This is due to all the implications that this decision entails in relation to work culture, operational processes and communication between team members.

Let’s look at each point in detail:

Work culture: This must always accompany the management system. Values, beliefs and behaviors must go hand in hand with the selected software.

Operational Processes: The management system must be consistent with its internal circuits, processes or flows and thus achieve procedural economy.

Communication between team members: The management system must be the oil that lubricates the relationship between the different areas. Not only allowing assertive communication from the application itself but also generating alerts/notifications in critical business scenarios.

In a competitive context like the current one, you must always stay updated on the latest technological trends and you will achieve this competitiveness by automating processes and applying good administrative management practices. Here we will explain how you can get it.

Use this free guide to learn about different technology options so you can:

• inform you
• assess
• compare
• select

This includes:

• Tips so you can identify your needs
• Functional aspects that you should consider at the time of your evaluation
• What tools and features to look for

What is an ERP for Advertising Agencies?

When we talk about companies that are responsible for promoting brands and promoting products, key aspects within Digital Marketing, for example, advertising and marketing, we are talking about both ATL and BTL advertising.

What is ATL advertising?

Its initials represent an abbreviation of Above The Line or, in Spanish, sobre la line. A term that refers to all advertising and marketing actions that are aimed at a mass audience without any type of segmentation. ATL advertising and marketing use traditional media such as radio, television, written press or outdoor advertising.

What is BTL advertising?

BTL or Below The Line advertising, which in Spanish means below the line, is not, in fact, an opposite concept to the previous one. It is important to clarify that ATL and BTL are not antonyms. In short, BTL advertising refers to promotional activities that are direct, and above all, specific. This type of advertising aims to reach a very defined segment of the audience or the total population of consumers.

For this reason, BTL uses very clear marketing strategies and planning, where conversions are, mainly, the objective. BTL advertising is supported by product placement, advergaming, displays, Direct Marketing, advertising in online media and sponsorships. And because it is so specific and direct, it allows you to study and analyze the levels of effectiveness with some ease.

But what is ERP software for agencies and how is it different from traditional ERPs?

It is a software that covers all the needs of advertising and marketing agencies, from ATL or BTL campaign planning, facilitates collaborative work, controls each of the processes and automates all repetitive tasks.

Why do you need an ERP for your advertising agency?

When your agency begins to grow in collaborators and clients, tasks and processes also multiply. It is in this context that management software can support you and help you in planning and automation.

Then you need it because you will be able to have:

Full visibility

Centralized operations allow your team to quickly access the complete information that corresponds to them. Operatives will get their tasks instantly, and managers will be able to analyze projects and results for themselves. In this way the administration can always have knowledge of the live situation.

Scalability

The system has the possibility of continuing to satisfy the needs of your agency while it grows. The ERP is flexible enough to, for example, facilitate the entry and elimination of users, allowing control and change in the configuration of access to old and new users.

Systematization of tasks

Thanks to ERP software you will be able to have all your information in one place and in this way you will eliminate all the scattered Excel spreadsheets that each member of your team maintains to carry out their tasks. A single database allows you to enter information only once and for it to be reused whenever necessary, saving a lot of time, facilitating access and automating and systematizing processes.

Validated processes

You will be able to gain efficiency and accuracy by applying validated and accepted processes such as
industry best practices. We recommend that you apply defined workflows whenever possible, standardizing processes since standardization decouples people from processes. The uniqueness of the database democratizes information, eliminating the walls between the different departments of the company.

Client/Job Margin

Be the first to know if a project presents losses and the reason for them, as you will be able to access the balance sheet of any project with truly online information. You won’t need anyone on your team to gather information from multiple sources to put together a dubious project margin report.

Controlled media purchases

Always issue your purchase orders in a controlled manner and through approval flows to different roles if you require it. Automatically links those purchase orders that originate from a sell order.

This way you will be sure that all the orders that are made are mirror images. Compare supplier invoices with the conditions agreed in purchase orders before making payments.

Ordered Quotes

Make quote requests to suppliers in a professional and orderly manner, ensuring correct management and traceability. Present your clients with offers issued directly from the system and issue purchase orders approved by the client.

