MSP, meaning "managed services provider," is a sourcing model that offers greater flexibility to businesses when externalizing their marketing function. A managed marketing services provider operates as an extension of your team, delivering full-cycle support for the pre-agreed scope of work.
This guide explains how to evaluate and onboard the right marketing MSP partner for your business.
How to Select a Managed Marketing Services Provider
Three-quarters of clients find the partner selection time-consuming and 70%—challenging. Although, it shouldn’t be either. A structured MSP evaluation process reduces the odds of poor choice and speeds up selection.
Determine Your Goals: What Support Do You Need?
The marketing segment of the managed service provider industry is a bit fuzzy. You have companies offering full-cycle marketing services or those specializing in a particular niche (e.g., inbound or outbound marketing, paid advertising, or creative production).
To narrow down your choice, determine which marketing processes to outsource. Consider areas lacking in-house expertise but high ROI potential. For example, if you’re in the ecommerce space, seek a partner with strong chops in creating high-converting sales funnels or retail media advertising. Also, prioritize vendors with expertise in your vertical — like DTC fashion or B2B sales.
Generally, many marketing MSPs offer some combination of the following services:
- Managed search engine marketing services
- Managed email marketing services
- Paid media management services
- Content marketing services
- Conversion rate optimization services
- Social media advertising management
- Lead generation and appointment setting
- Marketing analytics and reporting services
Create an internal document listing the required partner competencies and capabilities. Then, consider how these relate to the MSPs’ service portfolio. Shortlist vendors with the strongest overlap.
Evaluate Credibility: Do They Have the Right Expertise?
Marketing services companies are naturally good at promoting what they do—and those that don’t practice what they preach aren’t worth your time.
Marketing MSPs without an established online presence—a professional website, expert-driven content, and public customer reviews—raises doubts about their ability to deliver results. The same goes for companies that aren’t forthcoming about their key people (background, experiences) or past clients. Lack of public reviews or refusal to connect you with a past client are major red flags too.
Use the chart below to quickly eliminate unfit candidates from your list.
Scorecard for Pre-Screening Marketing MSPs
| [Vendor name] | Pass | Fail |
| Has a solid online presence (website, blog, thought leadership publications) | ||
| Provides information about its leadership, key people, and operating markets | ||
| Keeps has solid marketing acumen and seems knowledgeable about the latest trends | ||
| Offers a well-defined scope of services and demonstrates expertise in core areas | ||
| Has a proven track record in our industry (case studies, customer success stories, testimonials) | ||
| Agreed to provide past client referrals to verify their claims |
Assess The MSP’s Execution Approach: How Will They Deliver?
The main advantage of the MSP marketing model is a tight integration between your organization and the vendor. According to the World Federation of Advertisers, 45% of business leaders want more flexibility in how they’re serviced by partners.
The best managed marketing service providers have adapted their model to improve the dynamics of the relationship when it comes to:
- Vision and goals alignment
- Process integration
- Speed of results delivery
- Communication and transparency
- Reporting and performance analytics
- Billing structure
To understand the vendor’s client partnership approach, ask about their operating model and workflows. How is their service model structured? Can the engagement be dialed up or down to match your business cycle? A good marketing MSP should combine service breadth with depth—be able to take over extra processes as your business expands or new needs arise and pause projects as required. A partner that can pivot with your business is a keeper.
Pay attention to the company’s ‘strategy’ component. Look for a partner that takes a data-backed approach to strategy planning, rather than only excelling in tactical campaign execution. Check for evidence of their advisory capabilities—what processes do they use to assess your needs and evaluate the market landscape? What type of data do they use to inform strategy planning?
