How do you know when it’s time to change agencies?

Knowing when it’s time to change agencies isn’t always obvious. Most leaders wait too long because they worry it will be expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to the team and the business. But the risk of dragging on a partnership that isn’t working is often greater, and finding and onboarding a new agency doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems.

Here are a few common patterns that often prompt an agency review:

• High turnover on the agency team

• Senior agency talent absent from the day-to-day

• Plenty of output, but limited ROI to show for it

• Work that feels increasingly reactive rather than proactive

• Recommendations that sound generic or recycled

• More time spent revising the work than moving it forward

• Meetings that generate discussion but little momentum

• The agency still doesn’t seem to understand your business

• Missed deadlines and slow response times

• Growing internal questions about the value of the relationship

If you are debating a change, you are likely already seeing some combination of these signals.

Whether you inherited a long-term agency relationship that’s no longer delivering, or you hired a new agency a year ago and now regret the decision, it isn’t too late to make a change. If you’ve already had direct conversations about expectations and the work still has not improved (see My agency isn’t delivering. What should I do?), consider that your signal to move on.