Marketing agencies: spend your hours on clients, not on reports

How clients choose an agency

Business owners rarely pick an agency from an ad. They ask around, then check: the agency's site, its case studies, who works there, and whether it has done something close to their problem. Searches like "SEO agency for dentists" or "Meta Ads agency in Lyon" are the second door, and AI assistants now answer many of those questions with a short list.

What wins is proof that is specific and verifiable: a clear method, dated work, named services and an honest scope. That is also what Google asks of content in general: its guidance says its systems aim to reward helpful, reliable information created for people, where it is clear who made it and how.

Where an agency's time goes

• Monthly reporting: exporting from Google Ads, Meta, GA4 and Search Console, pasting into slides, writing the same comments.
• Proposals and audits: a new prospect means a mini-audit, a deck and a quote, often for nothing.
• Access and onboarding: getting the right access to ad accounts, pixels and analytics, then documenting who has what.
• Approvals: ads and pages waiting days for a client OK, chased by email.
• Requests outside your core: a client asks for a WhatsApp agent, a booking tool or a dashboard, and you either say no or improvise.

What we would build or run for an agency

• Automated client reports from the platforms' official APIs, in plain language, with what was done, what changed and what is next, checked by your account manager before sending. See automated reporting and dashboards and data.
• A client portal where each client sees reports, deliverables waiting for approval and invoices, with access per client. See client portals.
• Faster proposals: audit templates and decks filled from real data, then reviewed by you. See sales collateral.
• Your own prospecting: lists by segment, personalised emails drafted by AI, A/B subject tests, replies logged in your CRM; nothing sent without your validation. See AI prospecting.
• The things you do not build: WhatsApp AI agents, website chat assistants, custom CRMs and web apps for your clients, built by our developers with dev, uat and prod environments. See custom software.

Rules agencies must keep in mind

Accounts in the client's name. A Google Ads manager account lets an agency manage many client accounts from one sign-in, but Google states that the manager cannot change a client account's proprietary information such as sign-in details, and that the client can unlink the manager account at any time. We follow the same rule: ad accounts, pixels and data stay with the advertiser.

France: buying media on someone's behalf. Under article 20 of the Sapin law of 29 January 1993, an intermediary can buy advertising space only on behalf of an advertiser and under a written mandate contract, and any discount granted by the seller must appear on the invoice sent to the advertiser. For digital advertising, decree 2017-159 requires the seller to report to the advertiser the dates and placements of the ads and the prices invoiced. If we run media for you or your clients, the contract and the invoices are set up that way.