Iman Gadzhi's Agency Navigator Review : Top 3 Issues Digital Marketing Agencies Face
Agency Navigator is a course by Iman Gadzhi that teaches how to start a digital marketing agency. Iman has two previous courses called Six Figure SMMA and Agency Incubator. Agency Navigator provides tools, templates, funnels, and more. You can put them to work immediately for your agency. The course includes step-by-step guidance on building an agency from scratch. It covers topics such as client acquisition and running effective paid ad campaigns. The course equips students with the knowledge and tools needed in digital marketing.
Reviews of Iman Gadzhi’s Agency Navigator are mixed. Some critics on Reddit and elsewhere call him a fraud and scammer. Others, like Nickvendy and Comfortable-Pin5986, praise the course’s value and support. Josephswe8 appreciates Gadzhi’s free YouTube content but avoids paid materials. Kieregaard1855 and govindthinks highlight Gadzhi’s success and the course’s convenience. In contrast, HonestDifference994 is skeptical about paying for the course. and Zealousideal-Line565 and AstromomerTypical find the content basic and lacking depth. They also commented on the slow response times from the support team.
Starting a digital marketing agency in 2025 is challenging. This is because of the complexities involved and the high costs of running paid ads. Especially on various platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube, and TikTok. According to Hootsuite, the average cost-per-click (CPC) for Facebook ads in 2024 is $0.40. The average cost-per-mille (CPM) is $5.61. Other challenges include combatting ad exhaustion and the capital to hire a team. Many agency owners end up overwhelmed. Managing multiple tasks alone can detract from providing quality customer service. This business model is labor-intensive and lacks stability.
In my opinion, starting and running a digital marketing agency using paid advertisements like what Agency Navigator teaches is like working under the relentless spotlight in Whiplash. You might nail the drum solo (paid ad campaign strategy) today, but if you slip (underperform on conversions) on the next beat, the conductor (client) is ready to toss you aside. There’s no income security. Every client sees ad spend as money going up in flames unless you’re producing immediate ROI. The moment costs creep up or results dip, you’re branded as “wasting their money.” It’s like riding a Trek Madone up Lombard Street in San Francisco while someone stares at your Strava stats. As long as your cadence looks strong and the climb is steady, they cheer you on, but the second your pace dips, they claim you’re wasting energy. With paid ads, you don’t own the distribution. Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other paid ad platforms own the audience. You’re just a tenant paying rent. One policy change, one hidden algorithm tweak, one “quality score” adjustment, and your cost-per-click (CPC) doubles or triples overnight.
In this Agency Navigator review, we discuss three issues of digital marketing agencies. We will also look at its pros and cons, reviews, and testimonials. In addition, we share Iman Gadhzi’s story and what you learn in each of the phases of this course. We will also examine whether a digital marketing agency is worth it in 2025. Lastly, we share a comparison between starting an agency and local lead generation.
Top 3 Issues Digital Marketing Agencies Face
1. Competing With Thousands of Marketers
The main issue with digital marketing agencies is dealing with the increasing competition. According to IBISWorld, there are about 87,712 digital marketing agencies in the US alone. You’re competing with them for clients and the attention of your audience.
To be competitive and stand out, you’ve got to go beyond what everyone else is doing. You need to do more prospecting and provide better results for your current clients. This means you need to pay more money for ads and invest more into growing your team to help your business scale. Competition in the digital marketing world is expensive, and you need to be ready for it.
2. Not knowing How to Price Their Services
Many new marketers with small agencies don’t know how to price their services. This comes down to not knowing the value of the services they’re offering. Another reason for this is that a new agency owner may not have enough confidence in their services. Usually, this is because they simply don’t have enough experience. Even if they have a good sales funnel, fulfillment is another beast. They’re also impatient and desperate to get as many clients as possible.
