Expanding Service Offerings Without Hiring Internally

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An agency team seated around a boardroom table with laptops, meeting remote colleagues on a wall-mounted video call screen, extending the team without adding desks

There comes a point when an agency starts hearing the same request from clients: “Can you handle that for us too?”

Perhaps a PPC customer needs assistance with media buying. A social media client asks you about programmatic advertising. Another desires to incorporate connected television in the campaign.

Declining the requests can result in lost revenue. However, it’s not always possible to establish an in-house staff for each new service. Recruitment is a process, and specialized talent may be hard to recruit; adding more staff members involves a commitment to operating a service even if the service does not yet appear to be a success.

That’s where a white label agency growth plan can help. An agency may have the option to partner with a specialist agency in the background and provide the other agency with complimentary services under its own brand.

The challenge is to do this without sacrificing the client experience.

Find the Missing Pieces

First, take note of what current customers are already asking for.

You don’t have to introduce 5 new services, all at once. When multiple clients are requesting paid search, programmatic, CTV or media buying support, it’s a more telling indicator than just because it’s a popular service.

Review the accounts you have and see if there are any requests that are common, and then determine what you are missing from what the client wants and what your team can currently provide.

That means you have a much more viable base to build on.

Three colleagues leaning over a table covered in printed charts and reports, pointing at a tablet as they work out which services their accounts are missing

Don’t Build Everything

If you begin to rely more and more on a particular service, and it is something that you know you will need in the future, it is logical to hire someone who already has the experience you need. However, when testing demand, it may not be the optimal choice for the first step.

A white label partner will offer niche expertise, and your agency will keep the client. Your team can concentrate on strategy, communication and the management of accounts, and the partner can deal with agreed execution.

This provides an agency with a method to try out and grow its skills without having to immediately establish a brand new division.

Two business people shaking hands over a signed contract and performance charts, agreeing a delivery partnership instead of building a new team

Protect the Client Experience

Adding a new service should feel seamless to the client.

They shouldn’t be required to know the difference between work that is done internally and work that is done in partnership. They don’t see you as their agency, they see you as their client.

Communication, reporting, timelines, campaign quality and expectations must be consistent. Before embarking on a new offering, define the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved and how information flows between your team and the delivery partner.

The back end may be subject to change. The client experience ought to stay the same.

Two agency colleagues greeting a client with a handshake across a desk of laptops, keeping the client relationship consistent and personal

Choose Expertise Carefully

Not all white label providers are a good fit for your agency.

Seek a partner that’s truly knowledgeable about the services you will offer, has effective communication protocols, provides consistent reporting, and is willing to integrate into your current system.

Additionally, it is best to try the relationship with a smaller project first, before going with a bigger rollout. Before the work becomes a part of your client offering, you want to know how the partner responds to deadlines, revisions, problems with the campaign and unexpected requests.

Your reputation is tied to what you produce and sign.

Two colleagues high-fiving across a desk of laptops and reports after a successful project, reflecting a partner relationship that works

Grow at the Right Pace

Services can provide new revenue streams, but don’t expand just to provide everything to everybody.

Begin with one or two services that will complement what you are good at. Establish a consistent delivery process, collect client feedback, and track workload before scaling up.

With time, the right mix of internal resources and outside assistance can enable an agency to provide a much wider scope of services without adding needless complexity to the organization.

That’s a more sustainable method of growing.