Your First 90 Days With a Marketing Agency: What to Expect

You've decided to work with an agency. The contract's signed. Now you're wondering: what actually happens next? How long before something is running? When do real results show up?

We've onboarded enough clients to know exactly where things go right and where they stall. Here's our actual process — the same playbook we run every time, refined after learning some lessons the hard way.

Before day 1: The pre-onboarding checklist

Most agencies lose their first week to access delays. We learned this early — one client's onboarding stretched to four weeks because ad account invites sat in an IT queue. Now we send a checklist before the engagement officially starts:

• Ad platform access: Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager (admin or manager roles)
• Analytics: Google Analytics, Search Console, any attribution tools
• CMS access for landing page work
• Brand guidelines, messaging docs, and any existing customer research
• Past campaign data: what's been tried, what worked, what didn't

If you have all of this ready on day 1, we save a full week. If not, that's fine — we'll work through it together. But every day of waiting for a login is a day we're not building campaigns.

Days 1–7: The deep dive

Week one is an audit, not a sales pitch. We dig into your accounts, your market, and your numbers. This is where we figure out where the real opportunities are — and where previous spend was wasted.

What we do

• Full audit of existing ad accounts — campaign structure, keyword quality, bidding strategy, wasted spend
• Analytics review: what's your actual conversion path? Where do visitors drop off?
• Competitive scan: what are your competitors bidding on, what messaging are they using?
• Kickoff call with you: business goals, ideal customer profile, what "success" looks like in 90 days
• We present a strategy doc: channels, budget allocation, target KPIs, and a week-by-week timeline

When we audited a health-tech client's existing Google Ads account, we found 35% of their budget was going to broad match keywords that generated clicks but zero conversions. That's the kind of thing you only find by looking at the data, not the dashboard summary.

Days 8–14: Building the engine

While you're reviewing the strategy, we're already building. We don't wait for a formal sign-off meeting to start working — if you've agreed on direction, we move.

• Campaign structures built from scratch (we rarely keep existing structures — they're usually a mess)
• Ad copy written, tested against your messaging framework
• Tracking and conversion setup verified end-to-end: click → landing page → form → CRM → attribution
• Landing pages audited and improved, or new ones built if needed
• Reporting dashboard set up and shared — you see the same numbers we do, updated daily

That last point matters. We don't send you a weekly PDF. You get a live dashboard from day one. Check it at 2am if you want. No information is hidden from you, ever.

Days 15–30: First campaigns go live

This is when ads start running and data starts flowing. Expect to feel a mix of excitement and anxiety. Both are normal.

Here's what's important to understand about the first two weeks of live campaigns: the numbers will be messy. Cost-per-click will be high. Conversion rates will be inconsistent. Google's algorithm needs 200-300 clicks to start optimizing properly. This is not a sign that things are failing.

What we're watching

• Click-through rates by ad variant — which messages resonate?
• Search term reports — are we attracting the right searches or catching junk?
• Landing page behavior — are visitors engaging or bouncing?
• Cost-per-click trends — are they stabilizing or spiking?
• Early conversion signals — even small sample sizes tell us something

We send you a weekly update in Slack. Short, structured: what happened, what we're changing, what to expect next week. No fluff, no vanity metrics. If something's not working, you'll hear it from us before you notice it yourself.

Days 31–60: Optimization — where the real work happens

Month two is where we earn our fee. We have enough data now to make real decisions, not guesses.

• Killing underperforming keywords and ad groups — this is as important as finding winners
• A/B testing ad copy: headlines, descriptions, calls-to-action
• Testing landing page variations if conversion rates are below 3%
• Shifting budget from weaker campaigns to stronger ones
• Refining audience targeting based on who's actually converting (not just clicking)

For one SaaS client, we cut 40% of their keywords in month two. Sounds aggressive. But those keywords were eating budget without generating a single qualified lead. The remaining 60% saw cost-per-acquisition drop by a third within two weeks because the budget was finally concentrated where intent was highest.

We'd rather run 3 campaigns well than 10 campaigns poorly. Concentration beats coverage when your budget is under €10K/month.

By day 45, you should see stable cost-per-click numbers and emerging conversion patterns. By day 60, we'll have a clear picture: which campaigns drive leads, what messaging converts, and where to double down. (If you're wondering what a healthy ad budget looks like for this phase, we wrote a detailed guide on Google Ads budgets for startups.)

Days 61–90: Scaling the winners

The final month is about amplification. The experiments are done. We know what works. Now we push.

• Budget increases go to proven campaigns (20-30% at a time, never overnight doubles)
• New keyword segments tested based on what we learned about your audience in months 1-2
• Content and messaging that performed well gets expanded — blog articles, landing page variants, ad formats
• Automation workflows start handling the repetitive work (lead routing, reporting, follow-ups)
• We build and present your Q2 plan — backed by 90 days of real data, not projections

The Q2 plan is a critical deliverable. It's not a vague "keep going" — it's specific: these campaigns at this budget with these target CPAs, plus these new experiments. You should be able to read it and know exactly where every euro is going and why.

What you see throughout: full transparency

This is the part that sets us apart. From day one, you get:

1. A live dashboard with spend, clicks, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition — updated daily
2. Weekly Slack updates: what changed, what we're testing, what's coming
3. A monthly strategy call where we review performance and adjust direction
4. Access to every ad, every keyword, every landing page — nothing is hidden
5. Honest flags when something isn't working, without waiting for you to ask

We've never understood agencies that guard their work behind monthly PDF reports. If you can't see what's happening in your own campaigns whenever you want, something is being hidden from you.

Red flags to watch for (with any agency)

We want you to be a good buyer — even if you don't choose us. Here's how to tell if your first 90 days are going well or going wrong:

• Good sign: Weekly updates with specific numbers and clear next steps. Bad sign: Silence for more than a week.
• Good sign: Strategy shifts based on new data (that's learning, not failure). Bad sign: Same strategy in week 8 as week 1 despite poor results.
• Good sign: They tell you when something isn't working before you notice. Bad sign: You have to chase them for basic performance data.
• Good sign: Budget recommendations tied to specific metrics. Bad sign: "We need more budget" without explaining what the current spend is producing.
• Good sign: You talk to the same senior person every week. Bad sign: You've been handed off to someone you've never met.

The bottom line

The first 90 days are an investment in learning — for both sides. We're learning your business, your audience, and what moves your numbers. You're learning whether we're the right partner. By day 90, the data answers that question clearly.

No agency gets everything right on day one. But a good one learns fast, communicates honestly, and shows you proof by day 90 — not promises. If you're still weighing your options, read our honest comparison of agency vs in-house marketing. And if you want to see how this process works for your business specifically, book a call. We'll tell you straight whether we can help.