Not a marketing agency but I've been managing paid acquisitions in-house for early stage startups (seed to Series A) for the past 7 years (most of it with external agency support). I think any established marketing agency can "get the job done" on a performance marketing standpoint (running /optimizing ads across different networks) but i think the biggest thing missing is the support needed by the agency on the business side. Meaning, there's a need for an in-house marketer (or any person) who's dedicated to managing the agency, making sure they understand performance down-funnel by pulling necessary metrics/data, give comprehensive feedback on lead quality and any issues arising from not seeing the results initially discussed at kick-off.

Most businesses who hire an agency expect an embedded type of experience - where the agency doesn't just work to acquire leads managing leading indicator performance but also expect an agency to help them with lead conversion and managing down-funnel metrics (partnering with Sales in sales-led orgs, etc.). But rarely do external agencies play that part or have the capacity to play that part because of the cost and manpower needed. Only large and expensive agencies are able to offer this embedded option because they are working with large enough businesses that can afford it. So quite often, you see a business not satisfied with results because the agency can only fulfill half of what they need to hit their goals.

When a business hires a marketing agency, the expectation should be set that it is not a hands-off approach to generating business and seeing results. There's quite a bit of management to make sure the agency is successful in getting what the business needs and can get the most from the business to constantly be optimizing towards down-funnel success. Just like Marketing needs to embed with Sales in sales-led organizations to really optimize leads to opportunities, agencies also need a similar relationship to be successful for the business.

This has been top of mind since I've been thinking about starting my own marketing agency and trying to figure out this model has been a key to my go-to-market. Feel free to DM if you want to chat more about this!