How to manage client approvals at a marketing agency without email chains

At a busy agency, approvals are where good work goes to wait. The carousel is ready on Tuesday. The client replies to the wrong thread on Thursday. Someone posts version two when version three was approved. By Friday the account director is the integration between the project tool, the client's inbox, a deck, a chat group and a shared drive.

Here is how to fix approvals across many retainers.

Step 1: Give every client one home

Most approval problems start with work spread across too many places. Give each client a single workspace that holds:

• The board of tickets for the retainer.
• Docs, such as the brand voice and briefs.
• The calendar, including social posts.
• The client's connected ad and analytics accounts.
• The client-facing portal.

If someone asks "where is the latest version?", the answer should always be the same place.

Step 2: Make "waiting on client" a real status

Approvals get lost because they are invisible. Add statuses that match the real flow:

• In progress.
• In review, with a named internal reviewer.
• Client approval.
• Done.

Then count them. An account director should see, every morning, what is overdue, what is due today and what is waiting on the client.

Step 3: Review internally before the client sees it

Clients should never be the first reviewer. Assign an internal reviewer to every deliverable and move it to client approval only after they sign off. This catches the wrong oyster line before the client does.

Step 4: Send approvals to a portal, not an inbox

Email approvals scatter. A client portal keeps them in one place:

• The client sees only their own projects, approvals, reports and messages.
• They can approve or comment on each item.
• The approval stays with the deliverable, with a record of who said yes.

Brand the portal as your agency. It is part of the service.

Step 5: Separate spend approvals from content approvals

Approving a caption and approving A$300 of ad spend are different decisions, often by different people. Treat anything that moves money or touches a live ad account as its own approval, with a named approver. Nothing should spend until that person says yes.

Step 6: Build reports from live numbers

A lot of client back-and-forth comes from screenshot decks that are out of date the moment they are sent. Connect each client's ad and analytics accounts and build reports from the live numbers. Your team then spends its time on the commentary, which is what the client is paying for.

Step 7: Know who has room

Approvals stall when the person who needs to act is overloaded. A view of open, late and done work per person across every client shows who has capacity this week, before Thursday night arrives.

Where AI fits

AI can draft first versions, such as three caption sets grounded in the brand voice doc, and propose actions like a post boost. Treat those drafts the same as any junior's work: they go to an internal reviewer, then to the client. Nothing posts and no spend moves until a person approves.

A simple approval checklist

• One workspace per client.
• Clear statuses, including "waiting on client".
• Internal review before client review.
• A branded portal for sign-off.
• Separate spend approvals.
• Reports from live data.

Signs your approval process is broken

• You search three inboxes to find the latest client feedback.
• The wrong version has been posted at least once.
• Spend gets approved in a chat message.
• Reports go out as screenshots.
• Thursday night is when the account director catches up.

See how SuperAgency handles this

agency operationsclient approvalsclient portal