Insights · Agency
Choosing an agency is the easy part. Keeping oversight is the work.
You are not doubting anyone. You simply have no way to check from where you sit — and without one, the only options left are trusting everything or questioning everything.
Short answer
An agency will get better at whatever its contract measures. So most problems in a client–agency relationship are not capability problems; they come from a contract that measures something other than what the business decides on. Three things matter more than which agency you pick: who owns the ad accounts, which system the reports take their numbers from, and which metric is written into the agreement.
Settle these three before you sign
Two companies can hire the same agency and get very different outcomes. The difference usually sits here, and all three are decided before any work begins.
Who owns the ad accounts
The accounts should be registered to your company, with the agency granted access — not the other way around. This is not about trust. Historical data, customer lists and pixels are company assets and need to stay when the relationship changes.
Where the reporting numbers come from
Pick one decision source and name it in the contract. A report drawn from the advertising interface will never match one drawn from the revenue system, and both sides can argue indefinitely without either being wrong.
Which metric the agreement measures
Agencies optimise toward the metric they are held to. Measure impressions and you will get impressions. The closer the metric sits to an actual business decision, the smaller the gap between the two sides.
What is different about doing this in Vietnam
The marketplace channel is a separate skill
Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop operate their own ad systems with their own rules. An agency strong in Meta and Google search is not automatically strong here, and the two are often quoted as one line item.
Local execution and regional governance rarely sit together
Local agencies usually move faster in Vietnamese and understand platform-native creative. Regional networks give consistent reporting across markets. Deciding which of the two you actually need prevents choosing on the wrong criteria.
Account ownership is less standardised
Accounts held in the agency’s name are common enough that nobody flags it. Ask early, because unwinding it later costs months of history.
Chat is a sales channel, not a support channel
A large share of selling happens in Zalo and Messenger. Ask how the agency measures it, because if they cannot, an entire channel is invisible in every report you will receive.
Who does what
The question is usually framed as in-house versus agency, but three different jobs are being collapsed into one: who executes, who decides, and who checks.
Agencies are good at execution because they run many accounts and see more situations than one internal team ever will. Budget decisions belong with the company, because only the company knows its margins and cash position. The third job — reading the numbers back, reconciling them, asking the uncomfortable question — is the one usually left empty. Given to the agency it becomes self-assessment; left with a small internal team it competes with everything else on their plate.
That is the gap independent oversight fills: not replacing the agency, not taking the decision, just holding the checking.
Articles in this cluster
The agency is not performing: what to check before changing anything
A quarter of weak numbers and a confident agency deck. The instinct is to change agency. The first question is whether head office could tell a bad agency from a bad quarter.
Who should run your marketing in Vietnam: a local agency, a regional one, or someone of your own
The choice between agencies usually gets made before anyone has decided what the agency is for. Four ways to run marketing in a market where you have no one yet.
What belongs in a marketing agency contract in Vietnam
Most of these agreements are drafted well and still leave the client blind. The gaps are in five specific places.
How to oversee a marketing agency in Vietnam
Foreign companies usually pick a capable agency. What goes wrong is set up in the first month, in decisions that look administrative at the time.
Common questions
Can one agency cover marketplaces, social and search in Vietnam?
Some can, but ask who actually does each part. Marketplace store operations, creator programmes and search are different skills, and a single agency of record often subcontracts one of them. That is workable if the subcontractor is named, reports on the same definitions, and the company owns every account. It becomes a problem when nobody at head office knows who is running what.
The agency holds our ad accounts. Is that a problem?
It is worth resolving, calmly and with a handover plan rather than abruptly. Accounts registered to the company with agency access granted is ordinary practice, not an unusual demand. What you are protecting is the historical data and audience lists, which lose value if they cannot move.
Is paying a percentage of media spend acceptable?
That structure ties the agency’s income to how much you spend rather than to what the spending returns, so when the right move is to spend less the two sides want different things. It is not automatically wrong, but pair it with a performance measure that has a threshold, and review it annually.
Does MWY recommend agencies?
Yes. When you need an agency, MWY shortlists three vetted options with the criteria to judge them, then helps read the proposals, reviews the contract and tracks results after signing. MWY takes no commission from any agency or platform, which is what keeps both the shortlist and the later assessment on your side.
Want someone reading the numbers on your side?
Advisory & Oversight sits with the company, runs no campaigns and takes no commission. The first thirty minutes are free.