THE LIBRARY · A PLAIN GUIDE
How do you choose a marketing agency, and when shouldn't you hire one?
Most of the advice on choosing a marketing agency is written by marketing agencies. That isn't a scandal; they know the business, and some of the guides are good (Some even do a decent job of writing without bias). But almost every one of them assumes you've already decided to hire, and almost every one ends in a "hire us" form.
Our answer starts a step earlier, because...
In our experience, a fair share of small businesses shouldn't hire a marketing agency yet, and the cost of finding that out the hard way is the fee, the ad spend, and whatever contract minimum you signed, which often runs six to twelve months.
So we want to help you decide about hiring first.
If the answer is yes, there are six things a good agency will put in writing before you sign. We'll go over those too, because their written answers will do most of the deciding for you.
If you're not sure what an agency would actually do for you in a given month, start with that essay.
(This one assumes you already have a good understanding of what you'd be buying.)
Let's start with how to tell whether or not you're ready for an agency...
When shouldn't you hire a marketing agency?
The first "not yet" sign is: when your website doesn't turn visitors into calls, orders or bookings. If you're not sure whether or not it does, that's the same sign.
An agency's first lever is usually traffic, and more traffic to a site that loses people means paying for the click and then losing the customer anyway.
Fix the site first.
Our piece on whether your website needs a redesign covers how to tell if your site is doing its job or not.
- The site loses visitorsFix it first
- The budget can’t cover a testWait, or start smaller
- Referrals fill the calendarMore leads won’t help yet
- No one has an hour a monthFind that hour first
The second "not yet" sign is: when your budget can't cover a real (usually paid traffic) test.
A test needs the agency's fee and enough ad spend, if ads are involved, to learn something before the minimum runs out.
If paying both for the whole minimum would hurt, the test will end before it tells you anything, and you'll have paid for a guess.
Do the arithmetic before the call, not after: fee times the months of the minimum, plus the spend.
- The fee× the months of the minimum
- The ad spend+ the same months
- Togetherwhat a real test costs
Third sign to wait? When referrals already fill the calendar. If a busy plumber is booked three weeks out on word of mouth alone, more leads mean more calls to turn away. The money might do more for your business by funding a second service truck.
Finally, if you can't spare an hour a month to carry your half of a marketing relationship, you should wait. An agency needs your answers about prices, seasons, photos and which customers you want more of. If nobody at the business has that hour, the agency will fill the gap with guesses.
If any one of those four signs sounds like you and your business, that's a pretty solid indicator to consider waiting to hire an agency, however...
Before we move on, there's one thing to be crystal clear about...
None of those four signs means you do nothing instead.
Keeping your Google Business Profile current, asking every happy customer for a review, and sending your customers a short email now and then are all things a small business can do without help, and they're usually the first things an agency would do anyway. Our guides to the Business Profile and getting more reviews cover both.
- Your Business Profilekept current
- Reviewsasked of every happy customer
- An emailshort, now and then
Alright... here's a quick check chart, before any agency call:
- 01Does my website turn a fair share of visitors into calls, orders or bookings?
If the answer is no: Fix the site first
- 02Could I pay the fee and the ad spend for the whole minimum without it hurting?
If the answer is no: Wait, or start smaller
- 03Could the business take more customers next month?
If the answer is no: More leads won't help yet
- 04Can someone here give an agency an hour a month?
If the answer is no: Find that hour first
- 05Have I tried the basics myself (Profile, reviews, email)?
If the answer is no: Try them; they're free
When does hiring one make sense?
Put plainly, hiring an agency makes sense when the work isn't getting done and it matters. A restaurant owner who knows the email list should hear from them monthly, and hasn't sent anything since spring, is a good candidate. So is a clinic whose ads were set up two years ago and never touched since.
Hiring also makes sense when you've tried doing it yourself and it keeps losing to the work that pays the bills.
That's not a failure of discipline.
A roofer's evening is better spent on estimates than on ad settings, and both can't happen at once in the busy season.
- A restaurant’s email listnothing sent since spring
- A clinic’s adsuntouched for two years
- A roofer in the busy seasonestimates win the evening
One quick caution, though, before we move on...
That roofer's evening has a price, and it's the one most owners leave out. Next to doing it yourself, any agency fee looks expensive, because doing it yourself seems to cost nothing.
It doesn't.
The fair comparison is what a part-time marketer would cost you: the salary, the tools, and the hours you'd spend managing them. That's the number to hold an agency's fee against.
- A salaryFor a part-time marketer
- The toolsSoftware, ad accounts, the rest
- Your hoursSpent managing them
- An agency’s feeHeld against all three, not against zero
Not against doing it yourself for free
What should an agency put in writing before you sign?
There are six main things to get in writing. All six are reasonable to ask for, and a good agency will have the answers ready, usually in the proposal itself.
