Hiring an agency? What the first 30 days should look like

You have signed with a new agency, and both sides want to see results quickly. The temptation is to start producing in week one. Posts go out before anyone has agreed who approves them, and the first invoice lands with whoever signed the contract rather than the person who actually pays it.

None of it feels wrong at the time. It surfaces around month three, as slow approvals, unpaid invoices and a nagging sense that nobody is quite sure what the retainer covers. The first thirty days set the habits of the relationship, and it is far easier to set them deliberately than to change them later. Here is what a well-run first month looks like, and what you can reasonably ask for.

Before any work starts: put it in writing

No work should begin until the commercial basics are agreed and written down: a signed agreement, and a statement of work listing the deliverables, the number of revision rounds, the deadlines for your feedback and what is not included. If that last part is missing, ask for it.

Your details should also be captured properly, once: your company's legal name and TRN exactly as your finance team holds them, the billing contact, currency, payment terms, contract start and end dates, and whether the contract renews automatically. Tell the agency who processes invoices on your side and whether a purchase order reference is needed. Getting this right before the first invoice saves weeks later.

Week one: a kickoff that asks the right questions

The kickoff is not another pitch; you have already bought. Its job is to settle the questions that would otherwise be answered badly, and by accident, over the next three months. Come ready to answer:

• Who has the final say on approvals, and who else needs to see work before it goes out.
• How you prefer to communicate, and how quickly you expect replies. If the answer is WhatsApp, agree now where approvals will be recorded.
• What success looks like at three months and at twelve, in terms your own manager would recognise.
• What went wrong with previous agencies. Be candid; it is often the most useful answer in the meeting.
• Dates that matter to the business: launches, seasonal peaks, Ramadan and Eid, and any periods when the brand prefers to stay quiet.

A good agency will write your answers up and send them back within a day. It shows it listened, and it gives you both one document to point to when memories differ. If nothing arrives, ask for it.

Weeks one and two: access and assets

Access is where new relationships lose the most time. Expect a single list of every login, page, ad account and tool the agency needs, together with a request for brand guidelines, logos, fonts, product information and past campaign results. Then clear it quickly. The sooner it is complete, the sooner the real work can start.

One principle is worth holding firm on: you should own your accounts. Pages, ad accounts and profiles belong in your company's name, with the agency given access, not the other way round. It is fairer, it avoids a painful handover if the relationship ever ends, and it removes one reason to hesitate over trusting a new partner.

Weeks two and three: the first piece of work

The first deliverables matter more than their size suggests. Ideally they are small, visible and low risk, and they are used to test the whole process from end to end: brief, production, internal review, your approval, publishing and recording the result.

If the approval path is going to break, it is much better to find out on a single post than on a campaign launch. Watch where it stalls, including on your side. Did the named approver reply, or did someone else answer first? Did feedback arrive in one place or three? Fix it now, while everyone still expects things to take a little longer.

The first deliverable tests the process as much as the work. Any friction it exposes is the most useful thing either side learns that month.

Week four: the first review

The month should close with a short review rather than a full report: what was delivered against the scope, what is planned for next month, what is still waiting on you, and anything learned that changes the plan.

Expect the agency to be direct about anything slowing things down on your side, such as missing access or slow feedback, and welcome it. Raised in week four as part of a routine review, it is a practical note you can act on. Raised in month four, after it has cost a deadline, it tends to sound like an excuse.

The first invoice should arrive on the date the contract states, addressed to the person who pays, with the details your finance team asked for. A clean first invoice sets the rhythm for every one that follows.

The sign of a well-run account

By the end of the first month, anyone on the agency's team should be able to find your scope, contacts, approver, key dates and kickoff notes without asking the account manager. It is a fair thing to ask about. If all of that lives in one person's head, the account is fragile, however well the month went.

The same holds on your side. Keep the agreement, the scope, the kickoff notes, the approvals and the invoices in one place. The first thirty days are for building the relationship's memory, so the next three hundred do not depend on anyone remembering.

If you are about to bring an agency on board and want to know what a first month with ALXO would involve, we are happy to talk it through.