Free guide · 8 sections · 48 lessons

How to hire
a marketing
agency without
getting burnt

The full guide from an agency owner. Free, no email needed. Read the highlights in 90 seconds or take the PDF.

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Sam Shrimpton, founder of Teylu and Partners.
15 plus years in the business.

In 90 seconds

The whole guide, distilled.

Eight themes. Forty-eight lessons. Tap a card for the long version.

01

Spot the red flags

The warning signs that predict a bad agency relationship.

If they cannot tell you who actually does the work, walk.

Vague answers about staffing, mystery 'specialists', and last-minute swap-outs after you sign are the loudest tells. The good ones name names.

02

Ask the right questions

What to ask before you sign anything.

"Who is on my account in week six?" will save you thousands.

Pitch teams disappear. Ask, in writing, who runs your account in month two, six and twelve. Ask what happens if they leave.

03

Understand agency structures

Why account managers cost you more than they save.

30 to 40% of your fee can go on coordination, not work.

Most agencies layer in account managers because their model needs them, not because you do. Ask who the strategist is and book time with them directly.

04

Know what good looks like

The behaviours of agencies that actually deliver.

Strategic challenge, not just delivery, is the job.

If your agency never disagrees with you, you are paying them to nod. Push back is the work.

05

Read the budget honestly

What you actually pay for in a retainer.

Hours buy attention. Outcomes buy growth.

Retainers are built around capacity. Outcome contracts are built around results. Pick the model that matches what you are buying.

06

Run a sane pitch

How to pick an agency without wasting weeks.

If your pitch needs five rounds, you are the problem.

Long pitch processes select for big agencies, not good ones. Two rounds, paid scoping, real conversation. That is enough.

07

Make the partnership work

How to get more out of an agency you already have.

Most underperformance is a brief problem, not an agency problem.

Before you fire them, write a brief that names the outcome, the constraints and the decision maker. Half of bad agency stories are bad client briefs.

08

The contrarian truths

What no agency will tell you to your face.

The cheapest agency is almost always the most expensive.

Discount fees come from somewhere. Usually a junior on a copy-paste plan. The bill arrives later, in churn and lost quarters.

The 40% problem

I have seen agency structures where 30 to 40% of the client fee goes to account management.

— Sam Shrimpton, founder, Teylu and Partners

Where your retainer goes

30–40% Account management, status calls, coordination

60–70% Strategy, craft, the work itself

Almost half your budget can go on coordination, not work. The strategists you hired the agency for spend their time updating people who are updating other people. That is the model, not a bug.

There are seven more truths like this in the full guide.

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Four lessons in long form

01 / Red flags

How to spot a bad agency in the first 30 minutes.

The pitch meeting is theatre, but it leaks. The team you meet is rarely the team you get. The credentials deck has more Fortune 500 logos than billable strategists. Listen for what they will not commit to.

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×They cannot name your week-six account lead.

×The case studies do not name the strategist.

×They sell process, not point of view.

×Discounts appear on the second call.

02 / Five questions

The five questions every agency dodges.

Bring these into the second meeting. The dodge is the answer.

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Who is on my account in week six?

Tells you whether the pitch team stays.

What percentage of the fee is delivery vs coordination?

Forces the structure into the open.

What outcome are you willing to tie fees to?

Separates capacity sellers from outcome sellers.

Show me the strategist's calendar for next week.

If it is full of internal meetings, you know.

When did you last fire a client?

Good agencies have a point of view about fit.

03 / Retainer vs project

Retainer or project: what you actually buy.

A retainer buys a slice of attention, every month, whether or not you need it. A project buys a bounded outcome and ends. Most retainers should have been projects.

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RetainerWhat you pay for: capacity

ProjectWhat you pay for: outcome

Outcome contractWhat you pay for: results

04 / Why agencies fail

Why your last agency failed. It might not have been their fault.

Half the bad agency stories I hear are bad client briefs in disguise. No named outcome, no decision maker, no constraints. If the brief is fog, the work will be fog.

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"Most underperformance is a brief problem, not an agency problem."