Of course, it’s exciting to hire an agency; there’s a lot of hope and vision that goes into the process. However, sometimes there’s also the feeling of dread that comes with hiring an agency.
“What if they blow it, and what if I get blamed for it?”
You’re not alone. But you’d probably be surprised at just how much of your agency’s success or failure is actually in your court. We’ve made it easy for you to make your decision by putting everything you need to know about agency relationships here on one page. Use this collection of resources to guarantee results and a fruitful agency partnership.
Let’s take a quick step back and cover the bases. A marketing agency is a team of specialists who help businesses grow through strategy, creativity, and execution. Instead of handling every aspect of marketing in-house, companies partner with agencies to access a broader range of skills, including SEO, AI SEO, advertising, content creation, design, and more.
Working with marketing agencies gives you access to expertise, tools, and industry insights that may be difficult or costly to build internally. The right agency acts as an extension of your team, aligning with your goals, delivering measurable results, and helping you reach your audience more effectively.
The success of your future agency starts before you even hire them. When you have a concrete game plan in your research process, you will find the hiring and subsequent partnership going much more smoothly.
Set both parties up for success by making sure you have hit each item on this pre-vetting checklist.
Knowing the answers to each of these items will take time — and some of them may not be possible to complete in full — but careful thought about each item listed below is going to help your business earn greater results with your agency.
☑️ Benchmark relevant marketing numbers (traffic, CPA, closing rates, etc.)
☑️ Have a 12 month goal in mind for a handful of target KPIs.
☑️ Determine what sources of data are trusted sources, including web analytics, CRM data, and sales numbers.
☑️ Set, or seek out, a budget before talking to agencies; a range is appropriate.
☑️ Determine what success means for you in the next 12 months.
☑️ Determine exactly what an agency would need to accomplish for you to reach your 12 month success goal.
☑️ Act and speak for the final decision maker, not yourself (if you are not the final decision maker)
☑️ Do a post-mortem examination of your most recent agency relationship, including reading emails, regular reports, call agendas, and so on.
☑️ Additionally, read through the most recent agency SOW to determine what was actually asked at the onset of the relationship.
☑️ Create a scorecard of important factors for your organization to reference when hiring an agency (e.g. performance, reliability, cost, contract length, etc.)
A lot of folks may disagree about the idea of coming with a budget in mind. True, that number will inevitably change, but there’s little benefit in hiding that from a prospective agency. A few things to note about agencies setting budgets:
☑️ The right agency will press for the right budget
☑️ The right agency will give you the most value for your budget
☑️ The right agency will give more value when you offer more budget
And finally, don’t forget to come up with a list of questions for when you get to the sales process; we’ve got a great list on the next page.
When considering working with marketing agencies, you may find yourself talking with 3-6 agencies before making your hire. Good questions power good discussion and help you feel assured that you are making the right decision in the end. Know what you want, and relentlessly ask questions to learn more.
Use this list of questions during the sales process. These questions can and should be asked over the course of a few phone calls, not all out of the gate.
A little note on RFPs. These are one of the poorest means to understand whether an agency will be a good fit. If you are required to create an RFP, don’t neglect the questions above in your communication with the agencies you contact. Sending information back and forth exclusively through email is not a good way to do business.
More times than not, goal-based contracts are the way to go. However, there are certain situations where one prevails against the other.
Use this chart to determine which is right for your current situation.
There are some businesses out there that will be perpetually deliverable-based. These are usually enterprises with strict procurement processes. Even in situations like this, when working with an agency long-term, make an effort to set an underlying goal as the priority behind deliverables. This will inevitably increase the quality of work produced by your agency.
It’s appropriate to begin an agency engagement with deliverable-based contracts with the intent to turn it into a goal-based partnership. This transition usually takes 3-6 months.
