1. Who owns the accounts?
The ad account, the analytics, the website and the domain should all be in your name, with the agency given access. If any of them live inside an agency account, leaving means starting from zero, and everyone knows it.
2. Is the fee flat, or a percentage of ad spend?
A percentage of spend gives your agency a financial reason to recommend spending more. A flat fee does not. Either can be honest, but ask which incentive you are buying.
3. What will you do in the first thirty days?
A good answer is specific and mostly diagnostic: audit, tracking, fixing what is broken, a plan. A bad answer is a list of deliverables with no reasoning, or a promise of results before anyone has looked at your numbers.
4. What does the monthly report show?
Look for leads, cost per lead and, where you share the data, booked jobs. Impressions, reach and click-through rate are inputs, not outcomes. If the sample report has no phone calls on it, keep asking.
5. Who actually does the work?
The person in the meeting is often not the person in the account. Ask who touches it weekly and how many accounts they carry.
6. Can I speak to a client in a similar business?
Not a testimonial. A phone call. The willingness to arrange one tells you as much as the conversation does.
7. What results can you show, and what are you allowed to publish?
Be suspicious of precise percentages with no client attached. Many agencies genuinely cannot publish client numbers, and the honest ones say so and describe the work instead. Vague numbers with no source are worse than no numbers.
8. What is the notice period?
Twelve-month lock-ins protect the agency. A short notice period after an initial period long enough to do the work, usually three to six months, is a reasonable middle.
9. What would make you tell me to stop spending?
This is the best question on the list. An agency that has never advised a client to pause a channel, cut a service or spend less is either very lucky or not paying attention.
10. What do you need from me?
Good marketing needs things only you have: photos, job data, answers about pricing, someone who responds to leads quickly. An agency that asks for nothing is planning to work around you, and it shows in the output.
Where we would fail some of these
We cannot publish most client numbers, because clients do not want their figures on our website. We say so and point at the work instead. And we will not promise a ranking in AI assistants, because nobody controls that. If a competing agency offers both, they are not being more capable, only less careful.
Common questions
How much should a small business pay an agency?
It depends on scope, but judge it against gross profit per customer and cost per booked job rather than against another agency's monthly number.
Should I hire local?
Local helps for photography and in-person meetings. Most of the work runs remotely, so it should not be the deciding factor.
What if I already signed a bad contract?
Ask for account ownership and the reporting you need. If they refuse, note the notice period and start planning the handover.
Do I need an agency at all?
Not necessarily. If someone in-house owns marketing and it does not slip when you get busy, that often works better than a retainer.
Where to start
Ask question nine first. The answer tells you whether you are talking to an advisor or a vendor. If you want to ask us, our case studies show the work and our services page explains what we do and how.