23 Questions to Ask a Marketing Agency Before You Sign

Most agencies answer these questions the same way. That's because most agencies operate the same way. Charge a retainer. Keep you on it forever. Never teach you anything.

These are the questions that surface the difference. And the answers you should actually hear.

Print this page. Chuck it in your pitch folder. Watch how agencies squirm on the ones that matter.

Before you ask anything

Know what you want. If you walk into a pitch without a clear goal, you'll get sold whatever's easiest for them to deliver — not what your business needs.

Three things to decide before the first meeting:

1. What's the outcome you want in 12 months? (Leads, sales, brand, something else?)
2. What's your actual budget — all in, including ads?
3. Do you want an agency forever, or do you eventually want this in-house?

Right. Now the questions.

About the work

1. Who actually does the work on my account?

Bad answer: "Our senior team handles strategy." (Translation: a junior does the work.)

Good answer: Names. Roles. How long they've been at it.

2. Are you a specialist or a generalist?

Bad answer: "We do everything." (No boundaries = no depth.)

Good answer: Honest framing. "We're generalists — we cover the full funnel at 80% quality. If you need a pure SEO specialist, we're not it. But if you need one team that owns ads, site, offer, and conversion, that's us."

3. What happens if my ads work but my site doesn't convert?

Bad answer: "We'd recommend a web developer."

Good answer: "We fix it. That's our job."

Why it matters: if the agency only owns one piece of the funnel, they'll blame the other pieces when things break.

4. Can I see work you've done for a business my size?

Bad answer: Case studies of enterprise clients or international brands.

Good answer: Local NZ businesses at your revenue stage. Ideally in a similar industry.

5. What do you refuse to do?

Bad answer: "We do everything for every client."

Good answer: Clear boundaries. "We don't do PR. We don't do TikTok dances. We don't chase trends that won't work for your customer."

About results

6. How do you measure success?

Bad answer: Impressions, reach, engagement. (Vanity metrics.)

Good answer: Leads, sales, cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value. Numbers that tie to dollars.

7. What's realistic in month one vs month six?

Bad answer: Big promises about month one.

Good answer: "Month one is setup and learning. Month two to three we start seeing data. Month four to six we're optimising. If we're not moving your core metric by month six, something's wrong and we'll tell you."

8. What reporting do I get, and how often?

Bad answer: Monthly PDF with charts.

Good answer: A live dashboard you can check any time. Monthly call to discuss. Plain-English explanation of what's working and what isn't.

9. What happens if it's not working?

Bad answer: "We'll adjust our strategy."

Good answer: A specific process. "After 90 days if X metric hasn't moved, we run a diagnostic, present findings, and either change direction or end the retainer. No one benefits from you paying us to run a broken plan."

10. Will you show me a client that didn't work out?

Bad answer: "All our clients are happy."

No they're not. Any agency that's been operating more than two years has had failures. Owning them is a trust signal.

Good answer: An honest case of what went wrong and what they learned.

About pricing

11. What's included in the retainer?

Bad answer: Vague descriptions of "strategy and execution."

Good answer: A specific scope. Hours, deliverables, channels covered, what triggers extra charges.

12. What's NOT included?

Bad answer: "Everything's included."

Good answer: A clear list. Ad spend, stock photography, paid tools, video production, major site rebuilds — whatever sits outside the retainer.

13. What does your ideal client look like?

Bad answer: "Anyone who wants to grow."

Good answer: A specific profile. Revenue range, industry, team size, stage of marketing maturity. If you don't fit, a good agency will say so.

14. What's your minimum commitment?

Bad answer: 12-month lock-in with no exit.

Good answer: A short initial term (3–6 months), then rolling. With a clear exit process.

15. How do you price — retainer, project, or performance?

Each has trade-offs.

• Retainer suits ongoing marketing with unpredictable work
• Project suits defined one-offs (website, campaign launch)
• Performance (pay for leads) sounds great but usually means the agency picks the easiest channel, not the right one

Good answer: An honest explanation of which pricing model they use and why.

About the exit

This is where most agencies squirm. This is also the most important section.

16. Can you build capability inside my business so I eventually don't need you?

Bad answer: Nervous laughter. Or, "Marketing is too complex to bring in-house."

Good answer: "Yes. That's actually how we prefer to work. We build the machine, train your team, and step back. Agencies shouldn't be permanent for most SMEs."

If the agency can't answer this without flinching, you're looking at a retainer that'll outlive your mortgage. (Wondering whether you need an agency or a fractional CMO? We break that down too.)

17. What happens when we want to bring this in-house?

Bad answer: "We'd be sad to lose you."

Good answer: A specific handover process. Documentation, training, account access transferred, tools handed over.

18. Do you train our team, or work around them?

Bad answer: "We just focus on the work."

Good answer: "We train your coordinator as we build. By month six they should be running 30–50% of what we set up. By month twelve, more."

19. If we hire a marketing coordinator during our engagement, how does that work?

Bad answer: "We'd continue doing what we do."

Good answer: "Great. We slot them into the system we're building. They manage what we install. We stay on for the stuff that takes specialist setup."

About the team and the fit

20. How many clients does my day-to-day contact manage?

Bad answer: "As many as needed." (Translation: too many.)

Good answer: A number. Ideally under 10. Preferably under 5 for a high-touch relationship.

21. Where are you based?

Bad answer: Everywhere and nowhere. A PO box.

Good answer: A real location, real team, real people you could grab a coffee with if needed. For NZ businesses, a NZ-based team understands the local market in ways offshore teams rarely do.

22. Who's your competition, and why would I pick them over you?

Bad answer: "We don't really have competition."

Good answer: A honest comparison. "If you need pure Google Ads depth, [Specialist Agency] is great. If you need brand-heavy work, [Brand Agency] is better. We sit in the middle, owning the full funnel."

An agency that can't articulate where it loses is an agency that isn't thinking clearly.

23. What would you do first if we signed tomorrow?

Bad answer: A vague strategy process.

Good answer: A specific week-one plan. Audit, discovery calls, priority fixes, first campaign brief. Concrete steps, not consultancy vapour.

The summary answer to watch for

The single best signal across all 23 questions: does the agency talk about building your capability, or about keeping you dependent?

Most agencies' business model rewards dependency. They want long retainers and low-effort renewals. You want to hire an agency that wants to make itself replaceable.

Ask question 16 first. If the answer is fuzzy, you already know.

Our honest pitch

We're King Tide. Based in the Waikato, working with SMEs across NZ. We built this page because we want buyers to ask us these questions. We're not chasing clients who want a forever-agency — we want owner-operators who want the machine built, their team trained, and us to step back inside 18–24 months.

Our service is called the Full Service Accelerator. $5k–$8k per month. We cover the full funnel at 80% quality — enough for your business to feel real momentum — and hand it over when you're ready.

Ask us all 23. We'll answer them straight.

Book a 20-minute call — no pitch, just a conversation.