# Choosing Your Marketing Setup | Crank

Source: https://wearecrank.com/insights/choosing-your-setup

What a marketing operating system is, how to check your agency's reporting, how to audit an agency, and whether to hire an analyst or use a managed service.

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# Choosing your setup.

Work out what you have, whether it is accurate, and what kind of help you need.

## About this section

Before you change anything, it helps to know whether what you have is working and what kind of help you need. Many businesses are paying an agency they cannot easily check, or weighing up a hire without knowing what the alternatives cost.

This section is for owners and marketing leads deciding between an in-house analyst, an agency, a managed service or a single system that joins the work together. The guides explain what a marketing operating system is and what it is not, how to test whether your agency's reporting is accurate against your own sales records, a five-point audit you can run without starting an argument, and how a marketing analyst compares with a managed service on cost, speed to start and who owns the accounts. They are written so you can run the checks yourself, form a view, and ask better questions of whoever you work with.

## Guides in this section

Category

[All4](/insights/choosing-your-setup)[B2B4](/insights/choosing-your-setup?category=b2b)[Ecommerce4](/insights/choosing-your-setup?category=ecommerce)

Type

[All4](/insights/choosing-your-setup)[Guide3](/insights/choosing-your-setup?type=guide)[Checklist1](/insights/choosing-your-setup?type=checklist)

Showing 4 of 4 posts

* [B2BEcommerceGuideChoosing your setupWhat is a marketing operating system?A marketing operating system joins tracking, dashboards, daily alerts, ads and campaign builds into one managed system. What it is, and what it is not.Read ](/insights/what-is-a-marketing-operating-system)
* [B2BEcommerceGuideChoosing your setupIs my agency reporting accurate?Is your agency's reporting accurate? Why platform and agency numbers differ from your own sales, a ten-minute self-check, and what an independent read looks like.Read ](/insights/is-my-agency-reporting-accurate)
* [B2BEcommerceChecklistChoosing your setupHow to audit your marketing agencyA fair, practical way to check what your agency reports: five checks you can run from your own sales records and ad accounts, without starting an argument.Read ](/insights/how-to-audit-a-marketing-agency)
* [B2BEcommerceGuideChoosing your setupMarketing analyst or managed service?Hire a marketing analyst or use a managed service? What each costs, how fast each starts, who owns the accounts, and when each one makes sense for your business.Read ](/insights/analyst-vs-managed-service)

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