Dylan Vanas' AgencyBox Review – 3 Roadblocks When Scaling Your Digital Marketing Agency + A Business Alternative |IPPEI

Updated On 2023-04-14

AgencyBox is a done-for-you digital marketing agency platform created by Dylan Vanas. It combines mentorship, white-label services, and tools to help agency owners scale without doing all the work themselves. It’s legit, but the business model is generic, oversaturated, and hard to differentiate, especially for beginners.

Many digital marketers aren’t able to scale because they take on all the roles in their business. As a result, they cap themselves on what their profit is, and they also burn themselves out. AgencyBox focuses on outsourcing or hiring a team that do the service fulfillment.

I also work in the digital marketing space, and my opinion is that AgencyBox’s business model is too generic. You’re taught to cover everything in a general way. To me, that’s like trying to be both NASA and Pixar under one roof. One’s building rockets, the other’s crafting stories, and somewhere in between, your focus gets lost. Plus, there are already thousands of digital marketers, including big names like Neil Patel and Gary Vaynerchuk, who offer social media management, SEO, and website development. You’ll be drowned out like a whisper at a rock concert. It’s going to be tough finding clients, especially high-ticket ones that require a lot of trust building.

In this AgencyBox review, I go over what’s inside, what students are saying, and if the course is legit. I also give you 3 roadblocks to scaling a digital marketing agency. I finish by sharing the digital marketing model I use, which is easy to get clients for. Hint: It’s local lead generation.

What Are the Pros and Cons of AgencyBox?

Pros:

Dylan is a 2-time 8-figure founder and CEO.
The AgencyBox program comes with a software that lets you offer several services to other businesses. That way, you’re not a “one-trick pony” in the digital marketing world.
AgencyBox is not hard to learn how to use for an agency owner.

Cons:

Social media marketing clients can refuse to pay if they aren’t happy with the work you do for them.
Many business owners have learned how to use social media to promote their businesses, which decreases your chances of gaining more clients.
Profit margins are low in a social media marketing agency business (10% to 20%)

Price: AgencyBox has three pricing tiers: Base Software costs $997 per year and 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.

Refund Policy: AgencyBox has a one-year, action-based money-back guarantee except for subscription services and live events.

Group: AgencyBox has a private Facebook group for support.

Origin: Dylan founded AgencyBox in 2018.

Reputation: Dylan has an excellent reputation because he has helped 7, 8 and 9 -figure brands scale even more.

Why Is It So Hard to Scale a Digital Marketing Agency?

Expensive paid advertising. With each passing year cost to run advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and YouTube continues to rise. This is because of the steady increase in marketers and business owners competing for traffic. Meta’s CPM has increased 61% annually over the last few years and this trend will continue upward. Running ads 4 to 5 years ago on social media was far less competitive and expensive, making it easy for you to generate more traffic and sales. In 2025, marketing agencies need to set aside a large amount of capital to run Facebook ads or TikTok and YouTube ads effectively while testing different creatives until they find a winning ad that converts well enough to increase revenue.
Clients can leave you anytime. When you take on digital marketing clients, your clients can choose to stop working with you at anytime. In the United States alone, there are over 14,000 marketing agencies. Your clients can be approached by another agency and decide to stop working with you for many reasons like better pricing, support, service fulfillment and more. Unless you lock your clients in on a contract, which most businesses don’t enjoy doing, your clients are yours until they aren’t. It’s on you to make sure you are providing the best service and customer support possible. Still, no matter how good of a business marketing plan you put together, your clients can leave you. It’s no sure shot you’re going to keep your clients long-term.
Digital marketing clients are demanding. Digital marketing clients are demanding because they expect to see results immediately. Especially after every time they pay you. The most demanding clients are high paying clients. Many times, they don’t realize that social media marketing is a process. This is why it is important to set their expectations before working together. If not, they will start micro-managing you, calling, texting, and emailing you often. This is not something you want to deal with if you left your 9-5 job to become an entrepreneur. You want each client to be a happy client, and it starts with setting their expectations. If they are still going to fuss every day, they are bad clients and you should part ways with them.

