How Much Time & Money Can Marketing Agencies Save with Client Onboarding Automation? [Real Statistics]

How much time and money could your agency win back every month just by automating client onboarding? For most marketing teams, the answer is a lot more than they realize.

Manual onboarding doesn’t just create delays. It eats into billable hours that could be spent on strategy and creative work. Or worse, it leaves clients with a rocky first impression that can lead to early churn.

To put real numbers behind this, we analyzed thousands of onboarding tasks in Motion.io’s reporting backend.

Note: If you’re already using Motion.io, you’ll recognize many of these metrics. They’re the same ones you can access in your own dashboard (just tailored to your business).

What Is Client Onboarding for Marketing Agencies?

Client onboarding for marketing agencies is the setup stage where clients provide brand assets, account access, and approvals so campaigns can launch.

While essential, this stage is often slow. That's because most tasks fall on the client, so any delays here ripple into project kickoffs and billable time.

The Biggest Client Onboarding Challenges Agencies Face

Onboarding is supposed to set projects up for success, but for many marketing agencies, it becomes one of the biggest bottlenecks in the client relationship.

The problem isn’t that agencies don’t know what to collect; it’s that the process is spread across too many moving parts and relies heavily on client responsiveness.

Here are the most common challenges agencies run into:

• Waiting on clients for assets and logins. From brand guidelines to ad account permissions, most onboarding inputs are on the client’s side. Motion.io data shows that 85% of onboarding tasks are client-assigned, meaning timelines often stall until clients act.
• Delays in forms and approvals. Intake forms go untouched in inboxes, contracts sit unsigned, and file feedback takes longer than expected. Even a two-day delay on a single task can push campaign launches back by weeks.
• Scattered communication. Without a central place to manage onboarding, agencies and clients juggle emails, spreadsheets, and shared drives. The result is confusion for both sides and unnecessary project delays.
• Internal misalignment. While most tasks sit with clients, agencies still need to coordinate their own kickoff steps. When those team tasks aren’t tracked alongside client tasks, important steps get overlooked.

These challenges ultimately create friction during the stage when clients are forming their first impression of your agency.

Client Onboarding Statistics Every Marketing Agency Should Know

Talking about onboarding challenges is one thing. Seeing the numbers behind them is another.

We analyzed thousands of onboarding projects from marketing agencies to uncover patterns: who carries the workload, what types of tasks are most common, and how much time and money can actually be saved with automation.

Here’s a summary of what the data shows:

• Most onboarding tasks fall on clients, not agencies.
• The average onboarding involves about four tasks.
• Forms, file requests, and signatures dominate the process.
• Automation consistently saves agencies both hours and dollars.

In the next sections, we’ll break down each of these findings in detail, with benchmarks you can measure your own onboarding process against.

Who handles onboarding tasks in marketing agencies?

One of the clearest patterns in our dataset is just how much of onboarding depends on the client.

Out of more than 16,000 onboarding tasks analyzed across agency projects, 85.2% were client-assigned. This includes things like uploading assets, filling out forms, or signing contracts. Only 14.8% were handled by agency teams.

This imbalance explains why onboarding so often drags. Agencies can prepare everything on their side, but progress ultimately hinges on how quickly clients respond. Even a short delay on a single task, like waiting for brand guidelines or account logins, can push back a project kickoff by days or weeks.

What are the most common client onboarding tasks?

Not every onboarding looks the same, but the data shows clear trends in the types of tasks agencies assign.

First, the volume: on average, each client onboarding includes about four tasks (3.87 to be exact). That might not sound like much, but those few steps often involve multiple back-and-forth emails, reminders, and follow-ups.

The most common task types are:

• Form submissions (43%) – Intake forms and questionnaires are the single biggest category.
• File requests (24%) – Asking clients to upload logos, images, or other brand assets.
• Signature-related tasks (16% combined) – Contracts, approvals, or compliance paperwork.
• File sharing (5%) – Agencies providing files or documents back to clients.
• File feedback/approvals (1.5%) – Less common, but still a source of potential delay.
• Multi-step checklist tasks – Complex onboarding steps that require more than one action.

The takeaway: onboarding isn’t about dozens of tasks piling up. It’s about a small set of critical actions that need to be completed quickly.

