# Agency Brief Template: Nine Sections, With Examples

> An agency brief should fit on two to four pages and cover nine things: background, a measurable goal, audience, scope, what is out of scope, technical constraints, deadlines, a budget range and how the decision will be made. The two parts clients skip most often, a measurable goal and a budget range, cause the biggest gaps between proposals.

- URL: https://agenturbewertung.de/en/choosing-an-agency/agency-brief-template/
- Language: en
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- Publisher: Agenturbewertung (OnlineBuilders LLC, https://onlinebuilders.biz)

Here is a pattern every agency knows. Someone sends a three-line email: new website, modern feel, live by summer. Five proposals come back, ranging from $7,000 to $70,000. Nobody quoted wrongly. Each agency quoted a different project, because the email left every important decision open.

Writing a brief closes those gaps. It doesn't need design or polish. It needs to answer the questions an agency will otherwise answer for you, using its own assumptions.

## The template: nine sections

Copy these headings into a document and write two to five sentences under each. When you don't know something yet, say so. "Not decided" is useful information.

1. **Background.** Who you are, what exists today, why now. Example: "Our site has run on WordPress with a bought theme since 2019. Product pages take over five seconds to load on mobile and the theme no longer receives updates."
2. **Goal and how you will measure it.** "More leads" is a wish. "From about 40 to 80 qualified enquiries a month" is a goal.
3. **Audience.** Who will use the result? Two or three sentences per group, ideally with a typical situation in which they arrive.
4. **Scope.** What should exist at the end? Page count, languages, features, number of products, integrations.
5. **Out of scope.** What is explicitly not included: copywriting, photography, translation, hosting, SEO after launch. Almost every brief lacks this section, and it prevents more change requests than any other.
6. **Technical constraints.** Systems to connect (CRM, ERP, email platform), IT policies, hosting preferences.
7. **Deadlines.** Hard launch date or preference? Dependencies such as a trade show or product release?
8. **Budget range.** Upper and lower bound, and whether it includes the first year of hosting and maintenance.
9. **Selection process.** Deadline for proposals, who decides, whether there will be presentations and whether those are paid.

Attach whatever helps: brand guidelines, an analytics export, screenshots, existing contracts with hosts or licence providers.

## Three gaps that wreck comparability

Short on time? Fix these first. They account for most of the price spread between proposals.

**Before you send the brief: the three expensive gaps**

- [ ] **Content:** Who writes copy, who supplies images, who migrates old pages? On an 80-page site that can be more work than the design.
- [ ] **Integrations:** Name every external system, with product and version. "Connect to our CRM" is not a scope.
- [ ] **Budget:** A range with a floor and a ceiling, and whether first-year running costs are included.
- [ ] **Acceptance:** How will you know the project is finished? One sentence is enough to start.

The fourth item rarely changes the price, but it prevents the most common argument at the end of a project.

Content is the classic. Agency one assumes you deliver finished copy. Agency two includes page-by-page copywriting. Both are reasonable readings of a brief that says nothing on the subject. You see a gap of several thousand pounds and conclude that agency two is expensive, when it is simply offering more.

## Why the budget belongs in the brief

Clients hold back budgets because they fear the agency will quote right up to the ceiling. That fear isn't baseless. Silence costs more, though.

Without a number, each agency builds its own idea of the right project. One proposes a headless CMS with a full design system, another a lightly customised theme. With a number, agencies tell you what is achievable within it and, if they're any good, what you would have to drop. That is the answer you actually need.

If you have no idea what a project should cost, read [how much does a website cost](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/proposals-and-pricing/how-much-does-a-website-cost/) first. It shows a calculation you can turn into a realistic range.

## Goals an agency can be held to

Agencies invent goals more often than anything else, because briefs leave them out. Some examples of turning a vague wish into something checkable:

| Vague | Checkable |
|---|---|
| Modern website | Mobile homepage loads in under 2.5 seconds (LCP); marketing can edit pages without a developer |
| More visibility | 30% more organic visits to product pages within twelve months of launch |
| Better user journey | Cut drop-off in the enquiry form by a third compared with today's measured rate |
| Customer app | Existing customers can book appointments in the app; target 25% of bookings in year one |

The figures are examples. What matters is a baseline. If you don't know today's traffic or conversion numbers, look them up before you write the brief.

Some goals aren't percentages at all. "Marketing can launch a landing page without a developer" is still testable: at the end, someone from the team builds one, and it either works or it doesn't.

## What to leave out

Solutions. Write "we need an app" and you will receive proposals for an app, even if a mobile site at a third of the price would have solved the problem better. Describe the problem and let the agency propose the route. That thinking is part of what you pay for.

Fixed constraints are the exception. If your IT team can only support certain platforms, say so plainly. That's a boundary, not a solution.

Secrecy backfires too. If you don't want to share traffic, revenue by channel or internal processes in an open document, send a non-disclosure agreement first. Briefs without numbers produce proposals without substance.

## Don't skip the re-brief

After sending the brief, ask each agency for a re-brief: a short written or spoken summary of what they understood, plus their questions. It takes thirty minutes and is the best quality test in the whole selection process.

Good agencies ask awkward questions here. Why that deadline? What happens if the goal isn't met? Who maintains the content after launch? Agencies that only nod either didn't read the brief or are afraid objections will cost them the job. Neither is reassuring. For a sense of how product teams interrogate requirements before writing code, see how [OnlineBuilders describes its working process](https://onlinebuilders.biz/how-we-work).

Answer every question in writing and send the answers to all agencies. Otherwise one of them works with information the others lack, and comparability is gone again.

## From brief to proposals

With the brief done, pick the recipients. Three agencies are usually enough; [how to choose an agency](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/choosing-an-agency/how-to-choose-an-agency/) covers building that shortlist. If you plan presentations with concept work, read up on the [agency pitch process](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/choosing-an-agency/agency-pitch-process/), including whether to pay a pitch fee.

When proposals arrive, the brief earns its keep a second time as a checklist. Each of the nine sections should be answered somewhere in every proposal. The guide on [how to compare agency proposals](https://agenturbewertung.de/en/proposals-and-pricing/compare-agency-proposals/) explains the rest.

Next step: block 90 minutes, paste the nine headings into a blank page and write a rough first version. Start with section five, the out-of-scope list.

## FAQ

### How long should an agency brief be?

Two to four pages, plus attachments such as brand guidelines and analytics exports. Longer briefs rarely get read in full. Shorter ones leave the agency guessing.

### Should I share my budget with agencies?

Yes, at least as a range. Without it, one agency plans the ideal and another the minimum, and you end up comparing two different projects. Agencies price by scope anyway, so a range weakens your negotiating position very little.

### What is a re-brief?

The agency plays your brief back to you in its own words, in writing or in a short meeting, and asks its questions. Misunderstandings surface before anyone spends days on a proposal.

### Is a brief the same as a requirements document?

No. A brief explains goals, constraints and expectations and is enough for a first proposal. A requirements specification lists features in detail and often becomes part of a software contract.

Photo: Tookapic, CC0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pen-writing-notes-studying.jpg)