As a result, they think offering the lowest price will allow them to get more clients. That mentality attracts the cheapest clients. Most of the time, they are a hassle to deal with because they want the best results for next to nothing. If you give in to these types of clients, you’re going to feel you’re in prison. You’re going to be overworking yourself and not making enough profits.
3. Paid Ads are Expensive
The COVID-19 pandemic is at fault for the most recent rise in ad cost across all ad platforms. Everyone realized that the only way to survive the pandemic was to have a social media presence. Many realized that the way is not just organic. To compete, paid traffic was necessary.
In 2021, when the economy recovered, more advertisers competed for ad space. Meta’s CPM (cost per thousand) increased by 61% each year. Google’s display CPM has increased by 75%. TikTok’s CPM has increased by 185% each year. It’s still the cheapest of all ad platforms, but the cost is rising quickly. It’s important to monitor your campaigns to spot any changes in ad cost.
Agency Navigator Success Stories
Jackson is 18 years old and one of Iman’s students who found success with Agency Navigator. A month after finishing the course, he closes his first client. He says that the course has the best software. He said it has the best community for support, accountability, and more. Jackson mentioned that purchasing this course has changed his life. He is currently looking to continue scaling his digital marketing agency.
Alex is another of Iman’s students. Before joining Agency Navigator, Alex had gone to college and moved to London. He pursued a career in digital marketing. While in London, he invested in several social media marketing courses. His purpose was to better serve his clients. None of the other courses provided him with much value. When he came across Iman Gadzhi, he said he was blown away by what he learned. He even applied what he learned to his paid advertising job. Alex said he’s gotten phenomenal results.
Agency Navigator Reviews
Agency Navigator reviews are mixed. Some Reddit reviews stated that Iman is a fraud and a scammer. Nickvendy expresses a positive opinion about the program. He stated that it provides significant value and support. Also, he said that some may call Iman a fraud, but the course’s success depends on the effort put into it. He describes the course as a clear, step-by-step guide to starting a business.
Josephswe8 said that his YouTube videos are really useful, but he is not interested in paid stuff. Kieregaard1855 said that Iman Gadzhi runs a successful digital marketing agency himself. He added that Iman teaches what he did to get to over six-figure agency.
HonestDifference994 expresses skepticism about paying full price for Iman Gadhzi’s courses. However, he acknowledges that he offers valuable knowledge. He said that opting to access them for free by watching content on YouTube.
Comfortable-Pin5986 conveys a positive opinion about Iman Gadhzi and his course. He does not consider Iman a scammer and believes the course is good. Though it could be improved. He said that the course offers a lot of useful options and tools for those starting. Additionally, he praises the supportive community around it. Also, he added that Gadhzi didn’t simply close his agency, but referred his clients to a friend’s agency.
Zealousideal-Line565 said that Iman’s course does not teach you anything new. You can find it from a YouTube search. However, govindthinks said that the course saves a lot of time. Instead of searching for different things, the course has everything in one place.
AstromomerTypical said he bought the course and finds the videos very basic. It was more on how to run an advertising agency with no in-depth guide to marketing. He added the team replies to your questions 2-7 days or doesn’t reply at all.
Who is Iman Gadzhi?
Iman is Russian-born and London-raised. As a 14-year-old, he made around $10,000 by buying and selling Instagram pages. He dropped out of high school at 17 and is seeking ways to make money online. He came across Tai Lopez’s social media marketing course. In 2015, Iman learned about personal training. He realized he could make money with his newfound skills. He ended up selling training packages to his friends’ parents and made $10,000 doing so.
By January 2017, Iman started a social media marketing agency. He began helping businesses in Europe. Because of his marketing efforts, his agency grew to over $200,000 in revenue. He also started the Six Figure SMMA online course. It taught people how to start a social media marketing agency. The course was updated, and he renamed the Agency Incubator.
Today, Iman has generated over $25 million in sales and is the founder of IAG Media. His company assists many businesses in scaling beyond the 6-figure mark.
