How to brief a marketing agency

Quick answer

A brief should make a problem easier to solve, not hide it beneath a list of deliverables. Tell the agency what must change in the business, what you already know, what cannot move, and how the decision will be made. Leave room for the team to challenge a channel choice when the evidence points elsewhere.

Open with the decision

Describe the current situation and the outcome in plain language. “We need social media” is a request for an output. “Our weekday lunch capacity is underused and we need more trackable nearby bookings” gives a team something to solve.

Add the commercial context that changes the answer: locations, capacity, margins, seasonality, sales cycle, geographic reach, and the action a customer must take.

Share the evidence you have

• Customer research, sales notes, search terms, review themes, and common objections.
• Previous campaign results with definitions and time periods.
• Website, CRM, booking, call, and analytics access that can be made available.
• Brand, legal, language, or operational constraints.
• Work already tried, including what did not perform as expected.
• Known gaps or uncertainties the agency should investigate.

Define the working conditions

Name the internal owner, approvers, subject-matter contributors, and realistic turnaround times. State the launch date and what creates it. A fixed property opening is different from a target date chosen for convenience.

Explain which accounts and assets the business owns, which suppliers are already appointed, and what the new team must coordinate. State whether the budget covers fees only or also media, production, technology, and third parties.

Ask for a comparable response

Request the proposed approach, key assumptions, first-phase priorities, team, responsibilities, deliverables, timeline, dependencies, fee structure, exclusions, measurement, risks, and handover. Give every invited agency the same response structure so differences remain visible.

Decision checklist

• Does the brief describe a business change rather than only a channel?
• Is the audience specific enough to guide choices?
• Are the available evidence and known uncertainties both included?
• Are budget components, timing, and approvals realistic?
• Is account ownership and data access clear?
• Can each proposal be compared in the same structure?

Keep one question open

End by asking what the agency would change about the brief before starting. The quality of that answer shows whether the team is diagnosing the problem or simply accepting a list of work.