The short version
An agency that has stopped working rarely announces it. The signals are in the reporting: metrics that change definition, deliverables described rather than counted, meetings about the relationship rather than the work, and a plan for next month that reads exactly like last month’s.
Most retainers do not fail dramatically. They drift, and the drift is visible in the paperwork months before it is visible in the results.
These are the signals worth watching, and the three questions that settle the matter faster than any audit.
The reporting starts changing shape
Short answer
The clearest signal is a report whose sections change month to month. When the metric that led last month is buried this month, the report has stopped being a record and started being an argument.
A stable report format is inconvenient for a supplier having a bad quarter, which is exactly why it is worth insisting on.
Watch for new metrics appearing without explanation. Impressions replacing clicks, or reach replacing engagement, usually means the previous number went the wrong way.
Deliverables are described rather than counted
Short answer
Healthy reporting says four pages optimised and names them. Coasting reporting says ongoing optimisation. The move from counts to adjectives is the single most reliable early indicator, and it usually appears before results decline.
Ask for the URLs. A supplier doing the work will send them in minutes, because they exist.
How to test whether the work is still happening
Day 1 — Ask for the deliverable list. Request what was produced last month, in counts, with links. A vendor doing the work answers in a day, because the list already exists on their side.
Day 3 — Compare two reports. Put last month beside three months ago. If the sections have quietly changed shape, the reporting is being written to the results rather than to a format.
Day 7 — Check the changes are live. Spot-check three claimed changes on the live site or the live account. Claimed and shipped are different states, and only one of them is worth paying for.
Day 14 — Ask what is queued and why. A live engagement can name next month’s work and the observation that drove it. A coasting one describes activities rather than decisions.
Day 30 — Decide against evidence. By now you have counts, two comparable reports, and three verified changes. That is enough to renew or leave without relying on how the calls feel.
Illustrative A diagnostic sequence you can run yourself. Illustrative of a process, not a scoring system.
The same recommendations keep reappearing
- A recommendation from three months ago appears again as new
- The plan for next month is last month’s plan with the dates changed
- Audits are re-run rather than the previous audit being closed out
- Nothing on the blocked list ever becomes unblocked or is escalated
Repetition is not always coasting. Sometimes it is a supplier stuck behind your own approvals, which is why the blocked list matters: it shows whose queue the work is sitting in.
The account gets quieter, then friendlier
Short answer
A common pattern is fewer substantive updates followed by more relationship management: check-in calls with no agenda, a new account manager, an offer of a strategy session. Warmth increasing while output decreases is worth noticing.
None of these are proof on their own. Together, and alongside the reporting signals, they usually indicate the account has been reassigned to someone with less capacity.
Three things a fixed-scope arrangement states up front
Each is a structural commitment rather than a promise about quality. All three are things you can verify without trusting anybody, which is the whole point of asking for them.
Illustrative Illustrative of what to require in writing. Not a rating of any provider.
What questions expose a coasting agency?
Short answer
Three questions settle it: what specifically was delivered last month, what will exist at the end of next month, and what have you stopped doing because it was not working. The third is the one a coasting supplier cannot answer.
A supplier genuinely engaged with your account has abandoned something. If everything they started twelve months ago is still running unchanged, nothing is being evaluated.
The contract does the work the results should
Short answer
If renewal conversations lean on notice periods, minimum terms and what is contractually owed rather than on what the work produced, the commercial relationship has replaced the working one.
This is the strongest argument for monthly billing on both sides. Work that has to earn its renewal every month cannot coast for long without someone noticing.
What to do about it
- Ask the three questions in writing, and give a reasonable deadline
- Request the deliverable list as counts and URLs for the last three months
- Fix the report format for the next quarter and refuse changes to it
- Set one measurable objective with a date, and review it on that date
- If nothing changes, leave. A retainer that needs supervision is costing you twice
Switching costs are real, so it is worth one honest conversation first. Many accounts recover when the supplier realises the client is reading the reports.
Keep reading
What to take away
- Reports that change shape are the earliest reliable signal.
- Counts becoming adjectives usually precedes results declining.
- "What have you stopped doing?" is the question a coasting supplier cannot answer.
- Monthly billing makes drift visible faster than any contractual protection does.
Sources
Last updated 2026-08-18.