Digital media must be set up correctly, or they won’t come

Most organisations are keen to work with partners that offer an integrated media and creative offering when they’re building or revamping a website — whether that solution is offered by a single agency or two that work together in a tight collaborative relationship. As advantageous as this can be, my experience in digital media suggests that it’s even more important to find a partner that brings together digital media and website development in a single solution.

Over the years, I have worked closely with dozens of clients embarking on major website builds. As anyone who has been involved in such a project knows, the development needs to crunch through a huge backlog of tasks to meet the go-live deadline. The focus inevitably falls on getting the important features into place and making sure that everything works properly. Media tends to fall by the wayside in the rush to launch the website.

The result is that the website will usually go live, more or less on time and without any show-stopping bugs, but also without generating the expected volumes of traffic. Traffic, leads and conversions often take a dive after this substantial investment in a shiny new website. Fingers are then pointed at the digital media agency for not meeting its brief of bringing in sessions and conversions. 

However, the root cause of the problem is usually that the website hasn’t been configured to work properly with multiple third-party advertising platforms. There is a long laundry list of requirements here that will usually fall out of the scope of the website development project as well as outside the expertise of most standalone web development agencies.

The requirements may include setting up Google Tag Manager with all the appropriate ad platforms; linking catalogue feeds such as Google Merchant Center (GMC); ensuring the correct tags are in place and that they are working as they should; implementing server-side tracking; configuring Meta Capi, GMC, Meta and TikTok catalogues; integrating first-party data for custom audience lists; setting up Google Analytics conversion goals and building real-time reporting dashboards to provide the necessary data to make informed decisions

Without this functionality in place, it’s near impossible to attract and convert users or to optimise campaigns. That’s why it’s important for companies to work with a website partner that either can offer media and web development under one roof or has a close collaborative relationship with a digital media agency. This will ensure advertising spending to promote the new website generates a return on investment from the day it launches.

Teething issues are inevitable when a new website goes live. If there’s a tag out of place or the GMC is not correctly set up, site performance in terms of traffic will drop. If the media and development teams are closely aligned, they will be quicker to identify and resolve these challenges. The media team is responsible for tracking conversions as they move through the website. If there is a break in this flow, they can spot it fast and work closely with the development team to fix it.

Having one contracting party responsible for media and the website also improves accountability. It avoids the finger-pointing that is commonplace when two separate agencies work independently on media and development. Instead, there is a single team that works together to ensure not only that the website is stable and functional but also that it supports the conversion objectives. 

This isn’t meant to minimise the importance of creative or of the development work that goes into a website. However, the mistake every business wants to avoid is building a beautiful website with rich functionality that no-one visits.

If digital media isn’t set up correctly from the outset, a company may miss out on months of traffic and conversions, even if it scrambles to catch up and optimise. Aligning media and website development is essential to ensure that campaigns to promote the website yield the highest possible return on investment from the moment it launches.

Grant Lapping is digital executive at new-age solutions and systems integrator, +OneX