Including several we would rather you did not ask us. If an agency cannot answer these clearly, that is your answer.
Choosing an agency is difficult because the pitch is the product. Everyone shows their best case study and nobody volunteers the accounts that did not work. These are the questions that tend to separate the two.
On ownership
- Who owns the ad accounts, the website and the creative files if we stop working together?
- Will the work run inside our accounts or yours?
- What exactly do we take with us when we leave?
The correct answer to all three is that you own everything. Agencies that hold accounts hostage are relying on switching costs rather than results, and it tells you what they think of their own work.
On measurement
- Which metric will we judge this on in ninety days?
- How is that metric tracked, and can we verify it independently?
- What will you show us if it is not working?
On the actual team
- Who does the day-to-day work, and is that the person in this meeting?
- How many other accounts do they handle?
- Which parts of this do you subcontract?
On the awkward ones
- Tell me about a client engagement that did not work and why.
- What would make you turn down this project?
- What do you need from us for this to succeed?
The last three matter most. An agency that cannot describe a failure has either not been doing this long or is not being straight with you. An agency that names what it needs from you is one that has thought about the engagement rather than just the sale.
Guaranteed rankings, guaranteed ROAS, and guaranteed follower counts are all the same claim: we would rather close you than be accurate.
