Strategic Excellence
Market research before you spend on a single ad.
Who's actually buying, what they search for, and what your competitors are charging them. Most agencies skip this and jump straight to campaign setup, which means the targeting is a guess dressed up as a strategy.
We'd rather spend a week finding out first. Not a forty-page report nobody reads: a short, specific brief that names the segments worth targeting, the search terms people actually use, and the price range the market will bear.
That brief feeds straight into the media plan. If the research says a channel doesn't fit your buyer's behavior, we don't recommend it just because it's familiar.
Scope
We define exactly what we need to know: market size, buyer behavior, or both. A vague brief produces a vague report, so this step gets specific fast.
Gather
Real data: search demand, competitor pricing, and customer interviews where they'd actually add something. No filler statistics included to pad the page count.
Brief
A short, usable report, not a forty-page deck nobody opens. Written so whoever builds the media plan can act on it the same afternoon.
When you need this
Before launching in a new category, before a pricing change, or when your ad spend has grown but nobody's recently checked whether the assumptions behind the targeting still hold. A few signals it's time:
- You're entering a city, category, or audience you haven't advertised to before.
- Cost per lead has crept up and nobody can say exactly why.
- You're considering a price increase and don't know what the market will actually bear.
- Your targeting still reflects assumptions from years ago, not current buyer behavior.
FAQ
Do you survey our actual customers?
When it's useful, yes. Most of the signal comes from search demand data and competitor pricing, which is faster and just as reliable for most categories.
How is this different from competitive analysis?
Market research looks at the customer: what they search for, what they pay. Competitive analysis looks at the competitor: what they say, what they charge.
How long does market research take?
Typically one to two weeks, depending on how much search and pricing data already exists for your category.
What does the final brief actually look like?
A few pages: who's buying, what they search for, what the market currently charges, and which channels fit the behavior we found.
Does this replace the need for competitive analysis?
No, the two are complementary. Market research covers the customer side, competitive analysis covers the competitor side. Most clients run both before a new campaign.