Marketing Agency: the Crack Den of Digital Marketing

According to Wikipedia, a “boca de fumo” — also known as a “drug spot” — refers to a place, usually a shack, where illegal drugs are sold.

In the context of digital marketing, while many companies are serious and competent, capable of delivering exceptional results for their clients, there are also those that behave like true “digital marketing crack dens.”

These agencies offer shallow, quick-fix, and highly addictive solutions that create dependency in their clients without ever addressing the structural problems of communication and positioning. Worse: they fail to deliver concrete results and end up compromising the reputation of the entire sector, harming ethical professionals and agencies committed to long-term strategies and real value delivery.

It’s important to note that the purpose of this article is not to demonize marketing agencies or propagate sensationalism. The goal, even through a provocative approach, is to encourage reflection among professionals and companies in the industry — precisely to prevent the recurring complaint of new clients: “I paid a marketing agency for months and got no results.”

When we encounter abandoned websites and social media accounts, it’s difficult — if not impossible — to defend the work of the previous professional. In these cases, all the new service provider can do is protect themselves and say, “I don’t know what was agreed on before, so I’d rather not comment.”

Regarding shallow solutions, it’s important to highlight a key technical point: whenever a new domain is acquired and a new website is developed, it starts with zero domain authority and zero organic traffic. From there, continuous strategic work becomes essential — not only to attract organic visits but also to build digital authority over time.

However, this process is naturally costly — both in terms of time and financial investment. For this reason, it’s not uncommon to find websites with very little traffic, nonexistent domain authority, and completely abandoned social media accounts.

In this scenario, many agencies resort to the so-called “quick fix”: paid promotion. In other words, instead of positioning the site organically in search engines, they rely on paid ads — the well-known paid traffic. It’s worth noting that this practice is not a problem in itself. The mistake lies in adopting it as the sole strategy, without simultaneously implementing medium- and long-term actions aimed at generating organic traffic.

As a result, the client ends up with a website that is irrelevant for search engines, underperforming, and fully dependent on continuous paid media investment. The outcome? Increased marketing costs, growing dependency on paid promotion, and, worse, complete stagnation in terms of strategic digital presence.

This is exactly why I use the term “digital trafficker”: they sell the illusion of immediate visibility but deliver an expensive addiction that doesn’t solve the root cause and compromises business sustainability.

Ultimately, the criticism here is not of paid traffic itself — but of the blind and irresponsible dependency that many digital marketing professionals encourage out of convenience (or lack of technical expertise). Turning clients into hostages of promotions without strategic purpose is easy, fast, and profitable — for the seller. But absolutely harmful for the buyer.

This cycle needs to be broken. Real marketing work is not addictive; it is liberating. It structures, positions, strengthens brands, and builds authority consistently. It requires study, method, ethics, and long-term vision — which is why few are willing to take this path.

If you’re a client, ask yourself: is your agency liberating you or addicting you?
If you’re a marketing professional, ask yourself: are you delivering solutions or selling temporary relief?

Marketing is not a drug. It’s strategy.
And like any good strategy, it begins with a decision: do you want to be just another client in line… or build something truly relevant?

Original version published on June 29, 2025, on the Vasconcelos Marketing & Comunicação blog.