How to Give Good Feedback on Agency Work

Good feedback gets you better results faster. Poorly delivered feedback leads to extra rounds of rework, missed deadlines, and work that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

How important is feedback? Communication is the most impactful aspect of relationships, and working with us is no different. 

This guide will help you give feedback that’s clear, actionable, and moves the work forward.

What Makes Feedback Effective

Imagine you’re planning a dinner party and ask a friend to review the menu. They say, “Let’s do chicken pasta instead of lobster.”

You don’t know why they want to change it. Are they on a budget? Do they not like seafood? Is it too fancy for the occasion?

Now imagine they say, “Joe has a shellfish allergy. Instead of lobster, let’s consider steak or a non-seafood pasta.”

That’s useful. You understand the problem and can solve it appropriately. You won’t repeat the same problem next time you host Joe for dinner. 

The same principle applies when reviewing our work. Good feedback is specific, explains the reasoning, and gives us what we need to make it better.

What Good Feedback Looks Like vs. What Doesn’t

Vague: “I don’t like this.”
Specific: “This headline doesn’t convey the durability of the product. We need to emphasize the lifetime warranty.”

Vague: “Something feels off.”
Specific: “The hero image shows the product in a doctor’s office, but this campaign is targeting small hospitals that use it in surgeries. Can we show it in a surgical environment?”

Vague: “Can we try something else?”
Specific: “This email mentions free shipping, but we only offer that on orders over $100. We need to add that qualifier or change the offer.”

Vague: “Make it pop.”
Specific: “The contrast between the headline and background is too low. It’s hard to read on mobile.”

Notice the pattern: good feedback identifies the specific problem and explains why it matters. Sometimes you’ll know exactly what you want instead. Other times you just need to identify the issue and let us solve it. Both are fine.

How to Structure Your Feedback

Consolidate before you send. If multiple people on your team are reviewing, collect everyone’s feedback and send it to us in one organized message. Contradictory feedback from different stakeholders slows everything down. It can leave one person feeling frustrated that we missed their requested edit when it actually contradicted what another reviewer asked for. 

Prioritize what matters. Not all feedback is equally important. Tell us what’s critical to fix versus what’s a nice-to-have. “We have to change the headline, but the image swap is optional” helps us focus our effort appropriately.

Reference specific elements. When possible, point to exactly what you’re talking about. “The headline in section 2 is too direct” is clearer than “the copy feels off.”

Explain the why. “This feels too formal for our brand” helps us understand the problem. “This won’t resonate with our target customer because…” is even better. The more context you give us, the better we can adjust.

Common Scenarios and How to Handle Them

When you don’t like something but can’t articulate why: That’s okay. Say that. “Something feels off about this, but I can’t pinpoint it. Can we schedule a call to talk through it?” 

When stakeholders disagree internally: Rather than sending us conflicting feedback from different people, work it out internally first, or bring us into a conversation where we can discuss the options together. 

When you approved something at a milestone and now want to change it: Acknowledge it. “I know we approved this concept, but seeing it built out, I realize X isn’t working.” We’ll figure out how to adjust or let you know if this will impact the project scope or timeline. 

What Slows Things Down

These types of feedback make it hard for us to give you what you need:

• Personal preference without rationale. “I just prefer blue” doesn’t help us unless blue serves a strategic purpose.
• Feedback that contradicts the brief. If you approved a brief focused on urgency and now want everything to feel calm and educational, we need to revisit the brief, not just revise the creative.
• Redesigning by committee. “My spouse doesn’t like it” or “My friend said…” isn’t useful unless that person is your target customer.
• Drip-feeding feedback. Sending one piece of feedback, waiting for us to revise, then sending another slows everything down. Give us all your feedback at once so we can address it in one round.

When You’re Stuck

Sometimes you genuinely don’t know what you think or need more clarity. We can often help you get unstuck. 

Schedule a working call. We can walk through the rationale, answer questions, and work through concerns together.

Sleep on it. Sometimes you just need fresh eyes. If the deadline allows, give it a day and come back to it.

Trust the process. If this is your first time working with an agency, it might feel uncomfortable to approve things that aren’t perfect. That’s normal. We’ll get there through iteration.

The Bottom Line

We want to get it right. Good feedback helps us do that.

Be specific. Explain your reasoning. Consolidate input from your team. Prioritize what matters most.

You don’t need to know how to fix everything—that’s our job. You just need to help us understand what’s not working and why.

The goal isn’t work that makes everyone comfortable. The goal is work that performs. Sometimes those feel like the same thing. Sometimes they don’t. When in doubt, come back to the brief and what we’re trying to accomplish.