Transparency

Managing the entire agency on a single platform allows you to see all your projects, whether agency or Media Projects, and know exactly their status, progress, time spent, sales orders and purchase orders placed, jobs that have already been delivered, pending work, check-ins completed and pending check-ins. You will also be able to easily navigate through all the documents related to the project.

Financial control

It has the financial information of each project at all times and complies with all accounting regulations for revenue recognition, accurately and securely.

RECOMMENDATION:

Each area of your company needs to access its information quickly and completely to carry out its work efficiently. The management software you select will be vital to facilitate work in all departments of the advertising agency.

Benefits

Resource allocation

You will be able to assign a collaborator to each task and have complete visibility and traceability of the projects.

Cost reduction

Thanks to predefined workflows, your agency will gain agility and response to the client without incurring extra costs and time.

Fast and secure billing

Having a system for the operation and another for billing and accounting, makes the operating universe is never exactly the same as the document and accounting universe. The reports must be done many times manually, wasting too much time to
achieve an inaccurate result.

With a cloud system you streamline your agency’s entire workflow, from the quote to the client to the invoice for the media, work performed or fees.

Analysis

Both collaborators and managers can analyze projects and results by themselves and in real time.

Main features

Definition of Jobs

To manage a large or small campaign, it is essential to work on as many tasks as that work contains. That way, once we have each task identified and entered into the system, we can manage it independently.

Job statuses

Each job has a situation at all times called a state. This gives us visibility of each person’s situation at all times.

Job assignment

The different jobs can be entrusted to different members of the team, for this they are assigned and each member manages it until it is finished and assigned to another member or closed.

Contracts with clients and suppliers

Unifies the information of what was agreed with the client and suppliers.

Projects linked to contracts

Each project is linked to client or supplier contracts, making it very clear what the agreements are with each of them.

Checkins

Control of emissions from parts of different media.

Online accounting

Each task or transaction is recorded online allowing the information to always be up to date.

Results by project

The economic result of each project work is always available to whoever has visibility permits.

Dashboards and business indicators

All types of visual analysis and business indicators.

How to select an ERP for agencies

Choosing the right ERP software adapted to the needs of your agency requires an exhaustive evaluation of various aspects. In such a dynamic and flexible industry, it is key that you make previously informed decisions about the chosen deployment.

Let’s look at some aspects to take into account:

Friendly interface

Look for ERP solutions that prioritize the user experience through intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces.

Analyze a customer profitability analysis

It is essential to prioritize an ERP that provides you with a transparent analysis of the prospect/customer’s profitability. The ability to distinguish between customers that positively contribute to revenue and those that will potentially impact profitability is necessary for decision making.

Being able to make an accurate assessment of customer relationships allows you to strategically allocate resources and optimize your revenue stream.

Time: effective and efficient tracking

We recommend choosing an ERP software that not only incorporates timesheets but also automates tasks such as generating invoices from advance projects. This is because accurate time tracking will result in accurate billing, efficient resource planning, and live budget and margin tracking.

Smooth quote-to-cash flow

A robust ERP system should include a fully integrated quote-to-cash flow, which includes timesheets, project planning, forecasting, and resource allocation. Thanks to this holistic approach, your agency will be able to proactively manage staff needs and align resources to demand.

Margins and budgets monitored in real time

An effective enterprise resource planning system should give you live monitoring of budgets and margins, making it easier for you to control profitability and financial health. This capability is key in the advertising industry since project scopes can evolve quickly due to client needs.

Thanks to real-time information you can identify inconsistencies, adapt strategies and maintain a solid financial position.

Recommendation

Always choose open systems that can easily integrate with industry-leading technologies.

Stages of a campaign

Planning

Media Plan

Media planning is the process by which advertisers create a plan to guide an advertising campaign. In fact, every successful advertising campaign begins with a media plan.

This is a fundamental first step in any advertising campaign. The tangible result of the media planning process is a media plan document that will guide your advertising campaign.

Benefits of having a media plan

Have more organization throughout your advertising campaign
Manage your campaign budget
Better understand your audience through your prior research
Have a reference point to compare future advertising campaigns
Planning stages
Strategic media plan
Detailed media plan
Shipping to customer
Customer approval
Media plan execution

Each stage has its characteristics, responsible parties and moments.

