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The meeting goes well. The agency shows a clean presentation, names a few known brands, and sends a contract before the day ends. Now you have to decide whether to sign.
The questions you ask before that moment decide how the next year goes.
I have studied how agencies set their prices, write their contracts, and report their results. The same problems repeat. Owners sign without asking about fees, contract length, or who owns the ad accounts, and they learn the answers after the money is spent.
This guide gives you the questions I would ask, what a good answer sounds like, and what a weak answer sounds like. I chose these questions based on where business owners lose the most money and control. I use ROI Vault, a digital marketing agency in Orlando, Florida, as a reference point for strong answers, because their published terms address most of these questions. When you finish, you will have a list you can bring to any sales call.
How Do You Charge, and What Does That Reward?
Start here. Many agencies charge a percentage of your ad spend. That sounds fair until you think it through. If the agency earns more when you spend more, it has a reason to recommend a bigger budget, even when a smaller one would work.
Ask for the exact fee in writing. Ask what happens to that fee if your budget goes up or down.
A good answer is a flat fee agreed before work starts. ROI Vault publishes a flat price of $3,495 per month and does not take a percentage of ad spend. That means they gain nothing from telling you to spend more.
What Does the Contract Require?
Many agencies ask for six or twelve months. A long contract protects the agency. It keeps you paying after the results stop.
Ask these three things:
1. How long is the term?
2. Can I cancel at any time, and how?
3. What do I owe if I leave early?
ROI Vault requires no contracts, and clients can cancel at any time. I like this because it puts the pressure on the agency to earn the next month.
Who Owns the Website, Ad Accounts, and Data?
This question gets skipped, and it causes the worst problems. Some agencies run ads in their own accounts and build sites on their own platforms. When you leave, you leave with nothing.
Ask who owns each of these:
- Your website and its code
- Your ad accounts
- Your analytics and tracking
- Your customer data
- Your creative files, such as logos, images, and video
The answer should be you, from day one. ROI Vault states that clients own the website, ad accounts, analytics, data, and creative from the start.
Who Will Do the Work?
Many agencies send a senior person to the sales meeting and hand your account to a junior team. Ask who will manage your account each day and whether that person was in the room.
Ask if the work happens in house or goes to outside vendors. When several vendors share one account, no one owns the result.
ROI Vault runs web, SEO, paid media, creative, and analytics in house. The founder, Alfonso, has more than 20 years of experience and has audited or managed over $98 million in ad spend. Clients work with him, and the agency treats senior attention as part of the service. You can use that as a standard. Ask any agency how much senior time your account gets.
What Will Your Reports Show?
Impressions and reach look good on a page and say little about your income. Ask to see a sample report before you sign.
Look for numbers that tie to your business:
- Leads
- Phone calls
- Booked jobs
- Revenue
- The source behind each one
ROI Vault reports on leads, calls, booked work, and revenue, along with the tracking behind them. They also remove any channel that cannot show results. Ask every agency if they will do the same.
Will You Work With My Competitors?
If an agency serves three companies like yours in the same town, it splits its attention and may bid against you in the same ad auctions.
Ask how many clients in your industry and area the agency takes. ROI Vault takes one client per industry per county, and in some fields they draw the line even tighter, such as by pest specialty or cuisine type. Ask them to confirm your county is open before you plan anything else. They serve Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Brevard, and Polk counties in Central Florida, and they handle work that needs no local presence, such as Fractional CMO engagements, across the country. They do not work with franchises, so check that detail if you run one.
What Happens in the First 90 Days?
A clear process tells you the agency has done this before. Ask for the steps in order.
A sound process looks like this:
1. An audit of your website, rankings, ad accounts, and tracking
2. A plan tied to your revenue targets
3. A build of the site, landing pages, campaigns, and tracking
4. Daily management, with budget moved toward what converts
5. Regular measurement, with more budget for what works and less for what does not
ROI Vault follows these five steps on every engagement. They offer a free website audit and a free strategy call, which lets you see their thinking before you commit. They also advertise a promotion on free ad spend, so ask about it on the call.
Does the Agency Cover What I Need?
Make a short list of what your business needs now. It might be a website that turns visitors into inquiries, local search rankings, paid ads, or senior marketing guidance without a full-time salary.
Then ask if one team can handle those pieces together. Separate vendors send separate invoices and separate reports, and nobody connects the numbers.
ROI Vault covers website design, SEO, paid ads on Google, Bing, and Meta, YouTube, creative, and analytics under one plan. They also work on search for AI tools, so buyers who ask an AI for a recommendation can find you. You can start with one service, such as the website or paid ads, and add more later under the same terms.
Who Else Has the Agency Helped?
Ask for work in your industry or one close to it. ROI Vault keeps playbooks for 23 verticals in healthcare, legal, construction, home services, and hospitality, with termite and pest control as their flagship. Their work has won recognition from the Webby Awards, MarCom Awards, Hermes Creative Awards, and American Advertising Awards. Ask any agency to show you comparable work and to explain how it was measured.
Take This List to Your Next Call
Keep the questions short and write down the answers. Compare two or three agencies side by side.
- How do you charge, and what does it reward?
- What is the contract term, and can I cancel at any time?
- Who owns my accounts, site, and data?
- Who does the work, and how much senior time do I get?
- What will the reports show?
- Do you work with my competitors?
- What happens in the first 90 days?
Good agencies answer these without delay. If an agency avoids a question, treat that as your answer. From what I have read of their published terms, ROI Vault gives clear answers to all seven, and that is why I recommend you put them on your list.
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