Agency Navigator Alternatives
AgencyBox by Dylan Vanas is a mentorship program. It helps you scale your digital marketing agency. This is done through the use of the AgencyBox platform. In it, you can manage all aspects of your social media marketing management agency. This includes running paid ads, managing social media accounts, campaigns, and more. There is a private Facebook group where you can get any help and guidance you need.
Price: AgencyBox has three pricing tiers. The Base Software costs $997 per year. The Premium Software costs $4,997 per year. For pricing of the Premium Software, along with coaching, you must get on a call with the AgencyBox team.
More info: AgencyBox Review
AltAgency by Greg Hickman is another training course that also helps grow an agency. The way Greg teaches you to scale is to package your products or services into one offering. By offering fewer things, you can make your life easier. The point is to simplify your entire business. Greg offers two different programs. These are the Foundation’s program and the Academy program. The Foundation’s course is a 6-week training program. It also comes with a private community for support. The Academy program is a year-long program. It offers a more advanced agency looking to scale to 7-figures.
Price: They offer subscription pricing, and the price is in the low to high thousands.
More info: AltAgency review
Is Starting a Digital Marketing Agency Worth It in 2025?
Starting a digital marketing agency can be worth it in 2025. But only if you love helping businesses grow and have skills in areas like SEO, PPC, and email marketing. It’s easier if you have experience in digital marketing or have worked as a freelancer before. You’ll need to work hard, keep learning, and be good at selling your services.
The industry changes a lot, so you need to be adaptable and willing to learn new things. Working long hours, especially in the beginning, is common. Finding a specific niche can help you stand out. For those already freelancing, starting an agency can be a natural next step. But without experience, managing projects and communicating with clients can be tough.
With digital marketing, there are too many moving parts you need to pay attention to. First, running paid ads on Facebook, Google, YouTube, and TikTok is expensive. This is because of the increase in competition. The same goes for split testing, different ad creatives, offers, images, calls to action, and ad copy. You need to go over and see what will convert well enough.
Ad exhaustion is also real. You’ve got to innovate if you want any kind of longevity in the marketing game and you need capital. If you have the capital to hire a team to handle things like prospecting and fulfillment, then you’ll be fine. Most people, though, can’t do that and have to take on all the work by themselves. This leaves them little time to provide excellent customer service. They become more focused on scaling the business through closing more deals.
Why Local Lead Generation Offers More Control Than Running a Digital Marketing Agency?
In my experience, local lead generation offers more control than running a digital marketing agency because you own the digital assets (websites) you create, much like the message in Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim. Instead of renting your time to a corporate boss (digital marketing client) who can cut you off, you build your own business assets that keep paying you. Just like leaving the cubicle to create something lasting, owning local lead gen sites means you control the income, not a client. Unlike paid ads that make your value 100% tied to results, local contractors don’t shop around as long as the leads keep coming. They’d rather lock in exclusivity with you than risk losing their best pipeline, like a grocery chain securing its supply of Organic Valley milk. Your asset creates loyalty because replacing you means losing revenue. Plus, these sites cost little to maintain once ranked (hosting, tracking, and occasional SEO). Renting at $500 to $2,000 monthly with $50 in expenses, you get profit margins ad agencies only dream about.
Also, it targets a specific locale. This allows you to tailor marketing efforts to local preferences. This ensures that messages are highly relevant, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Furthermore, focusing on a local market is more cost-effective. It reduces the need for extensive advertising budgets.
For example, my site Riverside Elite Roofing 10098 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, California 92503, United States 951-633-8880 https://riversideeliteroofing.com/ brought in $77,200 worth of revenue to my client for the 21 leads I forwarded last month. I also earned $3,860 in passive income for a 5% commission to every roofing deal I send their way.
Business owners understand leads are the lifeline of a business. If you can send them exclusive leads every month, they won’t think twice about paying you what you want or more. Marketing strategies such as local SEO are easier to manage than digital campaigns.
If you want a passive income each month with digital real estate, check out the local lead generation.
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