3 Ways to Tell If It’s Time to Break Up with Your Digital Agency

🎶 “Breaking up is hard to do.” 🎶

Like any other relationship, sometimes the relationship between a business and its digital agency just runs its course and may be better for both parties (usually better for the business) if there was a break up.

Here’s how to tell if it’s time to break up with your digital agency:

1. You feel like you don’t know what they are doing when you are not looking. You constantly feel suspicious. You feel like they avoid direct questions and only answer with generalities.

In a productive and open relationship, a digital agency can list specific tasks that were completed, provide a specific accounting of hours used and most importantly, detail the improvements gained. Your Google Ads account, your Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads Manager and possibly your website have logs that record changes made. There should never be any doubt as to what your digital agency was doing for you.

✔️ If you don’t get regular hard, specific evidence work was done and results improved, it may be time to break up.

2. You feel like your digital agency is just going through the motions 

Maybe you are getting the feeling that their heart just isn’t into it. The reports look the same. The actions they take look the same. You’ve just fallen into that same old routine.

Today, there is so much automation and even artificial intelligence available to digital agencies that it’s easy for them to put your relationship on autopilot. You want new ideas, reactions to new trends and  to know that your digital agency is investing in new tools to make your business successful.

✔️ If you haven’t heard about a new trend they think you should experiment with or a new tool they are using to improve results, it may be time to break up.

3. You just can’t see the future of your relationship

There should always be a plan for the future. Yes, plans change, but digital agencies gain efficiency if there is a long-term plan because they want their team all pulling in the same direction. And you have to agree with that direction. Everybody needs to know the goal. Plus, a good plan includes milestones and goals to calibrate the work. Some relationships thrive on spontaneity, but a good digital marketing relationship thrives on plans and processes. 

✔️ If you can’t get a copy of your digital marketing plan and open dialog to go with it, it may be time to break up.

Because there are few barriers to entry, the number of digital agencies in the United States increases about 8% per year. With no required licensing or established academic credentialing, the quality of the level of work you can get from a digital marketing agency varies greatly. 

Don’t give your digital marketing agency blind trust. You deserve a relationship that makes you stronger.

With the right digital marketing agency relationship, you can really propel your business. Once you know what to look for, you can have a long and mutually rewarding relationship together.

If it looks like it is time to break up with your digital marketing agency and you find yourself back on the market, ROAR! would love to get to know you over a cup of coffee and see if there’s a connection. We believe in long-lasting relationships and would like to see if we can start one with you.