April 18, 2026 · 7 min read

How to hire a marketing agency (and what to watch for)

I own an agency. I also sell against other agencies. Here's the honest version of how to hire one — the questions that work, the red flags that matter, and the things founders think matter but don't.

Start with your actual problem, not the service you think you need

Most founders who call me have a diagnosis: "We need paid media." Or "We need SEO." Or "We need a new website." Half the time, the diagnosis is wrong. Or at least incomplete.

A better starting question: what's the number you're trying to move, in what timeframe, for what budget? That lets the agency reverse-engineer whether the service you're asking for is actually what will move that number. If it isn't, a good agency will tell you.

Five questions that actually filter agencies

1. "Who will actually be in the room on my account?"

Answer you want: a specific human, or a very small team, whose work you can see in the pitch.
Answer that's a red flag: "We have a whole team assigned to your success." That's code for "you'll meet them at kickoff and then work with a junior account manager."

2. "What's one thing a recent client fired you for, or nearly did?"

Answer you want: a specific, slightly uncomfortable story told honestly.
Answer that's a red flag: "Our clients love us." Nobody's clients "love them." Somebody has been disappointed recently. The honest agency tells you what happened and what they changed.

3. "Walk me through your reporting."

Answer you want: a live dashboard (Looker Studio, Triple Whale, Northbeam) that the client can open any time, plus a weekly written summary.
Answer that's a red flag: "We send a detailed deck at the end of each month." Decks are what agencies send when they don't want you looking at the numbers in real time.

4. "What do you not do?"

Answer you want: a list of specific things. "We don't do brand campaigns under $10K/mo." "We don't do SEO on brand-new domains." "We don't do TikTok for B2B clients."
Answer that's a red flag: "We can do it all." No you can't. Nobody can. An agency that claims to is either lying or will farm out the parts they can't actually run.

5. "If I wanted to fire you next month, what would the offboarding look like?"

Answer you want: a specific, clean answer. "You own all the accounts. We send you a final performance summary. We give you two weeks of overlap if you want a transition."
Answer that's a red flag: long pause, evasion, or a contract term that makes leaving expensive. You're not signing up for a marriage. A good agency earns the retainer every month.

Contract terms that actually matter

• Notice period. 30 days is normal. 60 is acceptable. 90+ is the agency optimizing for their churn protection, not your outcome.
• Account ownership. Your Meta Business Manager, Google Ads account, Klaviyo account, and analytics should all be in YOUR name. The agency has access. Not the other way around.
• IP on deliverables. Anything they produce for you — copy, creative, reports — is yours. Get this in writing.
• Minimum terms. If they require a 6 or 12-month commitment, understand why. Sometimes the math works (SEO, long-cycle content). Often it's CAC protection for the agency.
• Billing structure. Management fee separate from ad spend. Ad spend should go directly on the client's credit card when possible — it removes a layer of trust and any chance of them invoicing you for spend that didn't happen.

Things founders overweight

• Case studies with big logos. Those were probably done by a different team than the one you'll get.
• Office location. Doesn't matter unless you need in-person meetings.
• Agency headcount. Bigger is usually worse. Small founder-led agencies tend to care more because they have to.
• Flashy presentation decks. The best agencies I know have ugly PDFs and great execution. The worst have beautiful pitch decks and nothing behind them.

Things founders underweight

• Who does the work day-to-day. This is the whole game.
• How they hire. Agencies are people. Ask about turnover.
• What they specifically won't take on. A focused agency beats a generalist one almost every time.
• Cultural fit with the person who'll be on calls. You're going to talk to them every week for a year. Do you like them?

The honest closing

I run Revive. If you're shopping agencies, you can hire us or hire somebody else. Either way, the checklist above is the one I'd use if I were buying my own services. Use it on me, use it on everyone else, and go with whichever agency flunks the fewest questions.

— Austin Griner is the founder and CEO of Revive Agency. Related: The math behind "no contracts, month-to-month".