Before you sign
How to Choose a Marketing Agency: The Questions, the Contract, and the Accounts You Must Keep
Most owners find out what they bought from a marketing agency on the day they fire it. That is when the ad account turns out to belong to the agency, the domain renews on someone else's card, and the Facebook page answers to a stranger. This guide moves that discovery to before the signature.
November 1, 2026 · 13 min read
The short answer
To choose a marketing agency, decide what result you are paying for, then ask each candidate who does the work, how success is counted and what the total cost is, fees included. Get a written scope and a short notice period, keep every account in your business's name with the agency as a user, and walk away from anyone who guarantees rankings or ad positions.
On this page
- Write the job description before the first sales call
- Ten questions for the first meeting, and the answers worth hearing
- Every account in your name, with the agency as a guest
- How agencies charge, and what each model pays them to do
- Six clauses to read twice before you sign
- Reports that count customers, not activity
- Red flags, from the sales call to month six
- Leaving an agency without losing the furniture
Write the job description before the first sales call
Agencies are good at selling; it is their trade. The owner who arrives without a brief gets sold the agency's favorite service, at the agency's favorite price, measured by the agency's favorite number. Spend an hour first and write down three things: the result you want in a year, the monthly sum you can commit without flinching, and the work you will keep in-house because nobody else can do it as well.
The result should be countable, such as booked jobs, sales or qualified leads, not "more visibility." If you do not have that number yet, the one-page marketing plan produces it, and the marketing strategy guides cover the choices underneath it. Then decide what kind of help fits the job, because the word agency covers very different businesses.
Full-service agency
Strategy, creative, ads, search, social and reporting under one roof. Suits a business with several channels and no marketing staff. The risk is paying for a team when one person does the work.
Specialist agency
One channel done deeply: paid search, SEO, email or social. Suits a business that knows which channel matters. Hiring for search alone has its own checklist in our guide to hiring an SEO.
Freelancer or consultant
One skilled person, often cheaper and always more direct. Suits a defined job such as writing or an ad account audit. Ask what happens when that person is sick or booked; our guide to hiring a freelance writer covers the writing case.
Studio that builds and markets
The website, the tracking and the marketing from one team. Suits a business whose site is part of the problem. Ask the build questions too, which our post on twelve questions to ask any web company lists.
Ten questions for the first meeting, and the answers worth hearing
A good agency answers these without a pause, because it hears them every week. A weak one answers with a deck. Ask every candidate the same ten and compare the written answers once the charm wears off.
| Question | A reassuring answer | A worrying answer |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work on my account, by name? | Names, roles and how many clients each person carries | "Our team" with nobody specific |
| Is any of it subcontracted? | A plain yes or no, with what goes out and to whom | A pause, then "we have partners" |
| What happens in the first 90 days? | A dated list: access, tracking, fixes, first campaigns | "Results take time" and nothing written |
| Which number will you be judged by? | Calls, booked jobs or sales, tied to your tracking | Impressions, reach or a proprietary score |
| Whose name is on each account? | Yours; we are added as users | "We set everything up in our system" |
| What do I pay besides your fee? | Ad spend to Google or Meta directly, tools listed by name | A single bundled number with ad spend inside it |
| How do I leave? | Notice period in days, and what you hand back | A 12-month term that renews itself |
| Can I speak to a current client? | Two names in a similar trade | Logos on a slide, no phone numbers |
| What will you need from us? | Approvals, photos, an hour a month, a named contact | "Nothing, we handle it all" |
| What will you not do? | A clear list of exclusions | "Whatever you need" |
The last question matters most, because the gap between the proposal and the job is where the second invoice lives. The first one matters next: the agency on TV versus the one that picks up explains why.
Every account in your name, with the agency as a guest
This is the clause that saves the most money and gets the least attention. The rule is simple: your business owns the account, the agency gets a user seat, and you can remove that seat in a minute. Each platform has its own vocabulary for the two roles, so here is what to ask for by name.
| Account | You hold | The agency gets | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain name | Registrant, with a company email and card on file | Nothing, or DNS access if needed | ICANN says the registrant assumes sole responsibility for the registration and use of the name |
| Google Ads | Admin access on an account billed to your card | Standard access, or a link to its manager account | Google requires a separate account for each advertiser a third party manages |
| Google Analytics | Administrator at the account level | Editor or Marketer on the property | Only Administrators can add or delete users and assign roles |
| Google Business Profile | Primary owner | Manager | A profile has only one primary owner, and managers cannot add or remove users |
| Search Console | Verified owner | Full user | Removing a verified owner means removing a token from the site |
| Facebook and Instagram | The Page and ad account inside your own business portfolio | Partner access | In our experience, a Page owned by the agency portfolio has to be handed back before you can leave |
| Email list, call tracking, CRM | The subscription and the data export | A user login | The customer list is the asset; the software is replaceable |
Google Ads has one trap worth knowing. Its access levels page says that if a linked manager account has ownership of your account, that manager's admins can edit user access within it. Accept a manager link without ownership, keep your own Admin login, and check the user list each quarter. The Business Profile roles page adds a timing detail: a newly added owner or manager cannot be made primary owner for their first seven days, so do not leave the handover to the last week.
