How to Choose an Advertising Agency: 9 Real Criteria

Short answer: “Best advertising agency” is not an objective ranking. The useful question is not “which is best” but “which is right for our business, our budget and our team”. The nine criteria below let you base that decision on evidence rather than on the pitch.

1. Is the team pitching the team doing the work?

This is where most agency disappointment starts: a polished team presents, and different people show up once work begins. Ask it directly in the room: “Who will we work with day to day?” If the answer is vague, what you bought is presentation quality, not work quality.

2. Is the scope written down, line by line?

“Social media management” is not a scope. How many posts a month, in which formats, how many revision rounds, is the shoot included, is community management in or out — all of it in writing. Every item left vague before signing comes back as an extra invoice mid-project.

3. Are ad spend and agency fee shown separately?

Ad spend goes straight to Google or Meta; the agency fee pays for strategy, production and management. Proposals that merge the two into one number hide how much of your money actually reaches the advertising. Seeing them separately is your right.

4. Whose name are the accounts in?

Google Ads, Meta Business, Analytics and the domain should always be in your name, with the agency holding access only. Structures where the agency owns the account wipe out your historical data, conversion history and algorithmic learning the day you part ways.

5. Can they tell you no?

An agency that says yes to every idea is a supplier, not an advisor. Float an idea in the first meeting and watch the reaction. A good agency will tell you what it thinks will not work, with reasoning — because it also carries responsibility for the result.

6. How do they measure?

“We report monthly” is not an answer. Ask: “How do you define a conversion, and where do you measure it?” Platform dashboards are not reliable on their own — three channels’ reported conversions usually add up to more than actual sales. An agency that builds measurement on its own side reports reality.

7. Was the portfolio work made for a reason?

Do not look at a portfolio asking “is this nice”. Ask “why was it made this way”. A good agency can explain the problem behind every piece and why the solution follows. If they cannot, that work was an aesthetic preference — and so will yours be.

8. Do they know your sector or sales model?

Sector knowledge can be learned, but it becomes a problem when it is unclear who pays for the learning. If you sell B2B, an agency whose experience is consumer brands will build the funnel wrong. An agency that admits it has no experience and does not bill you for its ramp-up is safer than one that claims expertise it does not have.

9. Is what they promise within their control?

Walk away from anyone guaranteeing rankings. Google’s results are outside any agency’s control. The same goes for guaranteed sales, guaranteed followers and “we’ll get bad reviews removed” — these either do not happen or happen through methods that put you at risk. What can be guaranteed is method: technical correctness, correct intent matching, transparent measurement.

Five warning signs

• A price quoted before the scope is defined
• Services shown in the pitch that do not appear in the contract
• A “leave it to us, don’t worry about it” tone that hides the process
• A logo wall offered as references, with no story behind any of them
• Long commitments with no termination or handover clause

How we work

At Marka Studio every project starts with a free discovery call; scope and price then come in writing, itemised. Accounts are always opened in the client’s name, ad spend and agency fee are invoiced separately, and we never guarantee rankings. See agency services or go straight to the quote form.