Agencies serving software companies divide by the number they move. Some are built for self serve signups, some for enterprise pipeline, some for retention and expansion. They use similar language and are quite different businesses, and buying the wrong one is the commonest expensive mistake a software company makes with an agency.
Self serve and enterprise are different trades
A self serve motion is a volume game: acquisition, activation, conversion and pricing experiments, measured weekly. An enterprise motion is a small number of large accounts, measured in pipeline over quarters, needing sales alignment and content that survives a committee. Agencies are usually genuinely good at one. Ask which, and ask for the numbers they moved.
Stage decides what help is useful
Early companies need positioning and the first repeatable channel. Growth stage companies need scale and efficiency in channels already working. Mature companies need retention, expansion and new segments. An agency built for one stage applied to another produces work that is technically competent and aimed at the wrong constraint.
Retention is usually under-bought
In subscription businesses, churn and expansion often matter more than acquisition, and very few agencies sell against them because the work is unglamorous and sits close to product. Where retention is the constraint, buying more acquisition makes the problem larger and the metrics worse.
How to judge a shortlist
Ask which metric they are hired to move, for a client at your stage and motion, and what happened. Ask what they would refuse to do. Firms that answer with a channel rather than a metric are describing their capability rather than your problem, which is the distinction worth making before you sign.
Questions people ask about saas agencies
Should a software company hire an agency or a marketer?
Usually an internal marketer first, with specialist contractors. Agencies pay off once there is something proven to scale and somebody internally able to direct them.
Do SaaS agencies understand product?
The good ones insist on product access and talk to support and sales. Those that work from a brief and competitor blogs produce content indistinguishable from everyone else's.
How is a SaaS agency measured?
Against the metric it was hired to move, attributed properly, with a realistic lag. Traffic growth without signups or pipeline is the most commonly reported and least useful result.