Before you sign anything

9 questions to ask before you hire another marketing agency.

Not the generic list ("what's your reporting cadence"). These are tied to the specific ways we've watched marketing spend go to waste on real service businesses — the answer that sounds good, and the answer that's actually a dodge.

"What did you diagnose before you recommended this package?"

If the answer is a service (ads, SEO, social) rather than a finding ("your after-hours leads go unanswered"), the package was decided before anything was measured.

Dodge: "We've had great results with [service] for businesses like yours."

"What happens to a lead that comes in at 9pm on a Saturday?"

For most service businesses, this is the single most expensive gap, and it has nothing to do with ad spend or SEO rank.

Dodge: a shrug, or "we can look into automating that eventually."

"Where do my reviews actually show up — to a customer, and to an AI answer tool?"

A real 5-star history is worthless if it's invisible where people, or ChatGPT and Perplexity, actually look for it now.

Dodge: a screenshot of your Google Business Profile and nothing else.

"How do I compare to the other shops in my market, specifically?"

Best practices are generic. A real answer requires having actually scored other businesses in your market on the same scale — most agencies haven't.

Dodge: industry-average benchmarks with no named comparison set.

"What can't you verify about my business, and what do you do with that?"

Every assessment has blind spots. What matters is whether an unknown gets excluded honestly or quietly scored as a failure to make the report look thorough.

Dodge: "we cover everything" — nobody does.

"What does the funnel look like from a stranger's first search to a job on my calendar?"

Most pitches start at "we'll get you more traffic." The failure is usually downstream of traffic, not upstream of it.

Dodge: the pitch never leaves the top of the funnel.

"What would make you tell me not to hire you?"

A business that has never once told a prospect "your gap isn't something we work on" is a business that always finds a way to sell you something.

Dodge: "we're a good fit for everyone."

"Can I see this exact process run on someone else's real business first?"

Ask for the whole thing, unedited, not a highlight reel. Redacted company details are fine. A polished case-study slide is not the same thing.

Dodge: "our results speak for themselves" with no artifact to actually look at.

"If I only want the diagnosis and not the treatment, can I get that?"

This is the question that tells you the most. A diagnostic that's only ever sold bundled with the fix isn't really a diagnostic.

Dodge: "the assessment's included, but we'd need to scope the retainer first."

If you'd rather skip the interview: run the same 122-point scorecard we'd use to answer question 1, 3, 4, and 5 yourself. It's free, and nobody calls you about it unless you ask.

Skip the interview. Run the exam.

Free, about 5 minutes, no call required to see your score.

Get my free score Why we do it this way

9 questions to ask before you hire another marketing agency.

"What did you diagnose before you recommended this package?"

"What happens to a lead that comes in at 9pm on a Saturday?"

"Where do my reviews actually show up — to a customer, and to an AI answer tool?"

"How do I compare to the other shops in my market, specifically?"

"What can't you verify about my business, and what do you do with that?"

"What does the funnel look like from a stranger's first search to a job on my calendar?"

"What would make you tell me not to hire you?"

"Can I see this exact process run on someone else's real business first?"

"If I only want the diagnosis and not the treatment, can I get that?"

Skip the interview. Run the exam.

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