Picture it: the agency contract ends, the budget is saved, and two weeks later the leads dry up. Not because the agency was irreplaceable, but because your ad accounts, your data and your know-how left with them.
Companies are cutting agency budgets because marketing budgets have stopped growing. Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey found budgets flat at 7.7% of revenue and 39% of CMOs planning to cut agency spend. But cutting the fee doesn't end dependency. If the agency holds your ad accounts, tracking, data and know-how, they leave with it. Secure ownership first, document the playbook, then decide who runs your marketing next.
- 39% of CMOs plan to cut agency budgets, mainly by dropping unproductive relationships and trimming rosters (Gartner, 2025).
- Marketing budgets fell from 9.1% of revenue in 2023 to 7.7% in 2024, stayed there in 2025 and were still effectively flat in 2026.
- The real risk isn't the fee. It's what leaves with the agency: ad accounts, admin rights, tracking, audiences, reports, local listings and know-how.
- Cut in the right order: secure ownership, document the playbook, choose the model, then plan an overlap so leads don't dip.
What did Gartner's 2025 CMO survey find?
Gartner surveyed 402 CMOs and marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe between February and March 2025. Most worked at companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Three findings matter for anyone paying an agency today (Gartner, May 2025):
- Budgets have stopped growing. Marketing budgets came in at 7.7% of company revenue, exactly where they were in 2024.
- Most CMOs feel short. 59% said they don't have enough budget to execute their strategy.
- Agencies are first in line. 39% plan to cut agency budgets. Their top moves are dropping unproductive agency relationships and trimming agency rosters, followed by renegotiating contracts and scopes of work.
The same share, 39%, plan to cut labour spending, mostly by merging overlapping roles. So this isn't only about agencies. CMOs are being asked to get more from the same money, and every cost line is under review.
Marketing budgets as a share of company revenue
The longer view explains the pressure. Gartner's 2024 survey put budgets at 7.7% of revenue, down from 9.1% in 2023. In the four years before the pandemic, budgets averaged 11% (Gartner, May 2024). Gartner's 2026 survey found them still effectively flat (Gartner, May 2026). Marketing now runs on a smaller share of the business than it did five years ago, and nobody expects that to reverse soon.
These are large companies in Western markets. But the logic travels. If you run a growing business in Hyderabad or Bengaluru, you're asking the same question every quarter: what does each rupee of marketing return, and who controls it?
Why agencies are the first cost to go
Agency fees are the easiest marketing cost to see and the easiest to cut. Media spend is tied to results you can watch daily. Salaries involve people already on your team. An agency retainer is a single invoice, and when results are unclear, it looks like overhead.
Three trends make the cut more likely:
- AI is doing some agency work. In the same Gartner survey, 22% of CMOs said generative AI has already reduced their reliance on external agencies for creative and strategy work. We look at what AI can and can't replace in 1 in 5 CMOs say GenAI cut their agency reliance.
- Companies are building in-house. The Association of National Advertisers found 82% of its members had in-house agencies in 2023, up from 42% in 2008 (ANA, 2023). More on that shift in 82% of big advertisers now run in-house teams.
- Media buys less every year. Gartner notes that media price inflation means CMOs get less for each dollar of paid media, which makes every other cost line work harder to justify (Gartner, May 2025).
What is agency dependency?
Agency dependency is when your marketing can't run without an outside partner, not because they're the best choice, but because they hold the pieces you'd need to replace them: the ad accounts, the tracking, the customer data, the reports and the know-how.
Having an agency isn't the problem. Plenty of businesses work well with one. The problem is a setup where leaving costs more than staying, so the decision is never really yours. Getting founders out of that setup is the reason Ad Asthra exists, and it's the thinking behind why we work the way we do.
What leaves with your agency: 7 things to check
Cutting the fee is the easy part. The hard part shows up the week after, when you find out what walked out the door. Here's where dependency usually hides:
| What | Where it often sits | What you lose if the agency leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Ad accounts | Google Ads and Meta accounts created under the agency's business | Campaign history, learnings and the ability to keep running ads |
| Admin rights | Only agency staff are admins | Control of who can access, change or pay for your accounts |
| Tracking | Pixels, conversion tags and tag manager containers in the agency's setup | Attribution, so you can't tell what's working |
| Audiences | Remarketing and lookalike lists built inside agency accounts | Months of audience building |
| Reports | Dashboards in the agency's reporting tool | Your performance history |
| Local presence | Google Business Profile, WhatsApp Business number, review replies | Your listing, your enquiry line and your reviews |
| Know-how | In the heads of the people who ran your account | What worked, what failed and why |
We go deeper on the data side in If you can't export it, you don't own it.
How to check your dependency in 30 minutes
You don't need a consultant to find out where you stand. Block half an hour and work through these steps with a company email login, not a personal one.
- Check Google Ads access. In Google Ads, only users with Admin access can give account access, change access levels and accept or remove manager account links (Google Ads Help). If nobody at your company is an Admin, you don't control the account.
- Check who owns your Meta ad account and Page. In Meta Business Suite, see which business portfolio owns them. Your company should own the assets and give the agency partner access, not the other way round.
