How to choose a marketing agency: 8 red flags to avoid
Choosing a marketing agency feels like hiring a mechanic for an engine you cannot see. You hand over the cash and trust the work matches the invoice. Most owners pick on a good sales call, then spend a year learning the account was built to keep them paying, not to book them jobs. The bad ones give themselves away early. Here are the eight red flags that tell you to walk, and what an honest agency does instead.
The 8 red flags at a glance
Every red flag has an honest counterpart. Spot a bad fit before you sign, not twelve months in.
| Red flag | What an honest agency does instead |
|---|---|
| The ad account is under their login | Account and billing live under your login, always |
| Reports clicks and impressions | Reports cost per booked job |
| 6 to 12 month lock-in contract | Month-to-month, or hourly from £110/hr |
| Guarantees rankings or a lead count | Guarantees the work, never the outcome |
| No call tracking set up | Every call ties back to a keyword and campaign |
| Vague deliverables you cannot verify | A written list of what happens each month |
| ”Spend more” is the only lever | Fixes the leak before adding budget |
| Never tells you to stop | Tells you when the channel is tapped out |
Red flag 1: The account is in their name, not yours
Start here, because it is the most expensive one and the easiest to miss. When an agency runs your Google Ads under their own login, they own the asset. Your conversion history, negative keyword list, and Quality Score sit in an account you cannot touch without their permission. Leave, and none of it comes with you. You start from zero and pay Google’s beginner tax again. The rule is simple: the account and billing live under your login, always, even when someone else runs it.
Red flags 2 and 5: They report clicks, and nothing tracks the call
A dashboard full of clicks and impressions is built to make you feel like something is working. None of it pays your bills. The only number that matters is cost per booked job, and you cannot know it unless tracking ties a phone call back to the ad that caused it. Most service leads come by phone, not a form, so without call tracking a booked job is invisible. An honest agency wires up call tracking, GA4, and conversion tracking on day one, then reports against jobs in your calendar.
Red flag 3: They lock you in for six to twelve months
Long contracts protect the agency, not you. If the work is good, you stay because it works. A six or twelve month lock-in exists to keep you paying through the months it does not. Lock in at £700 a month for a year and you have committed £8,400 before a single booked job. Month-to-month flips the incentive: an agency that re-earns you every thirty days optimizes like it, because it can be fired like it.
Month-to-month or hourly
- Leave the moment the work stops paying for itself
- The agency proves its value every single month
- Buy a one-off audit or a strategy hour from £110/hr, no commitment
- Your risk is capped at thirty days of fee
A long lock-in contract
- You keep paying through the months it is not working
- The incentive to perform drops the day the ink dries
- Leaving early triggers a penalty or the rest of the term
- Your budget is committed before a single job is booked
Red flags 4 and 6: They guarantee results but will not define the work
Nobody honest guarantees a ranking or a fixed lead count. Google’s auction changes by the hour and your competitors bid against you. Anyone promising “page one in thirty days” or “fifty leads a month, guaranteed” is either naive or counting on you not to check. A real agency guarantees the work, not an outcome it cannot control. The flip side is vague deliverables. “We’ll optimize your campaigns” is fog, not a deliverable. If the contract does not say what happens each month, ask for the list: weekly negative keyword review, monthly landing page test, call tracking report, one strategy call.
Red flags 7 and 8: “Spend more” is the only answer, and they never say stop
Watch what an agency does when results dip. The honest move is to find the leak: junk search terms, missed calls, a slow landing page bleeding clicks. The tell is that every conversation ends in “increase the budget.” More spend on a leaky account just leaks faster and hides the problem for another month. The eighth flag is the quietest: a good agency tells you when to stop. When the next £500 will not book one extra job, they say so, even though it means billing you less.
So how do you actually choose?
Run every agency through five questions. Whose login is the account under? What number do they report? Can you leave in thirty days? Do they promise the work or the outcome? Will they ever tell you to stop? The wrong one fails at least one on the first call.
We built our service as the opposite of all eight flags. The account and data live under your login, so you own the asset even if you fire us. We optimize against booked jobs with call tracking and GA4 wired up. No long contracts: buy a strategy hour from £110/hr or take month-to-month management and leave any time. And we tell you when to stop spending.
See the full range of services, or request a free proposal and we will tell you honestly whether you need us yet.
Still deciding? Read seven signs your business needs a Google Ads agency and whether an agency is worth it for a small local business first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most important question to ask a marketing agency?
Whose login the ad account will be under. If the answer is anything other than “yours,” stop there. An account under their login means they own your history and your leverage, and you lose it the day you leave.
How can I tell if an agency optimizes for booked jobs, not just clicks?
Ask to see a sample report. If it leads with impressions and click-through rate, they are measuring activity, not results. A report built around booked jobs names what one paying customer cost you in ad spend. No call tracking, no number.
Should I hire an agency or just pay by the hour?
Depends on the job. For a one-off fix, an audit, or a second opinion, buy an hour of strategy from £110/hr and keep control. If you are spending real budget every month with no time to tend it, month-to-month management usually pays for itself out of the waste it removes.