How agencies charge, and what each model pays them to do
There is no standard agency price, and anyone who quotes you the industry rate is quoting their own. What you can judge is the incentive inside each model, because every pricing structure quietly rewards a behavior. Choose the one that rewards the behavior you want.
| Model | How it works | What it rewards | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee for a defined scope of ongoing work | Steady work and a long relationship | A scope so vague nobody can say what a month bought |
| Project fee | A fixed price for one deliverable: a site, an audit, a campaign build | Finishing the job | Change orders that double the price after signing |
| Hourly | Time billed as used | Thoroughness, and also slowness | No cap and no estimate in writing |
| Percentage of ad spend | A share of what you spend on ads | Raising your budget | Advice to spend more arriving every month |
| Pay per lead or performance | A fee per lead, call or sale | Volume of whatever counts as a lead | Leads defined loosely, or tracking only the agency can see |
| Hybrid | A base fee plus a bonus tied to an agreed number | Hitting the number | A number you cannot audit yourself |
For Google Ads, the platform's own rules help you. Google's transparency requirements for third parties say a separate management fee must be disclosed in writing before the first purchase and shown on every invoice, that reported cost must be the exact amount Google charged without the agency's fees, and that the agency must give you your customer ID when you ask. What clicks themselves run is covered in how much Google Ads costs, and how a search retainer should be scoped is in our guide to the SEO retainer.
Every pricing model pays the agency to do something. Read the contract to learn what.
Six clauses to read twice before you sign
Marketing contracts are usually short and usually written by the agency, which is the reason to read them slowly. These six clauses decide most disputes. If one is missing, ask for it in writing; Google's advertiser guide to working with third parties makes the same point about getting an official copy of your agreement.
- 1.Scope, in nouns. Pages written, campaigns managed, posts published, reports delivered, each with a quantity or a frequency. "Ongoing optimization" is not a scope.
- 2.Term and notice. Month to month with 30 days' notice is a fair standard. A 12-month term with automatic renewal deserves a hard look and a calendar reminder.
- 3.Ownership and assignment. Accounts in your name, and copyright in the work assigned to you on payment, as the callout above explains.
- 4.Handover on exit. A list of what comes back and when: logins removed, files delivered, ads paused or transferred, the domain untouched.
- 5.Who pays the platforms. Ad spend billed by Google or Meta to your own card, so you see the real number and nothing stops the day you leave.
- 6.Claims and approvals. Who approves ad copy before it runs. The FTC's advertising guide for small business says an agency may be held legally responsible for misleading claims in addition to the advertiser, which means you are responsible too.
Regulated businesses need one more line: the agency works inside your compliance review, and your compliance officer or counsel approves what goes live. Our copywriting guide covers making claims you can prove.
Reports that count customers, not activity
Google's advertiser guide sets a floor: at a minimum, you have the right to know the clicks, impressions and total cost of your ads. That is a floor, not a report. A useful monthly report answers four questions in the first screen: what we spent, what came in, what each new customer cost, and what we will change next month.
A report you can act on
- Calls, forms and booked jobs by channel
- Spend by channel, matching the platform invoices
- Cost per lead and per new customer
- What was done this month, in plain nouns
- One or two decisions for you to make
A report built to renew the contract
- Thirty pages of charts with no summary
- Impressions and reach in the headline
- A visibility score the agency invented
- Rankings for terms nobody searches
- No access to check any of it yourself
The best report is one you can verify. The counting has to exist before anyone can report on it: conversion tracking setup wires calls and forms to their source, our SEO KPIs guide sorts the search numbers that matter from decoration, and SEO reporting tools compares the software agencies use to build these reports.
Red flags, from the sales call to month six
- Guaranteed positions. Google's advertiser guide says it is not possible to guarantee a specific ad position on its search results, and no one controls organic rankings either.
- A caller who says they are from Google. Google's guide says to ask for their name and an email from their google.com address.
- A badge read as an endorsement. The Google Partner badge requires an optimization score of at least 70%, $10,000 in 90-day spend across managed accounts and certified staff. It measures spend and training, not results in your trade.
- Bought reviews or links. Both break the rules, and both stay attached to your business after the agency leaves. Our guides to getting more Google reviews and buying backlinks explain what is allowed.
- A proprietary website you cannot take with you. If the site lives on the agency's platform, leaving means rebuilding.
- Silence after the signature. A slower reply in month two than in the sales process tells you what month eight will feel like.
If you already have an agency and several of these sound familiar, the marketing repair hub sorts the common failures by symptom, from tracking to ads.
Leaving an agency without losing the furniture
Do it in this order, before you announce anything, so nothing goes dark mid-season.
