An ad agency is a professional services firm hired to conceive and manage the showing of commercial messages, such as television ads, radio ads and online digital display advertising, for clients. The clients may be businesses (sole proprietorships, partnerships or LLC’s), corporations or non-profit organizations.
The top five ad agencies include WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Group, Interpublic Group and Dentsu. Each of these companies has different specializations but are all recognized as leaders in the industry and continue to push innovation for their clientele.
Ad agencies can assist small and large businesses, but they’re best suited for business that have a strong in-house marketing team but need help getting their content in front of the right audience. This is where an ad agency comes in as they can offer hyper-targeting and analytics tools that will lead to higher ROIs for your ad campaigns.
A typical ad agency is comprised of several departments that work together to create campaigns. Creative teams are responsible for producing ad images and messages that will be able to resonate with target market audiences across multiple platforms.
Account services are the bridge between clients and the rest of the ad agency to ensure that each party’s goals and needs are understood. Then there’s the media department, which helps clients buy ad spaces on multiple platforms. For example, ad space on Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The media department also includes art and graphic design teams that create visual concepts by hand or using graphic software that become print and digital ads.