Each stage produces something you keep whether or not we continue. That is
deliberate — long minimum terms mostly protect the agency during the period
when results have not arrived yet.
Week 1–2
1. Diagnose
We find the actual constraint on growth, which is frequently not the thing you called us about. This involves looking at your analytics, your search data, your ad accounts, your sales process and — where possible — talking to customers who bought and people who did not.
What you keep
A written diagnosis naming the constraint, the evidence for it, and what we would do about it. Yours to act on with or without us.
Stopping here
Plenty of engagements should end here, because the answer is something you can fix internally. We would rather tell you that than sell you a retainer.
Week 3–8
2. Position
We agree what the business claims, to whom, and what it deliberately refuses to claim. This is the decision everything downstream executes against. Skipping it is why so many campaigns are individually competent and collectively incoherent.
What you keep
A positioning statement, a messaging hierarchy with proof points, and tone-of-voice guidance your team or any other agency can work from.
Stopping here
Some clients take the positioning and run the channels themselves or with an existing partner. The documents are written to be handed over.
Month 2 onward
3. Build
Channels, creative, automation and measurement, built in the order that removes the constraint fastest rather than the order that maximises our scope. We set the baseline before anything changes so the effect is attributable later.
What you keep
Everything produced — ad accounts, pages, creative, source code, dashboards, documentation. All in your name from the start.
Stopping here
Assets are built to function without us. Nothing is configured so that leaving breaks it.
Ongoing
4. Compound
Keep what works, cut what does not, and widen what is winning. This is the stage where brand-first work pays off, because each channel is reinforcing one message rather than establishing its own.
What you keep
A dated change log, monthly reviews against the agreed numbers, and the failed tests documented so they are not repeated in a year.
Stopping here
Month to month. If the numbers stop justifying the spend we will say so before you do.
How we price
Scoped on the work, not on your ad spend.
Percentage-of-spend pricing pays an agency to increase your budget rather
than your return. We avoid it wherever there is a sensible alternative, and
we will tell you when we think it genuinely is the better structure for you.
Project
Fixed scope, fixed price, defined deliverables. Suits diagnosis, positioning,
a specific build or a one-off campaign.
Retainer
Monthly, for ongoing channel work. Scoped on capacity and reviewed quarterly
so it does not quietly drift away from what you actually need.
Hybrid
A project to establish the foundation, then a smaller retainer to run it.
This is what most engagements end up looking like.
We will give you a number, with the assumptions written down, before you
commit to anything.
What we need from you
Access to analytics, search console and the relevant ad accounts
One person who can make a decision within a week
An honest account of what has already been tried and failed
Introductions to a few customers, for the positioning work
Engineering capacity, or permission for us to implement directly
What you will not get
A weekly status call that exists to demonstrate activity
A report that only contains good news
An account manager relaying messages to the people doing the work
Assets or accounts held in our name
A minimum term designed to outlast your patience
Questions
About working together.
We scope each engagement on the work involved rather than publishing a rate card, because the same service can be a four-week project or a year-long programme depending on the situation. What we will commit to is telling you the number before you commit to anything, with the assumptions written down, and flagging immediately if your budget and your goal are not compatible.
No. The stages below are designed so you can stop after any of them and keep what has been produced. Long minimum terms exist to protect agency revenue during the period when results have not arrived yet — which is precisely the period when you should be free to leave.
Access, a decision-maker, and honesty about what has already been tried. The single biggest predictor of whether an engagement works is whether someone on your side can make a decision inside a week. Access delays and approval chains cost more time than the actual work.
A weekly written change log for anything with active spend or live changes, and a monthly review against the numbers we agreed at the start. We do not do weekly status calls by default — they mostly exist to make agencies look busy, and we would rather put that hour into the work.
We tell you, in the monthly review, with the evidence. Then we either change approach or we recommend you stop. An agency that never reports a failing test is either lucky, not looking, or not telling you.
Start with the diagnosis.
It is the smallest useful commitment, and it produces something you can act on whether or not we go further.