Give Your Agency a Structure That Serves Both Craft and Client
Most agencies grow account by account, and the organisation chart is whatever the last few hires left behind. We help you design the structure on purpose: how craft and servicing lines relate, who leads each account team, who may approve what, and who covers when a director is on leave or on a pitch. The aim is a structure that the people inside it can explain in a sentence.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does Your Structure Still Fit the Way You Work?
Agencies are matrix organisations by nature. A copywriter belongs to the creative line and works on three accounts, each run by a servicing lead. Without a clear design, the person is directed by several people, reviewed by none, and uncertain about who decides when two of them disagree.
We help you decide the shape deliberately and write it down so that it survives growth.
You may be experiencing:
- People who report to a craft head but take daily direction from several account managers, with nobody owning their workload.
- Account directors who approve scope changes, discounts and freelance spend with no stated limit.
- A founder or creative head who still approves every piece of work and every hire.
- Titles that mean different things on different teams, so level cannot be compared.
- No named deputy for a creative director or account lead, so leave and resignations stop work.
- Spans of control that range from one direct report to a dozen, set by history and not by design.
- Overlapping responsibilities between strategy, planning and account teams on the same brief.
What we can help with
Our Organisation Design Services for Agencies
Structure Assessment
Map the real structure as it works: who directs whom on each account, where reviews happen and where decisions stall. Set it beside the chart on paper and note the differences.
Craft and Servicing Line Design
Decide how creative, strategy, performance, production and account lines are organised, and whether people sit in discipline pools, in dedicated account pods or in a mix of the two.
Account Team Templates
Define a standard shape for an account team by size and type of client: who leads, who reviews the work, who owns timelines and budget, and who is the single point of contact for the client.
Reporting Versus Project Supervision
Separate the person who looks after a team member's development and appraisal from the people who direct day-to-day work, so that neither role is left unowned.
Levels and Titles
Set position levels and title rules that are consistent across disciplines, so that a senior designer, a senior planner and a senior account manager can be compared and promoted on stated grounds.
Decision Rights and Approval Limits
Write a delegation matrix for scope changes, discounts, freelance spend, hires, pitches and client escalations, with the limit for each role and the person above it.
Deputies and Continuity
Name a deputy for each critical lead role and define what the deputy may decide while the lead is away or in a pitch, so that work and client contact carry on.
Multi-office and Partner Structure
Where you have more than one office, a remote team or partner agencies and freelancers working on your accounts, define who leads, who is accountable and how work is handed across.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, deliverables can include:
- A picture of the current structure, with the gaps between chart and practice marked.
- A proposed organisation chart for craft, servicing and support lines.
- Account team templates by client size and type.
- Role definitions with accountability statements.
- A level and title framework across disciplines.
- A delegation of authority matrix with named deputies.
- A transition plan with communication points and owners.
- A review date to check how the structure is working.
Step by step
How We Work
Listen to the Leadership
We talk with the founders, creative leads and account heads about where the agency is heading, what is stuck and what has grown without a decision.
Follow the Work
We trace two or three live accounts end to end, from brief to delivery, noting who actually decides at each point.
Draft Options
We put forward two or three structures and set out what each changes for supervision, cost and client contact.
Test with the Team Leads
Before anything is final, we walk the preferred option through with the people who will live in it, and adjust for what they find unworkable.
Plan the Move and Review
We prepare the communication and sequence of changes. Before work starts we record where you stand, then review how the design is holding against it.
The difference
Make It Clear Who Owns What
A deliberate structure helps your agency to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering the reporting lines in use, how many approvals go to the top team and which roles have no deputy, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Give every person one named owner for their development and another for their daily work.
- Set limits so that routine approvals no longer wait for a founder.
- Compare levels fairly across craft and servicing.
- Keep accounts moving when a lead is away.
- Show clients who is accountable for their work.
- Add teams or offices without rebuilding the chart.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Founder-led Agencies
Move everyday approvals out of the founder's inbox without losing control of what matters.
Agencies Adding a Second Service Line
Fit a new capability, such as performance or video, into an existing structure.
Agencies Opening Another Office
Define how a new location connects to the existing leadership, clients and creative standards.
Studios Outgrowing a Flat Structure
Introduce the first layers of leadership without losing the speed of a small team.
