Agencies are often appointed through referrals, relationships and reputation rather than formal procurement processes.
That’s understandable. Marketing, communications and creative relationships are highly interpersonal. Trust and chemistry matter.
But agencies are still professional services businesses and they should be evaluated accordingly.
Throughout my career I’ve held roles that have required me to engage with, evaluate and appoint all manner of agencies: events, PR, brand, design, web, digital, video, social, content… I’m a strong advocate for outsourcing functions or roles when an in-house team lacks the capacity, interest, skill or expertise.
That said, agencies are not immune to operational, structural or commercial shortcomings. If you’re less experienced in this field, here are 10 things to consider before entering into a new agency relationship.
1. Who will work on your account?
If a professional services firm is pitching for your business, it’s only natural that it will put its best team forward. But will this ‘A-team’ be the team that is assigned to do your work? Only in the rarest of cases (McKinsey was always the textbook example) is the calibre of individuals consistent across a business. In most modern workplaces, there are high performers, low performers and a bunch of people in between.
Corporate and government entities alike are wising up to this practice. It’s not uncommon for their contract terms to specify that new team members must be approved before commencing work on an account. Some even require the individuals who are put forward in a proposal to sign a declaration of their availability and suitability to do the work.
Questions to ask
- Will the proposed individuals deliver the services?
- Do the proposed individuals have the capacity (as in time) to do the work?
- What proportion of each individual’s time will be spent on my account?
- Will you permit me to approve new team members before they commence work on my account?
- What role will AI, automation and outsourced production workflows play in delivery?
2. What role will each person perform on your account team?
Agencies, like clients, need structure. Even the flattest enterprise will be populated with individuals who have diverse skills, strengths and experiences. Be clear about the role each individual will perform on your account team.
Questions to ask
- Who will be my primary contact?
- For which other clients does this person work?
- What role will each other individual serve on my team?
- What is the process for managing and escalating issues, should they occur?
3. Industry experience versus industry over-exposure
When organisations procure professional services such as accountants and lawyers, they often favour industry expertise. The same instinct applies when appointing agencies. But what are they actually buying? Deep sector insight? Access to key stakeholders? Familiarity with market dynamics? Or an agency that already counts a large proportion of their competitors as clients?
There is a difference between industry expertise and industry over-exposure.
For example, I’d have little hesitation working with an agency that provided digital services to my competitors. I’d have far stronger reservations about engaging an agency that advises a large number of my competitors on strategy, positioning, reputation or strategic bids because, in those contexts, the agency may be exposed to sensitive commercial information, competitive positioning and internal decision-making.
That creates three risks.
The first is strategic contamination: the possibility that insight from one client relationship consciously or unconsciously influences advice given to another.
The second is category fatigue: the agency becomes so immersed in a sector that it stops questioning accepted thinking.
The third is recycled thinking: your organisation receives a version of an idea, strategy or approach already circulating elsewhere in the market.
So, give careful thought to whether industry experience is genuinely an advantage. Do you want access to sector knowledge, or do you risk buying a pre-packaged solution? Are you seeking best practice, or something too close to what your competitors are already doing?
Questions to ask
- Which of my competitors do you count as clients?
- What is the nature of the services you provide to each competitor?
- Will you offer me category exclusivity for this type of work?
- Will you quarantine my team from working on competitor accounts?
- What systems and processes restrict internal access to my documentation, data and strategic materials?
4. Does the agency have operational maturity?
Servicing existing clients while onboarding new accounts can place significant pressure on agency operations, particularly in smaller or rapidly growing businesses. Clients should look beyond the pitch and evaluate whether the agency has the operational maturity to support consistent delivery.
That includes:
- workflow discipline
- project management processes
- cyber security protections
- document management systems
- collaboration platforms
- cloud infrastructure
- professional indemnity insurance and
- quality assurance procedures.
Operational weaknesses reveal themselves quickly. Poor responsiveness, inconsistent communication, delivery delays and version-control issues are often symptoms of immature systems rather than a lack of talent.
Clients should also consider platform compatibility and ways of working. Agencies should adapt to client operating environments – not the other way around. Collaboration becomes unnecessarily difficult when systems, platforms, time zones or communication expectations are misaligned.
