Nine questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign

Most founders hiring an agency for the first time evaluate the pitch deck, the price and how confident the person sounded. None of those predicts the outcome. These questions do, mostly because a weak agency answers them badly and cannot help it.

1. Whose name is on the ad account?

It should be yours. The agency gets access. If they run your ads inside their own business manager, then your pixel, conversion history and audiences are theirs — and switching agency means starting from zero. This is the most expensive detail in the entire relationship and it is settled in one sentence at the start.

2. Can I see a report with the daily delivery chart, not just totals?

Totals hide everything. A chart shows whether the campaign delivered steadily or in two bursts with a month of nothing between. An agency that reports honestly will have this ready.

3. What is your cost per booked meeting for a business like mine?

Cost per lead is easy to flatter. Cost per booked meeting requires them to have tracked what happened after the lead. If they have never measured it, they have been optimising for the wrong thing.

4. Show me a campaign that did not work.

Everyone has them. An agency that cannot name one is either very new or not being straight with you. What you are listening for is what they changed and how fast they noticed.

5. Who actually runs my account day to day?

Frequently the person pitching is not the person working. Ask for the name, the experience and how many other accounts they hold. More than about ten and you are getting a template.

6. What happens in the first thirty days?

A good answer is specific and unglamorous: audit, tracking setup, creative production, first campaigns live by a stated date. A vague answer about strategy and brand alignment means they have not planned your account yet.

7. What do you need from me?

The right answer is quite a lot — photos, access, feedback on leads, a fast reply when a lead comes in. An agency promising to need nothing from you is promising not to involve you, and the campaign will suffer for it.

8. What is your notice period?

Ninety days of paid notice on an underperforming campaign is expensive. Thirty days is normal. Anything longer should come with a good reason.

9. What would make you tell me to stop spending?

The best question on the list. An agency that has never told a client to pause is optimising for its own retainer. You want the one that will say the offer is wrong, or the market is not there, or the money is better spent on your Google Business Profile first.

The pattern

Every one of these is really the same question asked nine ways: does this agency measure what actually happens to your business, and will they tell you the truth about it? Ask them in the first meeting. The answers will be clearer than any case study.