When to Fire Your Marketing Agency, and When the Problem Is Not the Agency
Fire your marketing agency when it cannot connect its work to revenue, resists accountability, or keeps selling scope instead of results. Keep it when the real gap is that no one senior ever gave it direction to perform against. Most agency disappointments are some mix of both, which is why the evaluation matters more than the instinct.
Signals the agency should go
- reporting describes activity, impressions, clicks, deliverables, and cannot connect any of it to pipeline or revenue
- every performance question is answered with a proposal to expand scope
- the agency grades its own work and always passes
- strategy recommendations never change, regardless of what the results say
- you have given clear direction and honest data, and performance still has not moved in two to three quarters
Signals the problem is not the agency
An agency is execution. It delivers a defined scope of work within someone else's direction. If nobody senior owns that direction, the agency is being graded on a test no one wrote.
- the company cannot state, in one sentence, what marketing is supposed to accomplish this quarter
- nobody internally can evaluate whether the agency's strategy is right, so nobody tries
- the agency asks for priorities and gets a different answer every month
- the business has churned through two or more agencies with the same disappointment each time
That last one is the tell. One bad agency is an agency problem. A pattern of bad agencies is a leadership vacancy, and firing the next agency will not fill it. The vendor version of an incomplete triangle applies here: an agency with responsibility for results but no clear accountability or authority over its scope behaves exactly like an employee in the same position. The framework is covered in the iron triangle of getting things done.
How to evaluate fairly before deciding
A fair evaluation takes one quarter and answers three questions in order.
First, was the direction clear? Write down what the agency was actually told to accomplish. If the honest answer is a scope of deliverables rather than a commercial outcome, fix that first and restate the goal in revenue terms.
Second, does the work connect to revenue? Rebuild the reporting so agency activity is traced to pipeline and booked revenue, not channel metrics. Many agencies look different, better or worse, the first time this is done honestly.
Third, does the agency respond to direction? Given a clear goal and honest reporting, a good agency adjusts and improves. An agency that defends the old scope instead is telling you the answer.
Companies that run this evaluation usually keep the agencies that perform. The ones that get fired earn it on the evidence, which also makes the transition cleaner.
What to put in place either way
Whether the agency stays or goes, the durable fix is senior ownership of marketing direction: someone accountable for the strategy, the budget, the vendor standards, and the results. For many companies that is a fractional CMO. For companies whose team can execute once priorities are clear, it may be growth advisory. The full comparison is covered in fractional CMO vs. marketing agency.
Frequently asked questions
How long should we give an agency before deciding?
Long enough for the work to have a fair chance, usually two to three quarters for organic channels and one to two for paid. But the clock only counts if the agency was given clear direction and honest data. An agency that never received either has not really been tested yet.
What should we ask the agency before firing them?
Three questions. What were you directed to accomplish? What is the work returning against that goal? What would you change if the goal were revenue rather than the current scope? Weak answers to the first question usually mean the problem includes the direction they were given, not just the execution.
Should we fire the agency before or after we have a replacement plan?
After. Firing an agency without knowing what the strategy should be usually leads to hiring a similar agency into the same vacuum. Fix the direction first, then decide whether the incumbent can execute against it.
What if the agency is underperforming but we cannot tell why?
That uncertainty is itself the finding. If leadership cannot tell whether the agency is the problem, the business lacks the reporting and senior judgment to evaluate any vendor, and the next agency will inherit the same fog. That evaluation gap is a leadership gap, and it is fixable.
Not sure if it's the agency or the direction?
A discovery call is a focused conversation about how your marketing is directed, measured, and held accountable today.