Agencies and iPaper: Best practices and setup recommendations

This article is for both 1) customers working with agencies, and 2) agencies working with single or multiple clients. It outlines three different account ownership models available, along with the benefits and potential risks of each.

We typically see three setups when customers work with agencies in iPaper, and each setup comes with its own benefits and risks.

You should consider which of the three that makes the most sense for your business and collaboration.

In this setup, the customer pays for and holds full ownership of the iPaper account, and brings in an agency to manage content creation and publishing.

Full control: The customer owns the account, content, and statistics – no matter what.

Direct support: iPaper can offer tailored strategic advice directly to the customer.

Flexibility: The customer can add new or change collaborators at any time without limitations.

Two separate billing relationships: The customer pays iPaper for the platform and pays the agency for managing it, which can increase the total amount of invoices and payments to process for the customer.

With Automatic Credit Card Payment (ACCP), you can set it up once and then payment happens automatically. Learn more about how to set up ACCP here.

Customers that want to own their data, content and future-proof their flipbooks, and agencies that want as little complexity and friction as possible for their customers.

Here, the agency pays for and holds ownership of the iPaper account and delivers a full-service solution to their customer.

Convenience for the customer: One point of contact and payment.

A fully managed service: Agency handles everything from setup to execution.

Limited visibility: Customers may not have access to content analytics unless provided by the agency.

Communication gaps: Without direct contact between iPaper and the customer, the agency has to forward information, strategic guidance and questions to the customer and vice versa.

Data ownership: If the agency relationship ends, the customer risks losing content, statistics, and historical performance data.

Migration complexity: Transferring content to a new agency (or into a customer-owned account) can be very time-consuming.

A way to mitigate the risk as a customer and agency is for the agency to sign a ‘Transfer of Ownership’ document.

Please contact us at support@ipaper.io for the 'Transfer of Ownership' document.

This setup is recommended for all customers who don’t own the iPaper account. If so, a customer can get ownership of the iPaper account transferred via the ‘Transfer of Ownership’ document.

In this setup, an agency pays, owns and manages a single iPaper account for several customers.

Convenience for the customer: One point of contact and payment.

Somewhat convenient for the agency: Only one account to manage, but with increased complexity of folder structure and less overview.

This setup carries all the risks of the 2. setup - such as data ownership and migration complexity - but with even more complexity.

No transfer of ownership: Since the account contains content and data from multiple customers, ownership can’t be transferred to any customer.

Limited automation: Different customers’ needs make it challenging to use a single Enrichment Automation (EA), often requiring agencies to purchase additional EAs.

Unclear statistics: Customers won’t have direct access to their statistics, and must rely on the agency to collect, curate and present the results. For the agency, the main dashboard mixes data from all of the agency’s customers, making analysis more complex and time-consuming.

The risks cannot be mitigated in this setup. Either the risks should be accepted, or one of the other setups should be used.

No one. While this setup is somewhat common, often it isn’t ideal for either customers or agencies in the long term.

The best setup depends on how much control customers want over their flipbook content, data, and strategy.

Ideally, the customer pays for and owns the iPaper account, while the agency manages it. If that’s not possible, the agency can own and manage a separate iPaper account for each customer, ideally with a signed ownership transfer agreement.

Avoid using one account for multiple customers, as it creates unnecessary complexity and risk.

Need help choosing the right setup? Contact our team at support@ipaper.io. We’re here to help.