Why the questions matter more than the pitch
Every agency pitch in Pittsburgh sounds the same by the second meeting: a deck, a process graphic, a few logos, a promise about growth. The pitch is built to be agreed with. The questions below are built to be answered, and the answers are where agencies separate. Here are twelve questions to ask a marketing agency, in four groups: who does the work, what you will actually receive, how the money and terms work, and how they will prove it moved the needle. For each there is the answer you want and the answer that should make you slow down.
Use these with any shop you are considering, including ours. As a Pittsburgh digital marketing agency we hear most of them every month, and the ones that make an agency uncomfortable are the ones worth asking twice. If you are still narrowing the list, our guide on how to choose a digital marketing agency covers the shortlist step that comes first.
Who actually does the work
The person who sold you the plan is rarely the person who runs it. That is how most agencies are staffed, and it is only a problem when you find out after signing.
1. Who will be working on my account day to day, and can we meet them?
The answer you want names people, not departments: a specific strategist, a specific writer or ad manager, and who answers when something looks wrong. Meeting them before you sign is a reasonable ask.
The answer that should worry you is “the team handles everything” with no names, or an introduction promised “once onboarding is complete.” If the people are a mystery during the sale, the work stays a mystery after it.
2. How many clients does that person manage?
You want a number and a reason. An account manager carrying a handful of accounts can know your business. One carrying forty can only know your invoice. A specialist who only runs ads can fairly carry more than a generalist.
The worrying answer is a dodge. “It varies” means nobody wants to say the number out loud. Ask again. If it never comes, assume it is high.
3. Is any of the work outsourced or white labeled?
Plenty of good agencies use contractors for specialized pieces, and the right answer says so plainly: what is in house, what is contracted, and who is accountable for quality either way.
The worrying answer is a flat “everything is in house” from a four person shop selling SEO, paid ads, web design, video, PR and social at once. Either the claim is false or the quality is thin.
What you will actually get
“Full service digital marketing” is not a deliverable. Before anything is signed you should be able to say, in plain words, what shows up each month and what the first ninety days look like.
4. What exactly happens in the first 30, 60 and 90 days?
A real plan has a shape. Month one is access, audits, tracking and research. Month two is the first real changes going live. Month three is the first read on what moved and what gets adjusted. The agency should walk through that without notes.
The worrying answer is a timeline that is all setup and no output, or results promised in week one. We wrote about the signs a marketing company isn’t actually doing anything, and the pattern nearly always starts with an onboarding that was mostly paperwork.
5. What do you need from us to do this well?
Good marketing requires things only you have: logins, knowledge of which jobs are profitable, photos from real projects, someone who can approve content quickly. The answer you want is a specific list and a warning that it will take some of your time.
The worrying answer is “nothing, we handle it all.” Work that needs nothing from the owner cannot reflect the business. It will be the same campaign they run for the company two exits down the Parkway.
6. What do we own if we leave?
This is the one most Pittsburgh business owners skip and most regret. You should own your website, your domain, your Google Ads account, your analytics, your Google Business Profile and every piece of content written for you. The agency is an admin on your accounts, never the owner.
The worrying answer is any version of “the campaigns are built in our account” or “the site lives on our platform.” That is not a technical detail. It is the leash. Get it in writing before you hand over access.
Money and terms, without talking about rates
The price on the proposal is the least informative number in it. How the money moves, what it is tied to, and how hard it is to stop decide whether a relationship is fair.
7. Is the ad budget separate from your fee, and does your fee change with the budget?
The clean answer keeps the two apart: ad spend goes to the platform, the management fee goes to the agency, and you can see both. If the fee is a percentage of spend, the agency should say so and explain why that does not reward bigger budgets over better results.
| The answer you want | The answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Spend and fee are itemized on every invoice | One blended number with no breakdown |
| Ads run from an account you own and can see | Spend is reported to you, never shown |
| The fee structure is explained before you ask | ”Don’t worry about the split” |
8. What is the contract term, and what does it take to cancel?
Long agreements protect the agency’s revenue, not your results. Marketing takes time, but that is an argument for patience, not for a signature that removes your ability to leave. We explain why we don’t lock clients into contracts, and the short version is that the work should be the reason you stay.
