In the first 30 days with a new marketing agency, expect discovery, audits, and strategy — not campaigns. Days 31–60: first content live, paid campaigns launched, early signals emerging. Days 61–90: strategy refinement, AEO content indexed, first organic movement, paid campaigns optimised. Do not evaluate long-term ROI before day 90 — evaluate process quality, communication, and whether the strategy is specific to your business.
Why the First 90 Days Are the Most Important of the Whole Engagement
The first 90 days of a marketing agency engagement in 2026 are not about results — they are about infrastructure. Strategy, audits, account access, content systems, attribution setup, and audience research all happen in this window. Get this foundation wrong and the next 12 months underperform regardless of execution effort.
Most client-agency relationships that fail do so in the first 90 days — not because the agency was bad, but because expectations were misaligned. Clients expected campaigns; agencies needed discovery time. Understanding exactly what should happen at each stage prevents this mismatch.
Days 1–30: Foundation and Discovery
The first month is almost entirely internal to the agency. Expect this:
| Week | Agency Activities | Client Actions Needed | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Kickoff call, access requests, brief intake | Provide all account access, brand assets, past data | Shared project workspace, access confirmed |
| Week 2 | Technical SEO audit, analytics review, ad account review | Introduce agency to sales team | Audit report with priority fixes |
| Week 3 | Competitor research, keyword research, AEO query mapping | Review and input on keyword priorities | Keyword and AEO content strategy draft |
| Week 4 | Strategy presentation, 90-day roadmap, KPI framework | Approve or give feedback on strategy | Approved 90-day strategy with KPIs |
If your new agency is trying to launch campaigns or produce final deliverables before week 3–4, that is a concern. Rushing to execution before completing discovery produces generic work that underperforms throughout the entire engagement.
Days 31–60: First Execution Wave
With strategy approved, execution begins. This is when the first content, campaigns, and optimisations go live:
- Technical SEO fixes implemented — site speed, crawlability, structured data corrections
- First AEO and SEO blog posts published — targeting long-tail, lower-competition terms first
- Paid campaigns launched — initial audience testing with controlled budgets to gather data before scaling
- Social media schedule established — consistent posting frequency defined and first content series live
- Email sequences drafted and activated — welcome series, lead nurture flows set up
Expect early signals but not transformational results. Paid campaigns will begin generating data; you will see impressions and early clicks but ROAS will be suboptimal while the algorithm optimises. Organic content will be indexed but ranking movement takes longer.
Days 61–90: Optimisation and Early Momentum
By day 60–90, data from the first execution wave informs strategy adjustments:
- Paid campaign optimisation — audiences and creatives refined based on real performance data; ROAS should be improving
- Content cluster development — second wave of AEO and SEO content building topical authority
- First organic ranking signals — some long-tail keywords beginning to appear in Google Search Console
- AEO citations beginning — content formatted for AI search should be appearing in Perplexity, ChatGPT, or Gemini responses
- First monthly report — comparing baseline to current performance across all channels
Do not evaluate a new agency on results at day 90 — evaluate them on process quality: Is their strategy specific to your business? Are they communicating proactively? Is the content high quality? Are paid campaigns being optimised systematically? Results follow process; a strong process at day 90 predicts strong results at month 6.
Red Flags in the First 90 Days
These early signals reliably predict long-term underperformance:
- Generic strategy that could apply to any business in your category
- Content that does not match your brand voice or audience's language
- Reporting only on activity completed, not on performance metrics
- Slow communication — more than 24 hours for routine queries
- No mention of AEO or AI search strategy in the 2026 content plan
- Campaigns launched without completing technical and analytics setup
How Distk Structures the First 90 Days
Every Distk engagement starts with a structured 30-day discovery phase: technical audit, keyword and AEO mapping, competitor research, and strategy presentation. Days 31–60 begin execution with your approval. By day 90, you have real data, a refined strategy, and a performance dashboard that connects marketing activity to business outcomes.