What to ask an agency before you sign anything

Most agency sales calls are designed so that you never ask anything difficult. There is a slide deck, a case study, a number that sounds impressive without context, and a close.

Here are the questions that change the conversation. Some of them we would answer comfortably. A couple we would find awkward, and those are included deliberately.

About the money

Whose ad account is this running in?

The answer should be yours. If an agency runs campaigns in their own account and you leave, you lose the history, the audiences and the learning. You are renting something you should own. Ask to be made an admin on your own account before anything launches.

Does my ad budget go through you?

It should not. The budget should go from your card directly to Meta or Google. An agency holding your ad spend has your money sitting in their account and you have no direct way to verify what was spent.

Do you take a percentage of ad spend?

A legitimate model, but it creates an obvious incentive to recommend spending more. If they do, ask what happens when the honest advice is to spend less.

What am I paying for if the campaign is paused?

Some agencies bill the full retainer regardless. Some pro rate. Neither is wrong, but find out before it happens rather than after.

About the work

Who actually does the work on my account?

The person on the sales call is usually not the person in your account. That is fine and normal. Being told otherwise is not.

How often does the account get touched, and what happens each time?

“Ongoing optimization” means nothing. Ask what they will actually do in a normal week. Adding negative keywords, reviewing search terms, refreshing creative, adjusting budgets. If they cannot describe the work, they may not be doing much of it.

How often does the creative change?

Audiences tire of ads. A campaign running the same three images for six months is a campaign nobody is looking after.

What happens in month two?

Setup is month one and everyone does it. The question is what the retainer buys after that. The honest answer is monitoring, adjustment and new creative, which is real work. If they struggle to describe it, you are paying a setup fee twelve times a year.

About results

Can you guarantee a cost per lead?

The right answer is no. Anybody who gives you a number is guessing, because they have not seen your offer perform, they do not control the auction, and they cannot control your close rate.

Someone confident enough to guarantee it is either going to hit the number by generating worthless leads, or they are going to miss it and explain why it was not their fault.

What will you show me each month, specifically?

You want spend, leads, cost per lead, and ideally contact rate. You do not want impressions and reach presented as achievements. Ask for a sample report from an existing client with the name removed.

How long before we know whether this is working?

Honest answer is two to three months for most local accounts. The first month is learning. Anybody promising certainty in a fortnight is selling you a vanity metric.

What would make you tell me to stop?

This is the best question on the list. Every agency has a point at which the honest advice is that this is not working, and very few have thought about where that line is. The answer tells you whether you are dealing with someone who will tell you an uncomfortable truth.

About leaving

What do I keep if I cancel?

Your ad account, your audiences, your creative, your contacts, your website. Get the answer in writing. Some agencies build on assets you cannot take with you, and you only find out when you try to leave.

What is the notice period?

Ours is fourteen days. Some are thirty, some are ninety, and some sell themselves as no contract while requiring a quarter’s notice. No contract and no notice are not the same thing, and plenty of agencies rely on people assuming they are.

Will you hand over the account properly?

An agency that will export your contacts and transfer your ad account without a fight is one that expects you to stay for the right reasons.

The two questions we find awkward

In the interest of not pretending we are above this.

How many clients does the person managing my account handle?

Any agency at a reasonable price point is managing multiple accounts per person. That is how the economics work. We would rather say so than imply you are getting somebody’s undivided attention for a few hundred a month.

Have you worked in my exact trade before?

Sometimes the answer is no. Category knowledge matters less than people think, because the mechanics are the same and the specifics come from you. But an agency claiming deep expertise in every trade is claiming something nobody has.

What to do with the answers

You are not looking for perfect answers. You are looking for someone who answers directly, admits what they do not know, and does not get defensive when asked something uncomfortable.

The agency that says “we are not the right fit for that” about one of your questions is usually more trustworthy than the one that says yes to everything.