In the fast paced world of digital marketing, staying ahead demands more than ever from agencies. Automation, a cornerstone in this demanding landscape, is no longer just an option—it’s a strategic imperative.
Navigating the intricacies of SEO, content marketing, and social media campaigns requires more than just significant manual effort. Discover how three forward thinking marketing agencies—faced with the daily complexities of their trade— have leveraged the transformative potential of automation, guided by the expertise of Acuto.
From amplified productivity and precise data management to unparalleled client satisfaction, learn more about how we helped reshape their operational paradigms for sustained success in the ever-evolving digital realm.
Understanding Automation for Marketing Agencies
Before delving into our success stories, let’s unpack what marketing automation truly involves and explore its transformative potential for your business.
Marketing automation involves utilising technology and software to handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks that would otherwise demand manual intervention. When it comes to marketing agencies, automation serves as a crucial tool for streamlining operations.
Through the automation of regular duties like deploying email campaigns, scheduling social media posts, and monitoring customer interactions, agencies can significantly decrease the menial tasks that prevent them from focusing on what really matters. This not only saves valuable time, but also mitigates the risk of human error, ensuring the consistent and accurate implementation of marketing strategies. Furthermore, marketing automation empowers agencies to craft personalised and targeted experiences for clients and their audiences, resulting in increased engagement and conversion rates.
Nevertheless, there are prevalent misconceptions about automation, which include viewing it as a one-size-fits-all remedy – or assuming it replaces human creativity entirely. It’s imperative to dispel these myths and acknowledge that automation complements human expertise rather than replaces it.
So let’s take a look at how!
Enhanced Budget Pacing & Alerts for KlientBoost
With over 100 clients, manual budget management systems struggle to keep up with budget pacing and become time consuming to update. Collaborating closely with Klientboost, we crafted a tailored solution designed for swift and efficient spend tracking.
Our custom system not only guarantees adherence to budget constraints, but also shields the team from the pitfalls of under or overspending through a proactive alert mechanism, ensuring timely notifications.
The clarity and accessibility of our solution are paramount—providing a transparent and user-friendly interface. Now, any team member can easily access a concise overview of account performance, empowering them with instant insights into how the accounts are faring.
The Challenge
Prior to seeking out Acuto’s assistance, Klientboost stored all their budget and account information in separate documents via Google Workspace.
Their system was updated manually, which worked well for individual clients but didn’t allow for a budget overview and spend pacing for the entire agency. With over 100 clients, budget pacing was time-consuming, risking accidental over and underspends.
Klientboost had already set up a data warehouse by using Funnel as marketing data hub, which meant they already had access to real-time spend data across different platforms.
Funnel makes it incredibly easy to connect multiple data sources to the same data warehouse, which allowed us to build a solution that would pull budget data accurately from multiple sheets into a single BigQuery table.
Our Solution
We created an automated system that merges real-time cost data with account and campaign budgets. By extracting budget data from the data warehouse, we efficiently amalgamated spend and budget data through a series of SQL queries.
Subsequently, we constructed a comprehensive report showcasing spend and budget details per account and team. This information was visually presented in a dashboard, enabling any agency member to swiftly grasp the pacing versus budgets.
To preempt significant over or underspending scenarios, our solution was fortified with embedded custom alerts. These alerts trigger email notifications to team members when spend deviates from pacing, ensuring prompt detection of pacing issues within the account.
The flexibility of our solution allows KlientBoost to customise alerts using a straightforward Google Sheet. This customisation extends beyond threshold settings (e.g., alert when 50% of the budget is spent) to determine the recipients: alerts can be directed to the entire team, specific account managers, or exclusively to directors and their immediate team.
How We Did It
- We initiated the process by developing a Google Apps Script capable of consolidating account information scattered across various Google Sheets into a unified BigQuery table.
- The integration extended to merging budget data with real-time cost information sourced from diverse platforms, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Reddit, Twitter, and others. Leveraging Funnel’s efficiency, we facilitated the swift extraction of data from multiple sources into BigQuery.
