Better marketing requires more than smart commercials

Every agency will have horror stories about clients whose ways of working make it harder for them to do their best work.

The idea that client behaviours can hold agencies back is not new. For almost a decade, our research has told us something that is easy to overlook: the biggest barriers to better agency performance are rarely found in the rate card.

Since 2018, we have seen a consistent perception that too much attention may be placed on remuneration at the expense of the client-agency relationship itself.

That’s why for our 2026 report, How Brands Define and Reward Agency Work, produced in partnership with Agency Mania Solutions, we deliberately widened the lens.

Rather than looking only at how agencies are paid, as we have since 2011, this round of research explores the full commercial cycle - from briefing and scoping, through ways of working and performance, to value, remuneration and ultimately payment.

The findings are remarkably clear:

Great briefing, respect and trust, and high-quality feedback matter

The top three factors in high performing work are not soft factors sitting alongside the commercial relationship; they shape whether the commercial arrangement can deliver its intended value. Advertisers own the bulk of the framework of the relationship and changing these behaviours costs nothing. Clarity of roles and close working relationships also rank highly, while financial incentives score just 3.9 out of 5.

Of course, this does not make remuneration unimportant, but it does put it in context. A well-negotiated fee cannot rescue an unclear brief, unrealistic scope or lack of trust or alignment about what success looks like. Conversely, a strong partnership can be undermined by a commercial model that is unnecessarily complex, opaque or disconnected from the value being created. Getting the commercial fundamentals right is only half the equation; how brands work with their agencies matters just as much.

Relationships are lasting longer

There are signs that client-agency relationships are lasting longer than they did in 2018, with average tenure increasing across creative, production, media and paid social. Paid social has seen particularly striking growth, from two years to 4.3 years. However, longevity alone is not a measure of partnership quality. Relationships need active steering, not just scorecards. As business needs evolve, regular dialogue, clear accountability and constructive challenge help keep both parties aligned and ensure the partnership continues to deliver value. 

Meanwhile, more than a third of respondents said agency relationship management has become more difficult. That does not necessarily mean relationships are getting worse; it may reflect a more demanding environment with more stakeholders, more complex scopes, faster timelines and greater expectations around data, technology, integration and transparency. Complexity isn’t the enemy. Unmanaged complexity is.

Remuneration is evolving

Labour-based models have fallen dramatically, from 54% in 2011 to 19% today, while fixed-fee/output models have risen from 20% to 33%. Labour-plus-performance models have more than doubled, from 9% to 21%. 

This signals a shift away from paying primarily for time and resource towards greater emphasis on outputs and performance. AI is likely to accelerate the conversation as hours become an increasingly imperfect proxy for value. Yet only 20% of respondents have started evolving their commercial models in response to AI, although 61% intend to.

The question is not simply whether brands pay for time, outputs or outcomes. It is whether the model reflects the work being commissioned, the value expected and the behaviours the arrangement encourages. Moving to a different pricing model will not resolve misaligned expectations or an unclear scope.

From commercial excellence to marketing effectiveness

These findings show that marketing procurement has an important opportunity and a responsibility. The future of marketing procurement cannot simply be about perfectly executed processes, benchmarked rates and competitive tension. These remain important, but they are means to an end, not the end itself.

WFA has been championing this shift beyond process excellence through its work on marketing procurement, including Project Spring, guided by its Global Sourcing Board.

This latest research reinforces why that shift matters. The commercial relationship is not an isolated procurement exercise, it is part of a much broader system that determines how effectively clients and agencies can deliver superior work, together.

Procurement sits at the intersection of business needs, budgets, internal capabilities and external expertise. This gives it an important role in connecting decisions that are too often made in isolation.

That means working with marketing and agency partners to brief better, scope more realistically, establish appropriate commercial models and build the trust and governance that allow people to do their best work. How procurement manage those relationships directly affects what their organisation get out of it.

Ultimately, the goal is not simply to negotiate better agency deals or manage relationships more effectively. It is to create the conditions in which marketing can deliver its full potential. No single contract, incentive or relationship framework can achieve this in isolation. The real opportunity lies in connecting them.

WFA members can access the report here.