Before You Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional CMO, or Freelancer… Read This Free Checklist
Know what you’re signing up for
Most business owners I talk to have been burned at least once. They paid for a year of “marketing,” got a monthly report full of charts, and still could not tell you whether a single new customer came from it.
That is not because marketing doesn’t work. It is because nobody asked the right questions before signing.
I have run Faceted Media for 15 years, and these are the five questions I would want every client to ask me (and every agency they talk to). A good agency will be happy to answer them. A vague answer tells you everything you need to know.
1. Who will actually be doing the work?
The person who sells you the contract is often not the person who touches your account. At some agencies, your work gets handed to a junior hire, an offshore team, or a rotating cast of contractors you will never meet.
That is not automatically bad. But you deserve to know.
Ask: Who is my day-to-day contact? Who writes, designs, and manages the ads? How long have they been with you?
A good answer: Names, roles, and a clear point of contact who knows your business.
Why it matters: Marketing is personal. The person writing your social posts or Google Ads needs to understand who your customers are, what makes you different, and how you talk. Every time your account changes hands, that knowledge walks out the door and you start over. You end up re-explaining your business every few months and wondering why the work feels generic.
Red flags:
- They can’t tell you who will be on your account until after you sign
- Your “account manager” is a salesperson who forwards your emails to someone else
- The team has turned over several times in the last year
- They avoid the question by talking about how big their team is
Follow-up worth asking: “If my main contact leaves, what happens to my account?” A good agency has notes, documentation, and a handoff plan. You should never be the one holding all the context.
2. How will we know if it’s working?
“Impressions” and “engagement” are nice. They do not pay your rent. Before you start, agree on what success actually looks like for your business: phone calls, booked consultations, form submissions, sales.
Ask: What will you track? How will you connect it to leads or revenue? What should I expect to see in 30, 90, and 180 days?
A good answer: Specific numbers tied to your goals, plus an honest timeline. SEO takes months. Ads can move faster. Anyone promising page one by next week is selling something.
Why it matters: If you don’t define success up front, the agency gets to define it later, and they will pick whatever number looks best that month. Traffic went up? Great, even if none of those visitors called you. A clear target keeps everyone honest and makes the monthly report something you can actually use.
What good tracking looks like:
- Calls from your website and Google Business Profile are tracked, not guessed
- Form submissions and bookings are counted as conversions, with junk entries filtered out
- Ad results are reported as cost per lead or cost per booked client, not just clicks
- You can see where your best leads came from, so money moves toward what works
Red flags:
- Reports full of charts with no plain-English summary
- “Brand awareness” as the main goal for a business that needs customers this quarter
- Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed results (no one controls Google)
- No mention of how they will tell you if something isn’t working
3. What do I own if we part ways?
This is the one people forget, and it is the one that hurts the most later. Some agencies set up your website, ad accounts, Google Business Profile, and analytics under their own logins. When you leave, you lose years of data, reviews, and history.
Ask: Will my domain, website, ad accounts, analytics, and social profiles be in my name? Will I have admin access from day one?
A good answer: “Yes, everything is yours. We work inside your accounts.”
Why it matters: Your Google reviews, your ad account history, and your website’s search rankings took years to build. They are business assets, the same as your equipment or your client list. If an agency holds the keys, they hold leverage, and switching providers becomes so painful that many owners just stay with someone who isn’t serving them.
Make sure you own:
- Your domain name, registered to you or your business
- Your website and hosting account, with admin access
- Google Business Profile, with you as the primary owner
- Google Analytics, Search Console, and Tag Manager
- Google Ads and Meta ad accounts, billed to your card
- Your social media accounts and email marketing list
Red flags:
- “We’ll give you access when the project is done”
- Your website is built on a proprietary platform only they can edit
- A fee to “release” your website or accounts when you leave
- Vague answers about who owns the content they create for you
A simple test: Ask for admin access to everything in week one. A trustworthy agency will say yes without hesitation.
4. How do you charge for ads?
Many agencies charge a percentage of your ad spend, often 15 to 20 percent. That quietly rewards them for spending more of your money, whether or not it’s working. Others mark up your ad budget without telling you.
Ask: Do I pay Google or Meta directly? Is your management fee flat, or tied to how much I spend? Is there any markup?
A good answer: You pay the platforms directly, with no markup, and the management fee is clear and predictable.
Why it matters: Here is how a percentage model plays out. Say you spend $3,000 a month on Google Ads and the agency takes 20 percent. That’s $600. If they convince you to raise your budget to $6,000, their fee doubles to $1,200, even if the extra spend brings in nothing. A flat management fee removes that conflict. The agency’s job becomes getting you more from every dollar, not spending more dollars.
What a clean setup looks like:
- The ad account is in your name and billed to your card
- You can log in any time and see exactly what was spent
- The management fee is a set monthly amount, separate from ad spend
- Any change to your budget is your decision, with a clear reason behind it
Red flags:
- You pay the agency one lump sum and never see the actual ad invoices
- They won’t give you access to the ad account
- Pressure to increase spend before they’ve shown results at the current level
- Setup fees for things that take an afternoon
5. What happens if it isn’t working?
Every campaign hits a rough patch. What matters is what the agency does about it. Do they tell you early, or do you find out three months later from your bank statement?
Ask: How often will we review results? What do you do when something underperforms? What is the contract length, and how do I get out of it?
A good answer: Regular check-ins, a willingness to change course, and a contract that doesn’t trap you. An agency confident in its work doesn’t need a 12-month lock-in to keep you.
Why it matters: Marketing is part strategy, part testing. Some things work right away, and some need adjusting. The agencies worth hiring treat a slow month as information, not something to hide. You want a partner who brings problems to you first, explains what they think is happening, and tells you what they plan to try next.
What a healthy process looks like:
- A clear report on a set schedule, in plain language
- A short written summary of what worked, what didn’t, and what changes next
- Honest expectations about timing (SEO often takes 3 to 6 months to show real movement)
- A contract with a reasonable exit, such as 30 days’ notice after an initial period
Red flags:
- Long contracts with steep cancellation fees
- You only hear from them when an invoice is due
- Every slow month gets blamed on “the algorithm” with no plan attached
- The strategy hasn’t changed in a year, even though results have
Before you ask them, ask yourself
The best agency relationships start with an owner who knows what they want. You don’t need a marketing plan, but a few minutes with these questions will make every conversation sharper and help you spot the right fit faster.
- What does a good month look like? More calls, more booked clients, a fuller calendar on slow days? Pick one or two outcomes that matter.
- What can I realistically spend? Include both the agency fee and any ad budget, and decide what you can sustain for six months, not just one.
- What have I already tried? What worked, what flopped, and what you never want to do again.
- How involved do I want to be? Some owners want to approve every post. Others want it handled. Both are fine, but the agency needs to know.
- Who is my ideal customer? The clearer you are about who you want more of, the faster an agency can find them.
The short version
Before you sign anything, you should know:
- Who is doing the work
- How success will be measured
- That you own your accounts
- Exactly how ad fees work
- What happens if things go sideways
If an agency gets uncomfortable with any of these, keep looking. The right partner will welcome the questions, because good work holds up to them.
And if you’d like to ask me all five, I’m happy to answer. Get in touch with Faceted Media and tell me a little about your business.
