Tasked With Switching Agencies? How to Make the Right Call for Your Brand—and Your Career

by Tom Snyder on Jun 20, 2025

At some point, every company finds itself at a crossroads with its digital marketing partner. A new leader comes in, ready to leave their mark. A big initiative kicks off, or maybe it’s just the standard cycle where leadership feels it’s time to shake things up. The agency you’ve worked with for years—sometimes delivering stellar results despite the odds—gets put under the microscope. Suddenly, the search begins.

And that’s not always a bad thing. Change, when done for the right reasons, can move a brand forward. But too often, these decisions are made based on perception, politics, or promises that sound great in the pitch meeting but ultimately will fail to materialize once the ink is dry. The result? A lot of time, money, and momentum lost, and often, no one willing to admit the choice was the wrong one.

Why Companies Start Shopping for a New Agency

There are familiar triggers that start this process:

A new CEO or CMO steps in and wants a clean slate.
Budgets are under review, and vendors are part of the evaluation.
The board is pushing for faster growth or fresh thinking.
A major initiative calls for new capabilities or outside support.
Or it’s just part of the company’s standard operating procedure.

Whatever the reason, this is when the risk creeps in. No matter how well your current agency has performed, another agency will always point to gaps, question results, and promise to do better. That’s what they do. The real challenge is making sure you don’t fall for a sell job that misrepresents your current agency’s work and overpromises what’s possible. It’s easy to be convinced in the moment. It’s much harder to live with the regret of realizing later that you traded proven success for empty promises.

And sometimes, what’s really needed isn’t a new agency at all. It’s a bigger or smarter budget for the agency that already knows your brand, your market, and your goals. Results that could have been stronger often come down to resources that didn’t match the ambitions. What’s needed in those cases is a clearer alignment between investment and expectation—not a partner swap that starts the learning curve over from zero.

Making the Right Decision Starts with the Right Questions

So here you are. Management’s decided it’s time to explore options. Maybe you’re leading the review. Maybe you’re on the team that will have to make this work. Either way, this is the moment that will shape the next chapter.

Get it right, and you’ll move the brand forward. Get it wrong, and you could spend the next year trying to justify a decision that looked good on paper but didn’t pan out. That’s why it’s critical to slow down and ask the right questions now.

Before you send out that RFP:

What’s truly driving this change? Is it performance or perception?
Are we expecting outcomes that our budget hasn’t reasonably supported?
Are we defining success based on price or on long-term value?
What would it take for the current agency to deliver the results we want—and have we given them that opportunity?

And when proposals come in, don’t be swayed by promises alone. Compare based on:

Whether their strategy aligns with your goals
Relevant experience and proven outcomes
Clarity on accountability and reporting
A focus on ROI, not just surface-level metrics
A willingness to collaborate closely with your team
And yes, cost—but as part of the value picture, not the whole story

A Word to the Marketing Team

If you’re on the marketing team, this can be the toughest part of your job. You may not have asked for this change, but you’ll be the one living with the outcome. And here’s the hard truth: if the new agency doesn’t deliver, it’s not likely the decision maker will own that mistake. More often, it’s the internal team that gets blamed for failing to execute the plan or for resisting the change. It’s easier to replace you than to admit that the agency selection missed the mark.

That’s why it’s so important to:

Make sure you’re at the table during the decision process
Document your input and concerns
Speak up about where budget limitations may have constrained past results
Help leadership focus on strategy and facts—not just who gives the slickest pitch

The Long Game

We’ve seen this from every angle. We’ve had clients who replaced us because a new agency promised the world, only to ask us quietly, months later, for help fixing what went wrong. And we’ve had clients—and the decision makers who’ve hired us—stick with us through leadership changes, reorganizations, and vendor reviews, because they saw what happens when you make thoughtful, value-based decisions.

Some of those relationships have lasted 15, 20, even 25 years. Some leaders who’ve moved on to new companies have brought us in there too—not out of loyalty for loyalty’s sake, but because they’ve seen firsthand what happens when you choose based on strategy, ROI, and long-term value, not just promises and price.

Final Thought

Choosing the right agency isn’t about finding the flashiest pitch or the cheapest quote. It’s about finding the right partner, with the right plan, and backing that plan with the right budget to deliver what your brand truly needs. That’s how you make a decision you won’t have to explain away a year from now.

If you’re at that crossroads, Trivera can help. Whether you’re considering Trivera as a new agency or looking to keep us onboard as a current partner, we’ll work with you to assess your performance, your ROI, and what it will take to move forward with confidence. No empty promises—just clarity, strategy, and a plan that works.

About Tom Snyder

Tom Snyder - Trivera Tom Snyder, founder, president and CEO of Trivera, a 29-year-old strategic digital marketing firm based in suburban Milwaukee. Tom has been blogging since 1998, sharing the insight gained from helping businesses and organizations reinforce their brands by taking full advantage of digital and web technology as powerful tactics.