In these difficult times in the automotive industry, it is more important than ever before that dealers make the right decisions throughout the dealership. One of the biggest expenses in a dealership is advertising. Today advertising is changing faster than ever before—newspaper readership is declining, papers are getting smaller, and some are closing; TV is facing a decline in viewership due to the DVR recording and poorer programming; radio has a new enemy in satellite radio, which year by year continues to steal the terrestrial radio audience.

So, what is a dealer to do to sort out these rapid changes and maximize the advertising investment? The simple answer is hire an advertising agency! It is not enough, however, to just hire any ad agency. You need to find the right one for your business; so here are some important steps to take before you choose an ad agency to direct your advertising in these most challenging of times.

•    Find a company that understands your dealership. Give that agency as much input as you can about your store—How many cars do you sell? What is unique about your market? Who is your competition? Do they have experience with your brand? What other dealers do they currently represent?

•    Ask who will be handling your account. Sit down with that person and determine if you have chemistry with your proposed new account executive. If you can’t work with this person, the account relationship will fail and you will be shopping again for another agency and lose valuable time and money in the meantime.

•    Communicate everything you can about your dealership. In order for an agency to be effective, they need to know your business. They will become some of your most trusted advisors.

•    Find out the strengths of your proposed agency. If your agency specializes in newspaper and the paper in your market is ineffective, then this agency may not be for you. On the other hand, if you are a big TV advertiser and this agency specializes in TV, then you found your agency.

•    Be prepared to let go and give this agency a chance to do what they do best. Agencies do not function well with one hand behind their back. If you plan to stay involved and dictate to your new agency, the end result will suffer. You don’t tell accountants how to file a tax return and you don’t tell your attorney how to practice law, so why do you feel you need to be an adman? You will be hiring pros, let them do their job.

•    Consider your time zones. If you are in Hawaii and your agency is in Boston, you are looking at a six hour time difference. That means, when five PM rolls around and you have an idea, it will be 11 PM in the agencies home market. This is an extreme example, but ask the agency if they have clients in your time zone and are they prepared to act for your needs.

•    Ask about fees. The agency should earn around 15 to 20 percent of your total budget. Unless you spend in excess of a million dollars a year. At that point a fee should be commensurate with the amount of work required. Try and cut a deal that includes production and other agency fees. Do not view this as an expense; instead view it as a necessity to improve your business.

Hiring an ad agency will be one of the biggest decisions you make this year, follow these steps to help make sure it is the right decision.

Tom Letizia is the president of Letizia Mass Media, a full-service advertising agency specializing in automotive. He can be reached at 702-777-2121 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .