15 Reasons You Should Fire Your Marketing Agency.
If even three of these sound familiar, congratulations:
You’re funding someone else’s lifestyle while your growth flatlines.
Let’s begin:
1. They lock you into long-term contracts
If they were confident in their work, you wouldn’t need handcuffs.
2. They control your ad accounts, website, and analytics
Then act like it’s “proprietary” when you try to leave. It’s not IP. It’s your business.
3. They charge % of media spend
So the more budget they burn, the more money they make.
Spoiler: they always recommend spending more.
4. They pitch you with the A team, then hand you the interns
You bought a McLaren. They delivered a tricycle.
5. They show up to calls with 10 people
All billable. All silent. One taking notes you’ll never see again.
6. They report vanity metrics instead of revenue
“Impressions are up!” Great.
Still no sales though, eh?
7. Their growth strategy = ‘run more ads’
No customer insight. No funnel diagnostics. Just more budget.
8. They confuse activity with progress
40-slide decks. Heatmaps. Buzzwords.
Zero impact.
9. They gatekeep the basics
They make marketing sound like quantum physics to justify their fees.
10. They chase awards, not outcomes
They care more about their LinkedIn case study than your EBITDA.
11. They outsource your account without telling you
It’s not “the team.” It’s Dave in Bali learning Meta Ads from a TikTok course.
12. They sell “proprietary tech” that’s just Data Studio
Rebranded dashboards. Inflated fees. Nothing you couldn’t build in an afternoon.
13. They have zero skin in the game
You miss targets? That’s your problem.
They still get paid.
14. Your incentives are misaligned
You want results.
They want retention.
That’s not partnership. That’s entrapment.
15. They never take accountability
Bad results? “Seasonality.”
Good results? “That was all us.”
Convenient.
⸻
To be fair, not all agencies are bad.
But 95% of them are TERRIBLE.
And it’s not just a few rogue players. It’s the model that’s broken.
Agencies are designed to sell effort, not outcomes.
They profit from complexity.
They avoid risk.
And they get paid whether you win or lose.
If that sounds familiar, you don’t need a new agency.
You need a new model.