Agency margin rebuild
How an agency reduced turnaround latency and improved client retention posture with clearer delivery and batching rules.
Context
The agency was winning on strategy and account management, but client SLAs were getting expensive to meet. “More creative” requests scaled linearly with headcount, and the delivery path was mostly manual file churn.
Constraint
Turnaround time for new tests was the hidden churn driver: when a winning asset fatigued, the account could drift for days before a structured replacement shipped.
Intervention
The team moved to a single intake format for test requests: hypothesis, variable, and priority—then a weekly batching rule instead of ad hoc one-offs.
Ownership between media and creative was written down so “who launches what, by when” stopped being negotiated in DMs.
Observed outcome (validation window)
The agency improved its delivery posture: fewer last-minute rushes, clearer client communication on cadence, and a retention story built on process—not hero hours. Anonymized snapshot—results vary by client vertical and contract terms.