Questions to ask
- Will the agency be servicing the account using existing team members or recruit additional resources?
- Where are team members located and what time zones do they operate within?
- Are key personnel available for in-person meetings, if required?
- What project management, collaboration and document management systems does the agency use?
- What cyber security protections and backup systems are in place?
- How are workflow, approvals and version control managed?
5. Asset ownership
Before appointing a creative, marketing or digital agency, give careful thought to who owns the assets created during the relationship. I’m not just referring to finished artwork or published content, but also:
- editable source files
- raw footage
- design systems
- prompts
- AI-generated assets
- automation workflows and
- platform configurations.
This issue has become more important in the AI era. Increasingly, agencies are using proprietary tools, custom GPTs, automation platforms and AI-assisted production workflows to create client deliverables. Clients should understand what is transferable, what remains dependent on the agency’s systems, and whether critical knowledge or assets could become inaccessible if the relationship ends.
Ownership and transferability matter for two reasons.
First, organisations can invest significant sums over time in:
- copyright
- stock libraries
- commissioned assets
- prompts
- templates
- automation systems and
- content production infrastructure.
Second, businesses often discover too late that they cannot easily reuse, repurpose or migrate important assets without recreating them from scratch.
Questions to ask
- Who owns the editable source files and working assets?
- What processes exist for transferring files, assets and platform access, either periodically or at the conclusion of the relationship?
- If the agency retains ownership of certain systems or assets, what is the cost and process for accessing or licensing them after the relationship concludes?
- What ownership rights apply to AI-generated assets, prompts and automation workflows created during the engagement?
- Will exported files be provided in editable and transferable formats?
- Are any deliverables dependent on proprietary platforms, subscriptions or agency-controlled systems?
6. Promotional rights
Most agencies want to showcase successful work. That’s understandable. Case studies, awards, testimonials and public recognition help agencies attract talent, build credibility and win new business.
But clients should think carefully about how, where and when their organisation’s name, brand, work and intellectual property may be used for agency self-promotion.
Awards programs are one example. Some are highly reputable and genuinely prestigious. Others exist largely to generate entry fees, sponsorship revenue and industry publicity. Not every award carries equal credibility.
The issue is broader than awards alone. Agencies may also seek to:
- publish case studies
- announce appointments
- publicise project outcomes
- use client branding in credentials
- reference engagements in pitches or
- generate thought leadership based on client work.
In some cases, that visibility benefits both parties. In others, it can create commercial, reputational or confidentiality concerns – particularly where projects involve sensitive strategy, procurement activity, transformation programs or competitive positioning.
Clients should ensure promotional rights, approval processes and attribution expectations are clearly understood upfront.
Questions to ask
- Do you require client approval before entering work into awards programs?
- Will award submissions and publicity be presented jointly in client-agency names?
- Will we have final approval over case studies, award entries and promotional material referencing our organisation?
- What confidentiality restrictions apply to the use of our brand, project information and deliverables?
- How long may the agency continue referencing the engagement after the relationship concludes?
- Will any project information be used to generate broader thought leadership, presentations or marketing material?
7. What are the ‘hidden’ third party costs?
Many agencies apply a margin to third party expenditure – typically in the order of 10 to 15 per cent. Third party costs may include AI subscriptions, software licensing, platform fees, production services, and copyright fees for music, video and imagery.
There is nothing inherently wrong with on-costs where they reflect legitimate procurement, administration or project management overheads. The issue is transparency.
Clients should understand:
- what is being charged
- what margin is being applied
- whether those costs could be procured more efficiently or directly.
I once worked with an engineering firm whose design agency was adding as much as 50 per cent to printer invoices without clear disclosure. It was unethical.
Undisclosed or excessive markups can quickly erode trust in a professional services relationship. My preference is that third-party costs are either invoiced directly or fully disclosed and transparently itemised.
Questions to ask
- What margins or administrative fees are applied to third-party expenditure?
- Will copies of third-party invoices be attached to agency invoices?
- Can we procure certain third-party services or subscriptions directly if preferred?
- Are there agency-owned platforms, subscriptions or tools embedded within delivery costs?
- What AI, software or platform costs are recoverable separately?
