Marketing Agency Brief: What to Include

Write a clear marketing agency brief with our checklist and example. Set useful goals, explain your budget and compare proposals on the same basis.

Marketing strategy · The Digital Cogs · 2026-10-12 · 8 min read

A useful marketing agency brief explains the result you need, the customers you want, the work you expect and the budget available. It also gives the agency enough evidence to question your assumptions. You do not need to arrive with every channel chosen or a finished campaign strategy.

If you are asking several agencies for proposals, send each the same starting information. Otherwise, one may price campaign management, another may include new creative, and a third may assume you will supply the landing pages. Their totals can look comparable while the work behind them is quite different.

What is a marketing agency brief?

A marketing agency brief is a written starting point for a project or ongoing relationship. It describes your business problem, audience, priorities, practical limits and measures of success. The agency uses it to investigate the opportunity and recommend a scope you can assess.

It can be a short document with supporting links. Keep detailed reports, product information and brand files separate so the main brief is easy to follow. If something is unknown, mark it as a question for the agency rather than filling the gap with a guess.

1. Describe the business problem and the next decision

Start with what is happening in the business. You might have capacity for more maintenance contracts, receive enquiries for the wrong service, or struggle to sell a profitable product beyond existing customers. Explain why this matters now and which part of the business should benefit first.

Then describe the decision the proposal must help you make. Do you need a plan for an existing budget, a review before increasing spend, or a recommendation about where to start? That distinction helps an agency propose the right first piece of work.

Add what would count as progress and when you intend to review it. If you cannot yet set a credible numerical target, ask the agency to establish a baseline and propose one. A target written without evidence is a poor basis for judging the relationship.

2. Define a suitable customer and your real service area

Describe the customers your team wants to speak to, including the problem they have and what makes an enquiry suitable. For a business selling to other businesses, that might include the type of organisation, the person involved in buying and the circumstances that trigger a purchase.

Which services or products are the priority?
What information helps your team qualify an enquiry?
Which locations can you genuinely serve?
Are there projects, customers or enquiries you cannot take on?

Explain practical boundaries. If travel time affects whether a job is worthwhile, include that. If customers need a minimum order or a particular site requirement, state it clearly. An agency should not have to discover these constraints after a campaign starts generating responses.

3. Explain the offer and supply evidence

Give the agency the facts a customer needs before taking the next step. Include what the service covers, what happens after an enquiry, and any requirements that affect eligibility or delivery. Describe the main reasons customers choose you in language you would use in a sales conversation.

Supply relevant supporting material: service information, approved testimonials, usable photography, case studies and brand guidance. Identify what is current, what needs permission before publication and what is still being checked. This prevents old offers or unapproved claims from becoming campaign copy.

List a few competitors customers actually compare you with. Explain the reason for each comparison; a similar logo or a website you like does not necessarily make a business a useful commercial benchmark.

4. Share the starting position and agree measurement

Attach the information you already have, such as recent marketing reports, website data and a summary of enquiry outcomes. Include the reporting period and any important changes during it. A supplier change, a new website or a change in how leads are recorded can affect comparisons.

Be clear about the gap between a website action and a commercial result. Google Analytics allows important actions to be marked as key events. A recorded form submission can help measure the enquiry journey, but it does not tell you on its own whether that enquiry became a suitable opportunity or a customer.

Google Analytics: understanding key events

Ask the agency to specify what will be tracked and what information your team will need to provide. Agree who records lead quality, who owns the follow-up and how those outcomes return to the marketing review. Use a secure, appropriate method for sharing information; the initial brief rarely needs named customer records.

5. Make the budget and cost boundaries clear

Give an honest budget range and explain what it must cover. Separate advertising spend from agency fees, creative production, landing page work, tracking changes and ongoing website support. Ask proposals to show which costs are included, optional or dependent on further investigation.

