What to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency <blue> Before You Sign </blue>

If you want a digital marketing agency to move revenue (not just “make ads”), ask questions that prove three things: (1) how they measure business outcomes, (2) how they operate week to week, and (3) how they earn the right to scale spend. Most agency answers sound good while hiding weak attribution, vague accountability, or incentives that reward bigger budgets over better decisions.

The pre-sign checklist

Key facts box

• Tie measurement to revenue or profit, not just ROAS. ROAS can hide margin, shipping, fees, and other variable costs that determine whether growth is profitable.
• Get a “single source of truth” fast. If reporting lives in slide decks or platform screenshots, you will argue about opinions instead of fixing bottlenecks.
• Buy a cadence, not “some ads.” The first 30 to 60 days should have a clear operating system: data, testing, creative, and weekly decision loops.
• Ask how fees work and what incentives they create. Percentage-of-spend can create misalignment if fees rise when spend rises, even when results are average.

Why most agency relationships fail

The three predictable dominoes

Most buyers assume the failure mode is “they were bad at ads.” That happens, but it is usually not the first domino.

Domino 1: Bad measurement and fuzzy accountability.
Privacy changes and platform limitations mean attribution is never perfect, so the real question is whether the agency has a plan when the data is messy.

Domino 2: Misaligned incentives.
A pricing model can quietly shape behavior. If the agency earns more by spending more, you want extra proof they will protect profit, not just volume.

Domino 3: Slow operating tempo.
If your business moves weekly but the agency reports monthly, you lose compounding. A monthly deck is not a growth system.

Onward’s point of view

A great agency is a measurable growth system

Onward’s bias is simple: a good agency builds truth (data), buys growth (media), and improves outcomes (creative + CRO) as one system. That is why the best pre-sign questions are the ones that expose the system, not the pitch.

One client, Danny Freed (CEO, Blueprint), put it plainly: “Our data sources are a little messy… The dashboard is really helpful, because Onward and their team have made that the single source of truth.”

The questions to ask

1) “How will you measure success, and which metrics do you optimize for?”

Why it matters: It forces a finish line. It also reveals vanity metrics.

A strong answer includes:

• Revenue-linked KPIs (and ideally profit-aware ones like contribution margin, payback, or CAC-to-LTV).
• A clear stance on ROAS: useful context metric, risky North Star when margin varies.
• A plan for reconciling platform-reported numbers with CRM and revenue systems.

2) “What is your attribution approach, and how do you deal with tracking gaps?”

Why it matters: There will be gaps. The question is whether they know what to do next.

A strong answer includes:

• A practical attribution stack (platform attribution plus CRM/revenue reconciliation).
• Incrementality thinking (tests, holdouts, or geo tests when possible).
• Comfort with blended methods like MMM when last-click gets unreliable.

3) “What does onboarding look like in the first 2 to 4 weeks?”

Why it matters: This reveals whether they have a repeatable process and real time-to-value.

A strong answer includes:

• Audit of tracking, funnel, creative, and past performance.
• A roadmap with milestones: first dashboard, first tests, first creative iterations.
• Clear dependencies on your side (access, approvals, and shipping velocity).

4) “Who will actually do the work, and what is your day-to-day cadence?”

Why it matters: Many agencies sell senior strategy and deliver junior execution.

A strong answer includes:

• Named roles (who owns media, creative, analytics, and QA).
• A weekly operating rhythm (standups, performance reviews, test planning).
• Response-time expectations and escalation paths.

5) “How do you test, and how do you decide what to do next?”

Why it matters: Testing is the engine. Without it, you get random activity.

A strong answer includes:

• Hypothesis-led testing (what we think will happen and why).
• Success thresholds and decision rules.
• A clear policy for failed tests (learn, document, iterate, move on).

6) “How do you handle creative, landing pages, and CRO?”

Why it matters: Performance rarely fails because of targeting alone.

A strong answer includes:

• A creative feedback loop tied to performance data (not taste).
• Landing page and funnel diagnosis (speed, offer clarity, friction).
• Clear ownership so media and creative do not blame each other.

7) “How do you unify data across tools so reporting is trustworthy?”

Why it matters: Most teams live across ad platforms, analytics, CRM, and billing.

A strong answer includes:

• A definition of “single source of truth” and what feeds it.
• How they handle duplicates, refunds/returns, offline conversions, and cost data.
• A timeline for getting to “trusted daily visibility.”

8) “Who owns the data, and what happens if we stop working together?”

Why it matters: Lock-in is real. You should never be trapped.

A strong answer includes:

• You own the data, pipelines, and dashboards (or you can export them).
• Documentation and handoff plan.
• No proprietary black box that disappears when you churn.

How to score agencies without getting swayed by charisma

A simple 3-part scorecard

1) Measurement truth
Can they connect spend to business outcomes, and explain limitations without hand-waving?

2) Operating cadence
Do they move as fast as you do? Will you see weekly decisions, not monthly decks?

3) Incentive alignment
Does pricing reward good decisions, or reward bigger budgets?

FAQs

What are the best questions to ask a digital marketing agency?

Ask questions that force specifics on measurement, cadence, and incentives.
Start with “How do you tie spend to revenue?” and “What will I see in the first 2–4 weeks?”
If they cannot answer clearly, do not sign.

How long does it take to know if a marketing agency is working?

You should see early signal in 30–60 days, and stronger clarity by 90 days, assuming tracking is in place and you can ship creative.
Onward clients describe knowing it was working within the first month or two, then scaling spend gradually.

Should an agency charge a percentage of ad spend?

It depends, but it often misaligns incentives once you have momentum.
A client perspective is that percent-of-spend can look like “shared risk,” but agencies can still win even if performance is average.
Fixed, predictable pricing can reduce that conflict.

What should a good agency report on each week?

At minimum, spend, conversion volume, CAC or payback proxy, and what changed since last week.
The best agencies also report what they learned and what they will test next.
If you are still looking at slides, you are already behind.

What is a “single source of truth” dashboard, and why does it matter?

It is one place where performance is reconciled across platforms and tied to business outcomes. Clients describe it as the place they go for cohorts, cost per conversion, and revenue outcomes. It reduces debates and speeds up decisions.

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