When those few tasks stall, entire projects can be held up. That’s why simplifying how clients complete forms, upload files, and sign contracts makes such a big difference to agency efficiency.

How much time can marketing agencies save with onboarding automation?

Onboarding creates stress, but more importantly, it consumes hours that could be spent on billable work. The good news is that automation gives a measurable chunk of that time back.

Across completed projects in Motion.io, agencies saved an average of 2.34 hours for every new client they onboarded. Multiply that by client volume, and the impact becomes obvious:

• 10 new clients/month → 23.4 hours saved
• 20 new clients/month → 46.8 hours saved
• 30 new clients/month → 70.2 hours saved

That’s the equivalent of nearly two full workweeks every quarter. Over the course of a year, even at 10 clients per month, that adds up to 280+ hours saved. This is time agencies can redirect toward client strategy, campaign launches, or simply reducing the load on their team.

The takeaway? Even modest efficiency gains per client scale into major time savings as your agency grows.

How much money can marketing agencies save with client onboarding automation?

The financial impact is clear: reducing admin tasks protects billable hours and improves profitability.

In our data, automating onboarding saved an average of $141 per client project. That might not sound huge on its own, but scale it across new client volume and the numbers tell a different story:

• 10 new clients/month → $1,410 saved
• 20 new clients/month → $2,820 saved
• 30 new clients/month → $4,230 saved

Over a year, that adds up to more than $16,000 saved at just 10 clients per month - and over $50,000 saved at 30 clients per month. For many agencies, that’s enough to fund an additional hire, expand ad budgets for clients, or simply boost profitability without adding overhead.

What’s driving those savings? Much of it comes from reducing repetitive, low-value administrative work, such as sending follow-ups, chasing down contracts, or troubleshooting file transfers. 

By automating those steps, agencies protect billable hours and free their team to focus on higher-value work that drives growth.

The bottom line: onboarding automation has a measurable, direct impact on your agency’s revenue.

Why Automating Client Onboarding Helps Agencies Scale

For agencies, the real advantage of automating onboarding is scalability. Once the repetitive steps are streamlined, every new client gets the same consistent, high-quality experience, no matter how fast your agency grows.

Here’s why customer onboarding automation is a growth driver (and not just a time-saver):

• Consistency at scale. Every client goes through the same high-touch process, whether you’re onboarding two clients a month or twenty.
• Fewer bottlenecks. Automated reminders and centralized tasks mean projects don’t stall waiting on emails or missing files.
• Better client experience. Clients get one clear place to complete tasks, instead of juggling spreadsheets, inboxes, and shared drives.
• Improved retention. A seamless start builds trust, making it less likely that clients churn early in the relationship.
• More bandwidth for growth. By reducing repetitive admin, teams can take on more clients without needing extra staff.

Why Not Automate with the Software Behind These Client Onboarding Statistics?

All the numbers in this article came directly from Motion.io’s reporting backend - the same place agencies track their own onboarding efficiency.

Motion.io is client onboarding software that automates the collection of files, forms, signatures, and other information your team needs, all inside fully white-labeled client portals. And with the built-in reporting dashboard, you can see exactly how much time your agency is saving as you scale.

Here’s how Motion.io can help your marketing agency master the dreaded onboarding process:

• Cut onboarding time in half (or more). Eliminate repetitive manual tasks like chasing down brand assets, collecting logins, and managing multiple intake forms.
• Deliver a seamless, professional first impression. Give clients a guided onboarding experience that feels custom-built, without clunky spreadsheets or scattered email threads.
• Automate without losing the personal touch. Add personalized welcome videos, smart intake forms, and automated reminders that feel human - all within Motion.io’s branded client portal.
• Keep every stakeholder aligned. No more “just bumping this to the top of your inbox” emails. Motion.io keeps everything, from contracts to content uploads, in one place, making it visible and trackable for both your team and your clients.
• Win back hours each week. Whether you onboard 2 or 20 clients per month, Motion.io helps your team focus on strategy and creative work instead of paperwork.
• Scale without the chaos. Standardize onboarding so every new client gets the same high-touch experience, even as your agency grows.

Ready to see the difference for yourself? Try Motion.io free →