● The short answer
Before hiring a marketing agency, ask who will do the work day to day, who owns the accounts and assets, how fees are separated from ad spend, what they will do in the first 90 days, how they report results against your goals, and how you can leave. Clear, specific answers to those six areas matter more than a polished pitch deck.
Key takeaways
- Ask to meet the person who will run your account day to day.
- Confirm in writing that every account and asset will be in your name.
- Make the agency separate its fee from ad spend and disclose any rebates or markups.
The questions that matter most
A pitch meeting is designed to impress. Your job is to find out how the relationship will actually run. These questions are grouped by the risks they protect you from.
People and process
- Who will work on my account day to day, and can I meet them? You want names and roles, not "our team."
- How many other clients does that person handle? There is no perfect number, but a vague answer is telling.
- What work is done in-house and what is outsourced or white-labeled? Outsourcing is not wrong. Not knowing is.
- How do you use AI tools in the work, and who reviews the output?
Ownership and access
- Will my domain, website, ad accounts, analytics and social profiles be in my name? The right answer is yes, with the agency added as a user.
- If we part ways, what do I keep? Content, creative files, keyword research, campaign structures and reports should be yours.
Money
- How is your fee structured, and is it separate from ad spend? Ask whether they add a percentage on top of media. See how agency fees work.
- Do you receive rebates, commissions or referral fees from any platform or vendor you would recommend?
- What is the minimum commitment, and what is the exit clause?
Results and reporting
- What will you do in the first 30, 60 and 90 days?
- Which numbers will you report, and how do they connect to leads or revenue? Ask for a sample report.
- How will you track calls, forms and sales back to a source? If the answer skips conversion tracking, keep probing.
- What would make you tell me to stop spending on a channel?
- How do you check what AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini say about my business? In late 2026 this is still a young discipline, so listen for honesty about what can and cannot be measured.
The how is where we come in.
What we walk through with you, for your business:
- How to read the answers
- Questions the agency should ask you
- Our take
Every business is different, so the plan is too. Tell us where you want to show up and we will show you what it takes.
Talk to usMore questions
Is it rude to ask an agency about rebates or markups?
No. It is a normal procurement question, and a confident agency will answer it plainly. Some platforms and vendors pay agencies incentives, and some agencies add a percentage on top of media spend. Neither is automatically wrong, but you should know about it before you sign so you can compare proposals fairly.
Should I ask for references?
Yes, and ask for a current client who has worked with them for more than a year, plus one with a budget similar to yours. Ask the reference what went wrong at some point and how the agency handled it. How a firm behaves when results dip tells you more than any case study.
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