How to Choose a Marketing Agency: 7 Questions to Ask First

Choose a marketing agency by asking every one the same seven questions, and hire the one whose answers you can check yourself. The first does the most to protect you: whose name is on your domain, your Google listing and your ad account? If all three are yours, you can leave any agency, ours included, and keep all three.

Most advice on this says to check portfolios and reviews. Do that too, but it won't tell you who holds your listing in month seven, or whether your ad bill matches what Google charged. So each question below comes with the reason to ask it and, where there is one, the rule behind it. Most of the rules are Google's own policies for agencies, read on 4 October 2026.

It's written for owners of businesses that go to the customer. None of it depends on hiring us.

1. Whose name is on your domain, your Google listing and your ad account?

Three accounts hold most of what you'd lose by leaving. Each should be in your business's name, and each takes about two minutes to check.

Your domain

Your domain is your web address. ICANN, which coordinates the domain name system, calls the registrant "an individual or entity who registers a domain name," who then manages it "through their registrar," the company the domain is registered with. The answer you want: the registrant is your business, in a registrar account you can log in to. To check, ICANN's Lookup tool shows which registrar holds your domain. If you can't log in there, ask the agency for the registrant record.

Your Google listing

Your Google listing, the one with your reviews, map pin and Call button, costs nothing, and Google's rules are clear about who holds it. Its rules for agencies say "all end customers must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile at all times." It tells agencies to "make the business owner the owner of the profile, and make yourself the manager of the profile."

The difference matters: an owner can add or remove people, a manager can't. So the answer you want is "you're the owner, we're a manager." Check it in a minute: open your listing, then More, Business Profile settings, People and access. Here's what to do if an old web company still holds it.

Your Google Ads account

Google's guide for advertisers says it plainly: "The third party agency must set up a separate Ads account for you to represent you fairly." Agencies run their clients' accounts from one manager account, and that's normal. What matters is that someone at your business has Admin access to your own account, because only an admin can add or remove people and "unlink manager accounts." Google says a client "can always unlink a manager with ownership," even the one the account was set up under.

So ask for Admin access and your account's customer ID. Google requires an agency to give you that ID "when requested," so you can contact Google directly about your agency if you ever need to. To check your access, sign in to Google Ads, then Admin, then Access and security. If you run Facebook ads too, ask the same about that ad account.

Your website

This is the one piece no Google or ICANN rule covers: it's whatever the contract says. Ask now, and we'll come back to it in question 6.

What should be in your name

Your domainregistrant: your businessYour Google listingowner: youYour Google Ads accountadmin: youYour businesscan leave any agency and keep all three

AccountThe agency's roleDomainNone needed to own it: the registrant is youGoogle listingManager: can edit, can't add or remove peopleGoogle AdsA linked manager account you can unlink

2. Does your ad money go through you, and is it marked up?

Ad spend is the money that goes to Google for the ads themselves. The management fee is what the agency charges to run them. A markup is anything added on top of what Google actually charged.

Ask whether your ad money goes straight to Google or through the agency first. If the agency pays Google and sends you one bill, you can't easily see how much of it reached Google. Google's rules say an agency that shares your ad costs must "report the exact amount charged by Google, exclusive of any fees that you charge." And its guide for advertisers says "At a minimum, you have the right to know the number of clicks, impressions, and the total cost of your Google ads." Clicks are the people who tap through from Google to your website. Impressions are the times you showed up in a search.

Easier still: have Google bill your own card, in your own account. Then Google's bill is your ad spend, the agency's invoice is the fee, and there's nothing to mark up.

3. What is the fee, in writing, and what does it cover?

Google requires an agency that charges a management fee to "inform new customers in writing before each first purchase and disclose the fee on all customer invoices." For your Google listing it adds one more line: an agency charging to manage it must tell you "Business Profile is a service provided at no extra cost." So ask for the number in writing, with what it covers: the website, the listing, the ads, edits, reporting.

What should the number be? Nobody publishes a neutral price list. Agencies that sell to contractors publish their own. One lists $2,000 a month as its starting price to manage Google Ads. Another says that, depending on the package, its services "can cost from $2,500 to over $10,000 per month."

