The first ninety days with a new agency
If month one is spent on ideation workshops, budget for a slow year.
Week one is access and tracking. Week two is an agreed baseline nobody disputes. Week four is a written diagnosis including what is not worth doing. First work should be live inside the first month, and the ninety-day review should be against the baseline, not against the plan.
The shape of the first quarter predicts the relationship more reliably than the pitch did. There is a standard sequence, and departures from it are usually a warning.
Week one: access and tracking
Ad accounts, analytics, Search Console, CMS, CRM, brand assets, previous reporting. Then an immediate check of whether the measurement is sound, because every later conclusion depends on it. The checklist is in the ad account audit checklist.
Week two: the baseline
An agreed statement of where things stand: traffic, pipeline, cost per acquisition, conversion rates, search position, the lot. Both sides sign it. Without this, month six becomes an argument about what the numbers were at the start, and that argument has no winner.
Week four: the diagnosis
Written. What the constraint is, what the evidence says, what the agency recommends and, critically, what it recommends against. An agency that recommends everything it sells has not diagnosed anything.
Month one: something live
Not the campaign. Something: a fixed tracking issue, a rebuilt landing page, a corrected feed, a first creative test. Momentum matters, and it demonstrates the team can ship rather than only present.
Month three: the real review
Against the baseline, with the leading indicators weighted more heavily than the lagging ones, because ninety days is too short for most lagging numbers to have moved. Lead with what did not work. An agency that has learned nothing in a quarter has not tested anything.
What should worry you
No written diagnosis by week six. Reporting that only contains wins. A senior team at the pitch who have not been seen since. And a scope conversation that keeps being deferred, which usually means the scope was wrong: see scoping a retainer.
Questions we get asked
What should happen in the first month with a new agency?
Access and a tracking check, an agreed baseline, a written diagnosis, and at least one thing shipped. Ideation workshops are not a first month.
How should the ninety-day review be judged?
Against the agreed baseline, weighting leading indicators, and opening with what did not work. Most lagging metrics will not have moved yet.
Start with a Growth Audit
Every Colleviate engagement begins with an outside-in read of your brand and its competitive cluster, before we recommend a single line of spend.
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