How to get the most from your agency partnerships
We surveyed our member CEOs, leaders of the U.S. and Canada’s top PR firms, on how clients can unlock the greatest value from their agency relationships.
Five drivers consistently emerged from their responses. They offer a clear framework for getting more from agency partnerships, but these things won’t happen overnight. Building a high-functioning client-agency relationship takes time, sustained commitment, and champions on both sides who are willing to steward the work through the inevitable shifts and rough patches. Disagreements about priorities, misaligned expectations, and moments when the relationship needs recalibration are inevitable. However, organizations that invest time in the relationship consistently report stronger outcomes, deeper trust, and partnerships that move the needle.
1. Build a True Strategic Partnership
The strongest results come when agencies are brought fully into the room and involved early in the “why” of your business goals, not just the “what” of your tasks. As one CEO put it, “Invest in the relationship on both sides. Get to know our teams and facilitate us getting to know yours.” This kind of integration requires deliberate, ongoing effort from senior leaders on the client side who are willing to share context, invite pushback, and protect the relationship when internal pressures mount. This includes:
• Involving agencies early in planning and decision-making
• Sharing broader business context
• Encouraging strategic input
What this enables: More proactive thinking, ideas, and solutions aligned to your broader business needs as well as a relationship with enough depth to survive disagreement.
2. Anchor Work in Business Objectives
Agency work that isn’t tethered to business outcomes drifts. CEOs were emphatic on this point: “Open up and share your most pressing and urgent business priorities—let’s start there and make sure everything truly ladders back.” Effective partnerships:
• Connect activity to organizational goals
• Focus on outcomes that matter to leadership
• Tie communications to reputation, growth, and positioning
What this enables: Clearer demonstration of impact and greater confidence among stakeholders.
3. Define Success Together
Partnerships can break down when expectations get set informally, success never gets defined, and both sides end up measuring different things. “Be clear on what success looks like, by when, how it will be measured, and what budget is available to support the desired outcome”—that level of shared clarity sounds basic, but it takes real discipline and dedicated time upfront. It also requires revisiting those definitions regularly, because what success looks like in month three may not be what it looks like in month twelve. Best practices include:
• Agreeing on clear objectives and KPIs
• Defining what success looks like early
• Revisiting and refining goals over time
What this enables: Stronger alignment, fewer surprises, and more consistent performance evaluation.
4. Foster Trust and Transparency
Trust is built slowly and can erode quickly. Agencies consistently told us that the clients who get the most from them are the ones who share what’s really going on, including internal politics, budget pressures, and leadership dynamics. “Share what’s keeping you up at night,” said one CEO. “Over-invest in onboarding.” Building real trust takes months, and it requires honest feedback flowing in both directions. Clients can support this by:
• Sharing relevant context and challenges
• Encouraging honest dialogue
• Providing access to key stakeholders when appropriate
What this enables: More informed recommendations, more effective strategies, and a relationship resilient enough to handle the hard conversations when they come.
5. Focus on Outcomes in Evaluation
Our CEOs were blunt about evaluation: impressions and activity reports are not enough. “Death to vanity metrics” came up more than once. The harder and more important question is whether the work moved the business forward and that requires both sides to agree upfront on what movement looks like and then actually measure it. It also requires clients to give agencies enough runway; communications can produce overnight results, but more often not. Outcome-based evaluation only works when both parties are patient and rigorous. This includes:
• Measuring progress against agreed goals
• Considering strategic contribution (not just activity)
• Balancing short-term results with long-term value
What this enables: A clearer understanding of how communications contributes to business success, in the language of the C-suite, and a framework for the ongoing conversations that keep a partnership on track.