89% of Marketing Agencies Are Scamming You. Here's How to Spot Them with Behdad Jamshidi

"We're spending $5,500 a month on marketing and getting nothing."

Behdad sat down with the business owner, pulled up the dashboards, and started digging. What he found? $3,500 spent for ONE lead one month. Three leads the next. The agency had promised results. The data said otherwise.

Worse? The client had no access to his Google My Business. No access to his Google Ads account. The agency was charging $500/month for two Google My Business posts—and wasn't even doing them.

Welcome to the marketing agency nightmare many business owners face.

Behdad Jamshidi is an engineer-turned-marketing connector who's vetted over 1,100 marketing agencies. He's seen it all: agencies that can't provide references, platforms built "in the cloud" that don't exist, businesses spending six figures with zero ROI, and small companies getting scammed out of thousands by agencies that do nothing.

His conclusion after years of research? 89% of marketing agencies are good at nothing. 11% are good at 1-3 things.

In this conversation, Behdad reveals:

The 5 Types of Marketing Partners (And When You Need Each One):

Level 1: Freelancers/Contractors ($0-500K revenue)

1. Perfect for taking $10-20/hour tasks off your plate
2. You're still doing most of the strategy yourself
3. Good for social media posting, basic content creation, simple tasks

Level 2: Value-Based Agencies ($500K-3M revenue)

1. Hire them for ONE specific thing they do really well
2. They might offer "full service" but really excel at Google Ads or Facebook Ads
3. Everything else they do is average (and that's okay for now)

Level 3: Niche Specialists + Fractional CMO ($3M-10M revenue)

1. You've found product-market fit—now you need experts
2. Hire agencies that ONLY do SEO for your industry, or ONLY do email marketing
3. Bring in a fractional CMO ($8-12K/month) to build your actual marketing strategy
4. Most businesses at this stage have thrown things at the wall with no real plan

Level 4: Full-Funnel Managers ($10M-30M revenue)

1. These partners manage the entire customer journey: paid ads → landing page → conversion optimization → email nurture
2. Retainers: $10-30K/month
3. Ad budgets: $100K+/month
4. Not cheap, but they manage multiple teams end-to-end

Level 5: Enterprise Agencies ($30M+ revenue)

1. Million-dollar marketing budgets
2. They hire consultants on the backend for creative campaigns, programmatic ads, whatever you need
3. This is big-league, Fortune 500 territory

The $500/Hour Consulting Session That Saved $6K:

Behdad charged a small business owner $500 for one hour of consulting. He showed them:

1. Where they were wasting $3,500/month on useless ads
2. How their agency wasn't even tracking data accurately
3. How to do their own Google My Business posts in 10 minutes
4. Which services to cut immediately

The owner told him: "You should charge way more. You just saved me thousands."

The Bottom Line:

Most marketing agencies don't understand business. Most businesses don't understand marketing. That gap is where people get scammed.

Behdad's Free Resources: He's created checklists, pricing guides, and question frameworks so you can vet agencies yourself. They're free on his website.

What to ask agencies:

1. Can I talk to 3 references?
2. Do I get full access to all my accounts (Google Ads, Analytics, etc.)?
3. What happens after you drive traffic to my site?
4. How are you optimizing my funnel beyond just running ads?
5. What does success look like in 90 days? 6 months? 12 months?

The Integrity Problem:

Behdad estimates 90% of agencies lack integrity. Not because they're evil—but because they're selling what they know how to do, not what YOU need.

An SEO agency will sell you SEO. A Google Ads agency will sell you Google Ads. Nobody's asking: "Should you start a podcast? Host a VIP customer party? Build a referral program?"

The Layered Approach:

Quick cash? Run ads (if you have budget).

Sustainable growth? Build a marketing ecosystem with multiple channels, owned assets (email list), and compounding organic strategies.

Don't rely on one platform. When the algorithm shifts, your business shouldn't collapse.

ABOUT BEHDAD JAMSHIDI:

Behdad Jamshidi is the founder of CJAM Marketing, a marketing connector who's vetted over 1,100 agencies and works with the top 11%. A former sales engineer at Telus (Canada's version of Verizon), Behdad spent years building technology roadmaps for mid-size companies before launching his own business seven years ago.

He quickly discovered most marketing agencies don't understand business, and most businesses don't understand marketing. So he became the bridge—matching businesses with the exact specialists they need at each stage of growth.

Today, he works with 11 carefully vetted marketing partners across websites, branding, SEO, Google Ads, and more. His engineering brain brings analytical precision to marketing strategy, and his business consulting background helps him translate tech-speak into actionable plans.

Connect with Behdad: 🌐 cjammarketing.com (free resources in the footer) 💼 LinkedIn: Behdad Jamshidi (thought leadership on finding the right marketing partners)

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