The Digital Hawks

The Digital Hawks Your white-label paid media team. We manage Google Ads, Meta, and more behind the scenes so agencies can scale without hiring.

A pattern I've noticed across white-label paid relationships:The agency that treats us like a vendor gets vendor-level w...
05/21/2026

A pattern I've noticed across white-label paid relationships:

The agency that treats us like a vendor gets vendor-level work.

The agency that treats us like a teammate gets teammate-level work.

It's not a difference in our intent. It's a difference in what we have access to.

Vendor relationships look like: tickets in a project management system, briefings via doc, no context on the end client beyond what's in the brief. We deliver against the brief. It's fine. It's not great.

Teammate relationships look like: a shared Slack channel, transcripts of client calls, a quick voice memo from the AM after a tough QBR. We deliver against the client — not just the brief. The work is meaningfully better. Retention is higher on both sides.

The difference between the two: ten extra minutes of context from the agency per week.

For agency owners using white-label support: how much context are you actually sharing? That's the highest-leverage thing you control.

The mistake I see in 90% of inherited Google Ads accounts:Conversion tracking that double-counts.Form submissions count ...
05/20/2026

The mistake I see in 90% of inherited Google Ads accounts:
Conversion tracking that double-counts.

Form submissions count as conversions. So do thank-you page views. So do phone calls (sometimes the same call twice — once via the call extension, once via a website tap). So do pageviews that have nothing to do with actual intent.

Result: your bid strategy thinks you're converting at $40 CPL when you're actually closer to $80. It optimizes harder for "conversions." Spend goes up. "Conversions" go up. Real leads stay flat.

The fix isn't sexy: spend a focused hour mapping every conversion event to a real business outcome. Kill the duplicates. Reset the targets to actual numbers.

I've seen this single change drop a client's apparent CPL by 50% — because we stopped counting fake conversions. Which then forced an honest conversation about what the real targets should be. That conversation is uncomfortable. It also fixes everything downstream.

For the agency owners: when you take over an inherited account, what's the first thing you audit?

The single most underrated AM behavior:Telling the client "no" to something they want.Not the loud no. The strategic no....
05/19/2026

The single most underrated AM behavior:
Telling the client "no" to something they want.

Not the loud no. The strategic no. The "I hear you want to add Pinterest to the media mix, but here's the data showing your audience isn't there. Here's what I'd recommend instead."

Most AMs I see don't lose accounts because performance dipped. They lose accounts because they said yes to every client request, ended up running campaigns that couldn't possibly perform, and then had no leg to stand on when results dropped.

They built the trap themselves.

Senior AMs push back. They protect the strategy. They tell clients what they don't want to hear when it actually matters — and they keep clients longer because of it.

The hard part: pushing back requires confidence in your data, your strategy, and your own worth. Not every AM has that naturally. Most need explicit training to get there.

What's the last "no" you wish your AM had said to a client?

12 hours.That's how long applications are open for Cohort 1 of Own The Client Call™.Final scoreboard:▸ Cohort 1 starts T...
05/15/2026

12 hours.

That's how long applications are open for Cohort 1 of Own The Client Call™.

Final scoreboard:
▸ Cohort 1 starts Tuesday May 19
▸ Beta pricing: $799 (Cohort 2 will be $999 — and Cohort 4+ will be $1,299–$1,499)
▸ [X seats remaining]
▸ Apps close tonight at midnight CT

If you've been waiting for a sign — this is it.

If you're an agency owner who's sent the same media buyer to the same client meeting nine weeks running, apply on behalf of your AM.

If you're an AM who's been quietly nodding along to every post in this series, apply for yourself.

If neither of those is you — no worries. Cohort 2 starts in [date]. $999 pricing. Waitlist opens next week.

https://zurl.co/gyvxC

Account managers reading this — this one's for you.You probably weren't the person at your agency who was supposed to re...
05/14/2026

Account managers reading this — this one's for you.

You probably weren't the person at your agency who was supposed to read this post. Your boss was.

But here's the thing.

If you can articulate to your agency owner that you want to learn to read a paid search report like a strategist, lead client meetings without backup, and grow into a senior strategy role — most of them will say yes to a course that costs less than 1% of the annual revenue from your accounts.

What to say to them:

"I want to take this 8-week cohort that teaches AMs to lead client meetings on paid search. Cohort 1 starts May 19, $799. I'd like the agency to cover it — or I'll invest in it myself if needed. Here's why I think it's worth it: [your reason]."

Then forward this post.

Or send them this link: https://zurl.co/YbUPp

The version of you 2 years from now will thank the version who advocated for the training today.

