miles_garcia•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Just changed my mind about hiring a marketing agency after one bad week

I paid a firm $2,000 for a month of social media ads, and by last Friday, our sales were actually down 15% from the week before. The agency just kept saying 'trust the process,' but I realized I need to understand this stuff myself instead of just writing a check. Has anyone else pulled back from outsourcing to learn the basics first?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sam1mo ago

Ngl, that "trust the process" line is a huge red flag. I had a buddy pay for SEO work and got the same vague answers for months with zero new customers. He finally started watching free videos on YouTube about local search terms and fixed his own website. Saw more calls in a week than that whole contract. Sometimes you just gotta get your hands dirty to see what's actually going on.

wesley1811mo ago

@the_sam is right about that phrase. I read a blog post last week where a guy said his marketing agency used "trust the process" for six months while his site traffic dropped. He asked for simple reports showing which search terms brought people in, and they couldn't give him a clear list. It's crazy how just learning the basics yourself, like your buddy did with local terms, can cut through all the fog. Some of these services just bank on you not asking questions.

the_thea1mo ago

Trust the process is just code for "please stop asking me for proof this is working." Your buddy's story is the perfect example, getting more calls from a free YouTube deep dive than a paid contract. It's like these places hope you're too busy or scared to open up Google Search Console yourself. Once you peek behind the curtain and see the actual keywords, the whole mystery act falls apart. They're selling fog in a jar and calling it a strategy.