Lastly, inquire about the reporting process. What metrics are in place to measure client success? How do they communicate throughout the process? In addition to evaluating their efficiency, this information helps gauge their efficiency and accountability.
| [Vendor name] | Capability Score (1-10) |
| Well-understood our industry and key pain points | |
| Has the required competencies for our initiative | |
| Offers sufficient levels of flexibility in service delivery | |
| Clearly explained their approach to new client onboarding and integration with external organization | |
| Has well-established strategic planning, project management, and delivery processes | |
| Offers well-scoped services and transparent metrics for performance measurement | |
| Total score |
Analyze Technology Capabilities: What’s in their MarTech Stack?
The big boon of commissioning managed marketing services is that you’re not just getting the company’s talent, but also access to their technology stack—a collection of MarTech tools and platforms they’re using to excel in their operations.
Examples of MarTech tools used by Marketing MSPs
- Email marketing platforms
- Demand-side and supply-side platforms
- Marketing analytics systems
- Digital asset management platforms
- CTV and OTT advertising platforms
- Customer data platforms
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- Account-based marketing software
By learning more about the marketing MSP’s technology ecosystem, you can better evaluate their marketing automation, campaign performance management, and reporting. Ask the marketing partner to detail how they’re leveraging different technologies to deliver superior client outcomes. Also, inquire about how they approach data security within their technology strategy, as safeguarding customer data privacy is paramount for compliance in many regions.
Secondly, strong technical chops mean that the partner can help you increase your company’s maturity levels. Some marketing MSPs also double as technology advisory and implementation partners, helping clients select, configure, and operate a robust marketing software ecosystem. Svitla Systems, for example, has previously helped clients launch a new cross-channel marketing platform, modernize a legacy CRM system, and launch a CPG product recommendation system, powered by machine learning.
To evaluate the partner’s technical capabilities, use the following assessment criteria:
| [Vendor name] | Capability Score (1-10) |
| Has experience with MarTech/AdTech technologies we use or intend to adopt | |
| Has the required technological skill set in areas we may need in the future | |
| Demonstrated maturity in using marketing automation and data analytics in their operations | |
| Offered information about its data governance and data security practices | |
| Has an in-house development team to help with solution implementation and/or configuration | |
| Total score |
Ensure Cultural Compatibility: Do Your Styles Match?
Shared values, collaboration styles, and communication practices are the bedrock of successful client-MSP relationships. Yet, every organization has a slightly different ‘comfort level’ with cultures. Some prefer tighter creative collaborations. Others value autonomy.
Choose a partner who shares your organization’s values and work style. During the discovery meetings, observe how the vendor engages in discussions, collaborates on ideas, and communicates milestones. Ask proactive questions about the company hierarchy, key project personnel, and employee code of conduct principles. Closely observing the team during the engagement process can also provide insights into their communication styles, responsiveness, and group dynamics—all important factors for long-term collaboration.
| [Vendor name] | Pass | Fail |
| Has values and communication style similar to ours | ||
| Staffed with competent, pleasant, and responsive team members | ||
| Committed to educating us about their company and people | ||
| Acted with integrity, honesty, and transparency during the process | ||
| Appeared excited about working with our company |
Review the Proposal and Contract Terms: Are We Ready To Make Things Official?
By this point, you should have one or two top-ranking candidates, whom you ask to submit proposals for collaboration. A standard managed services agreement (MSA) for marketing covers:
- Service scope
- Mutual obligations
- Performance metrics
- Term and termination
- Intellectual property rights
- Confidentiality
- Liability and indemnification
Carefully review the proposed terms to understand obligations on both sides (yours and the partner’s), condition and notice period for any amends to the service(s) or contract scope, and clauses related to handling any disagreements.
Next, analyze the proposed pricing structure. An MSP may propose a retainer, project-based, or performance-based model. The latter is becoming increasingly popular. Three-quarters of advertising leaders expect to see a shift towards output- or outcome-based service models in the next three years. However, this model also requires a strong alignment on appropriate performance measurement KPIs and performance evaluation approaches.
No matter which pricing model the agency proposes, it should be able to demonstrate the return on investment for its services. Depending on the project type, marketing ROI can be measured in terms of specific deliverables (e.g., new IT marketing services strategy) or target business metrics like Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) or Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) growth.
