Snapshot of Challenges and Solutions

Client Profile:

The client is a media buying agency with a smaller team of 49 users. 

Challenges: 

Disconnected media planning and accounting systems created the need for duplicate entries, often resulting in expensive billing errors from typos or missed entries. 

Advantage Solution:

The media buying agency leveraged Advantage’s integrated media and accounting tools for a seamless media planning and buying process. 

Outcome:

With the integration of Advantage Media and Advantage Accounting, the risk of human error in billing was completely eliminated. This led to fewer accounting errors overall, and an increase in employee retention. 

The Agency’s Story

This media buying agency was juggling its entire operation using disparate systems for its media buying and accounting. The agency’s reliance on disconnected systems translated into bottlenecks in the process, slowing operations and leaving the agency wide open to costly human error. 

Media planning was done with stand-alone spreadsheets. The media staff manually created insertion orders for vendors and provided billing with a list of what to invoice clients each month. Then the billing staff manually entered the data into the accounting system, and inevitable errors were made. Insertion orders were sometimes inaccurate or were not sent to vendors. Items were overlooked for billing and typos were made during the manual entry. The manual workflow quickly devolved into a stressful and tedious process for the media staff and billing staff to navigate. 

Worst of all, thousands of dollars were left on the table each year due to human error. The potential of even higher losses motivated agency leaders to search for a solution.

How Advantage Helped

When the media buying agency learned more about Advantage Software, the solution to its costly juggling routine seemed clear. Advantage’s integrated media planning and buying automated the workflow between the media team and the billing team and minimized the risk of loss. This made the process more streamlined, freeing up time and taking pressure off of the staff. 

Additionally, insertion orders were generated from media plans created within the system and were electronically sent to vendors. Media orders were trackable and immediately available for billing with no need for manual entry. The risk of human error was minimized.

Once Advantage was implemented, the media buying agency saw a major reduction in loss associated with manual entry mistakes and the creation of a more streamlined cross-departmental media buying and accounting process. The agency was now picking up thousands of dollars that had previously been left on the table, and its teams had more time to do their jobs without being bogged down by tedious manual processes. Plus, the process was fully automated and integrated, reducing employee stress levels across the board. The agency actually saw a bump in its employee retention rate! 

Finding a more efficient solution had wide-reaching implications for this media buying agency. With a simple change of agency management software, it was able to more easily save money and retain its talent. 

What could Advantage do for your agency? 

***

The Advantage agency management system is an all-in-one solution purpose-built for agencies and creative teams of all sizes.

We’ve been exclusively focused on helping our clients maximize productivity, efficiency and profitability for over 40 years, with almost a thousand agencies counting on us to help run their business every day.

With Advantage, you get a team of US-based agency veterans supporting you every step of the way.  All implementation and training is done by experienced Advantage staff, and all clients have unlimited access to our live customer support line from 8am-7:30pm Eastern every business day.

Find out how Advantage can help you by contacting us for a complimentary demo or discussion about your unique needs.