Most businesses fire their marketing agency at the wrong time. They either pull the plug after six weeks — before the campaign has data to work with — or they stay two years into a relationship that stopped working after six months.
Having been on the agency side of this decision for 8 years, here’s what actually warrants firing an agency.
When Is It Too Early to Fire a Marketing Agency?
Anything under 90-120 days is almost always too early.
New campaigns need time for the algorithm to optimize. Sales cycles need time to close. Attribution needs time to show what’s actually working. The first 60 days of any new ad campaign are inherently noisy — week-to-week swings in cost per lead are normal and don’t mean the campaign is failing.
I’ve inherited clients who fired three agencies in a year. Every one of those engagements ended before the campaign had stabilized. The underlying issue wasn’t any of the agencies — it was that the business owner was evaluating performance on a timeline that doesn’t allow for meaningful results.
Give an agency 90 days before you make a serious evaluation. Give them 120 before you make a final call.
What Are Legitimate Reasons to Fire a Marketing Agency?
They Can’t Tell You What’s Working or Why
After 90+ days, your agency should be able to tell you which campaigns, which keywords, and which audiences are driving your best leads. If they’re presenting top-level metrics (CPL, impressions, click-through rate) without insight into why those numbers are what they are and what they’re doing about it — that’s a problem.
CAC Is Above Target and Trending the Wrong Direction After 120 Days
If your customer acquisition cost has been above your LTV/3 threshold for four months and trending up rather than down, the campaign structure is probably wrong. Not just underperforming — structurally wrong. A competent agency should have identified this and made changes.
They Can’t Connect Their Work to Business Outcomes
Leads are a means to an end. If your agency can’t connect the leads they’re generating to customers acquired, or at minimum to a qualification rate that gives you confidence in lead quality — and they’ve been running for 6+ months — that’s a structural transparency problem.
You’ve Raised Concerns and Nothing Changed
One conversation about performance concerns should produce changes. Two conversations with no action is a pattern. Agencies that don’t respond to client concerns with specific changes and honest assessment of what’s happening are telling you something about how the relationship will continue.
What Are NOT Good Reasons to Fire an Agency?
The first 60 days had inconsistent results. Normal.
A salesperson from another agency told you they could do better. Every agency says this. Get actual data on what ‘better’ means.
You got a bad lead last week. Individual bad leads happen in every campaign. Pattern of bad leads is signal. Individual bad leads are noise.
You don’t like the reporting format. Ask for different reporting. This isn’t a fire-worthy problem.
Before You Fire the Agency, Ask These Questions
Is the problem the agency or the campaign structure? Sometimes a good agency has been executing a fundamentally flawed strategy because the client directed it. Replacing the agency without changing the strategy produces the same results.
Is the problem the ads or the business economics? If the math doesn’t work at your current pricing, no agency can fix that.
Have you actually told them clearly what you need and given them a chance to deliver? Most agency-client relationship problems are communication problems before they’re performance problems.