Noah Cisneros

Why Agencies and In-House Marketers Struggle to Work Together (and How to Fix It)

If you’ve worked both sides of the marketing world, agency and in-house, you know the tension is real. Agencies complain their clients don’t give them enough direction. In-house marketers complain their agencies don’t “get it.” I’ve lived on both sides, and I’ll tell you the truth: both are right.

Agencies thrive on clarity. They need to know the ideal customer profile, key pain points, brand positioning, compliance guardrails, and metrics that matter. Without this, they’re left making educated guesses and in marketing, educated guesses cost money. On the other hand, in-house marketers are juggling cross-functional dependencies product, sales, compliance, finance and often don’t slow down long enough to hand agencies the strategic foundation they need.

The result? Agencies spin out shiny creative that doesn’t align with business goals. In-house teams grow frustrated when campaigns don’t land. And worse — budgets get wasted.

That’s why I built the Product Marketing Brief Template. It’s not just paperwork. It’s a bridge. It forces in-house marketers to answer the questions agencies desperately need before designing a single ad. Questions like:

• Who exactly are we targeting?
• What makes this product different?
• What pain points does this solve?
• What guardrails does compliance require?
• What proof points do we have?

When these are clear, agencies can do their best work. Creative aligns with strategy. Messaging resonates with buyers. Campaigns scale without endless rounds of “that’s not what we meant.”

I’ve seen it firsthand. As an agency marketer, I was frustrated when clients couldn’t articulate what they needed. As an in-house marketer, I’ve seen agencies flounder when we didn’t equip them. The fix isn’t better agencies or smarter in-house teams — it’s better collaboration.

If you’re leading in-house marketing, don’t just brief your agency — equip them. Give them the clarity they need to win on your behalf. And if you’re an agency leader, push for these answers upfront instead of running blind.

The Product Marketing Brief isn’t just a template — it’s a way to end the blame game. Because at the end of the day, in-house and agencies don’t need to be at odds. We need each other. And when we work from the same foundation, we both win.