I thought ROAS was everything.
I was wrong.
Early in my agency, we had a client doing 18x return on ad spend.
Not once.
For six straight months.
Hundreds of thousands in revenue.
And then…
They fired us.
No warning.
No performance dip.
Just gone.
At the time, I was convinced results were the glue that held client relationships together.
Turns out results are just table stakes.
If you’re scaling an agency, especially between $0–$3M, this episode might sting a bit.
Because the problem wasn’t ads.
It was everything around the ads.
In this solo episode, I walk through the exact mistakes that made a wildly profitable client feel disconnected, unimpressed, and ultimately comfortable walking away.
A few things I break down (without giving the game away):
– Why our onboarding quietly killed trust before we even started
– How “good results + bad communication” makes clients think you got lucky
– The invisible work mistake that destroys perceived value
– The one mindset shift that moved us from “operators” to true partners
There’s a moment in this episode where I realized something that completely reframed retention for me and honestly, I couldn’t believe we missed it for so long.
If you’ve ever lost a client you thought was safe
or you’re afraid your current clients might be
This one’s for you.
Catch the full episode on The Agency Uplift Podcast
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THE AGENCY LEVERAGE BLUEPRINT
– Sean
P.S. Toward the end, I share the exact onboarding change we made before contracts were signed that dramatically improved retention. If you steal nothing else, steal that.