What to expect in the first 90 days with a marketing agency

Weeks 1–2: access, context and diagnosis

The first fortnight is deliberately unglamorous. Account access, analytics permissions, historical data, brand assets, pricing and margin context, and time with the people who know why things are the way they are.

A good agency spends this period asking uncomfortable questions: which segments are actually profitable, what the sales team says about lead quality, which past campaigns failed and why. Expect diagnosis, not activity.

Weeks 3–4: audit findings and the plan

You should receive a written audit: what is working, what is broken, what is measured incorrectly, and a prioritised list of fixes. Alongside it, a plan with a primary metric, a channel approach and a measurement plan.

This is the moment to push back hard. A plan you have genuinely argued with is one you will support in month three when something inevitably underperforms.

Month 2: fixes, rebuild and early wins

Tracking gets corrected, account structure gets rebuilt, wasteful spend gets cut, and the first new creative and landing page work goes live. Some improvements appear quickly — usually from eliminating waste rather than from clever additions.

Treat these as hygiene rather than proof. The interesting question in month two is whether data is now trustworthy and whether the testing programme has started.

Month 3: the first readable performance shift

By the third month there should be enough clean data to see real movement in the primary metric, a set of completed tests with conclusions, and a clear view of which channels deserve more budget.

For long sales cycles, month three shows leading indicators — qualified lead volume and quality, pipeline creation — rather than closed revenue. That is expected, provided the leading indicators were defined in advance.

What your side has to supply

• Fast access to accounts, analytics and assets in week one.
• One internal decision-maker who can approve creative and budget without a committee.
• Honest commercial context, including margins and what is not working.
• Sales feedback on lead quality, ideally in writing every month.
• Patience with structural work in month one, and impatience about clarity at all times.

Warning signs in the first quarter

• Campaigns launched before tracking is validated.
• Reporting that shows only platform metrics and never business outcomes.
• The senior people from the pitch disappearing after onboarding.
• No written strategy or measurement plan by the end of month one.
• Bad news that arrives late, or only when you ask for it.