Have you worked with multiple agencies and found yourself constantly underwhelmed and flustered with results? Trust, or lack of trust, may be the culprit. And believe it or not, trust is a two-way street with your agency. Take this quiz and find out if you’re giving your agency enough trust to have a healthy partnership. Download this list as a PDF
When you communicate effectively with your marketing agency, you can expect better results. And those positive results will inevitably power better communication. It’s a symbiotic system that perpetually feeds itself indefinitely.
Read up on what can help you enter or stay in this cycle with your agency, and what will kick you out of the cycle.
At first glance, comparing value is pretty easy. For example, take burgers. If one restaurant is offering a $13.00 burger and another has one for $7.00, then it doesn’t take an economist to see which is the better option.
But there's usually more to it than just price. Maybe the $13.00 burger comes with a drink and your choice of sides. Maybe it’s made from higher-quality beef. Maybe it’s assembled by a skilled chef, who puts their own unique artisan touch into every bite… and maybe the $7.00 burger fell on the floor.
The point here is that there’s more to value than just the initial price tag. When figuring out a marketing strategy, a business usually has two options: building its own in-house marketing department or hiring an agency. And often the deciding factor is cost — which option will save the company more money right now? But like burgers, marketing options are made up of a lot of factors, and when it comes to value, initial cost is only the tip of the bun.
So, before you put in your order, let’s do a quick breakdown/comparison of the actual costs, and shine a heat lamp on the other ingredients that an effective marketing agency brings to the table.
Let’s be clear on one point before we dive into things: There are some advantages to keeping your marketing in-house. Your team probably won’t have to deal with as much of a learning curve regarding your products, services, and brand, and they’ll be able to focus all of their energies on marketing for a single client (i.e., you). What we’re trying to say is that the comparison to the less-than-appetizing $7.00 burger isn’t totally accurate.
However, at the same time, cost isn’t quite as clear-cut either. Sure, the hourly rates associated with marketing are generally lower when you keep everything in the family, but hourly rates don’t tell the whole story.
For every employee on your marketing team, you’ve got an entire host of associated costs. Salary and benefits are two obvious ones, but what about training expenses? What about expensive tools and analytics programs? What about the hiring costs, particularly when you’re trying to assemble a talented team from scratch? Don’t forget that “marketing” is an umbrella term that includes specializations in SEO, content and copywriting, analytics, design, link development, strategy, paid search and paid social ads; just finding the right people is going to cost you time and money, and keeping them up to date on best practices is going to cost you even more of both.
And once you’ve got your team assembled, there’s always the threat of turnover. Hey, just because you brought them on and trained them up, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t leave and take their new skill sets with them. That means the possibility of recurring costs, and no clear idea of how much you’ll need to invest until the money is already leaving your pockets.
So maybe an in-house marketing department isn’t a floor burger, but it is a burger that costs an undefined heck of a lot to make, may end up costing you an undefined heck of a lot more as you go, and that still might not satisfy your marketing hunger.
So, how does that compare to the cost of hiring an agency?
Big companies looking for aggressive growth are usually allocating $25 – $40k/mo in digital marketing spend with agencies, while small and medium-sized businesses are investing between $5 – $15k/mo into digital marketing. That probably sounds like a lot, but what’s worth recognizing is that it’s all-inclusive.
With the right marketing agency, everything is so much more concrete, and that goes double for cost. The hourly rates are probably higher than what you’d be spending with an in-house marketing department, but the hidden costs are nonexistent. It’s a burger with everything on it, and you’re not going to get billed extra for your pickles somewhere down the line. Not to mention the sides, not just French fries—we have the premium sides, all-inclusive.
When working with marketing agencies, you don’t have to worry about hiring specialists or assembling a team, because the agency takes care of all of that on its end. The same goes for training and tools. All you have to do is pick from a menu of services, and you’ll always know exactly how much those services are going to impact your budget. And if contract-renewal time rolls around and you want to switch things up, scaling to meet your changing needs is just as easy. With agency marketing, you only pay for what you want.
