Short answer: Most companies that leave an agency are not short on capacity. They are short on someone who understands the business. In 2025, 61% of clients who ended an agency relationship cited delivery and value, and 44% said the agency did not understand their business. Changing vendors does not close that gap. Shortening the distance between strategy and execution does. The tension: scale versus proximity Agencies sell scale: a bench of specialists, production capacity,

Short answer: The benchmark is 7.7% of revenue, and it is the wrong place to start. The more common mistake is not overspending. It is spreading too little across too much. Nielsen found half of media plans are underinvested, by a median of 50%. The real question is whether each channel you fund is funded enough to work. The tension: efficiency versus sufficiency Finance asks marketing to spend less. Growth targets ask it to deliver more. The usual compromise is to keep every

Short answer: Because most of your market is not buying this quarter, and the buyers who are have usually chosen before they call. Roughly 95% of business buyers are out of market at any given time, and 94% of buying groups have a preferred vendor before first contact. Lead volume measures the end of a decision you were not present for. The tension: capture versus creation Demand capture is fast, measurable, and finite. It converts people who are already looking. Demand creat