The high stakes of inaction: why agencies need a data partner to keep clients and grow revenue

Data is at the heart of how agencies reach audiences, from personalisation to targeting. But data isn’t only about better campaign results. It’s also a way to open new revenue, give clients deeper insight and build stronger, more strategic relationships with them.

For many agencies, especially those built on creative and media buying, becoming data-driven can feel daunting. It isn’t just about buying the right tools. It’s about knowing how to read the data and apply it to a client’s strategy. How do you move from managing campaigns to giving the business insight clients increasingly expect? The good news is that it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing leap.

We work with agencies of all sizes, building data solutions that fit their needs, budgets and ambitions, whether they’re just starting to offer data services or are ready for more advanced analysis.

More than numbers on a dashboard

Many agencies start with dashboards showing clicks, impressions and conversions. That’s only the beginning, and it’s easy to copy with off-the-shelf tools. Clients don’t see much extra value in a basic dashboard. They want to know how marketing affects the things they care about: sales, margins and keeping customers.

This is where agencies often get stuck:

• Campaign numbers only go so far. A number on a screen, separated from the rest of the business, rarely tells the whole story. Clients want to know why something happened and what to do next.
• Clients expect more. Beyond campaign results, they want to see how marketing moves stock, affects customer lifetime value and contributes to profit.
• Marketing figures aren’t enough on their own. Real value comes from combining marketing data with business information such as stock levels, enquiries and margins.

That’s where data services come in. By combining marketing and business data, agencies can move from campaign managers to strategic partners, helping clients make better decisions about everything from ad spend to stock.

The missed revenue opportunity

For agencies still focused on creative and media buying, data services are a large and largely untapped source of revenue. Offering data-driven insight lets an agency:

• broaden what it offers and charge more for deeper insight
• position itself as a partner that guides business decisions, not just marketing ones
• build longer client relationships by showing results that tie directly to the client’s business

Clients are looking for partners who can connect their marketing to business outcomes. The agencies that can do this attract more clients and can charge for the value they bring.

Start small, grow at your own pace

Building a data offering doesn’t have to happen overnight. A gradual approach usually works best, especially for agencies new to data. We help agencies start where they are and build up over time.

Start small. Many agencies begin by combining their own first-party data, such as customer records or website behaviour, with core marketing results. Over time they add more, like stock levels, profitability and call volumes, and eventually forecasting and automation.

Scale as you grow. As confidence grows and clients expect more, we help agencies move to setups that manage many clients’ data securely in one place, with each client kept separate.

Then look at AI and automation. Once the groundwork is in place, AI and automation can give clients faster, more useful insight to act on.

What it looks like for a client

Good data work changes a client’s whole business strategy, not just their marketing results.

One example: we worked with an agency whose client sells home and garden products online and in physical stores. We brought together store visits, call centre volumes, category margins and sales data. That let the agency make specific recommendations on where to spend the ad budget and how to staff the phones.

The client shifted ad spend towards higher-margin categories and increased sales by 35% year on year. It also adjusted staffing and cut phone wait times by 64% at peak hours. Marketing results were tied directly to how the business ran.

Built to fit, not one size fits all

We don’t sell a software platform that you plug in and use as it comes, with limited insight. We work with each agency to design a setup that suits its size, needs and budget, built on established platforms like Google Cloud and AWS, with no lock-in. And we stay involved, supporting and improving it as your agency and your clients’ needs change.

Where to start: your clients’ needs

The first step is to look at what your clients need. What insight would help them make better decisions, run more efficiently or make more profit? Clients often already collect useful information, from sales figures to customer conversations, but don’t make full use of it.

With experience across Shopify Plus, lead generation systems and connecting business tools, we can help you work out which information will deliver the most value, and scope projects that line up with each client’s goals.

Looking ahead

The agencies that embrace data will be the ones that thrive. Offering data services isn’t only a new revenue stream. It’s a way to build deeper partnerships with clients by helping them solve real business problems.

If you’d like to build your agency’s data capability, see how we work with agencies or look at our white-label agency audit, a simple way to start with one client.