Build an Advertising Agency Relationship That Actually Works
You did the hard part. You sifted through decks, sat through pitches, and finally chose your ad agency. Maybe it was one of the top advertising agencies in the country. Maybe it was a scrappy regional shop with a punchy portfolio. Either way, the ink is dry.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: 68% of brands expect to review their agency relationships within the next 12 months, even though just 40% say they actually plan to make a switch.
That stat says it all. Most clients aren’t looking for a new agency. They’re looking for a better relationship with the one they already hired.
This guide is about how to build that relationship. Whether you just hired one of the best advertising agencies on your shortlist or signed with a local player recommended by a peer, we’ll show you how to turn a good engagement into a great partnership. One that delivers results, builds momentum, and keeps your inbox free of awkward check-in emails.
Align on Outcomes, Not Just Deliverables
One of the most common reasons agency relationships fall apart isn't lack of effort. It's misaligned expectations. Too often, brands hand over a scope of work and assume success will naturally follow. But a well-written SOW means nothing if both sides are quietly chasing different outcomes.
The fix starts with translating big-picture business goals into clear, shared metrics. If your priority is increasing average order value, are you tracking customer retention, upsell attach rate, or cross-sell performance? And more importantly, does your agency know that?
The best ad agencies in the world don’t just execute tasks. They build strategies that map directly to your highest-level objectives. But they can only do that if those objectives are transparent and agreed upon from the start.
That’s why we recommend a dedicated alignment session in Week One. Treat it like an assumptions audit. Ask every stakeholder on both sides to write down their definition of success, then pressure-test those answers together. You’ll uncover competing priorities, surface hidden agendas, and walk away with a KPI ladder that keeps everyone accountable.
When brands skip this step, they often default to micromanaging tactics and creative output. When they take the time to get aligned, they empower their marketing and advertising firms to focus on what matters most: driving results.
Whether you're working with one of the top agencies in the country or a trusted local partner, this is a crucial step that sets the foundation. Clarity on outcomes leads to better creative, stronger strategy, and far fewer fire drills.
Design Your Operating System on Day One
A good agency relationship doesn’t run on vibes. It runs on rhythm.
Without a clear system for how you work together, even the most talented ad agency will struggle to deliver consistent results. Missed deadlines, duplicate efforts, and “Did anyone respond to that?” moments aren’t signs of a bad team. They’re signs of a bad operating system.
Cadence beats heroics. According to a 2024 report from AgencyAnalytics, more than half of agencies now send formal performance reports at least once a month, giving clients a predictable pulse check. The best marketing and advertising firms take that even further by establishing proactive communication rhythms and shared accountability.
At a minimum, you should be running:
- Weekly check-ins to flag blockers, align on priorities, and review short-term goals.
- Monthly status reviews to look at performance, pivot strategy, or reset expectations.
- Quarterly retrospectives to evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and how the relationship itself is evolving.
This kind of rhythm is especially critical when working with the large agencies or complex partner ecosystems where multiple teams are touching the work. But it’s just as important for smaller, nimble firms where one delayed approval can grind everything to a halt.
Beyond cadence, every strong operating system includes a shared source of truth. Whether it’s Asana, Notion, or something homegrown, both teams need to know exactly where to find timelines, briefs, asset links, and feedback threads. Add a decision-rights matrix so everyone knows who signs off on creative, legal, budget, and media. No more “Let me check with so-and-so” bottlenecks.
The top marketing and advertising agencies understand this better than most. They know that predictability builds trust. And that trust gives your agency the space to do better, bolder work without having to explain every move along the way.
Make Feedback a Skill, Then Weaponize It for Speed
Creative work lives or dies in the review cycle. And far too often, it dies slowly. According to a recent industry survey, 70% of agencies say client feedback is often unclear or contradictory, which leads to unnecessary rounds of rework and delayed results.
This isn't just a process issue. It's a momentum killer. Vague or delayed feedback doesn’t just slow down delivery. It chips away at trust, drains creative energy, and burns time your team will never get back.
The fix is straightforward. Treat feedback like a skill, not a gut reaction. Start by grounding every round of input in a simple three-part filter: Objective, Actionable, Prioritized.
- Objective: Tie the comment to the brief or a defined business goal. “Make it pop” is noise. “We need the CTA to stand out more on mobile” is a signal.
- Actionable: Describe what needs to change and why. If it requires interpretation, it needs clarification.
- Prioritized: Identify which changes are critical and which are optional. Not every comment is equally important, and that’s okay.
This structure doesn’t just save time. It protects creative integrity. It keeps revision loops focused, deadlines intact, and morale high.
But feedback is a two-way street. A great agency doesn’t just take notes and disappear into a Google Doc. They explain their thinking, offer alternatives, and speak up when a request could compromise the work. Our personal motto is "Argue once, then do what we're told." At Frank., we see it as our personal responsibility to steer you in the right direction if we see something that feels amiss or short-sighted. That kind of pushback is not conflict. It is collaboration. When handled well, it leads to better outcomes than either side could reach alone.
Whether you’re working with a large team or a lean one, getting feedback right is one of the fastest ways to improve performance and build trust. The earlier you make it a habit, the smoother everything else becomes.
Protect Scope Without Poisoning the Relationship
Most agency breakups don’t happen over creative differences. They happen when expectations and budgets quietly drift apart. One party thinks something is included, the other thinks it’s extra, and suddenly every deliverable feels like a negotiation. That’s the breeding ground for frustration, tension, and passive-aggressive email threads.
