Every agency pitch looks good. That is what a pitch is for.
By the time you are in the room, you are looking at the best work the agency has ever produced, presented by the people who are best at presenting. The pitch is a poor instrument for predicting what the next twelve months will feel like.
These twelve questions are better. We are an agency, so read this with that in mind — but we would rather work with clients who ask hard questions, because the engagements that go wrong almost always go wrong on things that were knowable up front.
About the work
1. "Who, specifically, will do the work?"
The most common failure in agency relationships: senior people pitch, junior people execute. Ask for names, roles, and how much of each person's week is yours. Worrying answer: anything vague about "the team."
2. "Show me a campaign that did not work, and what you did next."
Everyone has them. An agency that cannot name one is either inexperienced or not being straight with you. The recovery story tells you far more than the case study. Worrying answer: "Honestly, our clients have all done really well."
3. "What would you need from us to succeed?"
Good agencies have clear requirements — access to data, a decision-maker, product, response times. An agency that says "nothing, we handle everything" is either overselling or plans to work without the inputs that make work good. Worrying answer: "Just approvals."
4. "What will you stop us from doing?"
You are hiring judgment, not capacity. An agency that will never push back is an expensive pair of hands. Good answer: a specific example of telling a client no.
About measurement
5. "What does month three look like, and how will we know if it is working?"
Most meaningful marketing takes longer than a month and less than a year to show. Ask for the intermediate signals — the things that should be true in ninety days even if revenue has not moved yet. Worrying answer: a promise of results in thirty days.
6. "Which numbers are you accountable for, and which are you not?"
An honest agency will tell you what it does not control — your pricing, your product, your sales follow-up, your operations. Anyone accepting accountability for everything has not thought about it. Worrying answer: "We're accountable for revenue," with no conditions attached.
7. "What reporting will I get, how often, and who reads it to me?"
A dashboard nobody interprets is not reporting. You want a monthly conversation about what happened, what it means, and what changes as a result. Worrying answer: an automated dashboard link and nothing else.
About money and ownership
8. "What exactly is in the retainer, and what is billed separately?"
Media spend, production, talent fees, licensing, tools, and paid usage rights are commonly outside the fee. Get the list. What retainers actually cost is here. Worrying answer: a single number with no breakdown.
9. "Who owns the assets, the accounts, and the data?"
You should own your ad accounts, your pixel data, your creative files, and your audience lists. Some agencies run everything through their own accounts, which makes leaving expensive. Ask before signing, not at the exit. Worrying answer: anything unclear about ad account ownership.
10. "What are the notice terms, and what happens on the way out?"
A confident agency has reasonable notice terms and a defined handover. Long lock-ins with punitive exits usually signal an agency that expects clients to want to leave. Worrying answer: twelve months, no break clause.
About fit
11. "Have you worked in this city, with this kind of customer?"
Miami is not a generic market. Bilingual audiences, seasonality that inverts the national calendar, an event circuit that dominates specific weeks, and a local credibility test that visiting agencies routinely fail. An agency that does not know when the season starts will plan your year wrong. Worrying answer: "Marketing is marketing."
12. "Who else in my category do you work with?"
Category conflicts are not automatically disqualifying, but you need to know about them, and you need to know how they are managed. Worrying answer: discovering it later.
Three things that matter more than the answers
- How they handle the questions they cannot answer well. Watch for defensiveness. You will hit uncomfortable conversations in month seven, and this is a preview.
- Whether they ask you hard questions back. An agency that does not interrogate your margins, your operations, or your last twelve months is not planning to do strategic work.
- Response time during the sales process. This is the fastest the relationship will ever be.
Red flags worth walking away from
- Guaranteed results or guaranteed rankings
- Refusal to name the people doing the work
- Ad accounts or domains held in the agency's name
- Pricing that only makes sense at a long lock-in
- A pitch containing no questions about your business
- Case studies with percentages but no baseline numbers
The bottom line
The agency relationships that work are the ones where both sides were honest about constraints before anything was signed. Ask about people, accountability, ownership, and exits — and pay close attention to how the uncomfortable questions are handled.
Want to ask us these twelve? Let's talk. We will answer all of them.