# When is an agency too expensive for what I need?

**Short answer.** The moment you are mostly buying execution you could steer yourself. An agency is expensive for hands and sharply priced for thinking, and most dissatisfaction starts with that mix-up.

"Too expensive" rarely means the rate is too high. It almost always means you are buying something that rate was not meant for.

## The mix-up that causes most dissatisfaction

An agency is built around people who think, choose and persuade. That is expensive, and it is worth the price as long as there is something to think about. Put that same team on executing work whose direction is already fixed, and you are paying a thinking rate for hands.

If you recognise this, the conclusion is usually not "find a cheaper agency" but "this work does not belong here".

- You no longer rebrief, you hand out instructions.
- Meetings are about planning, not about substance.
- You could give the answer yourself, you simply lack the time.

All three point to the same fix: move this work to a freelancer, an execution partner or in house, and keep the agency for what there is genuinely to figure out.

## Why comparing day rates settles nothing

At agencies, price does not sit in the rate but in how much work they put into an assignment. IKAg measures that with its own unit, PAR, where one PAR is roughly two agency days: scope is expressed in units of work, with the fee beside it. Those measurements show up to eightfold differences between agencies on a single proposal line, while the difference across the full scope is only 1.1 times.

In other words: agencies differ enormously in how they distribute the work, and barely in what they charge in total. A day rate never shows you that.

## The test that does work

Ask, line by line, how much work it contains and who will do it. Two proposals with the same total can hold a senior strategist with a junior executor, or the other way round. That difference decides your result, and it appears in no rate card.

See also: [is my agency too expensive](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/is-mijn-bureau-te-duur), [what a normal hourly rate is](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/normaal-uurtarief-bureau) and [how to keep costs from running away](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/kosten-onder-controle-houden).

## Related questions

- [Is my agency too expensive?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/is-mijn-bureau-te-duur): That is not a question about rates but about how much work you get per euro. Measured on identical proposal lines across agencies, that varies by up to a factor of eight while the totals barely differ.
- [What can I do myself and what do I outsource?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/zelf-doen-of-uitbesteden): Keep what needs brand knowledge and returns every week. Outsource what peaks, what needs a craft you cannot keep busy, and what benefits from someone who does not know your company from the inside.
- [What does an agency actually earn on me?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-verdient-een-bureau-aan-mij): Less than most advertisers assume: in 2024 the median Belgian agency kept about 22 percent of its gross margin as EBITDA, the bottom quarter 7 percent. One in seven ran a loss.

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IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19