Here's a pattern we see constantly: a brand signs with an agency, things feel good for a month or two, then frustration builds. Results aren't where they expected. Communication feels off. They start shopping for a new agency.
Then they switch. And within a few months, they're having the exact same conversation with the new team.
We've been on both sides of this. We've onboarded brands that just left another agency, and we've had the honest conversations with brands where the bottleneck wasn't us - it was them. It's not a comfortable thing to talk about, but it's worth addressing because the agency is rarely the root cause. The bottleneck is usually living on the brand side.
The Brand-Side Problems Nobody Wants to Hear About
Your approval cycle is killing velocity
If it takes longer to get an email approved than it did to build the campaign, that's a red flag. We see this constantly - the agency sends a finished email on Monday, and feedback doesn't come back until the following week. Meanwhile, the send window is gone and the calendar falls behind.
Then the brand wonders why the agency "isn't getting enough out."
You're rewriting everything
The founder or CMO who feels like they need to rewrite every subject line and preview text is basically crushing velocity. You hired specialists to write emails. If you're redoing their work on every send, you're paying for expertise you won't let them use.
You can't provide creative assets
No product photography. No brand guidelines. No direction on what the brand should look and feel like in someone's inbox. Then you're surprised when the emails don't feel "on brand."
The agency can only work with what you give them. If you're not guiding them well, the output is going to reflect that.
You hired the agency but still want to run strategy
This one's subtle but it comes up a lot. You brought in experts, but you don't actually trust them to be experts. You second-guess every recommendation, override their segmentation strategy, and push for the approach you were already doing before you hired them.
At that point, you don't need an agency. You need an executor. And that's a different hire.
Your KPIs keep shifting
One month it's list growth. Next month it's revenue attribution. The month after that it's deliverability. If you're switching the goalposts every review cycle, no agency can build momentum.
Pick the metrics that matter, agree on them upfront, and give it time to play out.
You ghost on communication
This is the biggest one. You can't leave feedback requests unanswered, go silent on Slack for two weeks, leave tasks blank in the project management tool, and then wonder why things aren't getting done.
Communication is everything in an agency relationship. Ghosting is the fastest way to tank a partnership, and it's more common than most brands want to admit.
Signs It Actually Is the Agency
Fair is fair. Sometimes the agency really is the problem. Here's what that looks like:
They're not proactive. They're taking orders, not bringing ideas. If your agency never suggests a new flow, never proposes a test, and just waits for you to tell them what to build - that's a problem. You're paying for strategy, not order-taking.
They're not testing. No A/B tests on subject lines, send times, or content. They found one approach that kinda works and they're riding it forever.
Deliverability is declining and they can't explain why. Inbox placement issues happen. But if your agency can't tell you what's causing it or what they're doing about it, that's a real concern.
They're running the same playbook for every client. Your welcome flow looks suspiciously similar to your competitor's. Your campaigns could be swapped with any other brand in the space and nobody would notice. There's no strategic thinking specific to your business.
You've flagged the same issue more than twice and nothing changed. Everyone makes mistakes. But if you've brought up the same problem multiple times and it keeps happening, the agency either doesn't care or doesn't have the people to fix it.
They're reporting vanity metrics only. Opens and clicks with no real revenue attribution. If your agency can't tell you how email is actually impacting the P&L, they're hiding behind numbers that look good but don't mean much.
They're not curious about your business. They don't ask about your goals, your product roadmap, your customer feedback. They just execute tasks and move on. Good agencies are invested in understanding your business - not just managing your Klaviyo account.
What It Really Comes Down To
There's a reason you hired an agency. They're specialists. "Agency" has a bit of a dirty-word reputation in this industry, but the good ones are genuinely experts at what they do.
The deal is pretty simple: give them everything they need to be successful. Product info, creative assets, brand guidelines, timely feedback. Then communicate. A lot. Trust that they're going to do their job, and trust that they'll communicate back when something needs attention.
With that foundation in place, you'll get results. And if you're not getting them after you've done your part and maintained real communication - that's when you know it might not be the right fit.
But switching agencies before you've held up your end? You're just going to end up having this same conversation six months from now with someone new.