Who does the work
Names, or at least roles: who decides, who writes, who changes the ads. Ask whether any of it goes to another company, gets outsourced to freelancers, etc. Some agencies do send work out, and it can be fine, but you should know who's touching your account.
- Who decides
- Who writes
- Who changes the ads
A name or a role for each. And ask what gets sent out.
What you'll see, and how often
If an agency offers a dashboard, it's worth having. But a dashboard shows results, not the work performed. Ask for a dated list of what was done, what's coming next, and what's waiting on you, and ask what day it arrives each month or week. Our piece on what agencies do explains why the work list matters as much as the numbers.
- What was doneDated
- What’s coming next
- What’s waiting on you
And the day it arrives, each month or week.
When you'd stop
Don't ask an agency to guarantee results. Too much depends on things nobody controls: Google, your competitors, your prices, how fast your phone gets answered, etc.
(If a firm promises results anyway, or offers to charge only for the leads it sends, that guarantees what you'll pay, not whether those leads turn into customers.)
Instead of guarantees, ask for something different: the point where you'd both agree it isn't working.
That's a floor, not a target, set low enough that a good agency can say yes.
Something like, "If calls that turn into jobs haven't moved by month six, we talk about stopping." An agency that can't name that point is asking you to pay until you get tired.
- The target: what you’re hoping for
- The floor: where you’d both stop
Set low enough that a good agency can say yes.
The minimum and the way out
Before we dig in on this one, let's be clear... A minimum isn't a bad sign on its own. Search work can take months before it shows anything, so an agency asking for time up front is often being fair.
What matters is knowing the terms: how many months, how much notice, and whether you can leave early if you reach the stop point from the last section.
Terms vary a lot.
One large firm that serves trades and law firms typically asks for twelve months on its website and search work, though its ads run month to month. A national agency's search packages carry six months. Another agency runs month to month, and its ads can be canceled after the first 30 days.
Whatever the term, multiply it out; that total is the number to compare.
- One large firm, website and search: 12 months
- A national agency, search: 6 months
- Another agency: month to month
Whatever the term, multiply it out.
Who owns the accounts
This one matters, a lot: Your website, your ad accounts, your analytics and your Business Profile should be in your name from day one, with the agency added as a user.
That way, if you part ways, you remove their access and keep everything, including the history. We've taken on clients who couldn't log into their own Search Console, Google Ads or Facebook ad accounts, because whoever set them up years earlier kept the logins. So, it sounds like a given, but it still needs checking. One ads provider we looked at creates the Google Ads account itself and keeps it. One large firm hands over the website only once the contract is complete, and even then not the system it runs on. A buyer's guide we read puts it simply: get the ownership and handoff terms in writing. We agree.1
How ad spend is billed
Whether the platform charges your card directly, or the agency passes the spend through and adds to it. Whether the fee is flat, a share of spend, or rises as spend rises. None of these is wrong, but each rewards something different, and you should know which one you're agreeing to.
- Flat
- A share of spend
- Rises as spend rises
- The spend itselfyour card, or passed through
| Ask for | A good answer | A worrying answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Named people or roles, and whether anything goes outside | "Our team" |
| What you'll see | The numbers and a dated list of the work | A dashboard login and nothing else |
| When you'd stop | An agreed point where it isn't working, and roughly when | "Marketing takes time" |
| The minimum and the way out | A stated term, notice period and early exit | A long term with no exit |
| Who owns the accounts | Everything in your name from day one | "We'll transfer it when you leave" |
| How spend is billed | Your card pays the platform; the fee is stated | Spend passed through with a markup you can't see |
Who does the work
- A good answer
- Named people or roles, and whether anything goes outside
- A worrying answer
- "Our team"
What you'll see
- A good answer
- The numbers and a dated list of the work
- A worrying answer
- A dashboard login and nothing else
When you'd stop
- A good answer
- An agreed point where it isn't working, and roughly when
- A worrying answer
- "Marketing takes time"
The minimum and the way out
- A good answer
- A stated term, notice period and early exit
- A worrying answer
- A long term with no exit
Who owns the accounts
- A good answer
- Everything in your name from day one
- A worrying answer
- "We'll transfer it when you leave"
How spend is billed
- A good answer
- Your card pays the platform; the fee is stated
- A worrying answer
- Spend passed through with a markup you can't see
What are the warning signs?
Here's a quick way to read any proposal: look for what's promised that can't be, and what's missing that should be there. The first sign below is the first kind. The other four are the second kind, and a couple will sound familiar from the last section.
- A guarantee of rankings, or of a mention in AI answers. Nobody controls Google's results (Google says so itself), and nobody controls what ChatGPT says. Our piece on showing up in AI search explains what a business can actually do there.
- No way out. A minimum on its own is normal. One that holds even when the agency misses its own targets puts all the risk on you.
