Marketing Agency for Dropshipping: Should You Hire One?

Are you thinking about hiring a marketing agency for your dropshipping store?

If you are, the first important point to keep in mind is that:

Not every dropshipping store should hire a marketing agency. In fact, our go-to advice for beginners is to avoid hiring a marketing agency.

This is because, in the beginning, you should focus on learning how different parts of your dropshipping business work.

That way, when you eventually decide to outsource some aspects, it will be easier to manage everything and monitor results.

Still, since you are considering it, this article will focus on the pros and cons of working with a marketing agency, what to consider to ensure you hire the best one, and three great marketing agencies.

Let’s get started!

What is a dropshipping marketing agency?

Dropshipping marketing agencies help dropshipping business owners manage different aspects of their marketing to ensure they reach, engage, and convert their target audience.

Typically, these agencies niche down to specific marketing areas, like paid traffic/ads, digital marketing, search engine optimization, brand management, or email marketing.

However, some are full-suite, aka all-in-one marketing agencies that handle everything related to marketing.

Pros and cons of hiring a marketing agency for dropshipping

Like most things in life, there are pros and cons to hiring a marketing agency for dropshipping.

The pros

Let’s start with the pros of hiring a dropshipping marketing agency.

1. Provided expertise

Expertise is one of the main advantages of working with a marketing agency.

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.

Werner Heisenberg (Source)

Because marketing agencies eat, sleep, and breathe marketing (it’s in the name, after all), they usually have an in-house team of seasoned professionals who know how to manage different aspects of marketing.

For example, depending on the type of marketing agency you decide to work with (more on this later), you can expect it to have experts who can handle social media and influencer marketing, PPC advertising, content creation and optimization, and more.

Successful marketing agencies rely on tried-and-true techniques to help you optimize different aspects of your marketing strategy to reach, engage, and convert your target market.

2. Potential higher sales

Imagine this:

The sales graph has dipped (yikes!), and it feels like the tides have turned against you.

You have tried everything you can to reverse the downward trend, but nothing you do seems to work.

But then…

You find and start working with a dropshipping marketing agency with a proven track record of creating and managing effective marketing campaigns that reach, engage, and convert qualified target audiences into sales.

Then, gradually, the sales graph starts pointing upwards (cue the happy dance, right? Haha). Doesn’t that sound great?

If it does, that is one of the advantages of working with a professional marketing agency (professional is the keyword here).

Dropshipping marketing agencies can quickly analyze your current marketing plan, raise the SOS flag on what’s not working, and then help you implement effective dropshipping marketing strategies that increase your sales.

3. Higher brand visibility

Did you know that working with a marketing agency can lead to higher brand visibility?

In 2020, Mucinex wanted to reach a new generation of savvy health and fitness enthusiasts who, as they put it, ‘have a strong bullshit sensor.’

After partnering with Barbarian, the New York-based marketing and advertising agency, they launched a limited edition capsule collection of comfortable clothes called Sickwear™ that people could wear to feel better during cold and flu season.

Can you guess the results of this collaboration?

The newly launched line/brand achieved a 500% increase in online sales and sold out within 24 hours in what has become the largest single-day of online sales in Mucinex’s history (mind-blowing, right?).

What does all this tell you?

It should tell you that working with the right marketing agency can have a far-reaching brand awareness effect for your dropshipping store.

The cons

Let’s now focus on the cons of hiring a marketing agency for dropshipping.

1. The cost of hiring

You guessed it: if you want world-class marketing services, you have to fork up some cash (lots of it if you want to work with the best-in-class agencies in the world).

According to WebFX, marketing agencies can charge $900 to $20,000 per month or more, depending on the services offered.

WebFX further breaks down the price of social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and search engine optimization services at agencies as follows:

Further, according to Northwest Media Collective, small to mid-sized marketing agencies charge an average of $2,500 per month for approximately 12-16 hours of their professional time.

For social media marketing, 33% of marketing agencies charge an average monthly rate of $1,500-$3,000 per month.

As you can see from these average costs, working with a marketing agency for dropshipping can be quite costly.

The cost is also the main reason we can’t recommend marketing agencies for beginner dropshippers.

2. You may experience inflexibility

Did you know that according to a survey done by Databox, the average micro marketing agency (an agency with up to 10 employees) has 20 retainer clients and up to 10 client projects at a time?

In contrast, small agencies have between 11-40 retainer clients and up to 10 open client projects at any given time.

Further social media marketing data from Sproutsocial shows that 40% of small-sized marketing agencies have five to ten clients, with many of them (80%) focusing on retaining clients to weather uncertain times.

Can you guess what all this means?

It means because marketing agencies have to work with multiple clients to sustain their business operations, you should expect a degree of inflexibility.

