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With user acquisition becoming every day more and more automated, companies of the mobile industry landscape are forced to optimize their spending and focus on creatives even more. With competition growing tighter each day, coming up with effective ad creatives is one of the few ways to get in front of the competition. To keep up with this demand, many mobile companies are shifting to the in-house creative department so they can be successful with their advertising needs.
But do you really need a full-scale in-house creative team? Below we’ll list a few tips of what you can expect if you decide to create an in-house creative department.
Control: With an in-house team, you control the ad creative process from the ideation with the team until the optimization. As an organic part of your company, they are dedicated to managing the priorities of your advertising efforts and can work closely with other internal teams to help improve creative performance -- and the operation as a whole. Still, it is important to remember that even if your team has all under control, working with creatives involves a lot of imagination, testing, and creativity and sometimes they might get stuck while trying to come up with something new, so if you can now and then hire some external ad companies to give them a fresh point of view and help them improve their internal process.
Data Transparency: This is perhaps one of the main benefits of having an in-house creative department since you’ll be able to access all of your campaign data: metrics, insights, and more. This creates a feedback loop between your performance team and your designers. With easier access to this information, your internal creative team can make more accurate decisions about how to create the best ads for your app. Having the creative team in-house also ensures that any sensitive data or information about your app isn't shared with anyone outside of the company.
Communication/Time: Factors that affect the speed of creative production like design and optimization processes are normally shorter when all teams are internal. That's because bringing your creative team in-house enhances internal communication and creates that feedback loop as mentioned earlier. It improves the efficiency of all sides of the operation, from the moment you have an idea to test something to the moment you go live with it. Some companies can be extremely efficient in delivering ads since it’s their main job, but you need to be extremely clear in terms of communication if you will outsource the production because it is not the same to ask for a change or a modification with your colleague that sits next to you than to someone that might even be in another timezone.
Spend: Agencies offer a wide range of expertise and scalability that you might not find in-house, but building an in-house creative team normally is more cost-effective. Of course, the delivery of outstanding ads might take a while until your team gets more knowledge on producing them, but your team will adapt to your strategy and learn which types of ads work according to your media sources and what does not, this can help you save some money in the long run.
As your app company grows, you'll likely be faced with the question of whether or not to keep your creative team in-house. There are benefits of both in-house creative teams and outsourcing it. Many factors contribute to this decision, one of the most important is perhaps control. If you want to have control over every aspect and step of your project, it's best to have an in-house team, like this you'll be able to make sure everything is being done the way you want it.
But if you are already swamped with tasks and if you do not have time to manage your creative team personally, it may be worth looking into outsourcing. When using an outside agency, they will be responsible for managing their work, allowing you to focus on other tasks. So there is not a right or wrong answer for which path you should take, it all depends on your app needs and resources.
