Thinking of firing your marketing agency: a founder framework

You are thinking of firing your marketing agency. Fine. First make it a decision, not a mood.

This framework is for Shopify and DTC founders who feel the retainer more than the results.

Answer first

Fire (or sharply reshape) the agency when:

1. They cannot connect work to contribution, payback or agreed outcomes for two to three review cycles
2. You spend more energy managing them than they save
3. Scope creep and reporting theater replaced shipping
4. You already know what good looks like and they cannot hit it

Do not fire only because a single campaign week was bad. Do not keep them only because switching feels awkward.

Scorecard (rate 1 to 5)

Dimension	1	5
Commercial clarity	Channel vanity only	Speaks CAC, LTV, contribution
Shipping	Excuses and decks	Assets and tests land weekly
Honesty	Hides bad news	Kills losers fast
Fit to brief	Freelances their favorite tactics	Runs your priorities
Management load	Founder babysits	Adult ownership

Average ≤2: exit path. Average 3: remediation with written 30-day goals or reduce scope. Average ≥4: keep and raise the bar.

Remediation before exit (optional but clean)

Write one page:

• Outcomes for next 30 days (measurable)
• What you will provide (access, creative inputs, decisions in 48 hours)
• What happens if missed (scope cut or termination)

If they refuse clarity, you have your answer.

Transition plan (do not skip)

1. Export: creatives, audiences, docs, logins, naming conventions
2. Freeze: stop new experiments that only they understand
3. Stabilize: keep always-on that still meets payback; cut vanity
4. Owner: name who sets priorities tomorrow (you, fractional, new hire)
5. Replace execution: brief the next hands only after priorities exist

Firing without an owner recreates the same mess with a new logo.

What to hire instead

Gap	Better fit
No strategy spine	Fractional CMO / HoM
Weak media execution only	Specialist buyer or leaner agency
Creative under-supply	Production partner with a brief system
Everything unclear	Growth Audit, then decide

See agency vs fractional and how to hire a fractional CMO.

Emotional honesty

Agencies become scapegoats for weak offers, weak LTV and founder bottleneck. If your unit economics are broken, a new retainer will not save you. Fix the machine you are asking them to scale.

Fire when the partnership fails a commercial scorecard. Then replace ownership and execution on purpose.