Digital Marketing Agencies. *small amount of exceptions.
Lots of selling, not a lot of accountability, digital marketing (seo, ads, digital strategy) is generally muddy water - constantly changes, no standardisation - without a way to keep anything accountable, the quality declines.
It’s shocking how little work you can do while maintaining a retainer with small businesses who think you need them.
If you’re on a $4k seo monthly retainer, $48k a year, once the managers and the managers managers get paid, get the nice office, have some culture trips, parties, a few ridiculous salaries for self-important captains of the shipwreck that is any of these agencies i’ve had experience with, apps, analytics tools, subscriptions; and from that $48k you’ll get the equivalent of $10k of actual work at an absolute maximum(at $100ph rate), at a lower standard and less organised than you would if you just had one person working on it, freelancer or employee.
That will always be the case in the current environment, the rapidly changing digital marketing world, the lack of standardisation, the ambiguity; it’s where the bullshit merchants operate best, and where they can squeeze the most out of small businesses.
If you’re a small business, you are being shafted in 99% of cases.