What Do You Get with AgencyBox?

Dashboard. The dashboard is your starting point where you have access to your links and resources. Your community is also within this section and you can have any of your questions answered.

Learning center. In the learning center, you get access to several training videos that are presented as whiteboard animations. There are courses on: getting clients, sales, new client acquisition, SEO, and more.

Your agency. In this section, you get an outline about the AgencyBox outline. You also get to set up or purchase the website and logo special they offer. They even share a list of software and tools you can use in your digital marketing agency that will help you scale.
Order management portal. In the order management portal, you can view all the products you offer your clients, view prices, and place client orders. You can also get all the support you need by submitting tickets through this portal.

Success resources. Dylan’s team provides you with over 50 scripts, templates, case studies, pitch decks, and more.

Who Is Dylan Vanas?

Dylan Vanas is the CEO of AgencyBox who hails from Vancouver, Canada. Since he was 14 years old, he always wanted to run a business. At 18 years old, he joined a company that sold flying squirrels, or sugar gliders. They had done $30 million in revenue in only a couple of years and were trying to expand into Canada. In his first year, he did over $1 million in sales. But over time, he realized that he was working too much on the business and had no time for anything else.

In 2018, he founded the Mindful Agency. The Mindful Agency is a digital marketing company that helps businesses get featured on major publications to increase sales, earn credibility and rank at the top of Google. Dylan grew this business to over 8-figures in revenue. He also founded the AgencyBox in 2018. AgencyBox is an online platform that agency owners can use to provide several services to their clients, such as Google ads, graphic design, social media management, podcasting, and more. In 2021, he worked as a contributor at Entrepreneur Media. One year later, he became a board member at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

Today, Dylan primarily promotes the AgencyBox platform and only posts several YouTube Shorts on the AgencyBox YouTube channel for his over 415K subscribers.

What Is Dylan Vanas Net Worth?

Dylan Vanas an estimated net worth of between $10 million and $15 million if you take into consideration the fact that he founded two 8-figure businesses he continues to promote. These two businesses are an essential part of the reason why his net worth is within that range.

Does AgencyBox Have Successful Students?

Yes, AgencyBox has successful students, but only very few. One of these is Gavin. He’s a 19-year-old AgencyBox client from Wisconsin who never enjoyed school. He always wanted to own a business. When AgencyBox first started, he joined and was only making around $1,200, which is not big money. He felt that nothing was working. Gavin didn’t give up and focused on the process. Eventually, he grew his digital marketing agency to over $22K in revenue per month.

Is AgencyBox Legit?

AgencyBox is legit because Dylan Vanas’ company offers software that helps digital marketing agencies manage their social media marketing campaigns and that of their clients in an organized way. Many of the services you have access to will help you provide legitimate results. If you look at the Results page on the AgencyBox website, you’ll also see how many students have been successful with the guidance of Dylan Vanas and his team. If you want to learn exactly how to learn specific digital marketing skills like running paid traffic ads, consider Jason Hornung’s Academy of Advertising.

What Are AgencyBox Alternatives?

Agency Navigator by Iman Gadzhi is a course where you learn how to start and scale your own digital marketing agency. Iman provides you with all the tools, templates, funnels, and more that will put you on the path of running a SMMA efficiently. There are over 50 hours’ worth of content and Iman hosts live coaching calls every Tuesday for his students. There is a forum-style community, you get access to over 25 custom built website templates, and ongoing support. Price: Agency Navigator costs $1,499.
AltAgency by Greg Hickman is a more advanced program for digital marketing agencies. Greg teaches you how to scale your agency to additional levels by helping you package your services so that your sales process becomes a much simpler one. You are taught how to automate several parts of your agency to aid in this process of growth. Greg offers two programs depending on what level you are at in your business. AltAgency Foundations and AltAgency Academy. Foundations is a 6-week program and the Academy is 12-months only available after you finish Foundations and are making over $10K per month in revenue with your agency. Price: AltAgency is offered as a subscription service according to their Terms & Conditions page, but the price is not specified.
Jason Wojo is a social media marketing expert who runs a digital marketing agency, Wojo Media. The agency offers ad creatives, ad campaign management, social media marketing, and more. Jason also sells a social media marketing agency course that teaches you how to create and manage your own agency. You can also do a 1-by-1 mentorship with Jason where he will run your ad campaigns and teach you how it’s done. Price: Depends on the services. Course costs $97.

