Burnout, Margins, and Metrics: Why Automation and Outsourcing Won’t Save Your Agency

In the high-pressure world of advertising, agencies often find themselves caught in an unending cycle of conflict between finance and business teams. It’s a struggle as old as the industry itself: finance wants to trim costs and boost margins, while account leads and business teams argue for more resources to meet client demands.

The result? A tug-of-war that stretches resources thin, burns out employees, and erodes profitability—all while leaving leadership with the impossible task of choosing sides.

And while automation and outsourcing may seem like attractive solutions to this perennial problem, they often fail to address the underlying issues.

The Core Conflict

Here’s a scenario that plays out in agencies everywhere

• The finance team sees the data—timesheets, margin reports, and overhead costs—and declares that the agency is overstaffed. “We’re allocating too many resources to these accounts,” they argue. “If we don’t streamline, our profitability will tank.”
• The business team, on the other hand, paints a different picture. “Our people are stretched thin, deadlines are being missed, and morale is plummeting,” they say. “We need more resources to keep up with client demands—hire another FTE or risk losing accounts.”

Both sides have valid points, supported by data. Finance is right to protect the agency’s margins, but the business team isn’t wrong to prioritize the well-being of employees and the quality of client deliverables.

Caught in the middle are the employees themselves—overworked, undervalued, and increasingly disengaged. And at the heart of it all is a fundamental conflict: agencies are people-driven businesses, yet profitability often comes at the expense of their most valuable asset—people.

The Cost of the Battle

This internal conflict leads to significant consequences that ripple through the entire agency:

1. Burnout and Attrition

Overworked employees can’t sustain their productivity or creativity. Burnout leads to disengagement and, eventually, resignation. Replacing talent isn’t just costly; it also disrupts the workflow and client relationships.

2. Shrinking Margins

Conversely, overstaffing to appease business teams chips away at the agency’s profit margins. With clients often operating on fixed budgets, every additional resource reduces profitability, leaving the agency financially vulnerable.

3. Client Satisfaction Decline

Whether due to understaffing or overworked teams, clients eventually feel the strain. Deliverables become inconsistent, creativity suffers, and relationships are jeopardized—all of which can lead to account losses.

4. Cultural Erosion

When finance and business teams operate as adversaries rather than collaborators, the agency’s culture suffers. Trust breaks down, collaboration dwindles, and the workplace becomes a battleground rather than a hub of creativity.

Automation and Outsourcing Aren’t the Solution

In the face of these challenges, many agencies turn to automation and outsourcing as quick fixes. The logic is simple: AI can streamline workflows, and outsourcing can reduce costs. But the reality is far more complex.

• Automation, while valuable for optimizing processes, can’t replicate the human connection and creative nuance that clients expect from agencies. It may improve efficiency but doesn’t address the root issue of misaligned priorities between teams.
• Outsourcing may cut costs in the short term, but it often dilutes the agency’s culture, reduces quality control, and risks eroding the very identity that makes an agency unique.

Both approaches can serve as band-aid solutions, but neither tackles the core issue: the misalignment between finance and business teams and the lack of focus on the metrics that truly matter.

The Resolution

The real solution doesn’t lie in more tools or cheaper labor—it lies in going back to the fundamentals. Agencies need to align their teams around shared metrics that matter, balancing profitability with people’s well-being and ensuring both sides work together toward sustainable growth.

Mergify helps agencies do just that. By focusing on productivity and profitability through clear, actionable metrics, we bridge the gap between finance and business functions. It’s time to break free from the Treadmill Trap and build agencies that thrive on collaboration, creativity, and sustainable value.

Which side of the tug-of-war are you on—and how are you addressing this challenge in your agency?