow that cheap marketing agency will offer the same tired marketing templates, strategies, and solutions for all of them. Because they are a generalist marketing agency that never truly know their clients, their clients will never know good results.
Poor Tracking and Unclear ROI
Back in the 1950s, advertising agencies didn’t have a clue which campaigns were working and which ones were sucking wind. There was nothing to track. It was all assumptions and guesswork. In today’s digital age, just about everything in marketing can be tracked, quantified, and accounted for. Unfortunately, cheap marketing agencies rarely have the sophisticated tracking necessary to determine clear marketing ROI and understand which campaigns are truly generating revenue.
Simple, auto-generated reports contain little to no analysis or recommendations. The result: you keep doing what doesn’t work over and over again. That’s the definition of insanity.
Lack of Insights, Recommendations, and Support
You hire a marketing agency because they are the experts. However, too often home services business owners are disappointed after hiring cheap marketing agencies because there is little expertise and almost no communications. Wanting proactive recommendations? Forget it. Need insights into how to generate more leads? Not happening. Rather than a marketing agency that actively grows with you go to grow your business, you’re left flailing in the wind without any support.
Hidden Costs and Upsells
Just like every business, the cheap marketing agency wants to make money, too. That’s why too many marketing agencies nowadays nickel and dime their clients at every turn. While the monthly costs may seem reasonable, a surprise fee is tied to most every service. Any deviation from the bare-bones plan triggers an extra cost. Revisions = $$. Strategy adjustments = $$. Advanced analytics = $$.
Differences You Can Expect From A Serious Marketing Partner
What you invest in a digital marketing agency does matter, but marketing agency cost should never be evaluated without considering the marketing ROI. However, if your main goal is to partner with New Jersey’s cheapest marketing agency, you can expect to pay less and receive less results.
Rather than focus on the money you’re investing in a marketing agency, the most successful home services companies have a different perspective. They focus on the return on investment that the marketing brings in. They focus on the leads, phone calls, and sales. They look at their bottom line revenue and profits that the digital marketing agency created for them.
Here are the differences you can expect when you partner with a quality marketing agency (and not the cheapest in town):
Marketing that Moves the Needle — The minute you move past vanity metrics like impressions, clicks, or followers, you’re ready to make a real impact with your marketing. Quality digital marketing agencies focus on your marketing ROI and Return on Ad Spend (RoAS). For every dollar you invest, your marketing agency bends over backwards to multiply its revenue.
Lead Quality vs. Quantity — That cheap marketing agency may consider every new Facebook follow or YouTube subscriber as a new lead. Digital marketing agencies work hard to make your phones ring. Those are REAL leads that become business.
Real-Time Reporting that Drives Business Decisions — While cheap marketing agencies keep giving you empty metrics such as website traffic, follows, shares, and Likes, quality agencies provide real-time reporting with strategic transparency. A strong agency partner provides actionable recommendations based on trends and platform shifts.
Custom Solutions for Your Business — Rather than offer the same old marketing package that everyone else gets, a quality digital marketing agency for home services builds a strategic marketing campaign around your specific goals.
Real People You Can Meet — While those knockoff cheap agencies may be 100% AI or outsource their entire team, quality digital marketing agencies are here. In your state. In your city. Not only do they speak your language, they care about your results.
Transparent and Fair Pricing — No gimmicks or gotchas here. When you make the leap to a quality digital marketing agency, you get upfront pricing that’s 100% clear. And when you compare your investment to your bottom line results, it’s a much better deal than going with the cheap guys.
Vast Experience and Specializations — Don’t let those cheap-o marketing agencies learn on your dime. Choose a proven digital marketing agency with years of experience, a track record of results, and a list of satisfied customers.
Choose Results, Choose Spartan Digital Solutions
Need a new logo? Wanting to tweak your online presence? Simply need a few more social media posts a week? Then that cheap marketing agency across town may do the trick.
However, when you’re ready to transform your presence online, when you want to drive considerable more leads online, when you need a measurable marketing ROI that sets quarterly records, you want the battle-tested marketing team of Spartan Digital Solutions.
But, don’t take our word for it, prove it to yourself. Request your FREE Lead Generation Battle Plan, and discover why partnering with Spartan Digital can impact your bottom line.
We will review your website, SEO, Google visibility, paid ads, reviews, and conversion path to identify what is holding your local service company back from generating more qualified opportunities.