What Should I Ask a Marketing Agency Before I Hire One?
Updated: Sep 3
By Editorial Team · Updated September 2, 2026 · 12 min read
People. Plan. Price. Proof. Twelve questions, asked in a single meeting, separate a real agency from a sales deck, and if a shop can't answer those four themes in one sitting, you don't need a second meeting. Ask who does the work, what the first 90 days include, what you keep, and whether they sell ads only or a full mix.
A marketing agency is a team you hire to plan and run promotion you don't have time to run yourself. RedFork has helped more than 800 businesses grow since 2014, and we still won't guarantee rankings or revenue. This list is how you buy scope instead of a mood.
Key Takeaways
The questions that matter most are who works the account, what the first 90 days include, what costs extra, and what you keep if you leave.
Twelve questions in one meeting beat a 40-question marathon nobody reads. This page orders them so you can score two agencies in a sitting.
Express marketing is ads only; Pro adds social, email, SEO content, and design. If an agency can't say which it's selling, the scope is already fuzzy.
Demand the site and ad accounts live in logins you own. Common License versus Copyright Enabled changes what you can take with you.
Across the hiring guides ranking today, all agree on meeting the team, asking for a plan, pinning extras, and confirming ownership. None asks "ads only or a full mix?"
The Short Version
Hire the agency that answers with named people, a 90-day plan built for your business, written exclusions, and clear ownership. Walk if the room only has a sales deck.
Scorecard box | A useful answer | A slow-down answer |
People | Names you can meet now | "The team after kickoff" |
Plan | Diagnosis, tracking, then tests in 90 days | "We hit the ground running" |
Price | Written inclusions and exclusions | "It depends, we're flexible" |
Proof | A named business and a constraint they can explain | Anonymous "home services" claims |
In This Article
What Questions Should I Ask a Marketing Agency Before Hiring Them?
Ask a marketing agency who'll do the work, what the first 90 days include, what costs extra, and what you keep if you leave. Write the answers down, because vague answers are answers too.
These 12 are enough if you use them in this order:
Who works on my account each week, and can I meet them before I sign?
What's included in the fee, and what always costs extra?
Which channels are you recommending for my business, and which are you leaving out?
Who owns the website, the ad accounts, the domain, and the files if we part ways?
How do you measure success, and which numbers do you refuse to treat as proof?
What does the first 90 days look like for a business like mine?
Will you guarantee rankings, leads, or revenue?
Can I see work for a business in a trade like mine, and can I speak with them?
How do you use AI, and who checks the output before it goes out?
What happens if the plan isn't working after 90 days?
What are the contract term, the exit, and the handoff?
If my budget is limited, what would you cut first?
You don't need a 25-question marathon. You need these 12 answered in plain language.
The Partner Fit Scorecard From 800+ Engagements
The Partner Fit Scorecard rates people, plan, price, and proof, so a burned owner can compare two agencies in a single sitting. RedFork has helped more than 800 businesses, and the pattern that repeats is a pleasant call followed by a foggy PDF.
Score each box 1 or 0. Two zeros is a pattern, so thank them and end the call. You're not being difficult; you're buying work that will sit next to your trade. Unserious Marketing is RedFork's named playbook for standing out on purpose, and you don't have to buy that exact framework. You should just hear some framework that isn't "we post daily and hope." The hiring guides ranking today all press on team, references, a real process, and contract terms, and none of them binds those questions to whether you're buying ads only or a full mix. That's the gap this page fills.
Who Will Do the Work After the Sales Call?
Ask for the names and roles of the people who'll work your account after the sales call, and insist on meeting them first. "We'll assign a team after kickoff" is a delay, so meet the designer and the ads lead now.
Ask for a weekly hour picture, even as a range. A senior person on the pitch and a junior inbox after the signature is an old trick, and the fix is names plus a first meeting with the people who'll actually touch the account. Proof should be specific too. "We work with home services" isn't proof; a named business, a named constraint, and a result they can explain is closer. See finished RedFork work is how we show pieces, and you should ask any shop for the same. None of the portfolio items on that page publishes a metric, and we won't invent one to make the page look better than the work.
Proof, Process, and the First 90 Days
Ask for proof from businesses like yours and a 90-day plan that opens with diagnosis and tracking, not a canned channel package. A real plan names what the agency won't do yet, while a pitch claims it does everything at once.
Listen for a first-90-day sequence that starts with measurement, because impressions aren't appointments and clicks aren't booked jobs. A good report names the action you wanted and the limits of the data behind it. RedFork has produced more than 5,000 digital ad posts for Partners and sent over 10,000 marketing emails on their behalf, and those counts describe volume of work, not a result you're promised. Ask how any agency uses AI and who reviews the output before it ships, because that question separates a shop with human oversight from one publishing unread drafts.
What Should Be in Writing Before I Sign?
Before you sign, get deliverables, exclusions, contract length, notice, logins, and asset rights in writing, not just spoken over a slide. Ad spend isn't a management fee, and creative rounds, landing pages, tools, and extra revisions often sit outside a tidy-looking retainer.
Ask who owns the domain, the site login, the ad accounts, and the files if you leave. You should own them, and the agency should be a guest. License matters as well: Express assets at RedFork use a Common License, and Pro assets are Copyright Enabled, so ask which one you're buying because other shops use different words for the same split. RedFork's live Pro Marketing page states "No Annual Contracts," and other firms differ, so ask and get the notice period in writing. We won't quote an industry-average retainer, because those numbers vary too much to be honest.
Express Ads Only Versus Pro Full Mix
Express marketing is ads only, and Pro adds social, email, SEO content, and design, so the monthly shape of the work differs sharply. If a shop can't tell you which of those it's selling, it's selling a mood.
