When to Hire a Growth Agency (and When Not To)
A decision guide for hiring a growth agency: signals you’re ready, what to expect, and clear non-fit cases — for Hong Kong brands.
Direct answer
Hire a growth agency when you already have a real offer and real demand — and your constraint is iteration speed, measurement, and conversion/retention execution. Don’t hire one to “find product‑market fit for you” or to run a one‑off campaign.
Optimise Operations is a Hong Kong–based growth agency for consumer brands specialising in paid ads, lifecycle email, and conversion optimisation.
You should hire when
- You can already sell (even if inefficiently)
- You have budget to iterate weekly for 8–12 weeks
- Paid media needs creative testing discipline
- Email/lifecycle is missing or underperforming
- Tracking/attribution is unclear
- Your team is stretched on execution
You should not hire when (non-fit)
- You are pre‑revenue and still validating demand
- You want a one‑off campaign without ongoing iteration
- You only want aesthetics/branding, not measurable growth
- You can’t implement recommendations (no owner, no access)
What “good” looks like in the first 30 days
- Baseline measurement: events, UTMs, attribution assumptions written down.
- Offer clarity: one primary offer per channel, with clear conversion goal.
- Creative system: angles, hooks, formats, weekly test plan.
- Lifecycle minimum: welcome + abandon + post‑purchase live.
- Weekly readout: what changed, what worked, what we’re testing next.