When to Fire Your Marketing Agency (And What to Do Before You Do)

There’s a moment in a lot of founder conversations where someone sighs and says:

“I think we need to fire our agency.”

Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes the agency really is phoning it in.

But often, what looks like an “agency problem” is actually:

• A data problem

• A brief/strategy problem

• A budget and expectations problem

Firing the agency without checking those things first just means you’ll be in the same spot again six months from now—with a different logo on the invoice.

Here’s how I coach clients through the “do we fire them?” question, and what to have ready if you do.

The Usual “Agency Symptoms” Founders Complain About

If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone:

• “The numbers are getting worse and no one can explain why.”

• “We’re seeing a lot of activity, but not a lot of revenue.”

• “They keep telling us it’s the algorithm / seasonality / creative, but there’s no clear plan.”

• “Reporting feels like a recap, not analysis.”

• “We only hear from them when we chase.”

• “They seem more interested in defending their work than in fixing what’s wrong.”

Those are legitimate red flags.

Before you pull the plug, though, it helps to get specific. That’s where a simple agency scorecard comes in.

A Simple Agency Scorecard: 4 Things to Look At First

You don’t need a 20-line rubric. Start with four areas:

1. Reporting & Insight

Ask yourself:

• Are we getting regular, scheduled reports?

• Do they go beyond “what happened” to “so what and now what”?

• Do we understand attribution assumptions and data caveats?

A good report should make your decisions easier, not add to the confusion.

2. Testing & Iteration

Look at the last 60–90 days:

• What tests did they run? (creative, audiences, bids, landing pages?)

• What did they learn?

• What changed in the account as a result?

If you can’t see a clear test-and-learn rhythm, you don’t have a performance agency—you have a maintenance agency.

3. Transparency & Communication

Consider:

• Do they proactively flag concerns and propose options?

• Do they explain results in plain language, or hide behind jargon?

• Do you feel comfortable asking “naïve” questions?

Healthy relationships are collaborative. If every conversation feels defensive or foggy, that’s data too.

4. Strategic Thinking

Finally, ask:

• Are they simply pushing buttons, or are they helping shape channel mix, budgets, and offers?

• Do they understand your margin, CAC caps, and business model?

• Do they bring ideas that connect to your actual goals, not just platform benchmarks?

An agency doesn’t have to be your CMO, but they should at least be operating within a clear strategy—and be able to talk about it.

If your scorecard is low across most of these, firing them might be the right move. But before you do…

Five Checks to Run Before You Fire Your Agency

These checks do two things:

1. They help you be fair about what’s actually broken.

2. They make your life much easier if you do switch agencies or move to a fractional CMO / in-house model.

Check 1: Is Your Tracking and Data Trustworthy?

If GA4, Shopify/Stripe, and platform dashboards all disagree and no one has reconciled that, you’re trying to fly a plane with three broken gauges.

Questions to ask:

• Are core events (purchases, leads, booked calls) firing correctly?

• Is there a consistent UTM and naming structure?

• Has anyone documented how we measure CAC/MER/ROAS?

If tracking is a mess, a new agency won’t fix that by magic. You may need a data/analytics clean-up first.

Check 2: Did You Give Them a Real Brief and Clear Targets?

A lot of agencies are operating off something like, “We want growth” and “Try to keep ROAS good.”

Before you blame them for vague results, sanity-check:

• Do they know your revenue and margin goals?

• Do they know your acceptable CAC and payback period?

• Did you agree on priority products, audiences, and countries?

If you haven’t spelled that out, your first move might be to tighten the brief and see if performance (or clarity) improves.

Check 3: Are Your Expectations and Budget Even in the Right Zip Code?

If you’re spending:

• $3K/month in a crowded DTC category,

• expecting 3–5x ROAS,

• with no brand awareness and a cold audience…

…it’s not just an agency issue. You’re asking the wrong question of the wrong budget.

Ask:

• Are we expecting enterprise-level outcomes on a test-level budget?

• Does our budget give them enough room to test and learn?

• Are we evaluating performance over a reasonable time window?

Sometimes the fix isn’t “fire the agency,” it’s “adjust the economics or get honest about what this budget can do.”

Check 4: Is the Offer and Website Pulling Its Weight?

Even the best media buying can’t save:

• A confusing offer

• Low conversion rate

• Slow, clunky site

• No social proof or trust elements

Before you fire the agency, look at:

• Landing page conversion rate

• Add-to-cart → purchase drop-offs

• Site speed and mobile experience

If the funnel is clearly broken, you either need the current agency to help fix it, or you need a broader strategy/funnel owner, not just a different media vendor.

Check 5: Have You Had One Blunt, Data-First Conversation?

It sounds obvious, but many relationships die in a slow swirl of passive frustration.

Schedule one meeting and be direct:

• Share concerns clearly, tied to data (“CAC has risen from X to Y; we don’t see a clear plan to address it.”)

• Ask them to walk you through:

  • What they believe is happening

  • What they’ve tried

  • What they’d do with more freedom / budget / creative

• Ask what they need from you to do better (access, approvals, assets, clarity).

How they respond tells you a lot. Some agencies step up, reset the strategy, and improve. Others show you—in real time—why it’s time to move on.

If You Do Part Ways: What to Have Ready

If, after the checks above, you’re still convinced it’s time to move on, don’t just pull the plug and hope.

Here’s what to get in place first.

1. Clean, Exported Data

Before you end the contract:

• Get read-only access to all ad accounts, analytics, and tools.

• Export:

  • Campaign/ad performance for at least 6–12 months

  • Any experiments or tests they ran (and the learnings)

  • Historical reports and dashboards

This becomes the foundation for whoever comes next.

2. Clear Goals and Guardrails

Write down, in plain language:

• Revenue and margin targets

• CAC ceilings and MER floors

• Which products, markets, or segments are priority

• Any hard compliance or brand constraints (especially in healthcare/telehealth)

This becomes your brief for the next chapter, whether that’s a new agency, a fractional CMO, or an in-house lead.

3. A Decision on Your Next Model: Agency, Fractional CMO, or In-House?

Instead of “we’ll just find a better agency,” consider what you actually need:

• Another agency

  • If your strategy is solid

  • Your data is clean

  • You just need better execution at the channel level

• Fractional CMO

  • If you need someone to own:

    • Strategy

    • Channel mix

    • Budget

    • Agency oversight

    • And to connect all of that to your P&L

• In-house hire

  • If you have the volume and complexity to justify a full-time senior marketer

  • And you’re ready to build out a team around them

Many $5–$50M companies are actually in a fractional CMO + selected agencies sweet spot: senior leadership and strategy at a lower cost than a full-time CMO, plus specialist agencies for execution.

Not Sure If It’s Really the Agency? Get a Neutral Read

If you’re staring at rising CAC, flat revenue, and thin reports, it’s very tempting to say “it must be the agency.”

Sometimes it is.

Other times, the real problem is:

• Broken tracking

• A fuzzy offer

• Unrealistic goals

• No one truly owning the growth strategy

Before you fire anyone, it can help to have a neutral, data-driven look at:

• The accounts

• The funnel

• The numbers behind your expectations

That’s exactly what I do as a fractional CMO.

If you want a second opinion on whether you actually have an agency problem or a strategy/data problem, we can start with a short Growth Diagnostic Call. I’ll review your numbers, accounts, and goals and give you an honest view of:

• What’s agency

• What’s upstream

• And what should change first