If there is a firm overall limit, say so. If more investment is possible only after results improve, explain the evidence you would need before approving it. This is more useful than asking for the largest possible plan and deciding later which parts to remove.

Clarify whether quoted totals include applicable tax and third-party charges, and ask about any minimum commitment. These are questions to resolve before comparing proposals; this checklist does not set a price or a recommended spending level for your business.

6. Separate required work from recommendations

Write down work that is already agreed, then identify the decisions you want the agency to advise on. You may need support for an existing advertising account, or you may want a recommendation covering paid media, SEO and website improvements. Those are different assignments.

Ask for a proposal that distinguishes the initial investigation, setup work and ongoing delivery. It should explain who supplies copy, design assets and website changes, and how additional work will be agreed. A phrase such as 'campaign optimisation' is too broad to settle those responsibilities by itself.

If channel choice is still open, explain the commercial objective and ask for a reasoned recommendation. Our SEO and PPC comparison can help you prepare that conversation without prescribing a fixed budget split.

Read our guide to deciding between SEO and PPC

7. Set realistic timings, access and approvals

Include genuine deadlines and explain their cause. A seasonal launch may be fixed, while an internal preferred date may allow some flexibility. List dependencies such as photography, product information, website development or access to existing accounts.

Name the day-to-day contact and the person who can approve budgets and public-facing work. Explain how feedback will be collected and returned. If several people need to contribute, arrange a single agreed response rather than sending the agency conflicting instructions.

For account access, identify the systems involved and the business owner of each. Use the platform's access controls for the agreed task instead of placing passwords in the brief. Also agree who will review results and what decisions that review should support.

A simple digital marketing brief template

Use these prompts as a starting point. Keep the answers specific enough that an agency can explain what it would investigate, deliver and measure.

Business problem: what is happening, why it matters and why you are seeking help now.
Priority offer: the service or product to focus on and the capacity available.
Customer fit: the intended buyer, their problem and your qualification criteria.
Geography: actual coverage and any practical restrictions.
Starting evidence: recent results, reporting periods and known gaps in the data.
Budget: the overall range, cost boundaries and approval process.
Scope: required work, questions for the agency and tasks your team will handle.
Timing: deadlines, dependencies and the people responsible for approvals.
Success and review: the outcomes to assess, how they will be recorded and the next decision.

What does a useful brief look like in practice?

Consider this hypothetical example: a commercial maintenance business wants more enquiries for planned contracts. It has room to take on new work but keeps receiving urgent one-off requests that it cannot fulfil.

Its brief could say: 'Recommend a focused campaign for planned maintenance contracts within our actual service area. Explain how you would distinguish contract enquiries from emergency requests, what the landing page needs, and how our team should record suitable opportunities. Identify any tracking or content work required before launch.'

That gives an agency a problem to investigate. The business would then add its coverage, available budget, recent enquiry evidence and review date. The example is illustrative; it is not a client result, a completed campaign or a promised outcome.

How should you compare the proposals?

Check how each agency has interpreted your brief before comparing the price. Ask whether it has identified the same business problem, included the same responsibilities and allowed for the same starting work. Differences may be sensible, but they should be explained.

Can you see the proposed first steps and the evidence behind them?
Are deliverables, exclusions and client responsibilities clear?
Does the measurement plan include outcomes your team can assess?
Are assumptions, costs and dependencies visible?
Is there a review point and a clear way to agree changes?

Arrange a conversation to resolve unanswered questions, then record the agreed scope. Keep the brief available during the relationship so both sides can check whether the work still addresses the original need. When that need changes, update it together.

Prepare your next agency conversation

If you are looking for a digital advertising agency in the South West, bring your business priorities, recent results and the questions you need answered. A clear starting brief makes it easier to discuss which specialist support is appropriate.

The Digital Cogs is based in Somerset and offers paid search, paid social, SEO and website services. Tell us what you want marketing to achieve and where the current approach is falling short. We can discuss the next step using the information you have, including the gaps that need investigation.

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