How to hire a marketing agency (and when not to)

How to hire a marketing agency, in short: decide the one job you're hiring for, set a budget you can hold for six months, shortlist agencies on named proof, ask every one the same questions, compare pricing models, make sure you own every account, and start with a 90-day pilot with exit terms in writing. Those seven steps fit on one page, and the rest of this guide explains each one.

This guide is part of our services overview. We're an agency, so we'll also tell you when not to hire one.

Should you hire a marketing agency at all?

Don't hire one yet if you can't fund the work for at least six months, can't say clearly what you sell and to whom, or can't make time for regular calls. Any one of those will sink the work, however good the agency is.

• No runway. Marketing takes time to build. If you'd need to cancel after two months, you're paying for setup and never seeing the results.
• No offer clarity. If you can't explain what you sell, who it's for and why it's better in two sentences, fix that first. An agency can sharpen a message, but it can't invent your business.
• No time. Agencies need approvals, access and answers. If nobody on your side can meet weekly or every other week, the work stalls.

If you pass all three, keep going.

Step 1: What's the one job you're hiring for?

Write down the one result you want the agency to own, in one sentence. "More leads from Google," "a steady supply of video ads" and "a website that converts visitors into calls" are all clear jobs. "Help with marketing" isn't.

One job gives you a way to judge every agency against the same yardstick. It also tells you which kind of agency you need: an SEO shop, an ads team, a web studio, a video crew or a full-service agency that covers several. If you have two jobs, rank them and hire for the first.

Step 2: What's your budget range and time horizon?

Set a monthly or project budget range and commit to a time horizon before you talk to anyone. A range lets agencies tell you honestly what's possible at that level, rather than guessing. A time horizon, such as six months for search or a single quarter for a launch, tells them how to pace the work.

Include the money that doesn't go to the agency. Ad spend, software and content production often sit outside the agency fee. Ask what's included every time. For a regional look at costs, see what marketing and video cost.

Step 3: How do you build a shortlist?

Shortlist three to five agencies based on proof: named case studies with published results, real reviews and work you can see. Logos without stories don't count, and neither do results that aren't tied to a client.

Look for:

• Named clients. A case study should name the client, describe the work and state what happened.
• Relevant work. Proof in your type of job, even if not your exact industry.
• Reviews you can check. Google reviews and BBB records are public. Read the negative ones too.
• People. Find out who actually does the work, not just who sells it.

Step 4: What questions should you ask every agency?

Ask every agency the same questions, in writing if you can, so the answers are easy to compare. Start with these:

1. Who will do the work day to day, and are they employees or contractors?
2. Which named clients have you done this exact job for, and what happened?
3. What will you do in the first 30, 60 and 90 days?
4. How will you report results, how often, and which numbers will you track?
5. Who owns the accounts, data, files and creative you produce?
6. How is pricing structured, and what isn't included?
7. What's the notice period, and what do we get when we leave?

Good agencies answer quickly and plainly. Hedging on questions 5 and 7 tells you a lot.

Step 5: Which pricing model is right, and what does each hide?

The four common models are retainer, project, hourly and performance. Each one is fair, and each one has a catch you should ask about.

• Retainer. A fixed monthly fee for ongoing work. It's predictable, but ask exactly what the hours or deliverables are each month, or the scope drifts.
• Project. A fixed fee for a defined result, like a website or a video. It's clear, but changes outside scope cost extra, so get the scope in writing.
• Hourly. You pay for time used. It's flexible, but it's hard to budget, so ask for a cap.
• Performance. Fees tied to results, like leads or sales. It sounds safe, but ask how results are counted and who controls the tracking.

Whichever model you choose, get the same scope priced by each agency so the comparison is fair.

Step 6: Do you own your accounts and assets?

You should own every account and asset, and the agency should work in them as a user you can remove. That means your business, not the agency, is the owner of:

• Ad accounts (Google Ads, Meta and others)
• Analytics (GA4 and tag manager)
• Google Business Profile
• Domain and hosting
• The website and its source files
• Raw footage and final creative files

Set this up before work starts. In Google Ads and GA4, the business creates the account and adds the agency as a user. Both Google Ads Help and Google Analytics Help explain how to add and remove access. If an agency insists on owning your accounts, keep looking.

Step 7: Why start with a 90-day pilot?

Start with a 90-day pilot because it's long enough to see whether the agency works well with you, and short enough to walk away if it doesn't. Agree on what the pilot will deliver, which numbers you'll review and when, and what decision you'll make at day 90.

Then put the exit terms in writing: the notice period, what you'll receive when you leave (files, logins, reports) and how access is handed back. A good agency is happy to sign this, because it plans to keep you on results, not contract terms.

Want a 90-day pilot with us? Start a project

Red flags when you hire a marketing agency

The biggest red flags are guaranteed rankings, no named case studies, accounts the agency owns and reports you can't follow.

• Guarantees. Nobody controls Google's rankings or an ad platform's auction. A guaranteed #1 is a sales line.
• No case studies. If they can't name a client and a result, they may not have one.
• Locked accounts. The agency owns your ad account, domain or site and won't transfer it.
• Vague reports. Pages of charts with no link to leads or revenue. Our guides on SEO reporting KPIs and tracking paid media ROI show what to expect instead.
• Long lock-in. A long contract with no pilot and no exit terms.

Hiring specifically for video? Our guide to choosing a video agency covers what's different.

What does working with us look like?

We work the way this guide recommends: one clear job, named proof, your accounts and a plan you can review. One team handles the work from planning to delivery. For 3Natives, that meant scripting, interviewing, editing and delivery all in-house, including rewriting concepts on set when the original script didn't land.

Some partnerships run for the long term. For VV Sourcing, we shoot and edit 33+ ads a month. During our partnership, their revenue grew 10x in under a year.

We cover SEO, paid ads, websites and video. See the work or all our services.

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