How do you measure success with 3rd party demand-generation agencies? What is your experience and did you have any success in driving demand gen through 3rd party agencies?

I've had success working with DG agencies across paid media, operations, and lifecycle, as well as challenges, and have learned a few key strategies to make these relationships as productive as possible. Most importantly, when working with third parties, accountability is everything. Here is how I create it: Clear KPIs: Before signing a contract with a new agency, I require mutually agreed-upon KPIs so both parties have clear expectations from the start. These serve as a valuable reference point ...Read More

I’ll start by saying I’m a big believer in the value of agencies. The right partners can bring deep domain expertise, the ability to flex resources up or down as needed, and access to tools, networks, and channels that often don’t make sense to maintain in-house. Agencies are not a replacement for a strong internal team. They’re a way to scale the impact of that team. That said, they do need to be closely managed, and success has to be clearly defined and continuously assessed. You should always ...Read More

Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for this one. I have never actually had success with a 3rd-party demand generation agency! I truly believe this is a role that requires a level of project management and organizational understanding that you cannot outsource without heavy involvement from someone internal to the organization. And now with generative AI entering marketing workstreams, nurture emails can quickly written up by AI and then edited by an internal human in much less time than i ...Read More

I’ve worked with a few 3rd-party demand gen agencies in my past, mostly for scale and reach when we needed to accelerate pipeline or test new markets quickly. I think the key to success is treating them like an extension of your team, not just a vendor. How I measure success: Pipeline impact first – not just MQL volume. Are the leads converting to meetings, pipeline, and revenue? Lead quality – Are they from the right accounts, with the right intent and engagement? Cost efficiency – What’s the c ...Read More

The success metric will differ based on what the ask or proposal for the agency is. Are they helping to execute paid media? Are they driving net new contact acquisition? Based on your desired outcome, make it extremely clear to the agency how you will determine success, whether that be net new leads, butts in seat for an event, VP+ engagement, etc. Also, set up milestones to check-in so you and the agency can work on optimizations together, whether that be on the copy, the content, or the target ...Read More

What are you driving with your demand generation agency? Form fills for whitepapers, other assets Registrations Attendance at webinars, events Impressions, clicks on posts Website page views Meetings Opportunities Success depends on what goals you have set for the agency. A rule of thumb is always to set output metrics, rather than input metrics. E.g. Aim for attendees, not registrations. Aim for meetings completed, not meetings scheduled. A hawk's eye over the outcomes, as well the process of d ...Read More

The key for agency success is establishing goals, no different than you would if you used internal resources. I recommend thinking in terms of both leading and lagging indicators - for example, if paid media is involved set targets for things like CPL or conversion rate, but then don't stop there. I'd recommend connecting all of your programs into your CRM (e.g., SFDC) to make sure you can track full impact to pipeline and revenue. In a world where every marketing dollar matters, it's critical y ...Read More

Whether or not a 3rd-party agency will make sense for your business is truly dependent on your own scenario. I recommend considering your budget and resources to determine if hiring an agency would be more sensible than recruiting talent in-house. To measure success, you first need to start with clear objectives and the business outcomes you are trying to achieve. Be sure to set measurable goals; this is a requirement to truly understand the ROI. It's also important to establish baseline metrics ...Read More