The criteria that actually matter when selecting an agency: account ownership, reporting transparency, verifiable case studies and the warning signs to walk away from.
Choose on account ownership, reporting transparency and verifiable case studies from businesses your size. The three decisive questions are: do the ad accounts stay in my name? Does the report show real spend, CPA and ROAS? Can I speak to a current client? Hesitation on any of them is itself the answer.
Ask who owns the ad accounts and analytics properties.
The correct answer is: you do. The agency works with delegated access to your accounts. If the relationship ends, you keep the history, the audiences and everything the account has learned.
When an agency creates the accounts under its own name, that history becomes commercial leverage. Switching vendors means starting from zero, and both parties know it — which changes the dynamic of every renegotiation that follows.
A good report is short and slightly uncomfortable. It shows total spend, conversions, CPA, ROAS, and what was done during the period — including what did not work.
Be wary of reports that open with impressions, reach and engagement. Those numbers always go up and never answer the only question that matters: did the investment produce a return?
Ask to see a real report from another client with sensitive data removed. Refusing to show the format usually means there is no format.
Case study numbers without context mean nothing. "We grew sales 300%" can describe a store that went from 2 to 8 orders a month.
Ask about the client's size, the budget involved, the timeframe and the starting point. A result is only comparable to yours if the situation was comparable.
And ask to speak with a current client, not a former one. Every agency keeps two or three satisfied references; willingness to connect you with someone in the middle of the work right now says more than any deck.
Guaranteed first-page rankings. Nobody controls the algorithm. Anyone promising this is either lying or planning tactics that end in a penalty.
Long contracts with no exit. A twelve-month lock-in with no termination clause protects the agency, not you. Six months with 30 days' notice is reasonable.
Ad spend paid to the agency. Media budget should go directly to the platforms. When it routes through the agency, you lose visibility into how much actually reached media versus management.
A proposal with no diagnostic. Anyone who proposes before looking at your accounts is selling a package, not a strategy.
Management fees typically range from USD 1,000 to USD 8,000 per month depending on scope and business size, billed separately from ad spend. Be cautious both of quotes well below that range — which signal very little time per account — and of proposals that do not clearly separate management fees from media investment.
Below roughly USD 10,000 per month in media, an agency usually costs less than a dedicated specialist and brings broader experience. Above that, an in-house team with occasional external consulting starts to make economic sense. The tipping point depends more on operational complexity than on revenue.
Ninety days. Month one is diagnostic and setup, month two is campaign learning, and month three shows real optimization. Judging at 30 days is unfair; waiting past six months with no clear result is complacency.
For most services, no. Paid media management, SEO and content are executed and reported digitally, and remote delivery is now standard. What matters is the communication routine — scheduled meetings and reports delivered on a fixed date beat physical proximity. Confirm working-hours overlap and reporting language before signing.
What CPA and ROAS actually measure, how to calculate each one, and why reading either in isolation leads to bad budget decisions.
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