How to Hire a Digital Strategy Company

Do I have a defined business outcome, or just the project?

Ask yourself: Can I finish this sentence, "We need to [specific outcome] by [timeframe] because [consequence of not doing it]", without describing an activity like "build a strategy" or "improve our digital presence"?

If you can't answer that question, no digital strategy agency can help you yet.

Agencies are skilled at filling vague briefs with visible work.

If you walk in asking for "a digital strategy," you'll get a document, not a result.

The most common root cause of failed agency engagements isn't a capability gap on the agency's side.

It's a client who didn't define a measurable expectation before signing.

The agency becomes a cost center the moment the brief stays vague.

The BetterBriefs Project global study, published by the IPA and based on responses from over 1,700 marketers and agency staff across 70 countries, found that 80% of marketers believe they write good briefs, while only 10% of creative agencies agree.

The same study found that respondents estimated 33% of marketing budgets are wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work.

Meanwhile, the ANA's "Enhancing Client/Agency Relations" survey found that just 27% of agencies believe clients provide clear assignment briefs, and not a single agency respondent strongly agreed.

Write your one-sentence outcome and pressure-test it with your CFO or a board member before briefing digital strategy agencies.

If neither of them can connect it to a line on a P&L, rewrite it.

Does the agency's experience match my specific problem or just my industry?

Shortlisting by industry vertical is one of the most common and most costly mistakes in hiring digital strategy companies.

An agency that has produced results for three eCommerce brands has not necessarily solved a B2B lead generation problem.

An agency that grew a DTC brand's organic traffic hasn't necessarily navigated the compliance constraints of a financial services company.

When reviewing agency profiles and case studies, filter for problem match, not sector match.

The question isn't "have they worked in my industry?" It's "have they solved the specific problem I have, in a comparable context, with measurable results?"

Despite this, 89% of companies say "experience in our industry" is a major factor when selecting an outsourcing provider, according to a 2024 survey of business leaders compiled by Passive Secrets, making industry match the most common shortlisting criterion, and problem match the most overlooked one.

How to shortlist effectively:

• Identify the two or three most comparable case studies on each digital strategy firm’s profile, comparable by problem type, not by industry logo.
• Look for case studies that name the specific metric that moved, the timeframe, and the agency's specific contribution (not the client's, not the market's).
• Narrow to three to five agencies before requesting proposals.

What to look for in case studies:

• A named starting problem, not a generic challenge.
• A specific intervention, not a comprehensive strategy.
• A measured result with a timeframe — not significant growth or improved performance.
• Evidence that the agency's work caused the result, not just preceded it.

Red flags at this stage:

• Case studies lead with client logos instead of outcomes.
• Results are described in relative terms ("increased by X%") without a baseline or timeframe.
• Every case study sounds like it could apply to any client in any sector.

What does success look like at 30, 60, and 90 days, and who defined it?

Digital strategy agencies should write down what a successful 90-day outcome looks like from their side.

Without a shared, written definition of early success, both sides spend the first quarter doing work they believe is valuable while the other side is quietly keeping score on different metrics.

By month four, the client is frustrated by the absence of visible results, and the agency is frustrated that the client doesn't appreciate the foundational work they've completed.

This pattern is common enough to have a name in the consulting industry: the expectation gap.

The financial consequences of getting this wrong are significant.

According to the ANA and 4As joint study, The Cost of the Pitch, based on 300+ interviews with U.S. brand marketers and agency executives, the average cost of an agency review when no incumbent is involved is $408,500. That’s the cost for the client alone, before accounting for the digital strategy company’s own pitch costs.

When expectations break down and a review becomes necessary, that is the price of a poorly aligned start.

The 30-day milestone should cover access, audit, and alignment.

The 90-day milestone should include at least one deliverable that tests the quality of the agency's strategic thinking before you're locked into a full year.

What to do: Send the agency your written version of the 90-day success before the kickoff call. Ask them to do the same. Where they diverge is where the relationship will break first.

Who will actually work on my account, and have I met them?

The person who presents to you and the person who runs your account on a daily basis are often not the same.

This gap between the seniority of the pitch team and the seniority of the delivery team is one of the most predictable sources of post-signature disappointment in agency relationships.

Before signing, identify who will be doing the actual work on your account. Ask to meet them.

Ask digital strategy firms what percentage of their time will be dedicated to your engagement. Then assess whether that person has the experience level the engagement actually requires.

Your relative budget matters here. An agency billing $6M annually will prioritize a $150K retainer differently from one billing $900K annually.

The smaller agency may be the higher-priority client, which means more senior attention, faster response, and more accountable work.

The table below shows how staffing typically plays out by agency size, and what it means for how you'll be treated.

What happens if the strategy isn't working?

Most buyers evaluate digital strategy agencies on what they'll do when things go well.

Fewer think through what will happen when things don't go well, which, in any honest engagement, they sometimes won't.

The way an agency handles underperformance tells you more about the health of the relationship than any pitch or proposal.

Top digital strategy agencies identify problems before the client does. They come with a diagnosis and propose a course correction.

An agency that waits for the client to notice and then explains why the results weren't their fault is an agency that will cost you more than the retainer.

The data supports taking this seriously upfront. The SPI Professional Services Maturity Benchmark, a survey of thousands of professional services organizations, cited by Workday's 2025 industry analysis, found that on-time project delivery rates dropped to just 73.4% in 2024, down from 80.2% in 2021.

The same research found that project overruns rose to 11.3% over the same period.

In agency engagements specifically, a Deltek benchmark study found that nearly 40% of agenciesexceedprojectbudgets due to scope creep from poorly defined contract terms.

These aren't edge cases. They're the statistical norm, and they almost always go unaddressed until the client notices the invoice.

Before you sign, understand the digital strategy firm’s process for flagging underperformance: how often they review results against baseline, what triggers an internal review, and how they communicate bad news.

Sources

DesignRush sustains a directory of over 30,000 agencies categorized by service category, location, expertise, and reviews. We build our database in two ways:

• Our dedicated team of agency experts actively searches the web for top-performing companies. We then pull information from their websites, online presence, and client testimonials to verify their status and qualifications prior to listing.
• The agencies listed get notified of their profiles on the website and they can choose to claim it or not, which suggests their availability for more collaborations.

Agencies can also reach out to DesignRush and must go through the verification process prior to being listed.