When is it actually time to leave?
Most agencies get fired in the shoulder months, when a quiet April has made the invoice look expensive. Some of those decisions are right.
The hard part is that the two situations look identical from the invoice. A programme that is failing and a programme working through a normal seasonal trough both produce a month where the phone is quieter and the fee is the same.
What separates them is not how you feel in April. It is whether specific things were agreed and whether they happened.
Four signals that justify leaving
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The statement of work is not being met and nobody disputes it.
Four pages a month was agreed and eleven exist after nine months. This is the cleanest reason there is, because it needs no interpretation.
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You cannot get a straight answer about a bad quarter.
Every account has them. An agency that explains one, names what it is changing, and tells you when you will know, is doing its job. One that produces a chart of impressions instead is managing you.
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The named people have all gone.
Particularly after an acquisition. If everyone you were sold has left and nobody told you, the thing you bought is no longer what you have.
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Year-over-year is flat after a full cycle.
Not month over month. Twelve months against the same twelve months prior, on comparable spend. If that is flat with the work delivered as agreed, the strategy is wrong.
Three reasons that usually are not enough
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One bad month.
Reporting lags two to three weeks and search lags a quarter. A bad April report is describing February, and the work being judged shipped in November.
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A competitor overtook you in the map pack.
Worth asking about. It can be proximity, a review surge, or a category change on their profile, none of which is your agency failing.
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The invoice feels expensive in the quiet season.
It costs the same in February as in July because the work is the same. If the annual number is wrong for the business, renegotiate the scope rather than the month.
Before you give notice
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Put the specific failures in writing and ask for a plan with dates.
A good agency will take this seriously. You will know inside a fortnight which kind you have.
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Check your notice period and your renewal window first.
Giving notice two weeks late on an auto-renewing term can cost a full year.
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Line up the next agency before the last one stops.
Paying twice for a month is cheap against a gap running into your season.
The timing that works in this trade is to decide in autumn and move in late autumn, giving the incoming agency the quiet quarter to audit, plan and build before demand arrives.
Deciding in April and moving in May puts the handover exactly where it costs most.