Whatever you're quoted, if ads are involved, the fee and the ad spend are two bills. Add them together before you decide, and add the management fee to the math when you work out whether the ads pay.

4. How long is the contract, and how do you cancel?

No rule sets how long a marketing contract runs, so this is the one to read closely. Terms really do differ. One large agency for home service businesses says it "typically requires a 12-month contract" for its marketing technology and SEO, while its ads are typically month to month. A year isn't wrong. You just want to know it before you sign.

Ask four things: the minimum term, how much notice you have to give, whether it renews on its own, and whether leaving early costs a fee. Then ask how you cancel. An email? A call? For your Google listing, at least, Google's rules say the agency has to give you "a quick and easy way to discontinue your service." They also ban an agency that "Puts undue pressure on a customer to sign up or stay with the agency."

5. What is the fee judged by?

Clicks and impressions aren't jobs. Google's own guide for advertisers says "Unless you're focused on branding, the most important aspect of advertising is the return on your investment in it (that is, how many new customers it brings in)."

So ask what the agency reports first. The answer you want: calls and form requests, then booked jobs, with clicks and impressions underneath. Google even lets an advertiser count a call only when it runs long enough, so "you can filter out calls that probably don't include sales or other valuable actions for your business." A tap on a Call button is still only a tap. Only you know which calls became work, so expect a good agency to ask you, and log where each call came from so you can answer.

Then ask whether you can see the numbers in your own accounts as well as in their report. Google lets an agency meet its reporting rule by "allowing your customers to sign in to their Google advertising accounts directly," and for your listing, Google says "You have the right to know your profile's performance."

6. What happens to everything if you leave?

Ask this one before you sign, while everyone is friendly. If your accounts are in your name, most of the answer is already written. For your Google listing, Google's rules say that "Within 7 business days of notice from an end customer," the agency must let you "regain exclusive control" of it and remove its own access. They also ban an agency that "Keeps a profile hostage in exchange for money." On Google Ads, you unlink the agency's account. Your domain, if you're the registrant, stays yours.

Leaving an agency, when your accounts are in your name

Noticeyou tell the agency, the way your contract says7 business daysto let you regain sole control of your Google listingUnlinkyou remove the agency's account from your Google AdsDomainalready yours; point it at any hostWebsitewhatever your contract says

The website is the one piece no outside rule covers, and agencies' terms differ. One home service agency's pricing page says "You own your website 100%." Another says you own it "after the length of your contract" is complete, and that domains, content and imagery are yours. A third company's terms say it "retains ownership of website assets unless a buyout is completed," with a $2,000 buyout fee that drops to $0 after six continuous months. So ask: if I leave, do I get the files, can I host them anywhere, is there a fee, and does my website stay up while I move it?

7. Are you a Google Partner, and can I check?

The Google Partner badge is a real program, and it means something specific. To earn it, an agency needs three things. First, "a minimum optimization score of 70%," where optimization score is Google's "estimate of how well your Google Ads account is set to perform." Second, "a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 USD across managed accounts." Third, "a minimum of 50% of your account strategists certified in Google Ads." Google checks them daily.

To check a badge, click it. Google's guide says to "click the badge on its website. If the company is certified, you'll be taken to its profile page on Google." And Google's ad rules bar "claiming to be a Google Partner without authorization."

What none of the three requirements counts is calls or booked jobs for the agency's clients, so ask it next to the other six, not instead of them. We're not a Google Partner, and we'll never say we are.

Take the list to every call

1. Whose name is on my domain, my Google listing and my ad account, and will I have Admin access?
2. Does my ad money go through you, and is any of it marked up?
3. What's your fee, in writing, and what does it cover?
4. How long is the contract, how much notice do I give, and how do I cancel?
5. What do you report first, and can I see it in my own accounts?
6. If I leave, what happens to my listing, my ad account and my website files?
7. Are you a Google Partner? (Click the badge to check.)

Ask for the answers by email, or write them down on the call. Google's own advice for anyone hiring help with a listing is to "get an official copy of your agreement that clearly details the services and their costs." If an agency won't put one in writing, we'd take that as its answer.

Still sizing a budget? Start from what a booked job costs you: here's what a lead costs in your trade, and how to turn it into cost per booked job.