Top Agency Growth Consultants (And How to Choose the Right One)
If you search for “agency growth consultant,” you’ll notice something strange.
Half the results are lists of marketing agencies that help companies grow.
The other half are coaches and consultants who help agencies grow.
Those are completely different problems, but Google lumps them together.
If you’re an agency owner, this is more than annoying. It’s dangerous.
Because choosing the wrong type of help doesn’t just waste money, it sends you down the wrong path entirely.
This guide exists to fix that.
By the end, you’ll know:
Whether you actually need a consultant, a coach, or an agency
Which type of help fits your current growth bottleneck
Who the most respected agency growth experts are, and why people hire them
First: Which “Agency Growth” Problem Do You Actually Have?
Before the list, let’s clear up the confusion.
There are two very different reasons people search this term.
Path 1: “I Own an Agency and Want to Grow It”
You’re likely dealing with things like:
Revenue stuck between $1M–$3M
Founder still involved in sales or delivery
Hiring feels risky and slow
Margins shrinking as complexity increases
Growth that feels chaotic instead of intentional
If that’s you, you need a consultant or coach who specializes in agencies.
Path 2: “I Want to Hire an Agency to Grow My Business”
You’re likely focused on:
Lead generation
SEO, paid ads, or conversion
Finding a reliable growth partner
Outsourcing execution
If that’s you, you need a growth marketing agency, not a consultant.
This article covers both paths, clearly labeled, so you don’t have to guess.
At a Glance: Agency Growth Experts Compared
| Name | Type | Specialty | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haus Advisors | Consultant | Positioning & growth systems | Agency founders $1M–$5M who’ve outgrown referrals and need clarity |
| Sakas & Company | Consultant | Operations & exit planning | Owners preparing to scale delivery or plan an exit |
| Jason Swenk | Coach | Community & masterminds | Founders who want peer support and shared experience |
| Parakeeto | Consultant | Profitability & metrics | Agencies fixing utilization, pricing, and margins |
| UGURUS | Coach | Web agency growth | High-ticket web design and dev agencies |
| NoGood | Agency | Performance marketing | Brands scaling paid acquisition |
| WebFX | Agency | SEO & inbound | Mid-market brands investing in inbound growth |
What Does an “Agency Growth Consultant” Actually Do?
This term gets abused, so let’s be precise.
Consultant vs Coach vs Agency
Consultant
Diagnoses the real bottleneck
Designs systems and priorities
Often helps implement or guide execution
Focused on decision clarity
Coach
Provides advice and accountability
Helps with mindset and leadership
Often includes group programs or masterminds
Focused on support and perspective
Agency
Executes marketing for your business
Runs campaigns, content, or ads
Focused on doing the work
None of these are better than the others.
They’re just right for different moments.
Most founders run into trouble when they hire execution before fixing strategy, or buy advice without context.
Top Consultants for Scaling Your Agency (For Owners)
If you run an agency and growth feels messy, these are the people agency founders consistently turn to.
1. Haus Advisors (Editor’s Choice)
Best For:
Agency founders between $1M–$5M who feel busy, booked, and still unsure what actually drives growth.
The Takeaway:
Haus Advisors focuses on decision leverage, not just tactics.
Most agency growth advice starts with:
“You need more leads”
“You should hire sales”
“Your utilization needs work”
Those things matter, but only after you answer harder questions:
What kind of agency are we actually trying to build?
Which services deserve focus, and which are distractions?
What growth lever fits our stage right now?
Haus Advisors helps founders:
Clarify positioning so sales gets easier
Design focused offers instead of custom chaos
Build predictable pipeline systems without burning out delivery
Escape the referral trap without becoming spammy or generic
We wrote this list and placed ourselves first intentionally.
Not because we’re “the best,” but because we serve a very specific gap:
Founders who’ve already tried advice, courses, or masterminds, and still feel stuck because the decisions never got clear.
2. Sakas & Company – Karl Sakas
Best For:
Agency owners thinking long-term: scale, succession, or exit.
The Takeaway:
Karl is deeply respected for a reason. He brings operational rigor without ego.
His background as an agency PM shows up in his work:
Clear processes
Calm leadership guidance
Thoughtful transition planning
If you’re asking:
“How do I make this business sustainable without me being the bottleneck?”
Karl is a strong fit.
3. Jason Swenk
Best For:
Founders who want energy, community, and shared experience.
The Takeaway:
Jason has built one of the largest agency-focused ecosystems through:
The Agency Mastery podcast
Group coaching programs
Large peer networks
His strength isn’t deep diagnosis, it’s exposure and momentum.
If you want to see how others are tackling similar challenges and feel less alone, this is valuable.
4. Parakeeto – Marcel Petitpas
Best For:
Agencies that are profitable on paper but struggling in reality.
The Takeaway:
Parakeeto owns the profitability conversation.
They help agencies understand:
Effective billable rates
Utilization vs capacity
Why revenue doesn’t equal profit
If your agency feels “busy but broke,” Marcel will show you exactly where the math is failing, and how to fix it.
5. UGURUS – Brent Weaver
Best For:
Web design and development agencies selling premium sites.
The Takeaway:
UGURUS is highly opinionated about:
Niching web agencies
Productized services
Selling value instead of hours
If you run a website-focused agency and want more structure around sales and delivery, this is a solid option.
When Consultants Don’t Work (And It’s Not Their Fault)
Consultants fail when expectations are misaligned.
Here are three patterns that consistently cause regret.
1. The “Failed Agency Owner” Problem
Failure itself isn’t the issue.
The problem is when short-term survival tactics get taught as long-term strategy.
What works to scrape by often collapses at scale.
Ask:
“Is this advice designed for growth, or recovery?”
2. The “Course-Only” Trap
Courses are efficient. They’re also generic.
Without diagnosis:
You don’t know which advice applies
You apply tactics out of order
You blame yourself when it doesn’t work
Courses work best after clarity, not before.
3. The “General Business” Consultant
Agencies aren’t normal businesses.
They deal with:
Sales vs delivery tension
Founder-led growth
Custom work masquerading as systems
People-heavy margins
If someone doesn’t specialize in agencies, they’ll miss the real bottleneck, every time.
Top Growth Marketing Agencies (For Brands)
If you’re not an agency owner and you’re here to hire execution, start here instead.
NoGood
Best For:
Brands investing heavily in performance marketing.
The Takeaway:
Strong execution across paid channels with a modern growth mindset.
WebFX
Best For:
Mid-market companies focused on SEO and inbound growth.
The Takeaway:
Large, established team with broad service coverage.
Final Thought: Growth Isn’t a Tactic, It’s a Sequence
Most agencies don’t fail because they lack effort.
They fail because they fix the wrong problem at the wrong time.
Growth looks different depending on where you’re stuck:
Positioning
Offers
Sales narrative
Delivery capacity
Pipeline consistency
The right partner helps you diagnose this stage, not sell you a generic solution.
If you’re an agency owner tired of reactive growth and want clarity before adding more effort, we should talk.
