12 Questions to Ask a Marketing Agency Before You Sign
You have a few agency proposals on your desk, and they all promise about the same thing. The questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign are the ones the pitch deck skips: who owns the accounts, how long the contract runs, how reporting works and who does the work.
Ownership and term come first. If the accounts aren't in your name and the contract doesn't say how and when you can leave, the rest of the answers don't protect you.
Below are the 12 questions I'd ask, each with the answer you want to hear and the one that should make you slow down.
Key takeaways
Every ad account, profile and analytics property should be in your business name, with you as admin.
Know the term before you sign: month to month or a term you choose, written notice and nothing that holds your accounts when you leave.
Ask for the management fee and the ad spend as two separate numbers.
Get the name of the person who will do the work, not the person on the sales call.
An agency that promises a lead count or a ranking is promising something it can't control.
Which questions to ask a marketing agency matter most?
Ownership and term, then the fee, the people and the tracking. Each one is easy to check before you sign and hard to fix after. Get these six in writing before you sign:
Get these in writing before you sign
Every ad account is in your business name, with you as admin
Contract term and the notice it takes to leave
Management fee and ad spend as two separate numbers
The name of the person who will do the work
How each call and form is tracked to its campaign
A monthly written report and read access to every account
1. Who owns the ad accounts and the data?
You do, or you walk. Ad accounts, Google Business Profile, analytics, domain and CRM should be created under your business, with the agency added as a user.
Google Ads makes this concrete. Its access levels run from email-only up to admin, and admin is the level that can "give account access, change access levels, and cancel invitations from other users." If the agency holds the only admin seat and you have standard access, you don't own the account in any way that matters.
On the agency side, this is the question I want a prospect to ask us first. The agencies worth working with answer it before you get the chance.
Good answer: "Accounts are in your name. We work as a user and you can remove us any time."
Red flag: "We manage it under our agency account, it's easier."
Ask us all 12
Book a free 15-minute call with Blake by phone or Zoom and ask every question on this list. No sales deck, and nothing to fill out before the calendar.
2. What's the contract term and how do I leave?
Look for a term you choose, written notice and nothing that holds your accounts hostage when you go. Hickey Media's monthly work runs month to month or on a 6, 12 or 36-month term, and the pricing page shows both. A longer term can make sense when you pick it on purpose. Be careful with one that's required, renews on its own or keeps your accounts when you leave.
Good answer: "You can go month to month or pick a term. It's in writing, and you keep every account."
Red flag: "It renews on its own, you need 90 days' notice and the accounts stay with us."
3. Is ad spend included in the fee?
It shouldn't be blended. Some agencies quote one figure, so you can't tell what went to Google and what went to the agency. I keep them separate: the management fee is mine, and the ad spend goes from your card to the platform.
Good answer: "Our fee is X. Ad spend is billed to you by the platform."
Red flag: "It's all one number." Ask for the split in writing.
4. Who does the work?
The person on the sales call is often not the person in the account. Ask for the name of whoever will build the campaigns, write the ads and read the reports, and how many other clients that person carries.
At Hickey Media the answer is me. That isn't automatically good. It means one person's judgment and one person's capacity, so decide if that fits. A larger shop has a team, and you should know whether your account gets the senior person or the newest hire.
Good answer: a name, a role and a client count.
Red flag: "Our team handles it."
5. How will you report, and how often?
Monthly, in a report you can read in five minutes that ties spend to leads to booked calls or signed clients. In my view, a report that leads with impressions and reach is covering for a lack of leads.
What a useful agency report looks like
Item | Useful report | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
Time to read | About five minutes | A dashboard with 40 widgets |
What it leads with | Spend tied to leads and booked calls | Impressions and reach |
What explains it | A short written summary | No sentence explaining the numbers |
Good answer: "Monthly, written, with the numbers that matter to you and read access to every account."
Red flag: a dashboard with 40 widgets and no sentence explaining them.
