How Do I Pick the Right Marketing Agency?The Interactive
4.5-Step Playbook

You are my agency due diligence analyst. I am about to talk to a marketing agency.

Agency name: [NAME]
Their website: [URL]
How they found me: [COLD CALL / COLD EMAIL / REFERRAL / I FOUND THEM / AD]
What I can see about them: [PASTE THEIR HOMEPAGE TEXT]
Their own review count and rating: [PASTE]
Do they rank for their own service in their own city: [YES / NO / I DID NOT CHECK]

Do this:
1. Tell me what their own lead flow says about them. If they cold called me, what does that mean. If they rank for nothing, what does that mean.
2. List what I should go check myself before the call, and exactly how to check each one in under 5 minutes.
3. Give me 8 questions to open the call with. The kind that are easy to answer if they are good and awkward if they are not.
4. Tell me the answers that should end the conversation.

Be blunt. Do not soften it. Use only what I pasted.

You are my agency vetting analyst. They just sent me a pitch.

What they sent: [PASTE THE CASE STUDIES, RESULTS, OR CLAIMS]
My business: [TYPE OF BUSINESS] in [CITY, STATE]
What they want per month: [DOLLARS]
Contract length they are asking for: [MONTHS]

Do this:
1. Go through each claim. Mark it: provable, unprovable, or meaningless. Say why in one line.
2. Point out every number that sounds impressive but says nothing. Percentage with no starting point, traffic with no leads, impressions with no calls.
3. Write out the exact proof to ask them for, in the words I should use. Be specific about the screens and reports.
4. Tell me what a real answer looks like and what a dodge looks like for each request.
5. Tell me the one thing that, if they cannot show it, means walk away.

Be blunt. Do not give them the benefit of the doubt.

You are my marketing reporting analyst. Here is the report an agency showed me:

[PASTE THE REPORT, OR LIST EVERY METRIC ON IT]

My business: [TYPE OF BUSINESS] in [CITY, STATE]
Average job value: [DOLLARS]
What I actually want more of: [CALLS / BOOKED JOBS / QUOTE REQUESTS]

Do this:
1. Sort every metric into: this is money, this leads to money, this is decoration.
2. For each decoration metric, say in one line why an agency likes reporting it.
3. Tell me what is missing from this report that I would need to know whether I am making money.
4. Write out the reporting I should require, as I would put it in an email to them.
5. Give me the one number that settles whether to renew, and how many months before it means anything.

Plain words. Use my numbers. Be blunt about anything designed to look good rather than be good.

You are my contract reviewer. Explain everything in plain words. I am a business owner, not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

Here is the agreement:
[PASTE THE FULL CONTRACT TEXT]

Monthly cost: [DOLLARS]
What they say I am getting: [DESCRIBE]

Do this:
1. Translate every clause that costs me money or freedom into one plain sentence.
2. Flag these specifically: auto renewal, notice period to cancel, who owns the website, who owns the ad account, who owns the content, what happens to my data if I leave, and any minimum term.
3. Tell me what happens on the day I want to leave. Walk it through step by step.
4. List the changes to ask for before I sign, written the way I would say them.
5. Tell me which clauses are normal and which are unusual, so I do not fight the wrong ones.

Remind me at the end to have a real lawyer look at anything I am unsure about.