When you’re the one managing your own business’s marketing plan, you can change tactics and implement marketing ideas on the fly.

In contrast, when working with a marketing agency, your contract-bound collaboration must be within a timeline that can sometimes be inflexible as these agencies try to manage different projects for retainer clients.

Should you hire a marketing agency as a dropshipper?

Fundamentally, if you are a new dropshipper, avoid hiring a marketing agency because the recurring cost will have to be out of pocket.

Additionally, in the beginning, it’s better to do everything yourself so you can save some money and truly learn the ins and outs of dropshipping.

On the other hand, if your dropshipping business is doing well (think generating at least $5,000+ in net monthly sales) and you have a monthly marketing budget, you can consider working with a marketing agency.

Ideally, only choose to work with a marketing agency that can use its expertise to increase your sales and brand visibility, which brings us to the next point:

How do you pick the best marketing agency for dropshipping?

If you truly believe your dropshipping store needs to hire a marketing agency to improve efficiency and results, here are a few key things you can do to ensure you choose the best marketing agency for your needs:

1. It all starts with market research

What kind of dropshipping marketing agency do you need?

As you know, the industry is full of many different kinds of marketing agencies that offer all types of marketing services.

For example, there are marketing agencies that offer:

• Full-service/integrated marketing. These agencies handle everything, from niche, audience, and product research to social media, digital marketing, and SEO to email marketing, PPC advertising, and everything in between.
• Specialized dropshipping marketing agencies. These agencies handle a specific aspect of your marketing plan. For example, you can work with an agency that only focuses on digital marketing, content marketing, PPC advertising, etc.
• Growth marketing agencies. These agencies use data, high-level experimentation, and low-cost marketing tactics to create exponential business growth.
• Digital marketing agencies. These agencies focus on marketing tactics like SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and others that can make a brand more discoverable online.
• Ad/creative agencies. These agencies do above-the-line marketing that uses mass media and online channels and marketing strategies to reach a wider portion of the target audience.
• Social media marketing agencies. These agencies focus on using social media to make your dropshipping brand/business more visible on social media platforms and online.
• SEO agencies. These agencies focus on making your store’s domain name more visible on SERPs for target keywords.

As you can see, we have different types of marketing agencies.

So, which one does your dropshipping business need?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine the kind of marketing agency your dropshipping business needs.

• Do I need a wide range of marketing services, or will specialized marketing services serve me better? If you need a wide range of services, go with a full-service marketing agency.
• What’s my primary marketing goal? If the goal is more visibility on Search Engine Result Page (SERP) for target keywords, work with an SEO agency. If your goal is more PPC ad revenue, work with an ad agency.
• What’s my budget? We’ve discussed the average cost of agency marketing services, so what kind of agency can you afford based on your budget?

2. Identify your goals and deliverables

This consideration carries on from the questions above.

What dropshipping goals and objectives do you want a marketing agency to help you achieve? Is it more sales? More visibility online? Higher search engine ranking?

Whatever your goals may be, please outline them as clearly as possible.

For example, let’s say you want increased sales. That’s great, but what percentage increase do you want to see in your sales?

Remember that if you don’t set key performance indicators (KPIs) when deciding to work with marketing agencies for dropshipping, it will be challenging to choose a marketing agency that can deliver anticipated results.

3. Industry experience

Now that you know your goals and deliverables and have shortlisted a few dropshipping marketing agencies you think would be a great fit, check their industry experience.

Ideally, you should work with a marketing agency that has a track record of working with and helping dropshipping businesses achieve their marketing goals and objectives.

You can take things a notch further by narrowing it down to agencies that have previously worked with dropshipping or ecommerce businesses in your niche.

This way, you will be sure the team has the expertise needed to achieve your marketing vision and goals.

4. Mind the budget

We discussed the average cost of marketing services at agencies.

So, what kind of agency can you afford based on your budget?

Remember that the cost will largely depend on the kind of marketing services you want, and working with the most expensive agency doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

Only work with an agency that gives you the most value for your marketing budget, and remember that the goal is to get a positive return on investment (ROI).

5. Track record

Before pulling the trigger and giving a marketing agency your hard-earned marketing dollars, go over their track record.

Most agencies have a list of customers they’ve worked with or case studies they showcase on their websites.

For example, the marketing agency Adacted has this on its website:

Go over these, and as you do, look at whether an agency you’re considering has a proven track record of helping other dropshipping and ecommerce businesses achieve similar marketing goals.

For example, if you want higher search engine visibility, does the dropshipping marketing agency you want to work with have a proven track record of helping other businesses achieve this goal?

Also, check recommendations, reviews, agency rankings, and any awards the agency may have won for exemplary standards and results.

