When Marketing Fails: The Real Costs of Switching Agencies
Thinking about breaking up with your marketing agency? We see and hear you. It’s hard to find the right agency and even harder to fire the wrong one.
Whether you’re set on calling it quits or trying to suss things out with your agency, one thing is for sure—the time to make the right decision is?now.
Why?
Of the 100+ people we talked to, here are the top four costs of switching agencies:
A Hard Look at the Top 4 Costs of Switching Agencies
For this piece, the?Big Leap?team is putting the spotlight on professionals who’ve endured their fair share of agency hopping. We tapped into?HARO, email, and social media surveys to pull insights.
We encourage you to use this information to nurture better and smarter marketing choices this year. With that said, let’s take a hard look at the top four costs of switching agencies.
TIME
How long it takes?for SEO to work?is no secret. SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistent effort to win results. A part of this effort entails building a?holistic marketing strategy?that’s customized to your business’ needs and goals.
When you hire the wrong agency, the time you invest in digital marketing campaigns can double—the first half being the time you spend with your current/wrong agency and the latter half being the time you spend with your future/new agency.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that 46.7% of our respondents expressed time was the biggest cost of hiring the wrong agency.
Among those respondents, here’s how long it took to earn results:
To factor in the time you spend with your future/new agency, take the time frames above and double them—is your business willing and able to make room for that extra time? You may need to be prepared to put some campaigns on pause to accommodate these timeline changes.
What the Experts Say…
Here’s what our research respondents have to say regarding their experience with time:
“Whenever we change our agency, the hassle and the stress of handing over documents and ongoing projects is really time-consuming and, of course, tiring. It is also disappointing that we could not get the result that we wanted right away, but it’s okay because there’s no instant way to success.”?Connor Brown,?After School Finance
“There is a hidden cost in switching to a marketing agency, which is your time cost because, with a new marketing agency, you must spend time pitching them on your marketing needs, target audience, and 4P’s of marketing.”?Anthony Mixides,?The London Vape Company
“No matter how good the agency’s onboarding process is, that is still a very time-consuming process.”?James Lazar,Oakwoods Outlet
“Switching agencies for us was difficult because while it was frustrating to see the time and money wasted, it was especially hard to come to terms with the fact that we were back to square one after what we initially expected would be a productive partnership.”?Kathleen Ahmmed,?USCarJunker
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PERFORMANCE
What the Research Says…
When we dove deeper into time, our research unveiled several layers. The span of timelines can be attributed to an agency’s performances and expertise. In other words:
What the Experts Say…
26.7% of our survey respondents have used, on average, three different marketing agencies. The reasons for this involved various performance-related factors we believe are worth considering as you make your decision.
“Every time we’ve moved agencies it has been for performance-related reasons. Mostly it was as simple as too much money being spent with not enough conversions to justify it. Other problems for us have been with wastage – lots of irrelevant keywords with Google Ads for instance.”?James Lazar,?Oakwoods Outlet
“You can’t expect an agency to deliver before the day ends. Hence, patience should be practiced when dealing with a marketing company. However, too much patience is also a bad idea. I recommend asking for weekly progress reports. If they show no promising results, it’s time to kick them off the boat before they sink the ship.”?(Carl Panepinto,?Storm Internet)
“It is important to find a marketing agency that has the right balance of experience, expertise, and size. If an agency is serving too many customers simultaneously, they may not give the required attention to your product because they have too much on their plate.”?Krittin Kalra,?Writecream
Performance is what ultimately makes or breaks your business’ online viability. Take the time to track and evaluate your metrics to see whether your agency investments have been worth it. This will not only give you a sense of control over your company’s online performance but will also help you feel confident that your business is headed in the right direction.
MORALE
What the Research Says…
People tend to stay focused on the bottom line during big transitions like these, yet they fail to look at those who are responsible for pushing that needle—the employees.
Research illustrates switching agencies can hurt your team members’ morale, especially if that agency doesn’t turn out to be a good fit. Partnering with an agency involves building relationships and trust—two areas that are at the heart of human connection.
So if things aren’t working out, it isn’t just your budget that’s hurting, it’s your entire team.
What the Experts Say…
When Sherry Morgan from?Petsolino?noticed a lack of transparency with her agency, it hurt morale among her team:
“When they [an agency] started working for us, everything went smoothly during the onboarding and planning stages but red flags started to appear when our marketing campaigns started.
The agency was not that transparent when it came to their processes and also wouldn’t share access to tools in tracking our marketing metrics. We were basically kept in the dark, and the projects they launched did?not really improve our online presence.
At this time, the morale of the internal team was significantly affected because we weren’t sure what we were doing wrong. Not to mention, we already paid a non-refundable retainer to the agency so we thought that switching agencies might just be a waste of money.“?Sherry Morgan,?Petsolino
Transparency is key to any agency relationship. Check in on your team to see how your agency’s actions affect them. If your team is hurting, it’s likely your bottom line is too.