Agencies After a Merger or Acquisition
Bring two structures, two sets of titles and two ways of working into one design.
How it usually shows up in marketing, advertising and creative
Most agencies grow around founders and a few strong account leads. The structure is a drawing of departments, while the real organisation is the set of account teams, each pulling people from craft and production. A designer often has one line manager for appraisal and several project leads for daily work, and the two do not always agree. Approval limits for spend, freelancers, discounts and scope changes are commonly unwritten, so a small decision waits for a founder or is taken by whoever is nearest. Titles tend to drift: an account manager at one agency would be a director at another, and levels inside one agency are not comparable between teams. When a lead leaves, nobody is named to cover the client. The result is slow decisions and arguments about who owns a call.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in marketing, advertising and creative
Two bosses, one set of priorities
A designer reports to a craft head but takes daily direction from account leads who compete for time.
Approvals depend on who is around
Freelancer spend, discounts and scope changes wait for a founder or are decided by whoever is closest.
Titles mean different things
A manager in one team does the work of a director in another, which makes promotion and pay hard to defend.
Nobody covers a client
When an account lead is away or leaves, there is no named deputy known to the client.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Separate reporting from project direction
Each person has one line manager for appraisal and development, and a clear brief from a project lead for the work.
- 02
Define the account team
A standard shape for each account size: who leads, who delivers, who covers. The organisation design chart shows it.
- 03
Write the approval matrix
Limits for spend, freelancers, discounts, scope changes and hires, by level, so small decisions do not climb.
- 04
Name deputies
Every client has a named second person who has met the client and has access to the files.
- 05
Fix the level ladder
One set of levels across craft and servicing, with plain definitions of scope at each.
What to check this week
- Ask three people who they report to and who sets their weekly priorities.
- Find out who can approve a freelancer booking and up to what amount.
- Compare job titles across two teams doing similar work.
- List the accounts with no named second person.
- Draw the real account teams on one page and compare with the official chart.
What this looks like in marketing, advertising and creative
The parts of organisation design that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Agency Structure
Creative, servicing and specialist lines.
What this coversHide
Agency Structure
Creative, servicing and specialist lines.
What this coversHideClient-facing
- Account Directors
- Account Managers
- Account Executives
- Strategy
- Planning
- Business Development
Craft and delivery
- Creative Directors
- Copywriters
- Art Directors
- Designers
- Video Editors
- Performance Marketers
- SEO
- Content Writers
- Production
- Organisation structure
- Account team structure
- Craft vs servicing lines
- Reporting vs project supervision
- Approval matrix
- Position levels
Questions on this, in marketing, advertising and creative
Both models work and most agencies mix them. Discipline pools help craft standards and development; account pods help speed and client familiarity. We set out what each choice changes for supervision, utilisation and cost, and you choose.
Usually to a craft lead for development and appraisal, with account leads directing day-to-day work. The design makes that split explicit, so the person knows who reviews the work and who looks after their growth.
There is no single right number. It depends on how much direct review the work needs and how experienced the team is. We look at actual supervision time and recommend ranges per role, which you can adjust.
It changes where control is exercised. Founders keep the decisions they choose to keep, such as large pitches and senior hires, and delegate the rest within written limits. Delegation is written down, so it can be reviewed.
Not necessarily. Recommendations may concern reporting lines, titles, deputies or new roles. Where a change touches an employee's terms of employment, confirm your obligations with a qualified professional, as GullyHR does not give legal advice.
For appraisal and development, to a craft head who understands the work. For daily priorities, the account or project lead briefs them. Both roles should be written down so they do not fight.
Enough to show real differences in scope and pay, usually a handful of steps in each track. More levels than that tend to become title inflation.
A named level, with limits by amount and by whether the cost is already within the client budget. Anything outside the scope of an account needs a higher approval.
Founders let go of day-to-day approvals, craft and servicing heads become real managers, and account teams get standard shapes. The limits and deputies need to be rewritten at each step.
Design the Agency You Are Growing Into
If the chart on the wall no longer describes how work gets done, we can help you replace it with a structure that does. Tell us what is unclear today.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Organisation Design Consultation
Tell us about your agency and the structure questions you want to settle.
The general method — what organisation design covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the organisation design page. What is above is the part that differs for marketing, advertising and creative.
Other HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.