How to Avoid Being Burned by a Marketing Agency: Common Pitfalls and How to Choose the Right Partner

Patrick McFadden • September 21, 2024

As a business owner, choosing the right marketing agency can be daunting. Many business owners have shared their frustrations about being misled, overpromised, or left in the dark by their marketing partners. In this article, we’ll explore common issues business owners face when working with agencies and share practical tips to help you avoid these pitfalls. I’ll also explain how our agency proactively addresses these concerns, ensuring transparency, accountability, and real results.

1. Overpromising and Underdelivering

The Issue:
Many business owners have experienced agencies that promise extraordinary results but fail to deliver. These agencies often overstate what’s achievable, leaving business owners frustrated and with a poor return on investment (ROI).


How to Avoid It:
Be wary of agencies that guarantee results. Instead, look for transparency around expectations, including the time needed for testing and optimization. A trustworthy agency will set realistic goals and communicate openly about the process.


How to Address This:
We believe in setting clear, measurable goals from the outset. We provide a detailed breakdown of a roadmap, explain potential challenges, and work collaboratively with our clients to ensure they understand each phase of the marketing campaign.


We use a marketing maturity model to help you think about your marketing activities strategically. It's a way to ensure that every tactic you deploy aligns with what your prospects and customers truly want and need, and helps move them smoothly from interest to conversion.


The model consists of three stages: launch, grow, and amplify. Each stage builds upon the last to create a complete marketing presence that works seamlessly for your business.


  1. Launch – In this stage, we focus on the essential marketing assets you need to get started. This includes developing a strong foundation with the right messaging, website structure, SEO, and initial touchpoints. It’s all about ensuring that your business is positioned to attract attention and meet customer expectations.
  2. Grow – Once the basics are in place, the next step is to expand. Here we implement more channels, such as email marketing, local SEO, direct mail, or targeted outreach that align with how your prospects make purchasing decisions. The goal is to build relationships, create consistent touchpoints, and nurture leads into potential customers.
  3. Amplify – This is where we scale and optimize everything you’ve built. At this stage, we look at refining your tactics, using advanced tools like marketing automation and retargeting to make sure every effort is delivering maximum results. It’s about amplifying your presence and getting the most out of your existing marketing assets.


2. Lack of Transparency and Access to Data

The Issue:
Some agencies control key accounts and data, such as Google Ads or Analytics, without giving clients access. This leaves business owners in the dark and reliant on the agency for updates, limiting their ability to truly understand the impact of their marketing efforts.


How to Avoid It:
Always ensure you own your assets, whether it’s your Google Ads account, Google Business Profile, local directory, website, or social media profiles. An agency should act as a partner, not a gatekeeper. Ask for full access to reports and data.


How to Address This:
We make it a priority for our clients to own all of their assets. Whether it’s your website, ad accounts, local profiles or social media profiles, you have complete access. We provide easy-to-understand weekly updates that reports on calls, rankings, visibility, top performing content and schedule regular check-ins monthly, quarterly, or bi-weekly to go over trends, new business updates, and data with you, ensuring you’re fully informed and able to ask questions.

3. Lack of Industry-Specific Knowledge

The Issue:
A common frustration is when agencies claim expertise but don’t truly understand the specific needs of your industry. This can result in campaigns that miss the mark and fail to resonate with your target audience.


How to Avoid It:
Look for agencies that have proven experience in your industry or are willing to take the time to learn about your business. They should be able to speak your language, understand your pain points, and tailor their strategies to your specific market.


How to Address This:
Our agency specializes in conducting marketing strategy, and we invest time in learning about your business. The key to marketing success is attracting the right customer with the right message and the right offer. That’s the essence of a great marketing strategy and that is what our strategy consulting engagement will create for you.


As a part of this engagement, we interview your existing customers and analyze your competitors or competitive solutions. We build ideal client personas and establish a marketing message that will speak to them. We map out your editorial calendar and determine how to make content a relationship-workhorse. And we audit the customer journey (buying process) and identify gaps in your current marketing approach. This gives you a firm foundation on which to build your tactics and move your marketing forward based on a solid strategy.


We don’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions; we customize every approach to ensure it aligns with your business goals. If you want look at what you need to do to put strategy first read here..

4. Poor Communication and Engagement

The Issue:
Many business owners feel abandoned once they sign with an agency. The agency may assign a junior representative and fail to communicate effectively, leading to misalignment and a lack of trust.


How to Avoid It:
Choose an agency that commits to regular communication. Whether it’s a monthly report or weekly check-ins, you should feel like a partner in the process. Ask upfront about how often they will communicate and what level of access you’ll have to decision-makers.


How to Address This:
We pride ourselves on regular, [weekly] clear communication. Our clients are assigned a dedicated project manager who works closely with them throughout their account. We provide weekly updates, monthly reviews, and are always available to answer questions or make adjustments as needed. We view our clients as partners and believe open communication is key to success.

5. Misaligned Performance Metrics

The Issue:
A common complaint is that agencies focus on metrics like impressions or clicks, which don’t necessarily translate into new customers. Business owners want to know how their marketing spend is impacting their bottom line.


How to Avoid It:
Ensure the agency is focused on outcomes that matter to your business—like leads, conversions, or sales. Discuss what success looks like for you and ensure the agency aligns its KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with your specific goals.


How to Address This:
We focus on results that matter to your business. We track leads, conversions, and other meaningful outcomes that impact your bottom line. We believe in aligning our goals with yours, and we regularly review campaign performance to ensure we’re driving real value for your business.

6. Unethical Practices Around Asset Ownership

The Issue:
Some agencies retain ownership of assets like your website, domain, or ad accounts, holding clients hostage if they want to leave. This can result in businesses losing their online presence if the relationship ends.


How to Avoid It:
Before signing any contract, ensure you will own all your digital assets. An ethical agency will transfer everything to you if the partnership ends, and this should be clearly stated in your agreement.


How to Address This:
With us, you own everything—from your website to your ad accounts. If for any reason you decide to part ways, all assets are transferred to you without hesitation. We believe in building long-term relationships based on trust, and that means ensuring you have full control over your marketing.

Wrap Up

Choosing the right marketing agency is critical to the success of your business. By understanding common pitfalls and selecting a partner who values transparency, communication, and results, you can avoid many of the issues other business owners have faced. At [Your Agency Name], we pride ourselves on being a trusted partner who delivers measurable results while ensuring you have full control over your marketing. If you’re ready to work with an agency that puts your success first, we’re here to help.

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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