Agency life stabilises, but with complexity: Q3 Pulse survey

From publishing our latest Pulse Report, we’ll be unpacking and sharing key insights, starting with the market shift everyone’s feeling. The Market (1/4) ☑️ New Client Opportunities – From Volatility to Stability After years of ups and downs, the agency landscape is finally levelling out. Big growth spikes are being replaced by steady, predictable progress. So what does that mean for the industry? We’re moving from a land-grab market to a retention and expansion market. Growth is no longer about chasing the next big win; it’s about deepening existing relationships and unlocking more value from the clients you already have. The agencies that thrive next year won’t just win new business; they’ll turn partnerships into long-term success. 🔗 Read the full analysis here: https://lnkd.in/etTeSUZx #ContentMarketing #Pulse

How we made growth predictable (without fancy dashboards) I lead Client Success & Operations for online businesses. The biggest unlock wasn’t a new tool. It was how the team works. What worked for us: One weekly rhythm. Growth + CS + Media Buying + Finance in one 45-min meeting. One board. One priority. 3 metrics only: 90-day LTV, Repeat Purchase Rate, Cash Contribution. If a metric doesn’t change actions, it’s noise. Clear handoffs. From ad click to first “aha moment.” Owners and SLAs live in ClickUp/Confluence, not in chat. Post-mortems without blame. 30 minutes, five questions: what happened, why, what we keep, what we stop, who owns the fix. Customer voice every week. 5 calls, 10 tickets, 1 insight → goes to product and ads. Result: steadier revenue, less “hero work,” happier clients. If your week still feels chaotic—start with the rhythm. Tools come second.

Many marketers I talk to are stuck in the same frustration. They run campaigns. They deliver reports. But they still feel more like executors than strategic partners. Sounds familiar? A framework that can help with this comes from Jos IJntema: 1. 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 Not: “Who’s your target audience?” But: “How do you make money? Where’s the profit? What wastes unnecessary time?” Once you understand that, you can start thinking strategically. Otherwise, you’re just optimizing without context. 2. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 CTR, sessions, or impressions rarely keep clients up at night. They want to know: → Are we driving more revenue? → Are we on track with our growth goals? Once you make that translation, the entire conversation changes. 3. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 A dashboard with 12 charts means nothing without context. What does work: → “This spike was caused by campaign X.” → “Once we learned this, we changed Y.” Show what it delivers, not how much effort it took. 4. 𝗕𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 If you wait for the client to ask questions, you’re already too late. Real value lies in: → Proactively suggesting improvements → Spotting issues before they become urgent That’s the difference between being a ‘vendor’ and a ‘partner’. At TAGGRS, we make sure the foundation of your tracking is solid, but the real impact comes from what you do with it. #TAGGRS

The agency-client relationship isn’t evolving — it’s cracking. Budgets are tighter. Trust is thinner. AI is redefining what “value” actually means. And too many partnerships are dissolving under mismatched expectations. Brands aren’t hiring agencies to just run campaigns anymore — but even they’re struggling to articulate what the new mandate looks like. What’s clear: partners who can sit at the business table, challenge assumptions, and help decision-makers make tradeoffs in real time are at a premium. But too many agencies are still pitching capabilities — and scrambling to catch up with how to scope, price, or deliver in such an unfamiliar environment. Execution is commoditized. Insight isn’t. And that gap? It’s growing. That’s the tension we’re unpacking this week at Logical Sessions. Last week I sat down with Marta Vucci, Julia Fitzgerald, and Douglas Durkalski to prep for our panel — and just a few minutes in, I was fired up to get on stage. The perspectives from both sides of the agency-client aisle were sharp, honest, and at times eye-opening. We’ve got decades of hard-earned experience on that stage — and we’re bringing the real stories, not the sanitized ones. It’s going to be a packed, practical discussion — and one you’ll want a seat for. Here’s a sample of what we’ll cover: ➡️ Why chasing “big name” agencies can be a trap — and what actually defines fit ➡️ How the best agencies show up as mentors, not just vendors ➡️ Why RFPs rarely reveal the real match — but shared energy often does ➡️ The root cause of most breakdowns: misaligned expectations ➡️ How AI is forcing both sides to rethink value, collaboration, and capacity If you’re leading a brand, running an agency, or sitting somewhere in the tension — this session was built for you. Join us at at our office in River North this Thursday at 1:00 PM, with a happy hour to follow. Register here: https://lnkd.in/ggUdgdip #AgencyLife #ClientPartnerships #MarketingLeadership #LogicalMediaGroup