8. Competency challenge
These are interesting times for agencies and professional services firms. Artificial intelligence, automation and digital transformation are rapidly reshaping entire categories of work. As a result, many agencies and practitioners are repositioning themselves in an attempt to remain commercially relevant.
That is not necessarily a problem. Skills evolve. Industries evolve. New capabilities emerge.
The challenge is that repositioning and genuine capability are not always the same thing.
Today we see:
- public relations firms rebadging as integrated communications agencies
- event organisers repositioning as social media specialists
- journalists becoming content strategists
- agencies of every kind claiming AI capability, strategic expertise or “full-service” positioning.
Meanwhile, AI-assisted production tools are making it easier than ever to manufacture polished credentials, sophisticated proposals, thought leadership and the appearance of expertise.
As a result, clients should look carefully beyond positioning language and assess whether the agency genuinely possesses the experience, capability, systems and strategic judgement required to deliver the work.
What organisations have done historically may no longer be relevant. Equally, newly claimed capabilities should not automatically be accepted at face value.
Be clear about the expertise you actually require—and evaluate whether the organisations you are considering genuinely possess it.
Questions to ask
- How long has the agency been providing this specific service?
- What proportion of revenue comes from this capability area?
- Which team members will deliver the work and what is their direct experience?
- What role does AI or automation play in delivery?
- Can the agency provide relevant and recent case studies?
- Is the capability genuinely in-house or dependent on external contractors or partners?
- What differentiates the agency’s expertise from competitors making similar claims?
9. Data-driven decision making
We are constantly encouraged to make evidence-based decisions – and rightly so. But when it comes to agency selection and performance assessment, the sheer volume of available data can become misleading rather than illuminating.
Not all metrics are meaningful.
Social media followers can be bought. Algorithms can artificially amplify reach. Impressions can be AI-generated. Subscribers are not necessarily human.
Even legitimate metrics can lack commercial relevance. High engagement does not necessarily translate into strategic capability, sound judgement, delivery quality or commercial outcomes.
The issue is not whether agencies have visibility. The issue is whether that visibility reflects genuine expertise, influence and capability—or simply effective self-promotion.
Clients should be careful not to confuse:
- attention with authority
- reach with credibility or
- visibility with competence.
The most valuable agencies are not always the loudest, most followed or most visible. Often, they are the organisations quietly delivering consistent commercial outcomes for clients.
Questions to ask
- Which metrics does the agency use to measure success and why?
- How does the agency distinguish between visibility metrics and commercial outcomes?
- What evidence exists that marketing activity translated into measurable business results?
- How does the agency measure strategic impact rather than engagement alone?
- Are audience, reach and engagement figures independently verifiable?
- What role do paid amplification, automation or AI tools play in audience growth and content distribution?
10. Are you the right fit?
By this stage, you may be satisfied the agency possesses the skills, tools, structure, capacity and industry experience required to deliver the work. But capability alone does not guarantee suitability.
The question now becomes: is the agency genuinely the right fit for your organisation?
That includes cultural fit, certainly. But there must also be strategic, operational, commercial and relationship alignment.
An agency may have strong credentials and highly capable people yet still be poorly suited to a particular client, project or operating environment.
My own agency is relatively small, but most of our clients are not. They are large organisations, global companies and well-known brands operating in complex B2B environments. Some years ago, we accepted a small business client that had approached us through our content marketing. It quickly became apparent the fit was not right – for either party.
The issue was not capability. It was alignment:
- expectations
- ways of working
- commercial realities and
- the type of support the client genuinely required.
Once the initial project concluded, we referred the business to a trusted freelancer who was ultimately a far better fit based on proximity, scale and budget.
Not every opportunity should proceed simply because both parties are willing.
Poor-fit clients are expensive teachers.
Questions to ask
- Does the agency typically work with organisations of our size and complexity?
- Are our expectations, timelines and working styles compatible?
- Will we receive senior strategic attention or become a lower-priority account?
- Is the agency structured to support our long-term needs?
- Does the agency genuinely understand our sector, commercial pressures and stakeholders?
- If the relationship becomes difficult, how does the agency typically manage conflict and escalation?
In closing, agency appointments are often relationship-based rather than procurement-led. That’s unlikely to change. But in an era of artificial expertise, AI-assisted capability claims and increasingly fragmented delivery models, commercial judgement matters more than ever.
