the old days of cold email were the wild west. you were paying $7 per inbox from Google direct, or you were getting held by the balls by some reseller who could wipe your accounts and invoice you whatever they wanted.
those days should be over. but a lot of agencies are still stuck with providers who manage everything through CSVs, overcharge by thousands, and won't refund it when they get caught.
before committing to any infrastructure provider, ask these questions:
→ if the provider owns them, they can revoke access at any time. that's not infrastructure. that's a lease.
→ "we'll get it done" is not a guarantee. if they can't commit to a timeframe, your client timelines are at risk.
→ if they manage everything through CSVs and manual emails, you have zero visibility into what's happening with your accounts.
→ every provider will tell you their accounts don't get suspended. ask what the PROCESS is when it happens. because it will.
→ if you're locked in, you're at their mercy. client-owned accounts mean you can take them anywhere.
→ if you're paying $6+ per inbox and someone else offers the same quality at $3.50, you're overpaying for a middleman.
ask yourself: if this provider disappeared tomorrow, would my clients' campaigns still run?
if the answer is no, your infrastructure is a single point of failure. fix that before you scale.