Taking on more clients in Q4 pushed us past capacity. I thought quality would suffer. Instead, it forced us to build a better agency. For years, we operated on a simple rule: if something came in, we'd get it done within 24 to 48 hours. No exceptions. That started to break down as we grew. I found myself behind my laptop at 11pm trying to finish the promises I made to my clients. The same pressure was building on my team. Something had to change. The first shift was expectation management. Instead of promising 24-48-hour turnarounds, we started setting realistic timelines. End of the week. End of next week. Just communicating clearly with clients about when things would get done. But that alone wasn't enough. We needed structural change. I brought someone on board to handle the operational tasks that were eating up our time. The backend work that takes hours but doesn't move the needle. This freed up the team to climb up the ladder. Less time buried in ad accounts doing optimizations. More time on strategy, client communication, relationship management. I told them straight: if you keep working the same way you did the last six months, you'll burn out. You need to be more critical about what you're doing. Is this making an impact? Or can this be delegated? The surprising part: quality didn't drop. It actually increased. When you push people toward high-leverage work, they become more strategic. They spend more time building client relationships and thinking bigger picture. Sometimes that matters more than every small optimization in the ad account. Hitting capacity was a blessing in disguise. It forced us to build the foundation we needed to scale properly. The team is more focused on what matters. Clients get better strategic thinking. Nobody's working until 11pm anymore. Growth exposes what's not working. If you let it, it'll also show you exactly what you need to fix.

Most companies don't know what they're missing until they can actually see it. I hear this all the time: "We monitor our competitors pretty closely." And I believe them. They're checking websites, following social media, reading press releases. But here's what I've learned after sending hundreds of competitive intelligence reports: The most significant competitive moves are happening in plain sight—you're just not seeing them. Product changes buried in changelog pages. Pricing shifts hidden in updated terms. New integrations announced in obscure help docs. Hiring patterns that signal major strategic pivots. This isn't secret information. It's all publicly available. The problem isn't access. It's attention and coverage. You can't manually track every corner of every competitor's digital presence. There's simply too much surface area, and most of it seems unimportant... until you connect the dots. This is the paradox of competitive intelligence tools: you don't understand the value until you start using them. It's why I started offering something unconventional—sending teams a few weeks of competitive insights before they commit to anything. No trial login. No setup. Just a weekly email showing them what's happening in their space. The response is almost always the same: "I had no idea this was happening." That's the point. You can't miss what you can't see. But once you can see it, going back to manual monitoring feels like driving with your eyes closed.

Most agencies point out problems. The right partner helps you solve them. In my last post, I talked about how one anomaly in Google Ads data sent a whole team into panic mode, until a deeper audit showed everything was actually fine. No mismanagement. No underperforming media. Just misunderstood data. But here’s the real takeaway: 📌 Brands don’t just need agencies to report numbers. They need a partner who can interpret them, challenge assumptions, and bring calm when things look chaotic. Because in 2026, the brands that win won’t be the ones with the most dashboards, they’ll be the ones with the clearest thinking. What a true partner does differently: ✅ Spots signal in the noise before panic takes over ✅ Brings logic and solutions. Not blame or excuses ✅ Understands your business model, not just your metrics ✅ Makes you feel confident in your decisions, even during a bad week (or month) Full Moon isn’t trying to be the loudest agency in the room. We’re here to be the most useful for brands. If you’re evaluating agency partners for 2026 and want one that will dive in with you, find problems and help solve them. Let’s talk.

