🕵️‍♂️ Can You Trust Your Agency?

Your marketing agency holds the keys to your growth. But who holds the keys to your data?

It's a tough question that sent our team on an industry-wide investigation. After witnessing hundreds of agency relationships first hand during our founder’s time at Facebook, and interviewing dozens of CMOs, we've uncovered the patterns that separate trustworthy partners from potential problems.

With Q1 fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to review your own agency relation ship and see if they pass the test.

🚩 The Trust Gap

What do we mean by “trust”?

Well, most agency relationships break down in predictable ways:

• Mysterious "black box" reporting that never quite adds up

• Data held hostage in agency-owned accounts

• Strategic recommendations that feel more like upsells

• Vanity metrics masquerading as business results

As our co-founder Uzair Chutani recently noted: "You'd be amazed how many brands don't actually own their ad accounts. Instead, their agency does. This is a massive red flag... it's like digital entrapment."

If you can’t see your own data, trust the reporting or understand the strategy, how can you truly be in control of your own business?

📊 What Excellence Looks Like

We needed a way to measure trust for our agency partners. Not just for them, but to hold ourselves accountable. So we created our Agency Trust Evaluation. This scoring system covers seven critical areas, but here are three that often surprise marketers:

Data & Control
Your accounts, your rules. Top agencies operate through client-owned platforms and provide crystal-clear documentation.

Performance Transparency
The best partners don't hide behind platform metrics. They welcome third-party validation and tie everything back to real business results.

Technical Excellence
Server-side tracking? First-party data strategy? These aren't just buzzwords – they're baseline requirements for modern paid media.

And that's just scratching the surface. From account management to platform expertise, our evaluation covers every angle of the agency-client relationship.

🎯 Take Action

Ready to take the plunge and see if your agency relationship holds up? It’s easy: We've packaged our findings into a straightforward framework that helps you:

• Score your current agency partnership

• Identify potential red flags before they become problems

• Set clear expectations for performance and transparency

• Make informed decisions about your marketing partnerships

⬇️ Get the Framework

Download our free Agency Trust Framework PDF. No email gate, no strings attached – just a practical tool for modern marketing leaders.