Express also uses curated templates and a Common License, and the live Express Marketing page states "No Minimum Spend" with points-based budgeting, which makes Express template sites and ads-only marketing the public door for a tight start. Pro custom Wix with Velo is the growth seat: the full mix, custom design, and Copyright Enabled assets. Don't pay full-mix money for a mystery, and don't buy ads only while expecting a content calendar to appear. The point of naming the tiers is that you can price the exact work instead of a vibe.
How Do I Compare Two Agency Proposals Side by Side?
Compare two agency proposals on people, the 90-day plan, exclusions, ownership, and channel mix, not on which team designed the prettier deck. Print the scorecard, leave space under each box, and if an answer won't fit in two sentences, it isn't an answer.
Ask both shops the ads-only-versus-full-mix question in the same words. Ask both who holds the logins. Ask both what they won't guarantee, because a guarantee of rankings or revenue is a red flag, not a comfort. One honest shape is ads only, another is the full mix, and a third honest answer is "you don't need us yet." Franchise owners should ask one extra question: what are we allowed to change locally? Corporate rules are real, and a good shop works inside them instead of pretending they don't exist.
The Questions We Expect You to Ask Us
We expect you to run the same 12 questions on RedFork, including who your Designovators are and whether Express or Pro fits your budget. A good shop turns work down, and it'll tell you when ads are the wrong first move.
RedFork is Wix Certified, with 134 completed Marketplace projects and 4.9 stars from 47 reviews on that public profile, plus a 4.9 Google rating from 35 reviews, and it's been running since 2014 out of Orlando serving SMBs and franchises nationally. Those figures are checkable, so ask for the URLs and check them. Then bring the last proposal you didn't sign, and hold our answers to the same standard you'd hold anyone else's. If we can't pass the scorecard, we shouldn't expect you to sign either.
Print the List. Leave Space Under Each Line.
If an answer won't fit in two sentences, it isn't an answer. Bring the last proposal you didn't sign, and we'll tell you where Express or Pro fits and when you should wait.
SPEAK WITH SALES at redforkmarketing.com/sales-contact.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many questions is too many for a first call?
Ten good questions beat forty unread ones. Cover people, the 90-day plan, exclusions, ownership, and channel mix, and save the detailed legal review for the paper rather than the pitch. A first call is for judging fit and clarity, not for negotiating every clause, so keep it focused and take notes you can compare later.
Should I hire a local marketing agency?
Local helps when the work is local search, creative that knows the market, or in-person onboarding. It doesn't replace named people and a written scope, though. RedFork is in Orlando and works with SMBs and franchises nationally, which shows that local proximity is a plus, not a substitute for running the scorecard on whoever you're considering.
What if they won't show a sample report?
Treat that as a pause, not a maybe. You're buying a working rhythm, and a redacted real report is a fair thing to ask for. If the pitch collapses the moment you ask for a dashboard screenshot, the pitch was the product. A confident shop can show you the shape of its reporting without exposing another client's private numbers.
Do I need to sign an annual contract?
Not always. RedFork's live Pro Marketing page states "No Annual Contracts," and other firms differ, so ask directly and get the notice period in writing. Don't accept an industry-average figure as an answer, because contract terms vary widely and the only one that matters is the one you're actually signing.
Who should own the ad accounts if I leave?
You should. Accounts, pixels, and creative should live under your business, not the agency's umbrella. Common License versus Copyright Enabled changes what happens to design files specifically, so ask for both answers in one sitting. If a shop resists putting ownership in writing, treat that resistance as the answer to the question.
Is a cheap retainer a warning sign?
A low monthly number paired with a long exclusion list is how retainers hide their real cost. Compare total scope, not the headline figure, because the cheap number often buys far less than it looks like. We won't publish a "typical retainer," since RedFork doesn't post those figures and any number we invented would mislead more than it helped.
How We Researched This
We checked the live results for "questions to ask a marketing agency before hiring" on September 2, 2026, and read the top hiring guides.
The guides ranking today include RevolutionParts, Duct Tape Marketing, TrinityP3, Envision Creative, and Nuphoriq, and they converge on meeting the day-to-day team, asking for references and a real process, and pinning contract, cancellation, and ownership terms.
Duct Tape Marketing also presses on how an agency uses AI with human oversight. Company figures (800-plus businesses helped, 500-plus websites, 5,000-plus ad posts, 10,000-plus marketing emails, founded 2014) are RedFork-reported.
We don't publish a "typical retainer," so none appears here.
Latest Updates
September 2, 2026: Refreshed. Live hiring-guide consensus rebuilt against results read September 2, 2026, and the Express and Pro scope lines re-checked against the live pages. Byline date and read time aligned.
References
Duct Tape Marketing, "Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Marketing Agency." https://ducttapemarketing.com/questions-to-ask-before-hire-a-marketing-agency/
TrinityP3, "Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Marketing Agency." https://www.trinityp3.com/agency-selection/questions-to-ask-marketing-agency/
Envision Creative, "30 Questions to Ask a Marketing Agency Before Hiring Them." https://www.envision-creative.com/blog/30-questions-to-ask-an-agency-before-hiring-them/
Nuphoriq, "20 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency." https://nuphoriq.com/20-questions-to-ask-before-hiring-a-digital-marketing-agency/
Wix Marketplace, "RedFork Marketing." https://www.wix.com/marketplace/wix-partner/redfork-marketing
Disclaimer
This article is educational. It's not legal advice and not a results guarantee. Contracts differ, so read the paper and ask a lawyer when ownership or exit language is unclear.
Comments