After years and years and years in the market research and insights biz (short for business 😉), I can confidently say that while AI and advanced analytics have changed how we work, they haven't changed the perennial Q4 challenges of agency life. It’s not my first rodeo (I repeat, I have done rodeos previously), and every October, the rhythm shifts to the familiar, high-stakes balancing act of the final quarter. It always brings a unique set of challenges that test our agility and focus. It's a critical time defined by three main pressures: ⚡️ The Budget Scramble: Clients are often either rushing to spend down remaining annual budgets on last-minute, high-priority projects or dealing with sudden cuts as final P&Ls are managed. This leads to unpredictable project scoping and timelines. 🗓 The End-of-Year Deadline Crush: Everyone needs results yesterday. The holiday period looms, meaning compressed timelines for fieldwork, analysis, and report delivery, often with little room for error or iteration. 🎯 Shifting Priorities: Focus rapidly moves from "finishing this year's plan" to "informing next year's strategy." Projects often change scope mid-stream to accommodate critical 2025 planning questions. Successfully navigating Q4 means being a true partner: agile, strategically flexible, and laser-focused on delivering actionable insights that stick the landing for the current year and build a strong foundation for the next. Also... a not insignificant swallowing of pride and advance purchase of "midnight oil" so have a steady supply for the nights ahead!! #insights #Q4Challenges #mrx #planning #marketresearch #researchstrategy

I’ve worked with over 100 brands — and the ones who scale the fastest? They’re the ones who finally stopped guessing. They stopped making emotional decisions about what “feels off.” They stopped rewriting sales pages that weren’t the real problem. And they started letting their data tell the story. Because when you know what your numbers are saying, you can finally see what’s really holding your growth back. Here’s what that looks like in practice: 1️⃣ Track your data. You can’t fix what you’re not measuring. 2️⃣ Diagnose the real gap. Is it leads? Messaging? Conversion? Each one needs a different fix. 3️⃣ Focus your effort. top changing what’s already working — double down on it instead. 4️⃣ Then scale with clarity. When you align your strategy, messaging, and data, growth compounds fast. This is how you build launches that scale – you truly understand what’s working and what’s not (no guessing) —------------ Want to find out where your launch is leaving money on the table? Comment “SCORE” below and I’ll send you my free 5-minute Launch Health Audit, so you can see what’s really driving (or draining) your results. #LaunchStrategy #DataDrivenGrowth #MarketingThatConverts #BuyerPsychology

Week two of shaping something new: finding my ideal client Or should I just accept everyone who wants to buy? After almost 20 years designing and bringing new value propositions to market, I’ve learned one thing: clarity starts with knowing exactly who you want to serve. That’s why step one in my own playbook for scalable advisory propositions is called “Finding your ideal client.” It’s a simple but powerful framework built around three questions: 1. What market are you targeting? It should be at least stable or growing, have dynamics that keep demand for your service alive, and be one where your firm already has proven credibility. 2. Who makes the decision? Ideally someone easy to identify, whose daily practice and needs you understand, and who lacks the capacity or expertise in your domain. 3. What problem are you solving? The ideal client faces a specific pain, which is urgent amplified by current trends, and one you can address with at least 80% of your existing capabilities. When these answers are sharp, everything else like your messaging, pricing, and delivery becomes easier, faster, and far more scalable. I’ve been applying this framework to my own next chapter. Based on early conversations and feedback, my ideal client will likely be a managing partner, CEO, or business unit lead in an organisational or HR advisory firm, typically overseeing 20–200 professionals. My ideal client operates in a stable, knowledge-driven market but feels the growing tension between AI, margin pressure, and shifting client expectations. They want propositions that scale. Offers that are value-driven, outcome-focused, and relevant for the years ahead. That’s where my experience in designing and launching new propositions, from strategy to go-to-market, can make the biggest impact. Next step: testing, refining, and validating product-market fit. Because the sharper the client definition, the stronger the value proposition that follows. So I’m curious: who’s your ideal client, and how did you find them? And if you’ve been following my journey: what do you think so far?