There are many other online coaching programs that teach you how to scale your agency, like Faizan Saeed’s Lead Gen Accelerator mentorship, but who you choose to invest with comes down to your budget and what you want to learn.

Is Starting a Digital Marketing Agency Profitable in 2025?

Yes, digital marketing agencies can still be profitable, but with major caveats. The industry is heavily saturated and increasingly difficult to break into without a specific niche or established portfolio. With over 4.9 billion social media users and 96% of U.S. small businesses using platforms like Facebook and Instagram, demand exists. But so does fierce competition.

The biggest challenge is scalability and ownership. As an agency owner, you don’t control the asset. You’re helping someone else grow their brand. Clients can cancel on a whim, and many expect fast results from complex services like SEO, paid ads, email marketing, and content creation. To stay competitive, you’re forced to be a full-stack marketer or hire a team, both of which drive up costs and complexity. The result? High effort, unstable income, and limited long-term leverage. It’s all too unpredictable.

If you want a digital marketing business that gives you ownership, recurring income, and doesn’t rely on client retention or constant service delivery, then consider local lead generation. It’s a leaner, more scalable way to earn online, without the burnout that often comes with agency life.

Is Local Lead Generation More Profitable Than a Digital Marketing Agency?

Yes, local lead generation is more profitable and sustainable than a digital marketing agency. With local lead gen, you build simple service-based websites, rank them on Google, and rent out the leads to local businesses for a flat monthly fee or sell them for a commission. Each website usually earns $500 to $5,000, depending on the niche. These sites act like digital Coca-Cola vending machines. They bring in a steady income month after month without your constant involvement.

Here, there’s no need to manage ad campaigns, run reports, or respond to demanding clients. You’re not chasing contracts or hoping to keep your next retainer, because you own the digital asset. And unlike digital marketing agencies, which are overcrowded with freelancers and big companies pitching the same vague promises, “We’ll run your Facebook ads” or “We’ll grow your Instagram”, local lead generation stands out by offering something every business actually wants: real leads.

Think of digital marketing agencies as trying to sell generic bottled water at a Las Vegas convention. It’s hard to stand out as it’s crowded, loud, and commoditized. Local lead gen is like owning the only water source in the Sahara Desert. It’s specific, scarce, and in high demand. That’s why businesses happily pay $1,000+ per month for your leads, and they stick around because your value isn’t theoretical, it’s measurable.

Local Lead Generation Is My Top Digital Marketing Pick

Local lead generation vs digital marketing agencies

My local lead generation business is earning a monthly average of $52,000. I earn that big amount without lifting a finger. Sure, it took some work to build, rank, and sell websites and leads. But even that, one website only took around 25 hours. And now that I’m skilled in website building and local SEO, it takes as little as 15 hours. After that, I leave it on its own while it generates income. For example, one of my websites, Los Angeles Quality Drywall, 1555 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024, 323-529-6050, laqualitydrywall.com, sells 5 converted leads per month. The drywall company earns $35,000 from these clients and gives me a 10% commission. So that means I make $3,500 from that site alone.

With my expert knowledge, especially on local SEO, I created a local lead gen course to get started with this business. You’ll learn all you need to know, from building a website, ranking it quickly, and talking to local businesses. I also have a special offer to work for my roofing client. You get a 1-5% commission for the total earnings of the website you built.