To top it all off, let’s not forget the real value that comes from experienced digital marketing. As the co-founder of SEOmoz, co-founder of Sparktoro, and all-around marketing and SEO thought leader, Rand Fishkin enjoys a uniquely informed perspective on marketing agency services, and this is what he has to say:
“I think a lot of web marketing agencies are undervaluing their work, or perhaps competition is getting more cutthroat. Back when SEOmoz was an agency (2005-2009), we were generally charging in that $10-$25K/month bucket, and were by no means the most expensive group on the market.
The best agencies enjoy a time-tested, intimate understanding of the marketing universe — what’s come before, what’s happening right now, and what’s around the corner — so that they can tailor a marketing strategy to fit your business and your industry. And, with multiple clients, agencies also have nearly limitless opportunities to test and evaluate new ideas, advancing their capabilities with every new contract. In short, you end up getting back more than you give out.”
Clear-cut costs, proven expertise, and ever-expanding skill sets — now that's a burger you can sink your teeth into.
Sometimes the less expensive option isn’t really the less expensive option. So, when you’re looking over the marketing menu and trying to decide which option is the best fit for your business (and your budget), consider all the costs. After all, you probably wouldn’t want to buy a burger without knowing exactly how much it’s going to set you back, and working with marketing agencies like 97th Floor, you’ll always be getting the best brand exposure for your buck.
Picking an agency can feel risky; you’ve got a lot riding on it. The wrong partner can waste your time, budget, and even hurt your career. You’ve been burned before, so the stakes feel high.
You know your business and where you want to go, but great marketing takes more than passion. It requires empathy, innovation, and a drive for profitability. That’s where 97th Floor comes in.
Digital. Marketing. Elevated. It’s more than just a cute slogan. Your goals shape everything we do. We work with you to build a tailored strategy, with clear KPIs and budgets that match your needs. Our culture is built around results, not hours, not busywork. Every team member is accountable for delivering outcomes that matter. We’re your partner, working alongside you with full transparency, keeping you in the loop every step of the way.
Proven Expertise
Our team is stacked with certified, continually trained marketers. We’ve been recognized by Fortune, Inc., and Moz, and we consistently rank as one of the best places to work — meaning we retain top talent for our clients.
Leaders in the Industry
We host our own Mastermind conference featuring top voices like Seth Godin, Gaurav Agarwal, and Ryan Holiday, share advanced marketing insights, and speak at events worldwide. We’re here to push the industry forward, not follow the pack.
Giving Back
We pledge 1% of revenue to charity, support local causes, and serve on industry boards. We believe in improving more than just the bottom line.
An Elevated Experience
We aim to deliver results and an elevated experience. We make working with us something you’ll remember for all the right reasons. With 97th Floor, your vision is our vision — and we have the expertise, passion, and track record to get you there. Learn more about what sets us apart here.
Yes, if you choose the right partner. A good agency brings specialized skills, proven strategies, and the tools needed to get results faster than building everything in-house. They also provide an outside perspective that can help you spot opportunities and fix blind spots in your marketing.
Expect a collaborative relationship built around clear goals and measurable results. The agency should learn your business inside and out, create a tailored strategy, execute it with their team of specialists, and keep you updated through transparent communication and reporting.
Some of the pros of working with marketing agencies include:
– Access to a full team of experts across multiple disciplines.
– Established processes, tools, and industry connections.
– Ability to scale efforts up or down quickly.
– Fresh ideas and an outside perspective on your brand.
Some of the pros of doing marketing in-house include:
– Full-time focus on your brand and products.
– Deeper institutional knowledge of your company.
– Direct control over priorities, messaging, and workflows. No middleman.
There’s no one right answer; it depends on your brand. A good place to start is with your goals and KPIs. Then, look at the agency’s track record in achieving similar results for other clients. Consider the cost and the value together. Think about expertise, time savings, scalability, and quality of execution. The right ROI comparison factors in both tangible outcomes (like revenue growth) and intangible benefits (like stronger brand positioning).
