AMS · Agency SourcingProcurement notes for marketing buyers

Category · Amsterdam

The best Online Advertising Agencies in Amsterdam

Paid media is an auction, and most of the outcome is decided by things that are not the auction: what you sell, what the landing page says, and how quickly bad creative is switched off.

What you are buying

  • Search: intent already exists; the job is capture and efficiency.
  • Social and display: intent must be created; the job is creative volume and fast iteration.
  • Retargeting: cheap, flattering in reports, and the easiest place to overstate contribution.

How it is priced

  • 47%Flat retainerFee independent of spend. Cleanest incentive.
  • 38%Percentage of spendCommon, simple, and rewards larger budgets.
  • 15%Hybrid with bonusBase fee plus an agreed result component.

Rough share of engagements. A flat fee is the only structure where the supplier loses nothing by telling you to spend less.

Running the selection

Give each bidder read access to the current account and ask what they would change in week one. The specificity of the answers ranks them for you.

Ask how many creative variants they would run per month, and who makes them. Paid social is a creative production problem wearing a media costume.

Check what they do when a campaign underperforms for two weeks: pause, iterate, or explain.

Put these in the contract

Account structureLegible naming, sensible segmentation, no orphaned campaigns spending quietly.
Creative throughputA number per month, agreed in advance.
Landing page ownershipWho can change the page, and how fast.
Frequency capsSomebody is watching how often one person sees the same ad.
Weekly decision logWhat was changed, why, and what happened.

Ask before you sign

  1. What would you change in the account in week one?
  2. How many new creative variants per month, and who produces them?
  3. How do you separate retargeting from genuine new demand?
  4. What is the fee if we cut the media budget in half?
  5. What does your weekly report ask us to decide?

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