- Check analytics and tag manager. Make sure your company has the top level of access in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.
- Check your Google Business Profile. Confirm a company account is the primary owner of every location.
- Ask for an export. Request your leads, conversion data and reports in a format you can open without the agency's tools. How long it takes to arrive tells you a lot.
- Ask for the playbook. Is there a written record of what's been tested, what worked, and the monthly routine? If not, the know-how lives only with the agency.
Google itself warns that an account with a single admin risks losing access if that person becomes unavailable, and advises adding a second admin (Google Ads Help). Treat that as a rule for every platform: at least two people from your company with top-level access.
For the full version, with scoring, see The ownership audit: who owns your ad accounts, data and dashboards?
How to cut agency spend without losing capability
If you've decided to cut, the order matters more than the speed. Here's the sequence we recommend to founders:
1. Secure ownership first
Before any notice goes out, move accounts, pixels, profiles and numbers into your company's name, with your people as admins and the agency as a partner. Done while the relationship is friendly, this takes days. Done after a breakup, it can take weeks.
2. Get the playbook written down
Ask the agency to document the current setup: campaign structure, audiences, budgets, what's been tested and the weekly routine. Many agencies will do this willingly if you ask early.
3. Decide the model, then the vendor
The choice isn't "agency or no agency". It's which model fits your size and goals: a narrower agency scope, an in-house team, or a team built for you and handed over. We compare the costs in Agency, in-house or BOT? A founder's cost framework, and the retainer side of the maths in The retainer math nobody runs.
4. Plan an overlap
Leads shouldn't dip because of a handover. Give the incoming team, whoever they are, a few weeks of overlap with the outgoing one, with shared access and a checklist of what changes hands. Our post on what gets handed over in a BOT transfer lists the items.
A three-centre clinic group pays an agency a monthly retainer for Google and Meta ads. The founder decides to cut it. In week one, they find the ad accounts sit under the agency's business, the call-tracking numbers belong to the agency's vendor, and the monthly report lives in a tool the clinic has never logged into.
The fix is the same in every case: transfer ownership while the agency is still engaged, export twelve months of lead data, document the campaign set-up, then decide who runs it next. The cut still happens. The leads don't stop.
Common mistakes when cutting an agency
- Giving notice before securing access. It removes your leverage to get a clean handover.
- Judging the agency on activity, not results. Posts and impressions don't tell you whether marketing made money. Our post on reporting revenue instead of reach shows what to measure.
- Replacing the agency with one generalist hire. One person can't cover strategy, ads, content and analytics. Read Your first in-house hire is a bet before you post the job.
- Switching to another agency on the same terms. If the new contract has the same ownership gaps, you've moved the dependency, not ended it.
How Ad Asthra helps you cut agency dependency
We help founders keep the capability when the agency goes. Pick the level of help you need:
If you're weighing up which path suits you, BOT or BOM? 5 questions every founder should ask is a good next read.
Frequently asked questions
Why are companies cutting agency budgets?
Marketing budgets have stopped growing. Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey found budgets flat at 7.7% of company revenue, 59% of CMOs short of budget, and 39% planning to cut agency spend, mainly by dropping unproductive relationships and trimming rosters.
What is agency dependency?
Agency dependency is when your marketing can't run without an outside partner because they hold your ad accounts, tracking, data, reports or know-how. Leaving costs more than staying, so the choice isn't really yours.
Should I fire my marketing agency?
Not before you own your setup. First move your accounts and data into your company's name, with your people as admins, and get the playbook documented. Then decide whether an agency, an in-house team or a mix serves you best.
How do I check whether I own my Google Ads account?
Log in with a company email and look at access levels. In Google Ads, only Admin users can give access, change access levels and manage manager account links. If nobody at your company is an Admin, ask the agency to make you one, and keep at least two admins.
What should an agency hand over when the contract ends?
Ad accounts and admin rights, pixels and tag manager containers, audience lists, reporting history, Google Business Profile ownership, any tracked phone or WhatsApp numbers, creative files, and a written record of what was tested and what worked.
Is an in-house marketing team cheaper than an agency?
It depends on your size and needs. Compare salaries, tools and training against retainers, fees and the cost of starting over if you switch. Our cost framework post walks through the numbers for agency, in-house and BOT.
How does Ad Asthra help companies end agency dependency?
With Build-Operate-Transfer, we hire your marketing team onto your payroll, run it with you through a 90-day pilot, then hand it over with the data and playbooks. With Build-Operate-Manage, we stay on as your fractional CMO and management layer. We also audit existing agencies through our Advisory & Governance service.
Sources
- Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue, Gartner, 12 May 2025
- Gartner CMO Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Dropped to 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue in 2024, Gartner, 13 May 2024
- Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Finds CMOs Allocate 15.3% of Marketing Budgets to AI, But Only 30% Are Ready to Scale AI Capabilities, Gartner, 11 May 2026
- In-House Agencies No Longer A Trend, They're Here To Stay: ANA Report, Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 2023
- About access levels in your Google Ads account, Google Ads Help
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