With these considerations at the back of your mind, we’re sure you’ll be able to narrow down to the best dropshipping marketing agency for your store’s needs.

3 Great dropshipping marketing agencies

Let’s go through three great dropshipping marketing agencies that we can recommend.

1. Adacted

Adacted describes itself as a ‘Global results-driven performance marketing agency.’

According to the CEO, Chris Rudy, Adacted prides itself in treating every client’s business and marketing budget as if it were their own.

We take every clients business as if it were our own, allocating and closely monitoring marketing budgets as if they were going out directly from our pockets.

We have been constantly scoring home runs for our clients thanks to our radical honesty and unsurpassable work ethic.

Chris Rudy (source)

Pros

• This is a full-suite, aka do-everything marketing agency that offers tons of ecommerce marketing services:

• Plenty of case studies and brand collaborations. Adacted’s case studies section has a list of all the brands they’ve partnered with and three case studies that show how they helped three businesses grow their revenue in as little as two to three months.
• A clear ‘working together’ process that outlines how their marketing services use data to ensure your marketing budget drives results.

Cons

• No general price guide for all their services; to get one, you have to reach out to them, which is an extra step.

2. Upgrow

Upgrow is a full-stack digital marketing agency that promises to help you build an end-to-end, effective funnel that attracts new leads, nurtures them, and converts them into paying customers.

The agency has a very systematic digital marketing approach that involves conducting market, audience, brand, and product research and then using what they learn to create data-driven marketing campaigns that have positive ROI.

Pros

• Plenty of services, including SEO services, paid media marketing services, and more.

• Tons of industry experience. The agency has partnered with over 100 clients and won many industry awards, including being on the Inc 500 list.

• A readily available pricing plan for the different services on offer:

• Plenty of case studies. Upgrow’s case studies page has over ten case studies that use numbers to show the results they’ve managed to achieve for some of their best clients.

Cons

• Their services are a bit on the costlier side. For example, setting up Google Analytics 4 costs $1,500, while monthly SEO strategy & optimization starts at $6,000.

3. Adsellr

Adsellr offers digital marketing services that help ecommerce business owners see increased traffic and sales.

The agency offers unique services, like pre-built Shopify stores, which can be great if you want a premade dropshipping store, user-generated content (UGC) for viral social media marketing, SEO marketing, and paid ad management.

Pros

• Good rating. Adsellr has a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot. This indicates that most of the people who have used their services love them. For example, one user had this to say after purchasing a prebuilt Shopify store from the agency.

I bought a Shopify store from Adsellr 2 years ago and I was able to grow a solid brand out of it.

It currently does $150k per month with 55% gross margins. With that said I have spent thousands of hours building this brand myself as well and it has not been easy at all.

Hazel Bryant (source)

• Case studies. Since case studies are one of the things you should look at when deciding which marketing agency to work with, Adsellr has numerous case studies showcasing their partners’ marketing results.

• Most of their services have readily available pricing that can allow you to determine if you can afford to work with the agency. For example, a prebuilt Shopify store with 100 products starts at $2,050:

Cons

• Although this marketing agency has a positive Trustpilot rating, it is relatively new (established in 2021). While this is not bad per se, more industry experience can be a bonus when working with marketing agencies for dropshipping.

Summary

Before we go to the conclusion, we’ve created a quick summary of this article for you so you can easily remember it:

• Dropshipping marketing agencies help dropshipping business owners manage different aspects of their marketing plans, from digital marketing to PPC advertising to brand management.
• Not every dropshipping business should work with a dropshipping marketing agency. In fact, our go-to advice is for beginner dropshippers to avoid hiring anyone.
• Working with a dropshipping marketing agency for dropshipping means you can take advantage of their expertise to grow your sales and brand visibility.
• On the other hand, working with a dropshipping marketing agency can be costly, and your marketing plan may be a bit inflexible due to contract constraints.
• If you decide you would like to work with a marketing agency for dropshipping business growth, create clear goals, research potential agencies, and then consider your budget, the agency’s industry experience, and track record.
• Ensure you consider each agency’s pros and cons before settling on one.

Conclusion

The key point we would like you to take away from this article is that whether or not you should hire a marketing agency depends on your unique business needs and growth goals.

Working with a dropshipping marketing agency may be worth considering if you have a healthy marketing budget but no time or the expertise to create a marketing plan that achieves results.

On the other hand, if you are a beginner dropshipper, your dropshipping business is not profitable enough, or you don’t have a marketing budget a marketing agency may be a costly expense.

That’s it for this one.

Good luck with your dropshipping business, and until the next one, keep learning, taking action, and growing. Cheers!

Want to learn more about dropshipping?

Ready to move your dropshipping store to the next level? Check out the articles below:

Plus, don’t forget to check out our in-depth guide on how to start dropshipping here!