Media planning begins with the design of the Strategic Plan, which is coordinated with the client and may have several twists and turns until its final version and client approval.

After this approval, the different vehicles and means that will make up the plan are detailed. Until we reach the final version that will be the one that is executed.

Benefits of having media planning connected to media buying?

Do not duplicate data entry
Delete excel spreadsheets
Greater control of compliance with the budget approved by the client
Less administrative work

Campaign execution

A common practice is to group each customer request within a grouping, called a campaign or project. In this way it is possible to analyze its result as a whole as well as allowing the billing sector to group all the different concepts.

In turn, each campaign can contain several new groupings, which can be the different media that participate in that campaign.

Within the Campaigns that the client wants, all the concepts they want can be included, such as:

Internal Production, in which all creative works can be included.
External production, for example the filming of an advertising spot
Buying/selling media, intermediating in traditional advertising media or digital media

Internal production

It encompasses all the creative work that the agency does for its clients.

External production

From quoting external services requested by your clients, sending proposals to your clients, choosing, contracting the supplier and billing the client.

Buy/Sell media

In compliance with the approved media plan, purchase of the advertising medium, determination of the advertising vehicle, emission control by the medium, billing to the client and collection.

Recommendation

We suggest you select open systems that are easily extendable with personal characteristics of your company. Avoid closed systems with difficult or expensive customizations.

Financial analysis of the campaign

How do you analyze your campaign without an ERP?

1.Analysis of projects using spreadsheets

Using spreadsheets to analyze the results by project will mean that the results are not analyzed by project, that the result of the analysis will be inaccurate, expensive and not online, and that the result will depend on who prepares it.

2 Project analysis using external systems

Using external systems that require income and costs, not connected to the agency’s ERP, will always cause:

Duplication of data entry
Inaccuracy, since it does not capture all the data
Non-consideration of the results for
Exchange Difference
Non-consideration of extra expenses applied to the project caused by different areas
Higher costs
Errors

3. Analysis of your campaigns/Projects with an ERP

Project analysis through accounting

This is the most accurate and efficient system, since it uses the transactions that are carried out to obtain exact, unique and indisputable results at all times. Aligning existing documents with accounting. In this way we will obtain, without any effort, the complete balance of each project, with the detail that has been defined in its plan of accounts.

For this to happen, we must first ensure the following aspects:

that transactions have parameterized accounting accounts
that transactions are recorded on the spot
that the imputations of manual entries are minimal or non-existent
that exchange differences are automatically calculated per transaction

Beautiful young woman using her laptop in the office.

Analysis of your campaigns / Projects with an ERP

Project analysis through accounting

For this to happen, we must first ensure the following aspects:

that transactions have parameterized accounting accounts
that transactions are recorded on the spot
that the imputations of manual entries are minimal or non-existent
that exchange differences are automatically calculated per transaction.

Flexible or rigid ERP

Advertising agencies move at the pace of their operations and also at the speed of business changes. This requires that the ERP you select respond quickly and effectively to demand for improvements. That is, you need software that adapts to changes in the shortest possible time.

Recommendation

Software that is flexible in its maintenance does not mean that it is less solid in management (accounting, financial, administrative and operational). On the contrary, a system that is rigid in its maintenance may not be solid in management.

Indicators

Response time:

The response time regarding a request for software improvement or development is strongly related to the amount of resources needed to release a specific IT solution. In this sense, a system developed in different layers allows parameterization or customization without the need for development.

This allows the response speed to be much higher when faced with a possible need for improvement compared to a system that always requires the intervention of a developer to release an improvement.

System type:

Another factor with an impact on time corresponds to the type of system: whether it is installed on the agency’s server or if it is a cloud system. In the latter case, response times are shorter due to the direct connection to the database and the lower number of iterations necessary to implement an improvement.

Conclusion

We present this guide with the aim of explaining why an ERP system is a key element in building success in the management of your advertising agency and why today it is highly necessary to have this type of system, in the midst of digital transformation.

In a competitive environment like the current one, you must always stay updated and efficient, this competitiveness will be achieved by automating processes and applying good practices of operational and administrative management.

How to achieve this? By having a professional ERP software that guarantees a sustained growth to your agency.