Author: Ayandola Ayanleke

Working with marketing agencies to grow your brand, boost visibility, or get your content strategy off the ground sounds like a smart move. And ordinarily, it is until you start peeling back the layers and realise the real cost of hiring an agency isn’t just what’s on the invoice.

Sure, agencies bring expertise, creativity, and structure but there are a few things that can affect your budget, time, and success. Therefore, before you sign a contract, let’s talk about the true cost of hiring an agency and the stuff no one warns you about.

Marketing Agency Red Flags You Should Know

1. Long Onboarding Process

Marketing agencies are often bureaucratic, which lengthens the process of working with them. Work doesn’t start immediately after you hire them or contact them. 

First, you have to deal with a long onboarding process that usually includes calls, brand briefings, paperwork, approvals, and more calls. So, it can take weeks - and sometimes months - before you see your first real deliverable. 

That setup time is, of course, still important. However, most people don’t realise how much internal energy and time it demands. Imagine how stressful it is to answer countless emails, search for documents, and explain your brand again and again. 

Plus, while doing that, you are still required to pay from day one, even when real work is yet to start, and whether or not the results have kicked in. 

2. Monthly Retainers

One cost of hiring a creative team is monthly retainers. Agencies love them because they serve as a source of steady income for them. 

For you the customer, though, it can feel like a financial trap because creative agency fees are not cheap. The actual price depends on so many factors. Secondly, you are locked into paying this every month, whether or not you’re using all the hours or getting the value you expected. 

Yes, there is a benefit in that it guarantees your spot and allows them to prioritise your account, but it also means you're paying just to be on their client list. Unless, of course, you’re holding them accountable with clear deliverables and timelines.

3. Billable Hours for Everything

When it comes to an agency pricing breakdown, you’ll soon realise that you are not just paying for strategy and execution. In actual fact, agencies bill for everything, including email replies, status meetings, brainstorming sessions, and internal team talks about your project. 

There is a price on almost every interaction with your project. And before you know it, half your budget has gone to things you didn’t even know were happening. The clock starts ticking the minute they open your file, and every hour counts, including time that can’t even be measured or tracked.

4. Junior Teams Doing Senior Work

We cannot talk about creative agency pros and cons without talking about how those who pitch the work are not the same people in charge of the actual work. So, if you meet an agency and are impressed by the pitch given by a senior strategist, it is highly unlikely they are the one actually doing the work. 

In fact, in some instances, they didn’t prepare the pitch; a junior team member did. However, even if they did, in most cases, once the contract is signed, your day-to-day work is handed to a junior associate or even an intern. The big executives in the company are often too busy to touch your account afterwards. 

The problem is that since they were the ones to whom you communicated your vision, this usually results in mistakes, generic strategies, or campaigns that completely miss the mark.

5. Hidden Agency Costs

Another cost of hiring an agency is that the flat rate you were quoted is probably not the real price. Hidden costs are common with digital agency pricing. Once the work starts, you might hear, “That’s out of scope” frequently. For instance, if you want another round of revisions or want a competitor’s analysis, you may be required to pay extra. 

Agencies are pros at upselling and coming up with different hidden add-ons. Before you know it, you’ve exceeded your initial price by $2,000 or more. Luckily, you can try to combat this by always reading the fine print and asking what’s not included before signing the contract. 

6. Recycled Strategies

Unfortunately, marketing agencies do not always create tailor-made strategies for brands.  One reason is that they have many clients, so they recycle strategies, especially for similar brands. 

It is true that some strategies worked in the past, but your business isn’t like everyone else’s. Plus, if you wanted something generic, you could have done it yourself. You went to the experts because you are expecting something new. So you require that the agency show you how they’re customising their plan to your goals, audience, and industry. 

What to Do

Working with marketing agencies can transform your business, but only if you walk in with your eyes wide open. Therefore, it’s crucial to ask the right questions before you commit. You should also track precisely what you're getting for your money.

You can also explore other alternatives. Fractional marketing teams or experienced freelancers can offer flexibility, skilled talents, and way more transparency without locking you into a costly retainer. 

If you want to know more about how fractional teams can help scale your business, please click here.