- Employing a customised SQL query, we seamlessly combined performance metrics with budget details. The subsequent step involved the creation of a comprehensive report using Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio), enriched with built-in filters such as client name and platform.
- Additionally, we incorporated custom filters, empowering employees to tailor the report to their specific requirements. The report not only provided a detailed insight but also featured data visualisation through metrics projecting monthly forecasts.
- To enhance managerial oversight, a dedicated page for historical views was crafted, enabling tracking of client spending trends over time.
- A script was implemented to generate custom alerts based on account spend pacing, ensuring timely notifications to relevant employees.
- Utilising Looker Studio, we visualised the sent alerts, managing email frequency and offering the team a concise overview of daily alerts sent per account/platform.Google Business 5-Star Review Auto-Reply Tool
Google Business 5-Star Review Auto-Reply Tool for Pain Free Dental Marketing
Google Business Profile is a free tool which lets businesses create and manage their online presence on Google, including sharing information, insights and reviews.
Replying to customer reviews is an important task for businesses, as it shows that they value their customer’s feedback and are committed to improving their experience every step of the way.
But why add more admin to your team’s workload when you can automate the process of replying to reviews with a Google Business Profile Auto Reply tool? Acuto built an auto reply system for Pain Free Dental Marketing so that their team can focus on implementing strategic marketing plans.
The Challenge
Navigating the growing workload of Pain-Free Dental Marketing posed a challenge when it came to responding to Google reviews. The need for swift and accurate replies to maintain their online reputation added complexity, especially in addressing more nuanced reviews.
Despite their dedication to prioritising customer satisfaction and maintaining top-notch service, managing the intricacies of responses within their marketing plan emerged as a specific challenge for Pain-Free Dental Marketing.
Our Solution
Acuto created a bespoke auto-reply tool that keeps track of all business locations, sending tailored responses in a friendly and conversational tone to every 5-star review received. This was done with the aim of increasing efficiency in and around feedback acknowledgement, customer satisfaction and attracting new customers.
Voilà! By reducing the admin workload of the Pain-Free Dental Marketing’s team, they have been able to focus more aptly on planning and implementation strategies–not to mention enjoy all the benefits that using our bespoke auto-reply tool has to offer.
These include increased efficiency, improved customer experience, consistency in response rate and quality, time saving, and stress-free reputation management. It’s a win-win all around!
How We Did It
Let’s dissect how we translated our proposal into direct action:
- We initiated by crafting a user-friendly Google Sheet exclusively for Pain-Free Dental Marketing. This sheet allows them to handpick clients for the auto-reply system. Within the sheet, a curated list of pre-written responses tailored to different review types is available. Each response incorporates placeholders, ensuring dynamic and personalised messages by seamlessly inserting essential business details.
- Implementing a Cloud Function, we established a daily review check routine. Whenever a 5-star review is identified, our system automatically generates a response. Leveraging the placeholders, it effortlessly populates the correct information, ensuring a tailored and contextually relevant reply to each unique review.
- Maintaining flexibility, Pain-Free Dental Marketing can easily introduce new clients or modify the response list as needed. Our system seamlessly adapts to these changes, providing convenience and control in their hands.
Google Sheets Extension for Sitruna
Having successfully linked all their Amazon data to a BigQuery data warehouse, Sitruna faced a hurdle in facilitating their team’s seamless and frequent utilisation for the required analyses. To address this challenge, we developed a Google Sheets add-on. This tool empowers anyone on the team to query any data effortlessly, eliminating the need for writing a single line of SQL code.
The Challenge
Specialising in Amazon, Sitruna aimed to democratise their extensive data—from listings to ads—making it accessible even for non-technical account managers. However, a reporting and analysis challenge arose due to the data being stored in Google BigQuery, and few account managers were proficient in SQL.
While Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) reports proved user-friendly, advanced use cases necessitated the seamless import of reports into Google Sheets. The existing process involved tedious hours of manual data manipulation, with one client alone demanding 5 hours of monotonous work each week.
The Solution
We devised a Google Sheets add-on, streamlining the report generation process at Sitruna so that anyone on the team can effortlessly pull reports from BigQuery in a matter of minutes.
The user-friendly interface involves a few simple dropdowns, allowing users to select the desired report, choose specific columns, and apply filters. In the background, the add-on translates these user inputs into an SQL query, retrieving the data from BigQuery and presenting it in a Google Sheet.
Upon achieving this, we recognized the broader potential—extending beyond Amazon data. By establishing connections to APIs and storing the data in BigQuery, we’ve made a variety of valuable data easily accessible. Now, team members at Sitruna can promptly query nearly any data of interest, fostering a more agile and data-driven decision-making process across the organisation.
How We Did It
- We devised a Google Sheets add-on that leverages the power of user-friendly dropdowns. These dropdowns serve as an intuitive interface, enabling any Sitruna team member to make selections regarding the desired report, specific columns, and applicable filters. Behind the scenes, the add-on dynamically translates these user inputs into an SQL query, a process handled seamlessly in the backend.
- This SQL query is then executed to pull the specified data from Google BigQuery. Once retrieved, the data is efficiently returned and displayed within a Google Sheet, offering a clear and accessible format for easy analysis and utilisation.
- Expanding our technical strategy, we integrated connectivity to various APIs, allowing us to source and store diverse sets of data in Google BigQuery. This comprehensive approach means that Sitruna’s team can now effortlessly access an extensive array of valuable data, irrespective of its origin. The end result is a technically sound and versatile solution that has significantly streamlined data access and analysis for Sitruna’s team.
Acuto Can Build Your Custom Automation Tools
Tired of repetitive marketing admin tasks?
We can help you build custom automation tools to supercharge your team’s efficiency. Bid farewell to tedious tasks and say hello to your agency’s expansion and growth.
At Acuto, we are firm believers in unleashing the full potential of agency automation. Our expertise lies in crafting custom automation scripts for businesses, freeing up valuable time otherwise spent on mundane tasks and allowing you to focus on what truly matters.
Our automation solutions span across various web apps, including Google Ads, Google Sheets, Meta for Developers, Authoritas, and more. Through close collaboration with your team, we develop tailored automation solutions that align precisely with your business needs.
Partnering with Acuto empowers you to launch promotion campaigns effortlessly using Google Ads scripts. Our team comprises experienced developers and data engineers well-versed in digital marketing and paid media. This unique skill set enables us to deliver robust automation scripts that handle the job efficiently, relieving you of the burden.
Choose Acuto for our proficiency in automation, saving you time, effort, and costs.
Let us handle the technical intricacies while you focus on the tasks that require your expertise to achieve your business goals.
Key Takeaways
As we’ve established, integrating automation within your marketing agency has the potential to enhance efficiency, elevate client satisfaction, and contribute to your overall success. Here are some key takeaways:
- Operational Streamlining: Automation significantly reduces manual workloads, enhancing operational efficiency and allowing your team to focus on strategic tasks that drive success.
- Enhanced Client Satisfaction: Harness the power of automation to deliver personalised, data-driven insights that strengthen client relationships and contribute to long-term satisfaction and retention.
- Scalability and Service Consistency: Ensure consistent service quality and scalability as your agency expands, with automation playing a pivotal role in maintaining excellence across a growing client base.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: Leverage automation to gain valuable data insights, enabling informed and strategic decision-making that drives success in the dynamic marketing landscape.
- Strategic Timing for Implementation: Recognize the opportune moments for automation implementation, such as growing workloads, overwhelming data volumes, scalability needs, demand for personalization, or heightened market competition.
- Adaptability for Success: Tailor your automation strategy to align with the unique needs of your agency and evolving client expectations, ensuring sustained success in a dynamic and competitive marketing environment.