The agencies that scale past 10, 20, or 50 clients without proportionally growing headcount are the ones that run their own operations with the same discipline they apply to client campaigns. They build systems. They automate handoffs. They make follow-up impossible to miss. This post breaks down the four automations marketing agencies build first, the tools, and what each one actually costs.
4 Automations Marketing Agencies Build First
1. New Client Onboarding Sequence
The moment a contract is signed, a clock starts. Every day that a new client doesn't have access credentials granted, kickoff calls scheduled, or a project set up in your management tool is a day eroding their confidence in the decision they just made. Most agencies handle this manually — someone remembers to send a welcome email, forgets to chase down the Google Analytics access, and the kickoff ends up three weeks late.
A structured onboarding automation changes this entirely. Here is how the flow looks:
2. Automated Monthly Client Reporting
Monthly reporting is the task agencies hate most. Someone has to pull numbers from Google Analytics, export from Meta Ads Manager, grab Google Ads data, maybe pull SEMrush rankings — then format it into a branded report, write commentary, and email it before the client asks where it is. Multiply that by 10 clients and you lose a full week every month to mechanical data assembly.
The automation pulls every data source via API on a schedule:
3. Lead Nurture Sequence
Marketing agencies are often terrible at marketing themselves. A lead comes in from the website or a referral and waits two days for a response because the owner was deep in client work. By then, the prospect has already talked to two competitors. The fix is a lead nurture sequence that responds in minutes and keeps following up so the owner doesn't have to remember to.
4. Contract Renewal and Upsell Sequence
Retainer renewals are the most predictable revenue event in an agency's calendar — and the one most agencies handle reactively. The contract ends, someone remembers at the last minute, a rushed renewal conversation happens, and the upsell opportunity is gone. A renewal sequence changes that: the client hears from you 60 days before their contract ends, has time to think, and the upsell conversation happens in a context where they're already happy with the results.
Tools Commonly Used in Marketing Agency Automation
The stack varies by agency size and what they're already using, but these are the tools we see most often:
HubSpot handles CRM and email sequences for most agencies. Dubsado and HoneyBook are strong for contract management and onboarding workflows. ClickUp or Asana manage project creation and task assignment. The orchestration layer — n8n, Make, or Zapier — connects all of these to ad platforms and analytics APIs so data flows without manual export.
By the Numbers
Build Time and Cost Estimates
All Aplos AI builds are fixed-price, one-time engagements at $150/hr. There are no retainers, no monthly fees, no per-seat charges. The automation runs in your existing tools.
| Automation | Estimated Hours | Fixed-Price Range |
|---|---|---|
| Client onboarding sequence | 25–35 hrs | $3,750–$5,250 |
| Automated monthly reporting | 30–45 hrs | $4,500–$6,750 |
| Lead nurture sequence | 20–25 hrs | $3,000–$3,750 |
| Contract renewal automation | 20–25 hrs | $3,000–$3,750 |
| Full agency operations stack | 95–130 hrs | $14,250–$19,500 |
Most agencies start with automated reporting — it has the fastest, most measurable ROI — then add onboarding and renewal sequences from there. Each automation is scoped, built, tested, and documented before handoff. We build into your existing tools. No new platform fees.
See the full breakdown of marketing agency automation use cases, workflow diagrams, and tool recommendations.