Help! Should I Fire My Paid Media Agency? | Hey Marc Listener Question

In this episode of Squeeze the Funnel, your host Marc Bitanga (yes, with that radio voice 😅) switches things up and dives into a listener question from John, a SaaS co-founder in Los Angeles spending $3M/year on paid media. Lately, John's noticing a decline in performance—and he's wondering: Is it time to switch agencies, or bring things in-house?

Marc shares his candid take on what typically happens behind the scenes with ad agencies, how to spot the signs of complacency or "team downgrades," and most importantly, how to hold your agency accountable without jumping ship prematurely.

💡 You’ll learn:

• The three common pitfalls agencies fall into over time

• How to diagnose paid media performance issues (and when it’s actually your fault)

• Tactical advice for protecting your account—and your results

Got a marketing question for Marc?

Send a Loom video or email Marc directly at [e-mail] and your question may be featured on the podcast.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Damn, is that my radio voice? I think I was putting on a radio voice. 2 00:00:14,729.053569125 --> 00:00:17,129.053569125 hey friend, thanks for tuning into Squeeze the Funnel. 3 00:00:17,549.053569125 --> 00:00:22,799.053569125 I am Mark Batanga, your fractional CMO here to answer any questions that you may have. 4 00:00:23,459.053569125 --> 00:00:27,119.053569125 Damn, is that my radio voice? I think I was putting on a radio voice. 5 00:00:27,179.053569125 --> 00:00:29,729.053569125 Anyways hope you're enjoying the podcast. 6 00:00:29,819.053569125 --> 00:00:34,19.053569125 I thought I'd switch up the format to basically feature. 7 00:00:34,424.053569125 --> 00:00:38,264.053569125 Things that I would wanna listen to and frankly, the things that I wanna put out there. 8 00:00:38,574.053569125 --> 00:00:43,344.053569125 I just didn't want to be another interview podcast, so I just wanna mix it up each week. 9 00:00:43,404.053569125 --> 00:00:44,334.053569125 That's what you can expect. 10 00:00:44,334.053569125 --> 00:00:47,874.053569125 Each week we'll have an episode, and sometimes it'll just be me. 11 00:00:47,874.053569125 --> 00:00:52,704.053569125 Sometimes it'll be a listener question, and other times I'll have an awesome guest on the show. 12 00:00:53,314.053569125 --> 00:00:54,904.053569125 In any case, would love to hear from you. 13 00:00:55,214.053569125 --> 00:01:00,74.053569125 You can email me a question, comment, feedback at, Hey, mark. 14 00:01:00,574.053569125 --> 00:01:03,214.053569125 Grow tenfold.co. 15 00:01:03,544.053569125 --> 00:01:06,634.053569125 That's Hey [e-mail]. 16 00:01:06,954.053569125 --> 00:01:10,674.053569125 Send me any of your questions and maybe you might get featured on the podcast. 17 00:01:11,484.053569125 --> 00:01:15,315.053569125 Anyways, enough of that let's dive into listener question of the week. 18 00:01:16,59.053569125 --> 00:01:16,569.053569125 Hey Mark. 19 00:01:16,599.053569125 --> 00:01:19,59.053569125 This is John calling in from Los Angeles. 20 00:01:19,59.053569125 --> 00:01:26,529.053569125 How you doing? I'm a co-founder of a SaaS company, and we've been working with our ad agency now for the past few years to generate leads. 21 00:01:26,829.053569125 --> 00:01:29,739.053569125 We spent about $3 million per year on paid media. 22 00:01:29,919.053569125 --> 00:01:37,569.053569125 We've gotten really great results working with them in the past, but recently, over the past few months, we started to notice that performance is starting to slip. 23 00:01:37,569.053569125 --> 00:01:41,469.05356912 We've had a lot of confidence in our agency so far because they always delivered. 24 00:01:42,384.05356912 --> 00:01:50,184.05356912 But now that the metrics are starting to decline, I'm starting to question whether to stick with them. 25 00:01:50,184.05356912 --> 00:01:58,344.05356912 What would you do in this situation? Should we switch to another agency? Or is it time to bring paid media in-house? Love the pod, man. 26 00:01:58,404.05356912 --> 00:01:58,794.05356912 Keep it up. 27 00:01:58,794.05356912 --> 00:01:59,694.05356912 Can't wait to hear your thoughts. 28 00:01:59,694.05356912 --> 00:02:00,114.05356912 Thank you. 29 00:02:00,354.05356912 --> 00:02:04,724.05356912 Hey, what's up John? $3 million in paid media is nothing to sneeze at. 30 00:02:04,724.05356912 --> 00:02:08,594.05356912 So you are definitely right to be concerned about declining performance. 31 00:02:08,874.05356912 --> 00:02:13,14.05356912 You asked whether to switch to another agency or take paid media in-house. 32 00:02:13,354.05356912 --> 00:02:17,804.05356912 Fair thought, but I wouldn't necessarily jump to that, conclusion quite yet. 33 00:02:18,324.05356912 --> 00:02:25,374.05356912 there's a ton of disruption that happens when switching agencies and there's no guarantee the next agency will do any better. 