The business benefits of media audit have grown significantly over the last couple of decades. It is safe to say that all Lithuanian businesses with an annual media budget of at least EUR 0.2 million should conduct a media audit. The need for an audit arises, in particular, from the dramatic increase in the complexity of advertising purchases. A couple of decades ago, most advertising was bought on television, whereas today the largest advertising budgets are spent on the internet. The latter consists of many different websites, local and international, working through intermediaries and directly. And TV advertising is also much more difficult to purchase, as we have moved from seconds to CPP by TV channel audience. Therefore, without a media audit, a business cannot know whether it is buying advertising according to the prices obtained in the agency tender.
Media auditing has a very clearly defined methodology and boundaries, it is not a vague idea to find where the agency is making mistakes. It is based solely on documents that have the force of law and looks, in particular, for discrepancies in prices and quantities of advertising bought. The audit findings therefore have a very clear and direct value for the business: the value of the advertising purchased increases. "On average, the findings of audits carried out by Media audits have shown an average non-performance of 5-6%, i.e. the business has received refunds amounting to specified percentages of its total advertising budget. As the audits are based on legal documents, businesses have clear legal instruments to seek compensation from the agency and/or media channels.
Let us briefly review the legal documents on which media audits are based. These include the contract with the agency, the media plan, the agency's report, the agency's invoice to the client and sometimes the media channel's invoice to the agency. These documents form the basis of the process by which advertising is bought. The contract sets the general prices and conditions, the plan is for a specific campaign, the report records the indicators achieved and finally the bank transfers are based on invoices. All these documents are used by all advertising agencies in Lithuania, so that virtually any advertising purchase that has already been made can be audited, without the need for special preparation.
What exactly is the audit process and what does the audit report look like? This can be defined very precisely. Firstly, whether the price of the advertisement, which is included in the campaign report, corresponds to the contract. Secondly, whether the amount of advertising in the campaign report is consistent with the independent advertising monitoring. The accuracy of the monitoring data is recognised by agencies and media channels and is therefore a valid basis for the audit. The Media Audit Report is a template developed by Media Audits, which consists of a detailed comparison of each advertising format (say a 30-second video clip or a 300x600 px billboard for the internet): what was planned, what was actually bought and how much was billed. This is done for each calendar month and for each advertising campaign. Therefore, for example, a six-monthly advertising audit report may contain around 2'000 rows (in Excel format).
However, the huge number of lines in the report is only needed to support the conclusions, which are much shorter. The conclusions answer the two main audit questions already mentioned: whether the media prices used are as stated in the contract and whether the advertising volumes are in line with those planned and reported. If the audit findings are negative, they are presented in a very simple form - what is the value of the advertising that the client (advertiser) has not received.
The preliminary audit findings are provided to the agency. If additional documentation is provided, we will work with both the agency and the client to answer whether any discrepancies found are justified. Final conclusions are then formulated.
The subsequent process is no longer part of the media audit, but a negotiation between the client and the agency. Usually the negotiations are not hostile, unless the audit shows a deliberate deception of the client. Sometimes there are human errors, and most often the audit reveals flaws in the advertising buying process that were difficult to foresee from the start. An example of such a discrepancy would be the practice of Google and Facebook of adjusting their ad placement reports after a few months and providing compensation for ads that have not been displayed. These compensations sometimes do not reach customers.
Often, audit reports also contain additional 'soft' recommendations. They do not refer to financial compensation, but to process points that need to be corrected and that affect marketing planning. An example would be Facebook's practice of significantly increasing its reported number of clicks and click-through rates after a few months. Very often this new data do not reach the client, because the ads have already been shown and purchase "base" is not clicks, so the information is not tangible. We recommend that you insist on updating the data, as you need to base your planning on the right information.
At first glance, a media audit seems to be a conflict between the client and the agency. This was not uncommon, especially in the early days of Media Audits, around 2020.But in recent years, and especially when media audits are ongoing rather than ad hoc, the attitude is the opposite. The relationship between the client and the agency is strengthened as trust grows. This change is easy to understand, since instead of a complex and potentially error-prone ad-buying process, it is possible to rely on objective third-party information.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)