How We Saved a Marketing Agency 40 Hours Per Week

When a 15-person digital marketing agency reached out to us, they were drowning in operational work. Their services were excellent — their clients were happy with the actual marketing. But behind the scenes, the team was spending nearly half their time on tasks that had nothing to do with strategy or creative work.

Here's a detailed look at what we found, what we built, and the results.

The Problem

During our initial discovery call, we asked the team to track every non-billable task they performed for one week. The results were eye-opening:

• Client reporting: 12 hours/week — pulling data from Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SEO tools for 20+ clients, then formatting it into branded PDF reports
• Client onboarding: 8 hours/week — creating folders, setting up accounts, sending welcome packages, scheduling kickoff calls, provisioning access to tools
• Invoice management: 6 hours/week — creating invoices, sending them, tracking payments, following up on overdue invoices
• Internal communication: 5 hours/week — status updates, "has this been done?" messages, searching for files
• Content scheduling: 5 hours/week — manually posting or scheduling approved content across client accounts
• Lead follow-up: 4 hours/week — checking new inquiries and sending follow-up emails

Total: approximately 40 hours per week — the equivalent of an entire full-time employee doing nothing but operational busywork.

The Solution

We designed four interconnected automation systems that addressed the highest-impact areas.

System 1: Automated Client Reporting

We built a reporting pipeline that pulls data from Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and SEMrush via their APIs. The data feeds into a Google Sheets master dashboard (one sheet per client) that auto-calculates KPIs, week-over-week changes, and trend indicators.

Every Monday morning at 7am, the system generates a branded PDF report for each client using a custom template, and emails it directly to the client contact with a personalized message. If any metric drops below a threshold (e.g., conversion rate below target), it flags the internal team via Slack.

Time savings: 12 hours/week → 30 minutes/week (just reviewing flags and handling the occasional custom request).

System 2: Zero-Touch Client Onboarding

When a deal closes in HubSpot, a Make scenario triggers that:

1. Creates a complete project folder structure in Google Drive with subfolders for assets, reports, contracts, and creative
2. Generates tasks in Asana with due dates and assignees based on the service package sold
3. Sends a branded welcome email to the client with a link to fill out a strategy questionnaire
4. Creates the client in their billing system and generates the first invoice
5. Books the kickoff call automatically using the client's calendar preferences
6. Posts a summary to the #new-clients Slack channel

Time savings: 8 hours/week → 15 minutes/week (verifying everything looks right and making any custom adjustments).

System 3: Smart Invoicing Pipeline

We connected QuickBooks to an automated follow-up sequence. When an invoice is created:

• Day 0: Invoice is sent with a clear payment link
• Day 3: Friendly reminder if unopened
• Day 7: Follow-up with payment link and gentle nudge
• Day 14: Escalation email mentioning upcoming due date
• Day 30+: Internal alert to the account manager for personal follow-up

Each step checks if the invoice has been paid before sending. The system also updates a real-time dashboard showing accounts receivable status across all clients.

Time savings: 6 hours/week → 1 hour/week. Average payment collection time improved by 11 days.

System 4: Lead Response Automation

Website form submissions now trigger an instant response sequence. Within 60 seconds of submitting, the lead receives a personalized email acknowledging their interest, providing relevant case studies based on what service they selected, and offering a link to book a discovery call. The lead is scored and routed in HubSpot, and the sales team gets a Slack notification.

Time savings: 4 hours/week → 20 minutes/week. Lead response time went from 4-6 hours to under 1 minute.

The Results

After two weeks of implementation and one week of testing, the full system was live. Here's what changed over the first 90 days:

• 40 hours/week recovered — redistributed to billable client work and strategy
• Revenue increased by 22% — same headcount, more capacity for client work
• Client satisfaction scores rose 18% — faster reporting, smoother onboarding, quicker responses
• 30% faster payment collection — automated follow-ups eliminated forgotten invoices
• Zero operational errors in automated workflows (vs. 2-3 per week previously)

The agency owner told us: "It feels like we hired two new people without the overhead. My team is finally spending their time on the work they were actually hired to do."

Key Takeaways

1. Start with the audit. You can't optimize what you haven't measured. That one-week time tracking exercise was the single most valuable step.
2. Automate in layers. We didn't build everything at once. We started with reporting (highest time drain), validated it, then moved to onboarding, then invoicing, then leads.
3. Keep humans in the loop. None of these systems are fully autonomous. There are checkpoints, flags, and override options throughout. Automation should augment your team, not replace its judgment.

Want to know what 40 hours of recovered time would mean for your business? Let's find out together.