Some agencies build their own software and offer it alongside the marketing. Most resell third-party tools and mark them up. Below: how each model works, what changes for you, and when each one fits.
Most marketing agencies run your campaigns and then point you to third-party software for the parts campaigns do not cover: reviews, reporting, chat, call answering. A few agencies build that software themselves. The marketing work can look identical either way, but who built your tools and how you pay for them is where the two models split.
We are in the second camp. We run the marketing and build our own software stack, then let you add the tools you want as clear add-ons instead of reselling someone else's at a markup. Here is the honest comparison, including when a reseller agency is the better call.
A reseller agency runs your marketing and points you to third-party software like Podium for reviews or AgencyAnalytics for reporting, usually at a markup. An agency that builds in-house offers its own equivalent tools as optional add-ons, so you are not paying a middleman margin on someone else's software.
No. Enterprise clients with 200+ employees who need deep integrations with an existing software stack are often better served by a traditional reseller agency. Smaller businesses usually come out ahead adding a few in-house tools instead of juggling separate SaaS subscriptions.
Ask: do you build any of your own tools, or do you only resell? If they only resell, you are paying the markup on every SaaS subscription. Ask to see the agency running its own dashboard on its own business. If they cannot show you, they are not using what they sell.
Yes, and we are clear about that. The marketing retainer covers the marketing. The software tools are optional add-ons at a flat price, so you only pay for the ones you actually want. That is different from a reseller bundling markups you cannot see.
