I’ve been noticing that some agencies’ case studies make me immediately suspicious, and others make me want to work with them. The difference isn’t always in the results—sometimes it’s how they present them.
Like, I saw a case study recently that claimed a campaign ‘delivered 300% ROI.’ That’s great, but it told me absolutely nothing about how they did it or what the starting context was. Was it a small budget baseline (making 300% sound more impressive)? Were there other factors? I had more questions after reading it than before.
On the other hand, I saw another case study that was pretty honest about the challenges—like, ‘Here’s what we tried first and it didn’t work, here’s what we learned, and here’s what actually moved the needle.’ That one made me actually believe in their capabilities.
So I’m trying to figure out: what kind of case studies actually help when you’re trying to attract partner agencies? Do they want numbers-focused wins? Or do they want to understand your process? What’s the difference between showcasing what you’ve done and overselling it?
I want to share our wins with potential partners, but I want to do it in a way that actually builds trust instead of making us look like we’re exaggerating or hiding important context.
This is such a good question, and honestly, the case studies that make me want to partner are the ones that teach me something about how you think.
Here’s what I’m looking for when I evaluate potential partners:
1. What was the actual situation? Not just ‘we grew their followers 200%,’ but ‘they had 10K followers, their engagement was dropping, and they didn’t have a content strategy.’
2. What was your hypothesis? What did you think would work and why?
3. What did you actually do? Step-by-step. Not vague ‘we implemented a strategy,’ but actual tactics.
4. What surprised you? Did something work way better than expected? Did something fail that you thought would win? This is where I learn about your judgment.
5. What were the results, and what do they actually mean? Not just percentages, but ‘this translates to X revenue’ or ‘this improved their competitive position by Y.’
6. What would you do differently next time? This is the real insight test.
For partnerships specifically, I’m basically asking: ‘Would I trust this person to think clearly about my problems?’ Case studies prove that more than raw numbers do.
My advice: do maybe 3-4 detailed case studies that show your actual thinking, even if they’re not your biggest wins. A 40% result where I understand exactly how you got there is more valuable than a 400% result that’s presented as a black box.
I think Alex is right, but I’d add that different audiences want different things.
When I’m evaluating a potential partner, I want to know:
For agency partnerships:
- What’s your process? (Can I rely on you to think systematically?)
- What’s your success rate? (Are these wins typical or outliers?)
- How do you handle edge cases? (Can you troubleshoot novel problems?)
- What’s your learning velocity? (Do you improve based on failures?)
For brand/client credibility:
- What results did you get? (Numbers matter here)
- How quickly did you get them? (Efficiency signals)
- Can you do it again? (Repeatability)
- What kind of brands do you work best with? (Fit matters)
So your case study strategy should probably include:
- One ‘win’ case study that shows numbers and speed (for appeal)
- One ‘learning’ case study that shows how you troubleshoot (for trust)
- One ‘niche mastery’ case study that shows deep expertise in your vertical (for positioning)
Each one serves a different purpose. And I’d actually include metrics about your process, not just results. Like: ‘Average revision cycle: 3 days,’ ‘Creator satisfaction score: 4.7/5,’ ‘On-time delivery rate: 94%.’
Those operational metrics tell me way more than a campaign win.
From a creator’s perspective—and this might help you understand what builds trust—I care way more about understanding how you work with creators than raw campaign numbers.
Like, show me: How do you brief creators? How do you handle feedback? How quickly do you pay? Do you respect creative input?
I’ve turned down partnerships with bigger agencies because their case studies made it sound like creators are just content machines. Whereas smaller agencies that showed respect for creators in their case studies? That’s who I want to work with.
So maybe one of your case studies should literally be from a creator’s perspective—like, ‘Here’s what the creator said about working with us and how it improved their own business.’
That stuff actually sells partnership.
Oh, I love this framing, because honestly, case studies are relationship-building tools.
What I’m looking for when I’m considering a partnership:
-
Do they understand relationship dynamics? Like, can they show a case study where they actually improved a partner relationship or opened doors for someone?
-
Are they humble about limitations? A case study that says ‘Here’s what we did great, and here’s where we had to bring in specialists’ signals that they’re not going to overload themselves and then underdeliver to me.
-
Do they think long-term? Like, ‘We built this relationship with a creator that now leads to 40% of our referrals’ vs. ‘We did this one-off campaign.’
-
Can they communicate complexity clearly? If a case study is hard to understand, I worry about how they’d communicate with my team.
My advice: include in your case studies everything that shows how you think about partnership and relationship-building. That’s what will attract good partners.
Also, honestly, a case study that includes how you screwed up initially and fixed it is more trustworthy than one with flawless execution.
I’ve analyzed somewhere around 100+ case studies from agencies trying to attract partnership interest, and here’s what actually correlates with high-quality partnerships forming:
High trust indicators:
- Context provided about starting conditions (not just end results)
- Specific metrics, not percentages (e.g., ‘grew followers from 10K to 34K’ vs. ‘240% growth’)
- Explanation of methodology (how did you get the results?)
- Honest time-to-result (did it take 3 weeks or 6 months?)
- Comparative benchmarks (how does this compare to industry average?)
Low trust indicators:
- Exceptional outlier results without context
- Results attributed to the agency without acknowledging external factors
- Vague metrics (‘delivered value’)
- No discussion of challenges or iterations
Data point: Case studies that include a “lessons learned” section get 3x more partnership inquiries than those without.
What I’d recommend:
- Pick your 3 best campaigns (but not necessarily your biggest)
- Document them with full context, methodology, and honest results
- Include a section on “What we would do differently”
- Make the case study 800-1200 words—long enough to actually explain, short enough to read quickly
- Include creator feedback and testimonials, not just brand feedback
That structure builds partnership trust way more than numbers alone.
This is so helpful because we’re doing the same thing with our startup—trying to build partnerships through case studies.
What’s worked for us is being really specific about the problem we solved and the journey to get there. Like, not ‘we grew their business,’ but ‘they had X problem, conventional wisdom said Y, but we discovered Z worked better because…’
People want to understand your thinking. They want to know if you can help them with their specific problems.
I’d honestly suggest doing a short case study (like 500 words) where you focus on one specific decision or pivot, rather than trying to cover the whole campaign. Depth beats breadth for building partner credibility.