6. How do you track a lead?
With call tracking numbers, form tracking and a CRM where every lead lands with its source. I build this in your CRM and call tracking tool: a tracking number per campaign, forms tagged by source and recorded calls, with callers told up front that the call is recorded, so we can hear what the front desk said. If the agency can't tell you which campaign a call came from, the monthly report is a guess.
Good answer: "Every call and form is tracked to its campaign, and you can listen to the calls."
Red flag: "We track conversions in Google Ads." That's one piece of it.
7. What happens after the lead comes in?
This is where you find out if the agency cares about revenue or only lead count. Ask what they do about response time, missed calls and follow-up.
"That's on your end" is true, but a slow callback wastes the ad money they spent, so a good agency looks anyway. I wrote up what the first five minutes after a lead should look like separately.
Good answer: "We'll check how fast you respond before we scale spend, and we can set up missed call text back."
Red flag: silence, or a change of subject.
8. What results can you promise?
None, and you should hear "none." Nobody controls Google's auction, a competitor's budget or whether your receptionist picks up. In my view, an agency that promises a lead count or a ranking is either new or counting on you not keeping track.
Good answer: "I can't promise results. I can show you what I've done in similar accounts and what I'd try first."
Red flag: "Guaranteed 50 leads a month." Ask what happens, in writing, when it's 20.
9. What have you done in my industry?
Ask for work like yours, described without confidential numbers. If they share client results, ask whether they have permission. I don't publish client names or results without the client's okay, and I'd be careful with an agency that does.
Good answer: "We've run accounts in your category. Here's the structure we used and what we learned."
Red flag: a wall of logos with no detail behind any of them.
10. Who's in my Google Ads and Meta accounts today?
Ask them to show you the user list after setup. Old agencies and former employees can keep admin access for years.
Good answer: "We'll audit access on day one and show you who has what."
Red flag: they've never looked.
11. What do you need from me?
A straight answer is a list: access, photos, a contact who answers questions within a day, ad copy approval, a monthly call. If they need nothing from you, they're running a template.
Good answer: a short, specific list.
Red flag: "We'll handle everything."
12. Why should I not hire you?
A good answer shows you the agency's real shape. Mine: if you want a big team, a brand campaign or someone posting on social five times a day, I'm the wrong fit. I run paid search, Meta ads, the creative (single image ads, graphics, illustrations, infographics and video) and the follow-up system for technology companies and law firms.
Good answer: a real limitation.
Red flag: "There's no reason not to."
What to do next
Send each agency on your list these 12 questions before the next call.
Log in to Google Ads, Meta and your Business Profile and check who has admin access today.
Ask each agency for a sample monthly report.
Read the contract for the term, the notice period and who owns the accounts.
“One of the qualities that I admire most about Blake was his exceptional project management skills. He had an incredible ability to juggle multiple tasks, and ensure that every project was executed with precision.”
Dennis Clemente Content designer. Worked with Blake for nearly two years. LinkedIn, 2023. More recommendations
FAQ
How much should a marketing agency cost?
It depends on scope and who does the work. Hickey Media's monthly programs start at $1,500 per month with ad spend separate, and larger shops with teams often quote more. Compare fee plus ad spend, not one blended number.
What should be in a marketing agency contract?
The term and the notice it takes to leave, a statement that the accounts and data belong to you, the management fee and ad spend listed separately and what the agency hands back when the work ends.
Is a fractional marketing director an alternative to an agency?
It can be, if what you need is someone to own the accounts, judge the work and report to the owner. I cover when that fits in what a fractional marketing director costs and does.
What should I do before I talk to any agency?
Check what you already have: who's in your accounts, whether calls are tracked and how fast leads get a callback. My marketing audit checklist walks through it.
Book a free call
If Hickey Media is on your list, book a free 15-minute call and ask us these 12 questions. Before you compare proposals, you can also request the free Buyer Test: a short screen-recorded video and written call notes showing how your business answers a new inquiry, with the three changes to make first. There's also a short guide, Before You Hire a Marketing Agency.
