What is the number one sign of a good creative agency?

They focus on their results over their awards. Awards are voted by peers; results are voted by customers.

When should you not hire an agency?

When your strategy is unclear — agencies execute confusion faster — and when you are small, where one good freelancer beats a bad agency retainer.

The Agency Selection Checklist – Click Here To Grow

Q: What is the difference between hiring and using an agency?

It is the same build-vs-buy trade-off. An agency fills a gap; it does not replace your judgment. If you do not know what good looks like, no agency can deliver it for you.

I would be nowhere without my agency partners. Agency selection is how you choose them on the results they produce. My number one sign to look for in a creative agency is that they focus on their results over their awards. And I name names: Commission Junction built our affiliate programme from scratch, and Mediaplex built the tracking that underpinned all of our measurement work.

🔍
Not to Be Confused With

🏢 Hiring vs buying

An agency fills a gap; it does not replace your judgment. If you do not know what good looks like, no agency can deliver it for you. The hire-vs-agency decision is the same build-vs-buy trade-off. Evaluate both with the same rigour.

🏆 Awards vs results

I am not against awards: my teams won 88 of them in 2024, including a Cannes Grand Prix. Awards can recognise genuinely great work. They are just a poor way to choose an agency. When a pitch leads with the trophy cabinet instead of ROI case studies, ask what the work actually did.

🤝 Vendor vs partner

A vendor executes your brief. A partner tells you when the brief is wrong. You want the second one, which means picking agencies that can teach you things about getting results that you do not already know.

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The Four Agency Types You Need

Technical Platform Agency

Manage tech stack integrations, ad bidding engines, tracking implementation

Track record of success with multiple clients
Great reference checks
Proven experience with YOUR platform (e.g. Shopify)
Your engineering team is excited to work with them

Dominated by one big client: couldn’t adapt to others

Marketing Agency

Traffic ads, use technical tools, scale your campaigns

Knows more about the platforms than your team does
Talks results first, awards second
Excellent references
Competitive pricing

Leads with the trophy cabinet, light on ROI case studies

“Can they teach you things about getting results that you don’t already know?”

Creative Agency

Produce direct response creative that drives action while respecting brand

Leads with results, not the trophy cabinet
Case studies showing creative that drove sales
Strong reference checks
Brand marketing team is excited about them

Homepage features awards but no mention of ROI

“Walk me through examples where your creative made the difference on sales”

SEO Agency

Optional

Advise on organic search optimisation

Case studies proving real impact
Clean practices (no shady link buying)
Implementation team (engineering) is bought in

History of link buying or black-hat tactics: “when an agency takes risks like this then moves on, you’re left holding the bag”

If possible, do SEO in-house: an internal person has a better chance. With the right internal talent, you should not need an SEO agency.

“Nothing can make a technical agency succeed more than an engineering team that is excited to work with them.”

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Universal Selection Process

1
Competitively bid to get the best result

2
Get references: both agency-provided AND your own backchannel

3
Ask for case studies where their work got results

4
Have key internal teams (including finance and procurement) interview and vet the agency

5
Make your internal partners feel responsible for the success of integrating the agency
“When stakeholders feel ownership, outcomes improve dramatically”

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In-House vs. Agency Decision Matrix

Factor	Stay with Agency	Bring In-House
Scale	Fees are manageable	Fees exceed cost of building a team
Cross-Client Learning	Channel moves fast, agency sees trends across clients	Channel is mature, little changes
Pace of Change	Industry evolving rapidly, agency stays nimble	Industry stable, in-house can keep up
Integration Depth	Lightweight integration needed (e.g. SEM tracking)	Deep product integration required (e.g. SEO)

Key insight: Meta uses an agency for paid search despite being a tech company, because the cross-client learning, pace of change, and low integration value make it the right call.

“Take the decision of in-house versus outside agency seriously. When I’ve been involved in a project where we have taken this seriously, we have never regretted it. When we haven’t been as careful, we have. Unwinding such a relationship is hard and costly.”

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Quick Reference Checklist

Determined requirements for each agency type
Key internal stakeholders feel invested in success
Run competitive bidding process
Checked references through backchannel (not just agency-provided)
Engineering / tech team has met and approved technical agency
Brand team has met and approved creative agency
Procurement is included early in the process
Evaluated in-house vs. agency on all four dimensions

🧭
Know Its Limits

My position: no agency can fix a broken strategy. If your North Star is unclear, if you do not know what good looks like, the best agency in the world will just execute your confusion faster and charge you for the privilege. Sort out what you want before you shop for who will build it.

And not every company needs agencies at all. My rule of thumb: once you are spending tens of thousands of dollars, hire a part-time consultant or consulting agency, then scale from there. Below that, one good freelancer beats a bad agency retainer. Meta still runs consumer direct response with 10–20 people after twenty years and hundreds of millions in spend. Agencies amplify judgment; they do not substitute for it.

THE AGENCY SELECTION CHECKLIST