How to choose a marketing agency that fits your business

How to choose a marketing agency? Start with your goal and your budget. Decide per discipline whether you need a specialist or one team, and ask for proof with a client, a figure and a period. Check that accounts and data are in your name and compare three proposals on the same points.

Choosing a good marketing agency does not start with the pitch, but with your own goal. Maybe your current agency is disappointing. Or there are three proposals on the table that you cannot line up side by side. If you choose on price or on a slick pitch, the accounts are often in the agency’s name. Switching then costs you months, and sometimes your advertising history. You will find agency names in our overview of the best digital marketing agency.

Where do you start when choosing a marketing agency?

Before you call a single agency, make five choices on paper. That way you later compare answers instead of impressions.

1. Set your goal. Do you want more enquiries, more revenue from your online store or a stronger brand? Pick one as your main goal.
2. Choose your KPI. Define what you will hold the agency to: qualified leads, pipeline or revenue. Visitors and impressions are supporting metrics.
3. Fix your budget. Split the agency fee from the media budget. You will immediately see who counts ad spend as their own revenue.
4. Decide what stays in-house. Who writes, who approves, who follows up leads? An agency fills gaps, it does not replace sales.
5. Make a shortlist of three. Fewer gives no comparison, more gives superficial conversations.

Still torn between an agency, a freelancer or your own team? Then first read agency vs freelancer vs in-house.

Specialist or full service: which marketing agency to choose per discipline?

There is no general answer. It depends on how strongly the disciplines lean on each other. Our rule of thumb: choose a specialist for deep technical work, and one team where channels determine each other’s results.

Two cases show why one team sometimes wins. At Facilicom, Google Ads, content writing and landing pages together delivered 25% media savings. At A.F.Vandevorst, Google Ads, Facebook, CRO and email together delivered +164% online revenue growth.

Which questions should you ask a marketing agency?

Ask these ten questions in every intake meeting, in the same order. Write down the answers word for word.

1. Which case resembles my situation, with client, figure and period?
2. Who actually does the work, and do I get to speak with that person myself?
3. Are my Google Ads, Analytics and Search Console accounts in my name?
4. How long is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?
5. Which KPI do you report every month, and from which source?
6. Do you report pipeline from my CRM, or only form fills?
7. What happens in the first thirty days?
8. What is agency fee and what is media budget?
9. What do you not promise?
10. Do you track whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT mention my company?

Question 9 is the litmus test. Google itself writes: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google” (Google Search Central). Google also recommends asking for examples of previous work. Anyone who still gives guarantees is on our list of red flags at a marketing agency.

For question 3 you should be the administrator yourself. In Google Ads only that role can “grant account access, change access levels” (Google Ads Help). Read more in who owns your Google Ads account.

How do you recognise real proof in cases and references?

Every agency says it delivers results. The difference lies in how precisely they show it. A logo on a slide is not proof. Neither is a percentage without a period.

Also look at the type of figure. Visitors are an intermediate step, MQLs and revenue are the goal. Take the SEO case of Gom Nederland and the ABM case of Facilicom as examples. Then ask for one reference you may call yourself. Ask what went wrong and how the agency responded.

How do you compare three proposals fairly?

Every agency uses its own format. So line proposals up side by side on the same six points.

Pay particular attention to the contract. A long term without a review point is a risk. How to get out of one, you can read in stuck in a contract with your marketing agency.

What changes if you are a B2B company?

In B2B a sales cycle lasts weeks to months. A form fill is not yet a customer. An agency that only counts form fills is steering on the wrong number. So ask whether the agency takes lead quality and pipeline from your CRM into account.

Working on a long B2B buying journey? Then also see our overview of the best B2B lead generation agency in Belgium.

One of our clients described the difference like this.

“We had another agency that wanted to sign us straight away. Here we get confronted with the facts, and that is worth more to us than: sure, give me your money and we will just try something.”

Jordi, Elysium Journeys

When we are not the right choice

• You are looking for organic social media management. We run B2B advertising on social, not day-to-day community management. Choose a social media agency instead.
• You are planning a big brand campaign with TV, print or events. An advertising agency or a full service communications agency is a better fit.
• You sell to consumers with thousands of products in an online store. An e-commerce specialist is then often a better fit.
• You want loose hours on your instructions. A freelancer is then simpler and cheaper.

Does your request fit us? Tell us your goal and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right match.

Frequently asked questions