Scope creep is a real threat, especially when working with fast-paced teams or evolving project needs. But here’s the thing: it’s rarely malicious. More often, it’s the natural result of unclear guardrails and shifting priorities. You’re moving fast, solving problems, and suddenly you’re three rounds deep on a revision that was never in scope to begin with.
The solution isn’t to nickel and dime every request. It’s to build a system that makes scope conversations routine instead of radioactive.
Start with clear language in your agreement. Include a 10 to 15 percent “flex band” that gives both sides room to absorb minor adjustments without needing a formal change order. For larger shifts, define a change request process that’s fast, fair, and easy to trigger. Use tools like sprint points or tracked hours to keep everyone honest.
Inside your weekly check-ins, add a simple traffic light system:
- Green: Everything is tracking as planned
- Yellow: There’s a growing risk of scope tension
- Red: A conversation is needed now
That simple signal gives both sides a non-emotional way to flag problems before they escalate. It also shows that your agency isn’t just clocking hours. It’s managing the partnership proactively.
And it matters more than you might think. A formal agency review process costs brands anywhere from $400,000 to over $1 million when you factor in RFP prep, pitch time, travel, lost momentum, and staffing shifts. A two-hour conversation about scope is a cheap investment by comparison.
The top advertising firms know how to set boundaries without damaging trust. They don’t hide behind fine print. They use transparency and shared data to keep clients informed and in control.
The best client-agency relationships don’t avoid hard conversations. They normalize them. When scope management is built into the rhythm of the work, it stops being a point of tension and starts being a source of alignment.
Measure the Relationship, Not Just the Work
Most brands track campaign metrics obsessively. Clicks, conversions, cost per acquisition. Those numbers are easy to measure and even easier to obsess over. But few teams take time to assess the thing that drives all of it: the relationship behind the work.
You can hit every performance goal and still feel like the partnership is misfiring. Maybe communication has slowed down. Maybe the work feels repetitive. Or maybe things just feel off. That’s not a creative issue or a media issue. It’s a relationship issue. And it’s usually easier to fix than most teams realize.
That’s why it’s smart to schedule a short relationship check-in every quarter. Not a formal review. Not a heavy process. Just an honest conversation to make sure the partnership is still aligned and high functioning.
If you're not sure how to evaluate that, here’s what strong marketing agency performance actually looks like when it’s tied to a healthy relationship:
- Trust: We believe they act in our best interest, even when it’s not explicitly written in the scope.
- Responsiveness: We don’t have to chase updates or wonder where things stand.
- Strategic Value: They bring smart ideas to the table before we ask and they challenge us in the right ways.
- Results: The work is making real progress on the business goals we agreed to from the start.
If one of these feels off, you don’t need to blow it all up. Just name the issue and commit to improving that one area over the next 90 days.
This kind of intentional alignment is what separates transactional partnerships from long-term creative collaborations. When it becomes part of the process and not just a reaction to problems, you get better outcomes, more trust, and a team that actually wants to stay in the room when things get hard.
Celebrate Wins, Post-Mortem Losses, and Keep Evolving
Relationships don’t last just because the work is good. They last because the people in them feel momentum, progress, and mutual respect. That doesn’t happen automatically. It has to be built in.
Too often, teams finish a campaign and immediately move on to the next thing. No pause. No reflection. No recognition of what actually worked. That habit kills morale and misses a valuable opportunity to improve the next round of work.
Great partnerships make space for both celebration and post-mortem. When something hits, whether it’s a headline that crushes, a media test that outperforms, or a campaign that sparks unexpected buzz, acknowledge it. Share the win internally. Put together a one-pager recap. Highlight it in a team meeting. These small moments create energy and reinforce what made the success possible.
On the flip side, when something doesn’t work, run a quick retrospective. It doesn’t need to be heavy. Just answer three questions:
- What did we set out to do?
- What worked, and why?
- What didn’t, and what do we want to do differently next time?
This kind of post-launch reflection isn’t about blame. It’s about evolution. When both teams approach it with honesty and humility, they get better together, faster.
If you want to go even further, build in a small innovation budget. Reserve 2 to 5 percent of your annual scope for pilot projects, new formats, or channel experiments. It doesn’t have to be risky. It just needs to be forward-looking. Maybe that means testing out AI-assisted production. Maybe it’s trying a campaign in a new platform. Maybe it’s investing in deeper audience research.
The best agency partnerships aren’t just about hitting this quarter’s goals. They’re about building something that evolves and improves over time. They celebrate what worked, learn from what didn’t, and stay curious enough to keep finding the edge.
Final Thoughts: Good Work Starts with a Great Relationship
You can hire the smartest strategists, the most talented creatives, and the most data-driven media buyers in the world. But if the relationship isn’t working, none of it will matter for long.
The agency-client dynamic is more than just a contract. It’s a living, breathing partnership that needs communication, clarity, and care. When that foundation is solid, the work gets better, the process gets smoother, and the results get stronger.
If you're already working with a team you like but feel like the spark is fading, the ideas in this guide can help you rebuild the rhythm. And if you're in the early stages of choosing a new partner, keep this playbook close. The right agency will be looking for the same things in you.
At Frank., we believe the best work comes from real collaboration. If that’s the kind of relationship you're trying to build, let’s talk.
Schedule a Consultation
Call Us
Return to "April is for Agencies" Main Post