| The answer you want | The answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Month to month, or a short initial term with a plain exit | Twelve months minimum with auto renewal |
| Cancel with written notice, no penalty | Early termination fees or “remaining balance due” |
| Accounts and assets transfer the day you leave | Access returned “after final payment clears” |
9. What is included, and what will show up as an extra?
You want a scope that reads like a list of things, not adjectives: content, technical work, ad management, reporting, tracking, meetings. Call tracking, for example, is included with our SEO and Google Ads management rather than billed separately, and any agency should be able to say which items are in and which are add ons.
| The answer you want | The answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| A written scope with named deliverables | ”Comprehensive” or “holistic” with no list |
| Tracking and reporting included | Reporting or tracking sold as an upgrade |
| Scope changes are discussed before they are billed | Surprise line items on month two’s invoice |
How they will prove it worked
Rankings, impressions and “engagement” are easy to report and easy to inflate. Leads, calls and booked jobs are harder, and those are the only ones you care about.
10. What will you measure, and how will you connect it to leads?
The answer you want starts with your phone and your inbox: calls tracked, forms tracked, which campaign or page produced each one, and a monthly read on cost per lead by channel. Anything that cannot be tied back to a lead is decoration.
The worrying answer leads with traffic, followers or “brand awareness” and never gets to the phone ringing. If an agency cannot explain how a form fill in Cranberry gets attributed to the campaign that produced it, they are summarizing, not measuring.
11. Can we see a real monthly report from a current client?
Not a sample dashboard from the sales deck. An actual report, client name blacked out, that a Pittsburgh business received last month. You are checking whether it connects work to outcomes and whether you could read it without an interpreter.
The worrying answer is a stall, or forty screenshots of tools you have never heard of. A report built to impress usually hides the absence of one built to inform.
12. Tell us about a client where it did not work. What happened?
Every agency that has been around long enough has one. The answer you want is specific: what the situation was, what they tried, why it did not move, and what they would do differently. That tells you how they behave when a campaign is losing, which is the only time it matters.
The worrying answer is “that has never happened” or a story where the client was entirely at fault. An agency with no losses has either not been around long or does not count them.
The one page checklist
Paste this into your notes and mark each row as the meeting goes. Three or more in the right hand column and you have your answer.
| Question | Good sign | Concern |
|---|---|---|
| Who works on the account | Named people you can meet | No names |
| Accounts per manager | A number, with context | ”It varies” |
| Outsourced work | Disclosed, with accountability | ”All in house” from a tiny shop |
| First 90 days | Setup, launch, first read | All setup or all promises |
| What they need from you | A specific list | ”Nothing” |
| Ownership if you leave | Everything is yours | Built in their accounts |
| Fee versus ad spend | Itemized and visible | One blended number |
| Contract and cancellation | Short or month to month, clean exit | Long term, penalties, auto renewal |
| Scope | Written deliverables | Adjectives |
| What gets measured | Calls, forms, leads by source | Traffic and followers |
| Real client report | Shown on request | Stalled or unreadable |
| A campaign that failed | Specific and candid | ”Never happened” |
Good agencies answer with specifics because specifics are what they live in all day. Weak agencies answer with reassurance.
Questions people ask
What are the most important questions to ask a marketing agency?
If you only have time for three, ask who does the work, what you own if you leave, and how reporting connects to actual leads. Those expose staffing problems, ownership traps and vanity reporting, which is most of the ways an agency relationship goes wrong.
What should you ask a marketing company before hiring them?
Everything above, but especially the money and terms section. Contract length, cancellation and what counts as an extra are the items owners most often discover after signing. Get the scope and the exit terms in writing before the first invoice.
Are these the same questions to ask a digital marketing agency before hiring for SEO or Google Ads?
Yes, with a few additions per channel. For SEO, ask who writes the content and how long before changes show up. For Google Ads, confirm the account is in your name and call tracking is in place from day one.
Our questions for hiring an SEO consultant in Pittsburgh go deeper on the SEO version of this conversation.
What is a red flag when talking to a marketing agency?
Guaranteed rankings or lead counts, a refusal to name the people on your account, campaigns built in the agency’s own accounts, and long contracts with early termination fees. Any one is reason to pause. Two together is reason to keep looking.