- Your name isn't on the ad accounts. If the account isn't yours, the history in it isn't yours either, and switching agencies means starting from nothing.
- No results in the reports. Impressions and reach are fine, but calls, orders and bookings are the numbers you're paying to move. If they never show up, ask why.
- No mention of your website. If the site is the reason visitors leave, an agency that doesn't bring it up either hasn't looked or plans to sell you traffic anyway.
- Promised that can’t besign 1
- Missing that should besigns 2 to 5
Tick each sign you find. One is worth a question. Two or three, and it’s probably time to keep looking.
- A guarantee of rankings, or of a mention in AI answers
- No way out
- Your name isn't on the ad accounts
- No results in the reports
- No mention of your website
One of these is worth a question. Two or three, and it's probably time to keep looking.
How do you compare two proposals?
Put them side by side on the same lines, because agencies rarely write them that way. A grid like this makes two very different documents comparable:
| Option | Agency A | Agency B |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | blank | blank |
| Expected ad spend a month | blank | blank |
| Minimum term and notice | blank | blank |
| Total through the minimum (fee plus spend) | blank | blank |
| Work promised each month | blank | blank |
| What you'll see, and how often | blank | blank |
| When they'd say stop | blank | blank |
| Who owns the accounts | blank | blank |
Monthly fee
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
Expected ad spend a month
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
Minimum term and notice
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
Total through the minimum (fee plus spend)
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
Work promised each month
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
What you'll see, and how often
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
When they'd say stop
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
Who owns the accounts
- Agency A
- blank
- Agency B
- blank
The row that changes most decisions is the total through the minimum. A lower monthly fee on a longer term can cost more than a higher fee you can leave after three months.
A word on free audits, and the free game plans and free proposals that often come with them. They're useful, and they're also the first step of a sale, so read them as a proposal and not as independent advice. If you're unsure, start smaller. One agency's own buyer's guide makes the same point: "You do not always need to jump into a massive retainer on day one." A short paid project or a campaign test tells you more about how an agency works than any audit will.
- The monthly fee× the months
- The ad spend× the same months
- Add themthe number to compare
What should you ask on the first call?
Most first calls run fifteen to thirty minutes. That's plenty of time for these eight, as long as you bring them with you. Keep a pen handy too (or a notes app), because you'll want the answers in writing when you're comparing agencies later.
Who's actually going to work on my account? (Names are great. Roles are fine.)
Other than the dashboard, what will I get from you each month, and what day does it show up?
How will we know if this isn't working, and about when would we know it?
How long is the minimum, how much notice do you need, and what gets me out early?
From day one, whose name are the ad accounts, analytics and Business Profile in?
Does my card pay Google and Facebook directly? And how do you figure your fee?
Have you looked at my website yet? What would you change first?
When would you tell me to stop paying you?
Pay the most attention to that last one. A good agency won't flinch, because it's answered that question before. If you get a long pause, or a speech about how marketing takes time, write that down too.
Where we fit
We're an agency too, so it's only fair to answer our own six questions. Here's how they come out for Marketing Monthly:
- AMarketing Monthly
- Who does the work
- You'll know by name. Every line in the log says who did it.
- What you'll see, and how often
- A note every Friday (done, doing, blocked, and what we need from you), a log you can open any time, and a review in plain English at the end of each month.
- When you'd stop
- Every number in your scope has a threshold and a date, written down before the work starts. When one's reached, we say stop, even if that ends the engagement.
- The minimum and the way out
- Three months, then 30 days' notice. If we recommend stopping, or a month gets refunded, the three months end right there.
- Who owns the accounts
- You do. Ad accounts, tracking, lists and files are all in your name.
- How ad spend is billed
- Your card pays Google or Meta directly. Our fee is $2,500 a month, and it covers managing up to $5,000 a month of your spend; above that, we add 5% of the spend over $5,000.
- BMarketing Plan
- Cost
- $1,500, once.
- Takes
- Two weeks.
- What you get
- A written plan built from how work reaches you today: three ranked moves, each with its cost, its number and the point at which you’d stop.
- Credit
- If you go on with us within 60 days, the $1,500 comes off what you start next.
And one we added ourselves: if you ever can't say what we did in a month, that month's fee comes back. The full terms are on the Marketing Monthly page, along with a sample Friday note and a few lines from a sample log.
Now, the part that matters more... if any of the four "not yet" signs from the top of this piece sounds like you, we'll tell you so on the call, even though it means we don't get hired. And if you'd rather have that question answered in writing before you commit to anything monthly, that's what the Marketing Plan is for. It's two weeks and $1,500, and if you go on with us within 60 days, the $1,500 comes off what you start next.
Not sure you’re ready? That’s what the call is for.
Fifteen minutes about your business and how jobs come in today. We’ll tell you whether Marketing Monthly fits, whether a Plan should come first, or whether you don’t need us yet.