To determine your top contender, score the vendor on the following:
| [Vendor name] | Pass | Fail |
| Has a transparent pricing model with a range of estimates, based on our requirements | ||
| Provides flexibility in engagement and pricing options | ||
| Demonstrated the ability to link compensation to performance | ||
| Suggested reasonable KPIs for measuring their performance and quantifying ROI | ||
| Proposed contract clauses didn’t raise any objections with our legal department |
How to Establish Effective Cooperation with a Marketing MSP
Client-agency relationships combine creative chemistry and contractual obligations—and both must be nourished during onboarding.
Based on our experience as a marketing MSP, the following four steps help achieve strong synergy and operational alignment in the shortest time span.
Transfer Institutional Knowledge
When starting with an MSP marketing agency, clear communication isn’t just nice—it’s non-negotiable. The engagement’s early success will largely depend on how you educate your partner about your goals, processes, technology ecosystem, and available resources.
Over-communicate: Just because you think the workflow is obvious, it probably is not to an external person. In fact, a recent study reported that external workers often face multiple “asymmetries”, which hinder their efforts. For example, ‘getting a task done’ is often perceived as a collaborative effort by the external workforce, but as an ‘overhead’ for clients. Misalignment early on can snowball into bigger issues, so take the time to set expectations together from day one.
Create a structured onboarding process for the new marketing team. Establish regular touchpoints to keep things on track — weekly check-ins, group workshops, personalized KPIs, and key milestones. This helps the team gain institutional knowledge quickly and stay aligned if priorities shift.
Establish Accountability and Measurement
Accountability means taking shared ownership of the successes and challenges of a partnership. The signed contracts will define the exact responsibilities of both sides. Depending on the service scope and pricing structure, your marketing partner’s performance evaluation may be tied to:
- Specific KPIs (e.g., conversion rates, partner engagement, ROAS, number of qualified leads attracted, etc)
- Project deliverables (e.g., SEO audit and optimization, lead nurturing email sequences, etc)
- Revenue contribution (e.g., percentage of partner-sourced and partner-influenced revenue)
Equally, both you and your partner need to have a shared understanding of the key targets at each project stage. A productive collaboration typically starts with an audit to document the current baseline and identify the main short- and long-term priorities. Based on the audit results, you should jointly work on establishing the follow-up steps and milestones, each pegged to a specific set of KPIs/OKRs. Generally, the majority (82%) of marketing partners track 10 or fewer KPIs per client and provide monthly reporting on progress.
Alongside quantitative metrics, be sure to gather qualitative feedback from your internal team and stakeholders to evaluate how the partner is performing in terms of collaboration, creativity, and responsiveness.
Steer The Collaboration with Regular Feedback
Marketing is fluid. External factors – seasonality, consumer behaviors, competitive pressure – and internal factors – business model changes, budget cuts, new funding rounds – change the direction of your strategy. Regular communication on your business dynamics keeps the partnership productive and results-focused.
Set aside extra time for re-alignment, at least quarterly. Share feedback on what’s working and direct the partner’s attention towards areas needing extra attention. When you relay this information, explain why certain changes may be necessary. Giving your partner extra business context creates opportunities for them to contribute to the new problem and pitch in a perhaps overlooked solution.
Conclusion
When done right, a partnership with a managed marketing services provider helps you operate a lean marketing function – such that evolves alongside your business. Rather than retaining a large workforce in-house, you can work with top experts on-demand, opening more room for experimentation with new strategies, channels, and MarTech technologies.
A structured marketing MSP evaluation process (described above!) paired with a synergy-driven approach to collaboration ensures that you maximize the benefits of this flexible marketing model.
If you want to learn more about how MSP marketing partnerships work, get in touch with Svitla Systems team. We’d be delighted to walk you through our approach to driving measurable marketing outcomes.
