How to choose an advertising agency: questions before starting

Start with the task you are assigning

Before talking to agencies, define the product, geography, primary objective and existing constraints. "I want more sales" should be clarified: do you need new customers, to enter a new region, to check the offer or to restore ineffective advertising? If there is a previous history, prepare costs, enquiries, sales and reasons for rejections.

A good proposal should explain how the contractor will verify the task, not just list promotional tools. Agreed assumptions and decision criteria are important before the start. Don't ask for an exact CPL without data, but ask for an explanation of how it will be evaluated and what will happen if the test doesn't meet expectations.

How to check cases

• Is the task similar, not just the name of the niche?
• What channel was used and what was the result?
• Are there screenshots and clear context?
• Are the period, costs, and attribution indicated, if the conclusion is based on them?
• Are enquiries, purchase events and actual customers clearly distinguished?

A high number of clicks does not prove a sale, and ROAS without revenue definition can be incomparable. If the details are not published, the normal solution is to clarify them, and not automatically reject the case or believe a beautiful figure. Ours cases contain available materials and the limits of their interpretation.

Data access and ownership

Agree on who owns the ad account, who pays the budget and how access is provided. It is important for a business to keep its campaign history and its own assets after the collaboration is over. Ask what roles are required, how they are revoked and who has access to personal enquiry data.

Do not share personal passwords if an appropriate role can be assigned. Clarify who is implementing site and analytics changes: A contractor's recommendation doesn't mean it's automatically implemented. Assign responsibility for the delivery and processing of enquiries so that the problem is not shared between multiple teams.

Compare the payment structure

Divide the budget of the platform, management and additional work. Check the amount of materials, analytics, optimization frequency, reporting and consulting. A cheaper rate may mean less work, not better efficiency. Make sure that the fee and its limits are described in the same way in the proposal and the contract.

At Klientum paid social plans and Google Ads packages include scope comparisons and a calculator. Apply them to your own goals: a larger plan is unnecessary unless the business can support more tests or channels.

Report and subsequent decision

Ask for an example of the structure of the report without other people's personal data: costs, targeted actions, quality, conclusions and subsequent changes. The report should answer what was done, what was checked and what to do next. If the presentation contains only reach, but the task is enquiries, the measurement is not fit for purpose.

Separately agree on the contact of the person in charge, the order of communication and the time frame of the assessment. Be wary of guaranteed sales without analyzing demand and economics. To prepare the data, use practical brief, and for evaluating metrics — analytics plan.

Before the next step

Record your starting data and decision criteria. Calculation examples are illustrative unless explicitly linked to a case study. Results from one project do not guarantee results for another business.