# When should I switch agencies?

**Short answer.** Switch when the problem is structural rather than personal: the team changed three times, every proposal needs rebriefing, or the agency has outgrown your category. Disappointment in one campaign is not a reason.

Switch when the problem is structural rather than personal. That distinction sounds vague and is sharp in practice: it comes down to whether another agency would run into the same thing.

## Four reasons that are structural

**The team has changed three times.** Then you buy your own learning curve again each time. With median staff turnover of 34.6 percent a year in this market that is not exceptional, but three changes on one account in a short period points at something other than chance.

**You have to rebrief every proposal.** If the first version is consistently off while your briefing is sound, they do not understand your market, and that will not change by itself.

**The agency has outgrown your category.** You have become their thirtieth client instead of their fifth. That is not a reproach, it is a fact with consequences for who sits on your account.

**The assignment changed and they did not.** You moved into e-commerce, or international, or a different kind of work, and that is not where this agency excels.

## Three reasons that are not

**One disappointing campaign.** That happens at every agency, and the second attempt is usually better because they have learned something in the meantime that a new agency still has to learn.

**A price discussion.** That gets solved with a conversation about scope, not with a move costing you six months and the learning costs of a new team.

**A new marketing lead who brings their own agency.** Understandable and human, and not a reason. Measure first, switch after.

## The order

Before you launch a pitch: name the problem, ask for a different team if that is where it sits, revise the agreements if the scope is wrong, and put a three-month deadline on it. If nothing changes, switching is the right decision and you can explain it. See [my agency is not performing](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/mijn-bureau-presteert-niet).

Measuring before you decide is the cheapest thing you can do here: an evaluation on both sides costs a fraction of a pitch and points at whether the problem is the team, the briefing or the agreements. IKAg does that with COLLAB, under [Agency evaluation & remuneration](https://www.ikag.be/en/agency-evaluation).

And work out the cost first, because that number is usually missing from the decision. See [what switching agencies costs](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-van-bureau-wisselen).

## Related questions

- [My agency is not performing, now what?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/mijn-bureau-presteert-niet): First work out whether the problem is the team, the briefing or the agreements, because all three feel identical. Switching agencies only fixes the first, and costs you six months.
- [What does switching agencies cost me?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-van-bureau-wisselen): Count on half a year in which less happens: the notice period, the selection, and the time a new team needs to learn your brand. You pay that learning cost twice if you switch too early.
- [How do I end things with an agency properly?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/een-bureau-opzeggen): Yourself, in person, before the letter goes out, and with the reason attached. The agency world is small: how you leave decides who shows up for your next pitch.

---

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