Secrets to Scaling an Advertising Agency: How Peter Tams Took Clever Digital to $10M/Year

How to Scale an Agency 🚀

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In this episode, host Jordan Ross interviews Peter Tams, co-founder of Clever Digital Marketing, who scaled his agency from side-hustle beginnings in 2019 to breaking $10M+ in annual revenue within just three years of going all-in.

Peter shares how niching down into the home improvement space, restructuring his team around client consultants, and making Net Revenue Retention (NRR) the North Star metric transformed his agency into a referral-driven growth machine. Alongside this, he dives into how Kaizen culture, infrastructure, and incentivized systems helped build a team that thrives and a business that compounds.

If you’re an agency owner stuck between $1–3M or dreaming of eight figures, this episode will give you a clear playbook on how to scale with focus, culture, and courage.

Chapters

– Why only 0.4% of agencies reach 8 figures

– Meet Peter Tams & the early days of Clever Digital Marketing

– From generalist services to specializing in home improvement

– Lessons from niching down: depth vs breadth

– Breaking $10M: the three anchors of growth

– Specialization & hyper-focus as a scaling strategy

– Creating long-term goals and 10-year vision planning

– Transforming client success managers into client consultants

– Referrals as a leading KPI & NRR as the North Star metric

– Incentivizing the team with rewards & culture-building

– The power of Kaizen (continuous improvement) in agency growth

– Building infrastructure: reporting, onboarding, and L&D systems

– Why 65% of their revenue comes from referrals

– Diversifying channels beyond referrals for sustainable growth

– Reverse-engineering metrics and building meticulous systems

– Courage, persistence, and leadership through challenges

– Staying two steps ahead in business & client relationships

– Where to connect with Peter online

To learn more go to 8figureagency.co