Is My Current Marketing Agency The Right Fit?

Trust us, we get it. We come from the agency world. Many prospects come to us and say "I felt like they were just checking boxes and making sure they said they were doing something but nothing was changing in my business," or "I couldn't tell what was going on. They had all these fancy dashboards but I could see that my leads weren't going up."

Stressed man with glasses holds his head while reading a document in a bright office with charts and a plant.

Let us start off by saying this isn't an article about how agencies suck or that there aren't genuinely good agencies that meet their clients expectations. If that was the case, we'd be out of business.

This article is meant to help business owners figure out if their current agency is the right fit for them!

So let's get straight to it.

6 Questions To Ask Your Agency

Whether you have a call coming up or just want to send this to your Account Manager via email, here are the best questions to ask your agency.

1. Who will actually be working on my account day-to-day?

2. How do you handle it when something isn't working?

3. Who owns the creative, data, and accounts if we part ways?

4. How do you stay current with platform changes (algorithm updates, ad policy shifts, etc.)?

5. What are the specific KPI's you're using to determine the success of my current marketing campaigns and strategy?

6. Is the strategy you're presenting unique to my business and my business needs?

Now, let's break down why these specific questions are important and what to look out for when they reply.

Why These Questions

This list is in the exact same order so please scroll up to see which one matches with which question.

1. Most agencies have junior staff managing the day to day. From account maintenance, strategy recommendations, updating account managers, etc. That doesn't mean that junior specialists aren't valuable or knowledgable, but lacking actual marketing experience can mean things get missed or mistakes are made. You want to make sure the people working on your campaigns have experience with your specific industry as well.

2. If your current agencies answer to "fixing" problems is to give you more free services... RUN. You need an agency that knows how to pivot, analyze data and make constructive decisions.

3. Unfortunately, this is becoming a normal practice / trap. The agency locks you in by holding your business assets hostage and telling you that if you want to cancel, you'll be starting over. You need to ask this before you even sign, honestly. Losing valuable data can make or break businesses.

4. Marketing is an ever-changing environment. You need an agency that can adapt quickly, learn and implement. That takes time and internal structural processes that allow marketers to develop new skills. You should not be bringing a platform update or a policy change to their attention.

5. This is critical. You need to be very clear when asking this question. Tell them you don't want industry standards, you want the specific KPI's they're looking at when they're working on your account.

6. Another one that is critical. Some agencies rely on cookie-cutter strategies so they can take on high volume of clients. You need a strategy that is unique to your specific business and goals.

You should have a good understanding of why these questions matter, so let's discuss what to look out for when they're responding back.

Listen Close To How They Respond

Again, this is in the same order as the questions above.

1. Get names, not just the sales team you're pitched by. Ask if the senior people you're talking to now will stay involved or hand you off to juniors.

2. You want to hear about a real process for course-correcting, not defensiveness or vague reassurance.

3. Again, if they say that they'll own everything, it's seriously worth considering moving on to a different agency.

4. This tells you whether they're proactive specialists or coasting on outdated tactics.

5. If they start talking about impressions, reach, clicks, etc. thats never a good sign. Those are "in the weeds" metrics. You need to hear, total leads/conversions, website traffic, assisted conversions, and revenue if it's being tracked (especially if you're e-commerce).

6. Ask for examples of other client strategies and look for similarities. If they're unwilling to show you another strategy, stay away. Showing you a strategy isn't giving away any sensitive information, it's literally not a secret.

If you're still unsure after these conversations, hit us up! We'll take a look, tell it to you straight and probably show you how much we can improve your current marketing strategy. Visit our contact page so we can connect.