- 1
List every account and who holds it
Domain, hosting, website, Google Ads, Analytics, Search Console, Business Profile, Meta, email platform, call tracking, review software. Note the owner and every user.
- 2
Get your own top-level access first
Admin in Google Ads, Administrator in Analytics, primary owner of the Business Profile, verified owner in Search Console. Allow a week for the Business Profile handover.
- 3
Collect the files
Ad copy, images, videos, landing page designs, the website code and content, call recordings and the email list. Ask for them in writing with a date.
- 4
Remove access, then check
Remove agency users, unlink manager accounts, change shared passwords, and confirm ad billing runs to your card. Then log in as yourself and look.
- 5
Keep the tracking running
Make sure call tracking numbers and tags stay live through the switch, or next month's report will show a cliff that is really a gap.
DataCram works the way this page describes: accounts in your business's name, ad spend billed by Google to your own account, and monthly terms with no long contract. Local marketing plans start at $575 a month on the local marketing page, SEO programs start at the same $575 a month per the SEO pricing page, and PPC management is quoted after a free audit with a minimum ad budget of $1,000 a month. For an outside view of your current agency's work, start with our online marketing strategy review or the free website audit.
Questions owners ask about marketing
Ask who does the work by name, whether any of it is subcontracted, what happens in the first 90 days, which number they will be judged by, whose name is on each account, what you pay besides their fee, how you leave, and what they will not do. Ask to speak with a current client in a similar business. Compare the written answers from every candidate side by side.
Your business. Keep Admin access in Google Ads and the Administrator role in Google Analytics, with ad spend billed to your own card, and give the agency Standard access or an Editor role. Google requires a separate Google Ads account for each advertiser a third party manages, and agencies must give you your customer ID when you ask.
Month to month with about 30 days' notice is a fair standard for ongoing work, and it keeps the agency earning the renewal every month. A fixed project, such as a website or an ad account build, can have a fixed price and end date instead. Be cautious with 12-month terms that renew automatically, and read the exit and handover clause before you sign.
The common models are a monthly retainer for a defined scope, a project fee, hourly billing, a percentage of ad spend, pay per lead and hybrids with a performance bonus. Each rewards something different: a percentage of spend rewards bigger budgets, pay per lead rewards volume. For Google Ads, Google requires agencies to disclose any separate management fee in writing and on every invoice.
Not automatically. Copyright starts with the author, and the Copyright Office says commissioned work counts as work made for hire only in nine listed categories with a signed written agreement. A transfer of ownership must be in writing and signed. Put an assignment of the copy, designs, photos and code into the contract. DataCram is not a law firm, so have counsel review it.
It has met Google's thresholds: an optimization score of at least 70%, $10,000 in ad spend over 90 days across managed accounts and certified staff. That shows experience with the platform and training, not results for a business like yours. Ask for references in your trade and for the numbers the agency will be judged by.
Guaranteed rankings or ad positions, accounts opened in the agency's name, ad spend bundled into one fee, reports you cannot check, long automatic renewals, offers to buy reviews or links, and a website you could not take with you. Google says no one can guarantee a specific ad position on its search results, so treat that promise as the end of the meeting.
Keep reading
- Before you signHiring an SEO: Consultant, Agency or In-House, the Questions That Sort Them, and a Fair First 90 DaysHow to hire an SEO consultant, agency or in-house expert: the questions Google suggests, the red flags, who owns the accounts and a fair first 90 days.
- Monthly SEO, itemizedSEO Retainer Services: What a Monthly SEO Retainer Should Buy, and What It CostsWhat an SEO retainer should deliver each month, how retainer pricing works, the contract clauses that matter, and when a monthly retainer is the wrong buy.
- Social, minus the theaterSocial Media Marketing for Small Business: Two Platforms, a Calendar You Can Keep, and Tools PricedPick two platforms by where your customers spend time, keep a posting calendar a small team can hold, and pay for tools only when free ones run out.
- The marketing mixThe 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion, Worked Through for a Small BusinessThe 4 Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion) applied to a real-world small business, with worked examples, a checklist and the 7 Ps in brief.
- Content strategyContent Marketing Strategy for a Small Business: Eight Decisions on One SheetA content marketing strategy a small business can keep: eight decisions on one sheet, from reader and offer to topics, cadence, hours and measurement.
- Chatbots, countedAI Marketing Statistics for 2026: Chatbot Users, ChatGPT and Gemini Counts, and What People Actually AskAI and chatbot statistics with sources: Pew's 2026 survey, OpenAI's ChatGPT user counts, Google's AI Overviews and Gemini figures, and AI referral traffic.
- Everything in Marketing StrategySee the section
Get a straight second opinion before you sign
Tell us what the agency proposed or what your current one does. We will look at the accounts and the scope and reply with what we would keep, fix or ask about.
Which of these sounds like you? (pick any)
Rather talk now? Call (210) 346-0848.