34 00:02:25,544.05356912 --> 00:02:33,434.05356912 I've hired a number of paid media agencies and I've also run one called acio, so I know a thing or two about agencies and. 35 00:02:33,669.05356912 --> 00:02:39,669.05356912 In the agency world, the game is to get the maximum revenue for the lowest amount of overhead. 36 00:02:40,239.05356912 --> 00:02:43,509.05356912 So when working with agencies, I typically see three things that happen. 37 00:02:43,939.05356912 --> 00:02:49,869.05356912 One of the things I see is, an agency typically, woos in the client with their A team talent. 38 00:02:50,109.05356912 --> 00:03:03,129.05356912 Their most senior talent, but gradually over time, whether that's through, attrition or some sort of internal changes that are happening, you slowly get transferred to the B team and then eventually to the C team. 39 00:03:03,759.05356912 --> 00:03:08,979.05356912 They do this either because they lose some of their top tier talent and have to slot in more junior talent. 40 00:03:09,494.05356912 --> 00:03:14,114.05356912 Or they deem your account as stable and is somewhat on maintenance mode. 41 00:03:14,354.05356912 --> 00:03:17,144.05356912 So they bring in more junior talent to keep things warm. 42 00:03:17,744.05356912 --> 00:03:21,944.05356912 another thing I see when working with agencies is complacency. 43 00:03:22,674.05356912 --> 00:03:24,564.05356912 This is not critical of any agency. 44 00:03:24,774.05356912 --> 00:03:27,144.05356912 This is just a natural occurrence that I've observed. 45 00:03:27,564.05356912 --> 00:03:28,734.05356912 They get into a groove. 46 00:03:28,734.05356912 --> 00:03:34,254.05356912 Things are really good, so they really don't deviate from what they're doing unless something radical changes. 47 00:03:34,704.05356912 --> 00:03:39,744.05356912 Then the third thing that I see is, and this is frankly a client side issue, not an agency issue. 48 00:03:40,14.05356912 --> 00:03:45,114.05356912 The client leads the agency on autopilot and abdicates all strategy and direction to the agency. 49 00:03:45,804.05356912 --> 00:03:48,774.05356912 Then when things go south, they blame the agency for poor results. 50 00:03:48,774.05356912 --> 00:03:48,804.05356912 I. 51 00:03:49,374.05356912 --> 00:03:58,194.05356912 In your particular situation, I wouldn't see dumping the agency as my first option unless there was some gross negligence happening on the account. 52 00:03:58,464.05356912 --> 00:04:03,455.51656912 I'd first ask them to dig into why they believe the campaign was underperforming in the first place. 53 00:04:03,875.51656912 --> 00:04:07,745.51656912 Point out that performance is in decline, then ask them to diagnose the issue. 54 00:04:08,115.51656912 --> 00:04:11,475.51656912 it could frankly be an issue with something that's under your control as a client. 55 00:04:11,775.51656912 --> 00:04:13,965.51656912 Maybe it's something going on with your landing pages. 56 00:04:13,965.51656912 --> 00:04:18,555.51656912 Perhaps you aren't giving your agency new creative to work with, and as a result it's impacting performance. 57 00:04:18,975.51656912 --> 00:04:21,615.51656912 Give them a chance to sort it out, give them a chance to diagnose it. 58 00:04:22,575.51656912 --> 00:04:29,595.51656912 The second thing I do is be very clear about the KPIs they need to hit and within a certain timeframe. 59 00:04:29,810.51656912 --> 00:04:33,440.51656912 You shouldn't be digging into paid media strategy and micromanaging them. 60 00:04:33,830.51656912 --> 00:04:41,540.51656912 They should work based on targets, and if they're unable to meet those targets over a few quarters, then perhaps it's time to start shopping for another agency. 61 00:04:42,140.51656912 --> 00:04:49,335.51656912 Then finally, I would ask the agency to add a clause and your service agreement where you are notified of. 62 00:04:49,485.51656912 --> 00:04:54,405.51656912 Any personnel changes on your account and you must approve those personnel changes. 63 00:04:54,675.51656912 --> 00:05:01,135.51656912 This makes sure they can't swap in junior talent in place of senior talent that had been previously successful to your account. 64 00:05:02,90.51656912 --> 00:05:05,850.51656912 To wrap it all up, do your best to support the agency you are working with. 65 00:05:06,180.51656912 --> 00:05:12,330.51656912 Be direct about the KPIs they need to reach, and then be decisive if they can't consistently hit those targets. 66 00:05:12,870.51656912 --> 00:05:14,760.51656912 Thanks again for your question, John, from la. 67 00:05:14,790.51656912 --> 00:05:16,770.51656912 Hope your campaign performance turns around soon. 68 00:05:17,250.51656912 --> 00:05:18,30.51656912 Thanks so much.