Virtual Assistant for a Marketing Agency: 30 Tasks to Delegate (and 5 to Keep)

Most agency owners don’t need convincing that they should delegate. The hard part is knowing what to hand off first, and what has to stay with you.

This guide lists 30 tasks a virtual assistant can take over at a marketing agency, grouped by role, with real examples from agencies we work with. It also covers the five things you should keep, which role to hire first, and how to hand work off so it actually sticks.

Quick answer: what can a virtual assistant do for a marketing agency?

How to decide what to delegate

Run every task through three questions:

1. Does it repeat? Weekly or monthly work is worth the effort of handing off. One-offs often aren’t.
2. Can you write it down? If you can explain it in a checklist or a 5-minute screen recording, someone else can do it.
3. Is it low risk if it’s 90% right the first time? Start with work where small mistakes are easy to catch and fix.

Three yeses means delegate it now. If it fails one, delegate it later, once your assistant knows your clients and standards.

30 tasks to delegate to a virtual assistant at a marketing agency

Paid ads and campaigns

• Building campaigns from an approved brief in Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads
• Daily checks on spend, pacing and broken ads
• Uploading new creative and copy variations for testing
• Weekly performance summaries for each client
• Building audiences and keeping conversion tracking in order

We hired Fahad and he manages the Facebook ads. We’ve been getting solid leads, and it’s freed me up to focus on clients instead of the day-to-day.

Ethan B., Marketing Manager, Concept Studio

Social media and content

• Monthly content calendars from your themes
• Scheduling posts across platforms
• Replying to comments and DMs using your guidelines
• Repurposing blogs and videos into social posts
• Formatting and uploading blog posts with images and SEO settings

SEO

• Keyword research for new pages and posts
• On-page optimization: titles, descriptions, headings and internal links
• Monthly technical checks for broken links and indexing issues
• Rank and traffic reporting from Search Console

See what a dedicated SEO specialist covers.

CRM and automation

• Setting up client sub-accounts and pipelines
• Building and testing follow-up workflows
• A2P texting registration for client numbers
• Keeping lead data clean and correctly tagged

He sets up the automations, does A2P registrations, and sets up AI chatbots for our clients on GHL. Makes landing pages sometimes as well.

James R., Account Manager, Camden Agency

If your agency runs on HighLevel, read our guide to hiring a GoHighLevel virtual assistant.

Sales and lead generation for your agency

• Building prospect lists for your target niches
• Cold calling and email outreach
• Booking discovery calls on your calendar
• Following up with leads who went quiet

Maham is great at cold calling. She books calls, handles appointment setting, and has already closed a few deals in the last three months.

Olivia T., Operations Manager, Etonix

More on what a sales associate handles.

Client management and reporting

• Onboarding new clients: collecting access, assets and information
• Weekly client update emails
• Compiling monthly reports in your template
• Tracking deliverables and chasing approvals

This is what a dedicated account manager does.

Website and operations

• Website content updates and landing pages
• Inbox and calendar management for you
• Invoicing reminders, documentation and SOP upkeep
• Research on competitors, tools and vendors

The onboarding process was easy, and within a week, we hired an assistant. Aleena has been instrumental in keeping our projects on track and managing administrative tasks.

Sophia L., CEO, Harper Logistics

5 things to keep in-house

• Strategy and positioning. What you sell, to whom, and why you win.
• Pricing and proposals. Your margins and how you package them.
• Your most important client relationships. An assistant can run updates, but the trust should sit with you or a senior lead.
• Hiring and firing decisions. Including for the assistant’s own role.
• Final quality control. Especially in the first months, review work before it reaches a client.

Which role should you hire first?

Hire for the bottleneck that’s costing you the most money or time right now:

Can one virtual assistant do it all?

Sometimes. Kryden Digital replaced a marketer who cost about $50,000 a year with one Brevity marketing associate who now handles their SEO, ads, social media, CRM and website updates, for $23,040 a year. Eight months in, Austin at Kryden Digital describes it as a great experience.

That works best when the volume in each area is moderate. Once one area grows into a full-time job, such as cold calling or managing 20 client CRMs, a dedicated role usually beats one generalist stretched thin. See the full numbers in our guide to what a virtual marketing assistant costs.

How to hand off work so it sticks

1. Record it once. Do the task yourself while screen-recording and talking through it. That recording becomes the training.
2. Write the checklist. Have your assistant turn the recording into a step-by-step SOP, then review it together.
3. Give the right access. Add them as a user in each tool with only the permissions they need, and use a password manager rather than sharing passwords.
4. Start with three tasks. Hand off two or three recurring tasks in the first two weeks, then add more as they prove themselves.
5. Set a weekly rhythm. A 20-minute weekly check-in plus a short end-of-week summary keeps everyone aligned without micromanaging.

Frequently asked questions

What tasks should a marketing agency outsource first?

Start with recurring execution work you can document: campaign checks and reporting, social scheduling, CRM updates and appointment setting. Keep strategy and pricing in-house.

Is a virtual assistant cheaper than hiring in-house?

Usually by 60% to 80%. A mid-level US marketing specialist costs about $112,500 a year once benefits are included, compared with $23,040 a year for a full-time Brevity associate.

Can a virtual assistant talk to my agency’s clients?

Yes, if you want them to. Many agencies have their assistant or account manager send updates, collect assets and chase approvals, while the owner handles strategy calls.

Will a virtual assistant work my hours?

With Brevity, yes. Your associate works the schedule you need, in your time zone.

Can I start part time?

Yes. Brevity offers part-time and full-time associates, and many agencies start part time and move to full time as the workload grows.