Read this with suspicion
We are a performance marketing agency. We want you to hire one, ideally us. That is exactly why the questions below are useful, because they are the ones we would find hardest to dodge.
Eight questions worth asking
1. Who will actually work on my account?
Pitches are often run by senior people and delivered by juniors. Ask who does the daily work, how many accounts they carry, and whether you will speak to them directly.
2. Can I see the account structure of a comparable client?
Anonymised is fine. You are looking for evidence they build deliberate structures rather than one campaign with everything in it.
3. What would you check first in my account?
A good answer starts with measurement and search terms, not with creative. If the first thing they want to change is the ad copy, they are guessing.
4. How do you report, and on what?
Ask for a sample report. If it opens with impressions, reach and click-through rate, and revenue appears on slide eleven, you know the priority.
5. Who owns the ad accounts?
You should, always. Agency-owned accounts mean losing your entire conversion history and audience data if you leave. This is the single most common trap.
6. What is your notice period?
Long lock-ins protect the agency, not you. Reasonable notice is fine. Twelve month contracts with no exit clause suggest confidence in the sales process rather than the work.
7. What would make you tell me to stop spending?
Any honest agency has a threshold where the answer is spend less or fix something else first. An agency that cannot describe one has an incentive problem.
8. What did you get wrong recently?
Everyone has a campaign that failed. The useful signal is whether they can describe it plainly and what they changed as a result.
Warning signs
- ✓Guaranteed results. Nobody controls auction dynamics or your competitors' budgets.
- ✓Percentage-of-spend pricing with no cap. It rewards spending more, not earning more.
- ✓No questions about your margins. An agency that has not asked what a customer is worth cannot optimise toward profit.
- ✓Case studies with percentages and no context. "300 percent increase" from a tiny base is meaningless.
- ✓Reluctance to audit before quoting. If they will not look at the account first, the proposal is a template.
Fit matters more than capability
Most established agencies are technically competent. The difference between a good and bad engagement is usually whether they understand your business, whether you have someone internally with time to engage, and whether they will disagree with you when you are wrong.
We wrote about the in-house alternative in our honest cost comparison, including when hiring is the better answer. If you want to put the questions above to us, the performance marketing page is the place to start.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a performance marketing agency cost?
Models vary: flat retainer, percentage of spend, or hybrid. What matters more than the model is whether the scope is written down and whether incentives align with your profit rather than your spend.
Should I choose a specialist or a full-service agency?
Specialists go deeper on one channel. Full-service agencies coordinate across channels and can fix the website when that is the actual problem. If your issue spans ads and site, coordination usually wins.
How long should I give a new agency before judging?
Three months is fair for paid channels. The first month is usually audit and fixes, the second is restructuring, and the third is when results should be visible.
