What Should You Ask Your Marketing Agency?
Seven questions about goals, cost per customer, last month's spend and who owns your accounts.
By Lance Wagner · Published · Last Updated
What should I ask my marketing agency?
Ask what your business goal is, what a customer costs to acquire, where the money went last month, what they'd stop doing, what failed recently, who is doing the work, and whether you own your accounts. Hesitation on any of these is the signal.
Ask what your business goal is, what a customer costs to acquire, where the money went last month, what they would stop doing, what failed recently, who does the work, and whether you own your accounts.
Good agencies answer each one in a sentence. Hesitation is the signal.
1What is my business goal, in one sentence?
If they answer with channel activity, they're managing tasks, not your business.
The right answer sounds like a business outcome with a number attached.
2What does a customer cost me to acquire?
This should be immediate. If they only know cost per lead, they don't know what happens after the handoff.
3Where did the money go last month?
Media spend and fees, separated, in dollars.
Any resistance here is worth taking seriously.
4What would you stop doing if it were your money?
Every account has something running out of habit. A good partner has an opinion about it and will say so unprompted.
"Nothing, everything's working" is not a confident answer. It's an incurious one.
5What have you tested recently that failed?
No failures means no tests. No tests means results plateau and nobody notices for a year.
6Who is doing the work?
Ask to meet them. Ask how many other accounts they carry.
Sold by seniors, served by juniors is a real pattern and it's fine as long as you know it's happening.
7Do I own my accounts?
Ad accounts, analytics, domain, Google Business Profile, CRM data.
If the answer is anything other than a clean yes, fix it this week. Everything else can wait.
The short version
- Speed of answer matters as much as the answer.
- Separate media spend from fees, always.
- No failed tests means no testing.
- Own every account with your name on it.
Questions people ask
- How do I know if my marketing agency is doing a good job?
- Results improved since you started, you can see where money went, they push back on bad ideas, and they can state your business goal without checking notes.
- How long should I give a new agency before judging results?
- Paid media should produce useful signals within ninety days, while search and content often need six months. Agree on each checkpoint before you sign.
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