How to know if your agency is actually performing

Hi Everyone,

Only 5% of companies have written down what they expect their agency to achieve. Yet poor delivery is now the most common reason companies fire an agency — 48% of clients named it in Setup's latest survey, ahead of budget cuts and leadership changes.

It's hard to judge whether an agency has failed if you never clearly defined what success looked like.

Today, we're showing you how to fix that with a quarterly agency review.

Write the target first

Start with one sentence describing what you hired the agency to achieve — something they can clearly hit or miss.

For example: Generate 30% of our qualified pipeline at under $400 per lead.

That works because, at the end of the quarter, you know whether it happened.

Support our demand generation doesn't, because there's no clear way to judge success.

A clear target changes the conversation. Instead of debating how the work felt, you start with whether the agreed outcome was achieved.

What to cover in the agency review

Run the review every quarter with the agency's owner or senior lead in the room, not just the account manager.

1. The target (15 minutes): Start with the outcome you agreed and ask whether the last quarter's work delivered against it. If the business has changed — a new product, budget, or priority — update the target before reviewing performance.
2. The scorecard (30 minutes): Choose four to six metrics with targets and review them one by one, rather than listening to a recap of everything the agency did.
   
   Pipeline contribution might suit a marketing agency; milestones delivered against plan might suit development or consulting; on-time delivery and response time work for almost any agency.
   
   Send the completed scorecard a few days before the meeting, so for every number below target, the agency arrives with the reason and a plan to fix it.
3. The mirror (20 minutes): Let the agency assess you too. Were the briefs clear? Did feedback arrive on time? Did they get the data, access, and people they needed?
   
   Poor client behaviour can hurt agency performance too. Giving them permission to challenge you turns the meeting into a working session rather than an audit.
4. The decision (25 minutes): End with one of three outcomes:
   • Continue: The numbers are on target.
   • Fix: Both sides agree on two or three changes and review them again in 60 to 90 days.
   • Replace: The same important numbers are still off track after a previous fix period.

Whatever you decide, write down who owns each action and by when. Start the next review by checking whether everyone did what they committed to.

Try this today

We built the agency scorecard template to make your first review easier. It covers the target sentence, starter metrics for marketing, development, PR, and consulting work, and the mirror questions. Fill it in for one agency and send it over a few days before you book the first review.

Get your Agency Review Scorecard

Go deeper

👉 Setup: The truth about agency breakups — see the full side-by-side of why clients say they leave versus why agencies think they do, and check which side of the story your team is telling.

👉 ANA: Client-Agency Relationship Tenure Report — read this before you consider a pitch; at over $400,000 per average pitch, fixing the relationship you have is usually the cheaper option.

👉 4As: Cost of the Pitch II: The Rise of Value — use this when you want the full case for defining value with your agency instead of arguing about cost.

👉 Setup: The 2024 Marketing Relationship Survey — download the full report if you want the data behind the 48% figure, including how marketers at Home Depot, Chobani, and UPS answered.

Coming up tomorrow

Tomorrow, we will cover what to do when two of your executives can't work together, and why the cause is usually the structure around them.

Have a great week.

P.S. Forward this to whoever owns your agency relationship.