Apps close at midnight tomorrow.

Something I'm sitting with this week:When you run paid for agencies whose end clients are dysfunctional, the friction ne...
05/14/2026

Something I'm sitting with this week:
When you run paid for agencies whose end clients are dysfunctional, the friction never lands on the dysfunction. It lands on you.

End client has a sales process problem? You're "delivering low-quality leads."
End client doesn't understand attribution? You're "not driving enough conversions."
End client has unrealistic expectations? You're "underperforming."

The agency in the middle could push back. Could educate the end client. Could make the case that the problem is on their side, not yours. Most don't — because it's politically expensive. Easier to blame the white-label vendor than to push back on the client who pays the agency.

This is part of the deal. You sign up for it. But it's worth saying out loud, because every white-label partner I know is silently exhausted by it.

If you're an agency owner reading this: the most valuable thing you can do for a white-label partner who's delivering well is take the political bullets for them when the end client is being unreasonable. They can't say no to your client. You can.

Quick check-in.Cohort 1 of Own The Client Call™ starts in 6 days.Where things stand:▸ 2 seats remaining of 5▸ Applicatio...
05/13/2026

Quick check-in.

Cohort 1 of Own The Client Call™ starts in 6 days.

Where things stand:
▸ 2 seats remaining of 5
▸ Applications close Thursday May 15 at midnight CT
▸ 8-week live cohort, $799 beta pricing
▸ Includes 2 private 1:1 coaching sessions with me

Who's in so far: AMs from local business focused agencies, AM from large agency with Fortune 500 clients.

Who should still apply:
▸ AMs in client meetings who feel underprepared
▸ Agency owners tired of pulling their media buyers onto every call
▸ Anyone who wants to grow into a strategist role inside their agency

If you've been on the fence, this is your nudge.

https://zurl.co/AlAsX

The thing nobody tells you about running paid for a multi-agency client account:You're not actually competing on results...
05/13/2026

The thing nobody tells you about running paid for a multi-agency client account:
You're not actually competing on results.

You're competing for political favor.

The favored agency gets the easy accounts. The technical questions. The meetings. The benefit of the doubt. The other agencies get the difficult accounts, the budget that's already been "right-sized," and the leftover face time.

This is true even when the favored agency isn't hitting numbers either. Especially when they're not, actually — the politics around protecting them gets stronger, because somebody internally made the original recommendation and doesn't want to be wrong.
What I've learned: you cannot out-perform your way into political favor. You can only (a) build a separate relationship directly with the end client, (b) accept your status and price accordingly, or (c) walk away.

For the agency owners who've been the underdog on a multi-agency account: what's actually worked to shift the dynamic?

What separates a senior AM from a junior one isn't years.It's the questions they ask in client meetings.Junior AM in a Q...
05/12/2026

What separates a senior AM from a junior one isn't years.
It's the questions they ask in client meetings.

Junior AM in a QBR:
"Your CPL was $42 last month, down from $48. Conversions are up 12%. Here's the trend chart."

Senior AM in the same QBR:

"Your CPL dropped to $42, but the leads we're getting from the new campaign are converting to sales at half the rate. We need to either add a qualifier to the lead form or shift budget back to the original campaigns. What does your sales team say about lead quality right now?"

Same data. Completely different conversation.

The senior AM didn't memorize more metrics. She learned to translate metrics into questions that move the business forward.

This is teachable. Most agencies just don't teach it — they hire AMs and assume they'll figure it out.

If you've got AMs stuck doing junior-level QBRs, the gap usually isn't talent. It's training nobody gave them.

What's the question you wish your AMs would ask in client meetings?

The "lead-drunk client" cycle — every agency owner knows this:→ Client launches, results are mediocre.→ You loosen targe...
05/12/2026

The "lead-drunk client" cycle — every agency owner knows this:
→ Client launches, results are mediocre.
→ You loosen targeting. Lead volume jumps.
→ Client celebrates: "Keep doing what you're doing."
→ Sales team complaints start: "These leads are garbage."
→ Client comes back: "What's wrong with our lead quality?"
→ You tighten targeting. Lead quality goes up. Volume drops.
→ Client comes back: "What happened to our volume?"
→ Loosen → tighten → loosen → tighten.

The honest truth: lead volume and lead quality are inversely correlated. Always have been. You cannot maximize both at the same time, and any agency promising you can is selling you something they can't deliver.

The agencies that win don't try to maximize both. They reframe the conversation around lead intent — and let the volume/quality split go where the strategy demands.

For the agency owners reading: how do you handle the volume-vs-quality whiplash? Or have you actually found a client who understands the trade-off?

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