More and more businesses place a significant amount of importance on going digital. A lot of time those efforts are out-sourced to an agency. But what is a small company supposed to do when they go to an agency and that agency isn’t what they said they were, breach their contract or just disappear altogether? Another big problem is what if that agency flat out lies about the data they report back to the business?
So how can we all make sure our business partners in the digital marketing and advertising field are a LEGIT business partner? Let me introduce you to a company called TAG. They’ll give you a certificate on your website that is similar to the one Google and Bing provide which says you have been verified or as they like to say, “TAG’ed.”
They have four main goals:
The Association of National Advertisers teamed up with White Ops to conduct a study to determine the amount of fraud our field has seen and the numbers are outrageous! They were anticipating in 2016 that advertisers would lose over $7.2 BILLION dollars as an industry. This doesn’t just affect smaller companies either as Proctor and Gamble recently had an incident and is causing them to reconsider their contracts and also the companies they work with.
The Trustworthy Accountability Group is a revolutionary company in the aspect of fighting fraud and criminal activity within the digital advertising supply chain. Just some of the companies that have been TAG’ed include Google, Yahoo, Integral Ad Science, Conversant Media, as well as others.
Those services mentioned earlier are not cheap (ranging from $10,000-$65,000 per year for certain services and packages). So as an agency, why get verified? Easy, because businesses will want to spend their dollars with a company that is trusted and reputable.
Let me know what you think about having agencies being verified and also whether or not National Advertising Division of the BBB should step in!
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