A lack of trust is blighting the advertising industry. Brands don’t trust agencies, and agencies don’t trust brands. Poor transparency, bad service, expensive fees — these are just some of the reasons behind the breakdown of many long-established advertising partnerships. How do brands and agencies get over their trust issues? It’s a lot easier than you might think. Successful goal alignment — and only paying your advertising partner when you get the results you want — should solve this problem. Here’s how to get the trust back in advertising.

Why Is There a Lack of Trust in Advertising?

There’s been a breakdown in trust in the advertising space, and there are lots of statistics to back up this claim. Just 8 percent of companies are very satisfied with their advertising partners, according to Marketing Week. As a result, 58 percent of brands say the number of agencies they work with will decline in the future, and 54 percent will bring previously outsourced work in-house by the year 2020.

Many brands claim that agencies aren’t giving them their money’s worth. Seventy-four percent say agencies and other advertising companies don’t fully report financial data, 73 percent believe agencies don’t currently measure the performance of programmatic media buys and 71 percent think agencies struggle to adapt to programmatic advertising. Moreover, 53 percent of marketers label agencies as “untrustworthy.”

Building Trust

So what can you do about the situation? In short, brands and agencies need to combine their advertising goals for more effective results. If both parties are reading from the same marketing page, there will be greater transparency and better organizational alignment. It’s simple. Brands and agencies need to collaborate and communicate at every stage of a project to prevent mistrust.

Take Ikea, for example. While many big brands constantly change advertising partners, the furniture brand has worked with the same agency, Mother London, for years. “We prefer to invest in a long-term partnership and not keep hopping around,” says Ikea’s marketing manager Laurent Tiersen, speaking to Marketing Week. “We work with Mother London like we would work with a designer on a new piece of furniture; there’s collaboration every step of the way.”

Can you say the same positive things about your advertising partner?

Only Pay for Advertising Results

Many disputes between brands and advertising agencies are about money. Conflicts arise when brands feel like they have been overcharged for a project, for example, or don’t receive the service they expect. This leads to a breakdown in communication and then trust.

Both brands and agencies can overcome this problem by only paying their partner once they receive results. This way, there’s no exchange of cash upfront, which often just leads to problems. This might take a little while to get used to, but it should work out in the long run.

Why Is Trust Important?

Trust is important in every type of business. It’s dependent on positive relationships that prosper over time. Trust leads to more sales, happier employees and better advertising outcomes.

This is why it’s crucial to establish trust right from the beginning of your advertising partnership. Here at SourceKnowledge, we know that some brands are skeptical when it comes to working with a new advertising partner. That’s why our transparent CPA platform provides you with 100 percent visibility on every domain and touchpoint that results in a conversion. Plus, you only pay when you receive results.

Brands and advertising partners often doubt each other, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Sharing goals and paying for services after you receive results can go a long way to building a long-term business relationship.

Want a transparent CPA system that lets you track your search, social and video campaigns? Find out more about SourceKnowledge.