Hiring a social media agency can give a CPG brand more consistent content and experienced support. But signing the agreement is only the start. The first 90 days determine whether the agency understands your products, can work with your team, and knows how to turn customer response into better decisions.
A useful first quarter should produce more than a full content calendar. By the end of it, your team should know what the agency owns, which messages customers respond to, how content is performing, and what will change next.
Quick answer: In the first 30 days, expect discovery, access, a performance baseline, and a workable content plan. In the next 30, expect regular publishing and early learning. By day 90, expect a clear review of what worked, what did not, and what the team will test or improve next. The pace depends on your starting point and the scope you agreed to.
Before Day One: Agree on the Actual Scope
“Social media management” can describe very different engagements. One agency may plan and publish organic posts. Another may also create video, respond to customers, manage creators, run paid campaigns, and report on website actions.
Before work begins, confirm:
- Which platforms the agency manages
- Who develops ideas, writes copy, creates assets, and publishes
- Who responds to comments and messages, and when
- Who reviews product facts and approves claims
- Whether paid social, creator management, and production are included
- What the agency will report and how often
- Which decisions your internal team must make
For CPG brands, include a current list of products, stockists, promotions, customer questions, and any claim or approval rules. A team cannot produce useful product content if it does not know what customers need to understand before buying.
If you are still comparing partners, use Quimby’s social media agency RFP template for CPG brands to get comparable answers about scope and responsibilities.
Days 1–30: Learn the Brand and Build the Working System
The first month should establish a shared picture of the brand, its audience, and its current performance. The agency should review existing channels and content, speak with the people who know the product, and identify the questions customers ask most often.
A practical discovery process looks at:
- Which products and customer groups matter most right now
- How shoppers discover, evaluate, and buy the product
- What customers say in reviews, comments, support requests, and communities
- Which content themes and formats have already worked
- How the brand handles product claims and sensitive questions
- Where social should send people: product pages, a store locator, retail partners, or another useful destination
By the end of this stage, you should have agreed channel priorities, content themes, an approval process, and a baseline for the measures that matter. For a brand selling through both ecommerce and retail, the plan should reflect both paths rather than assume every customer will buy directly from a social post.
Ask at the day-30 review: What did you learn about our customers that changed the original plan?
Days 31–60: Publish, Listen, and Find Better Messages
In the second month, the team should be working to a consistent publishing and review rhythm. Content may explain the product, show it in use, answer objections, highlight customer experiences, or support a launch. The right mix depends on the brand and its customers.
Publishing is only half the work. Comments and questions can reveal what the next piece of content needs to explain. A repeated question about ingredients, sizing, use, availability, or value may be more useful than another generic trend.
Your agency should be able to show:
- What was published and why
- Which questions or objections appeared in the community
- Which messages earned meaningful response
- Where people went after engaging with the content, when tracking allows it
- What the team will change in the next content cycle
A CPG team can also use early organic response to identify ideas worth testing in paid social. Paid campaign management and creator work should have their own agreed scope; they should not be assumed to be part of an organic management retainer.
Days 61–90: Turn Activity Into a Better Plan
By the third month, reporting should become more useful than a list of posts and impressions. The agency should explain which themes, formats, and customer questions appear most promising, where the work is slowing down, and what it recommends doing next.
The review should separate three things:
- Execution: Did the team deliver the agreed work on time?
- Audience response: Which content helped people understand, discuss, or consider the product?
- Business signals: Did the work contribute to qualified site visits, product interest, inquiries, or other actions the brand can reliably measure?
Some outcomes take longer than 90 days. The first-quarter review should not claim that every sale or lead came from one social post. It should give your team a sounder basis for the next quarter’s content, channel, and investment decisions.
For an example of content pillars informed by weekly performance review, see Quimby’s Cerebelly case study.
What Should Be in a 90-Day Agency Review?
Ask for a short, decision-focused review that includes:
| Area | Question the review should answer |
|---|---|
| Content | Which product stories and formats earned useful attention? |
| Community | What did customers ask, praise, or question repeatedly? |
| Website actions | Which social visits led to relevant pages or measurable actions? |
| Workflow | Were briefs, approvals, and responses moving smoothly? |
| Next steps | What will the team keep, change, stop, or test next? |
The exact measures depend on the work you hired the agency to do. A team managing organic content should not present paid-media results as its own. Likewise, follower growth alone does not show whether the program is bringing the right people closer to buying.
When the First 90 Days Are Not Going Well
A new partnership takes time to settle, but persistent problems should be addressed early. Raise them if the agency repeatedly misses approvals, publishes content that misunderstands the product, cannot explain its recommendations, or reports activity without showing what it learned.
Start with a specific conversation: identify the problem, agree on the change needed, assign an owner, and set a review date. Quimby’s guide on when to switch social media agencies can help if the same problems continue after a reasonable opportunity to improve.
Choosing Support for the Next Quarter
The first 90 days should make the next decision easier. You may need stronger day-to-day content and community management, more product demonstrations, a separate paid program, or a better connection between social activity and the website.
Quimby Digital helps consumer brands plan, publish, manage communities, and review social performance as an ongoing program. Explore our social media management services for brands. If you are considering a partner, tell us which channels you use and what your team needs help managing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take a social media agency to learn a CPG brand?
The agency should begin learning before it publishes. Product information, customer questions, past results, brand guidance, and conversations with your team provide a starting point. Its understanding should improve as it sees how customers respond to new content.
What should we provide during social media agency onboarding?
Provide account access, brand and product guidance, approved claims, existing assets, customer insights, past reports, upcoming launches, and the names of people responsible for approvals. Agree on the scope and review process before the publishing calendar begins.
Should we expect leads or sales in the first 90 days?
That depends on the brand’s starting audience, offer, channels, tracking, and whether paid distribution is in scope. Ask the agency to define realistic early signals and report on qualified actions where they can be measured. Avoid judging the partnership by one isolated post or an unsupported revenue claim.
Do we need an internal contact if an agency manages everything?
Yes. An internal owner can provide product updates, answer questions, coordinate approvals, and connect social work to business priorities. Clear ownership helps the agency move faster and produce more accurate content.