Advice
How to Choose a Marketing Agency: 10 Questions That Reveal Everything
Every agency demos well. The deck is polished, the case studies glow, the chemistry call is lovely. Which is exactly the problem: you are buying a year of somebody's judgement based on their best hour of salesmanship.
The fix is asking questions that are hard to answer with polish. These are the ten we would ask if we were hiring an agency, along with the answers that should worry you. Yes, we are an agency. Ask us all ten and see how we do.
The ten questions
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"Who exactly will work on my account, by name?"
You want named humans and their roles. The worrying answer is vagueness, because vagueness usually means a rotating pool of juniors, or software wearing a trench coat. The people in the sales call and the people doing the work are often not the same people.
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"Where does my ad spend go, and whose name is on the account?"
Ad budget should go from your card to Google or Meta directly, in accounts registered to you, with the agency's fee separate and visible. Agencies that route spend through themselves can hide margin inside it, and agencies that own your ad account own your leaving cost.
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"What happens to my website, data and accounts if we part ways?"
The answer should be boring: everything is yours, always was, here is the handover process. If there is any hesitation about who owns the domain, the site or the analytics, you have found the trap early. This is worth more than any case study.
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"Can I see your pricing?"
Agencies that publish prices believe their value survives daylight. "It depends" is partially fair (scope varies) but an agency that cannot give you even a range before a third meeting is negotiating, not scoping. Ours are on the pricing page, every number.
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"What will you report, and can I see a real report?"
Ask for an anonymised report from an actual client. You are looking for enquiries, calls, sales and trend lines, in sentences a human would say. If it is a 14-page PDF of impressions and follower counts, that is what your money will buy: activity, not outcomes.
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"What would you do in the first 90 days, specifically for us?"
The strong answer references your business: your reviews, your website's obvious gaps, your competitors by name. The weak answer is a generic onboarding process that could apply to a dog groomer or a law firm interchangeably.
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"What will you not do?"
Honest agencies have edges. "We do not do PR" or "we would not touch TikTok for your audience" are good signs. An agency that claims to do everything brilliantly is average at most of it.
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"Have you worked in our sector, and do you work with our competitors?"
Sector experience is useful but not essential; a good process transfers. What you are really checking is conflicts. If they run marketing for your closest rival, one of you is getting the second-best ideas.
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"What are the contract terms, in one sentence?"
Look for a short initial commitment then rolling monthly with notice. A three month minimum is fair. Twelve months with no break clause means the agency is planning for the moment you want to leave. We run month to month with 30 days notice for exactly this reason.
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"What do you need from us to succeed?"
The right answer is a real list: access, approvals within agreed times, sales feedback, someone who can say yes. An agency that claims to need nothing from you is planning to do generic work at arm's length, and it will read that way.
Quick scorecard: named humans, your name on every account, visible pricing, outcome reporting, specific 90-day thinking, honest edges, clean conflicts, short contracts, and a clear ask of you. Nine ticks is a partner. Five is a punt.
The red flags that predict a bad year
- Guarantees. Guaranteed page one, guaranteed leads, guaranteed virality. Nobody controls the platforms. Guarantees convert at the sales stage and evaporate at the reporting stage.
- Pressure to sign today. Discounts that expire tonight are a sales tactic, not a price.
- Trash-talking your current setup without asking questions. Everything can be criticised. Diagnosis without questions is theatre.
- A price that cannot buy the promise. Full-service marketing for £500 a month is roughly one day of skilled time. Ask where the hours go, and watch the answer carefully.
Cost matters too, obviously. For the actual numbers UK agencies charge and what each band buys, our guide to marketing agency costs in Wales lays it out band by band. And if you are choosing between an agency and hiring someone, start with the £55,000 question.