Directive Review: Performance Marketing and ABM for SaaS

The short version

Directive is the strongest choice in our directory for SaaS and technology companies that want account-based marketing executed as performance marketing, with paid search, paid social, SEO, CRO and creative run by one team against pipeline and revenue targets. It is not a strategic one-to-one ABM consultancy and does not pretend to be. Founded in Irvine, California in 2014 by Garrett Mehrguth, it has grown to roughly 150 to 300 staff across offices in Austin, New York, London, Toronto and Sydney, carries a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Clutch across more than 100 reviews, and lists a $10,000+ minimum project size. We rank it first overall because it combines the deepest public proof and the strongest review signal of any performance-tier agency here.

Directive at a glance

What Directive actually does

Directive sells a model it calls "Customer Generation": performance marketing planned backward from revenue and pipeline targets rather than from MQL quotas. In practice that means a pod of specialists across paid search, paid social, SEO, CRO and creative, working from a shared financial model that ties channel spend to closed-won revenue. The agency has been vocal that MQLs are a bad optimization target for SaaS, and its public content, including its own benchmark reports and the "Customer Generation" book, is built around that argument.

Where ABM fits

Directive's ABM work is delivered mainly through audience-based paid media: LinkedIn, Google and programmatic campaigns targeted at first-party account lists pulled from the client's CRM, layered with firmographic and technographic filters, and reported at the account and opportunity level. That is the one-to-many tier of ABM. It does not build bespoke plans for twenty named accounts, run executive-engagement programs or do the deep account research a strategic consultancy would. If you need those, look at Momentum ITSMA or Agent3 and keep Directive, or a platform, for the media layer.

Channel depth

Paid search is the historic strength; the agency started as a search-and-SEO shop before expanding into paid social and CRO. Its SEO practice is larger than most performance agencies in this category, which matters if you want organic and paid run from one plan. The creative team is in-house, which reduces the "we need assets from you" bottleneck that slows paid social at smaller agencies, though you should confirm what creative is included in your retainer versus billed separately.

Public proof and reviews

Directive has more published evidence than any other performance-tier agency in this directory. Its site carries named case studies for Calendly, ZoomInfo, Sumo Logic and Uber Freight among others, with stated outcomes. On Clutch it holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating across more than 100 verified reviews, one of the largest review bases for a B2B agency of its type. Read the lower-scored reviews: the recurring themes are account-manager turnover and communication cadence rather than results, which is consistent with a fast-growing agency.

Directive also publishes its own research (paid-media benchmark reports, the Customer Generation framework) and runs a frequent podcast and event calendar. None of that is proof of delivery, but it is a useful way to check whether the agency's thinking matches yours before you spend time on an RFP.

Pricing and engagement model

Directive works on monthly retainers. Clutch lists a minimum project size of $10,000+, and the published case studies skew toward Series B-to-public SaaS with media budgets well above that floor. Expect the effective monthly cost to sit in the $15,000 to $50,000 range for a multi-channel engagement, before media, with the exact figure dependent on channels and pod size. The agency does not publish a rate card. Ask specifically how media is charged (flat retainer versus a percentage of spend) and what happens to the fee at $50,000, $100,000 and $250,000 per month, since a multi-channel pod at Directive is typically priced for clients whose spend scales. Our pricing page gives the structures and ranges we could verify across the directory.

Who Directive is right for

Best fit

SaaS and technology marketers with $30,000 or more per month in paid media who want a single team running paid, SEO and CRO against pipeline numbers, and who have enough in-house ownership to approve strategy and hold the agency to account-level reporting. Companies at Series B and later, with a sales team that will work a target-account list, get the most from the model.

Poor fit

Companies that need strategic one-to-one ABM, executive-engagement programs or deep account research. Companies with under $10,000 per month in total marketing budget. Non-SaaS B2B (industrial, manufacturing, professional services) where Ironpaper or a HubSpot partner is a closer cultural fit. Teams that already have paid-media strategy in-house and mostly need execution capacity, for whom a platform such as Metadata.io (our sponsor, disclosed) may cost less per dollar of media; see agency vs. platform.

Directive compared with Refine Labs and Powered by Search

Buyers usually shortlist these three together. The differences are real.

Choose Directive if you want breadth across search and social with the largest team; Refine Labs if paid social and a demand-creation narrative are the whole strategy; Powered by Search if you want a smaller, highly rated shop and are earlier stage.

Questions to ask Directive in an RFP

• Who will be on our pod day to day, what is their tenure, and how many other clients do they carry?
• Show account-level reporting from a live client, not a channel dashboard.
• How is media charged, and what is the fee schedule at $50k, $100k and $250k per month?
• What creative is included in the retainer, and what is billed separately?
• Which of your case-study clients is closest to our size and stack, and can we speak to them?
• What is the notice period, and who owns ad accounts, audiences and creative at exit?

The full 25-item scoring checklist is on the how to choose page.

Frequently asked questions