If you've been researching digital marketing, you've probably looked at a few agency websites. They all sound impressive. They all have case studies and testimonials. But what do they actually do day to day? What would you actually get if you hired them?
Let me be honest about what digital marketing agencies do, what they should be doing, and how to know if you need one.
What Most Agencies Do
Agencies typically offer some combination of these services: Google Ads management, SEO services, social media management, content creation, web design, email marketing, strategy consulting.
The big agencies offer all of this. The small specialist agencies offer a couple. Some agencies are full-service. Some are specialists.
Day to day, for your business, an agency would typically:
- Optimise your Google Business Profile and manage reviews
- Run Google Ads or Meta Ads campaigns
- Monitor and report on results
- Make adjustments based on performance data
- Advise on strategy and next steps
Good agencies measure everything and only do work that drives results. Bad agencies do busywork and hope something sticks.
What Agencies Should Be Doing
A good agency should understand your business first. What are you trying to achieve? More walk-ins? More phone calls? More website visits? Different businesses need different approaches.
They should audit your current situation. Where are you ranking? What's working? What's broken? They should tell you honestly if you need marketing at all or if you just need to fix fundamentals.
They should focus on what moves the needle for your specific business. Not everything. Not all channels. The channels that actually bring customers for your type of business.
They should measure everything with call tracking, analytics, or other proper metrics. They should show you data every month. "This is what we spent, this is what we got".
Types of Agencies
Full-Service Agencies
Do everything. Web design, advertising, content, social, you name it. Good if you want one point of contact. Bad if most of their services don't apply to your business. Tend to be expensive because you're paying for a big team.
Specialist Agencies
Do one or two things really well. PPC specialists, SEO specialists, social media specialists. Good if that's exactly what you need. Bad if you need multiple things because you have to hire multiple agencies.
In-House Marketer or Fractional Marketer
A person working for you part-time or full-time. Cheaper than an agency. But they might not have all skills in-house, so they still hire specialists for things they can't do.
What to Expect to Pay
Agencies charge monthly retainers, project fees, or performance-based fees. Retainers range from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds per month depending on scope and agency size. A typical small business pays 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per month for core services.
Project fees are for specific work like website design or a marketing audit. These might be 1,000 to 10,000 pounds.
Performance-based usually means they take a percentage of ad spend. Avoid this. Agencies make more money the more you spend, so they incentivise spending over profitability.
How to Know If You Need an Agency
You probably need an agency if:
- You're generating leads but don't know which marketing is working (need measurement and strategy)
- Your competitors are ahead and you need to catch up fast
- You're spending money on marketing but not seeing results (need expert diagnosis)
- You don't have time to manage marketing yourself
- You need multiple services coordinated (ads plus website plus reviews)
You probably don't need an agency if:
- You're getting steady customers from referrals and have no pressing need to grow
- Your fundamentals are broken (profile incomplete, no reviews, website poor quality). Fix these yourself first, they're free or cheap
- You're too early stage to afford help. Build some baseline yourself first
Red Flags
Avoid agencies that guarantee rankings. Nobody can guarantee Google rankings. Avoid agencies that won't talk about budget upfront. Avoid agencies that pressure you into long contracts. Good agencies are confident enough to work month-to-month.
Avoid agencies that can't show you exactly what they did and what results they got. You should get a clear report every month. Avoid agencies that pitch you every service under the sun when you only need one or two.
The Truth
A good agency saves you time and gets faster results than you'd achieve alone. A bad agency wastes your money and time. There are more bad ones than good ones. So be picky. Ask for references. Understand exactly what they'll do. Agree on metrics upfront.
And know that you don't necessarily need an agency. A local business that gets fundamentals right can do most of this themselves.
Not sure if you need agency help?
A £199 audit will assess what you actually need and whether hiring help makes sense. Sometimes the best advice is that you don't need an agency yet. Let's be honest about your situation.
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