How to tell if your marketing agency is doing a good job

You pay your agency every month, you get a report full of numbers and charts, and you're still not sure it's worth it. It's one of the most common situations business owners bring to us.

Yes, we're an agency too. That's exactly why we know good work isn't measured by the length of a report, but by a handful of very specific things. Here they are.

1The ad accounts and data belong to you

Your ad accounts, Meta Business Manager, Google Ads, GA4 and Google Tag Manager should all be in your company's name. The agency gets partner access, and you can see everything that's happening at any time.

If your agency won't give you access, or the accounts were set up in its name, you lose your campaign history, audiences and data, which you've paid for, the moment you part ways.

2The report talks about results, not just reach

Reach, impressions and CTR are useful for optimisation, but they don't pay the bills. A good report answers the questions you actually care about:

• how many enquiries or sales there were,
• what each enquiry or sale cost you (CPA),
• how much revenue every pound you spend brings back (ROAS),
• what changed compared with last month, and why.

If the report is mostly impressions and clicks, and conversions are missing or buried at the end, ask why.

3Conversion tracking actually works

Your agency should be able to explain simply how conversions are tracked: Meta Pixel and the Conversions API, GA4, Google Ads tags. More importantly, the numbers should roughly match what you see in your CRM, online shop or inbox.

If Ads Manager shows twenty conversions and you received three enquiries, something is wrong. Without accurate tracking, even the best agency can't optimise your campaigns.

4The account shows steady, ongoing work

Both Meta and Google log every change made to your campaigns. In Google Ads it's Change history; in Meta Ads Manager it's the account's activity history. That's where you can see how often things are being changed, tested and optimised.

If the same ads have been running for months and the budget simply keeps rolling over, nobody is likely managing the campaigns actively.

5Goals were agreed at the start

Before the first pound is spent, you should know what's being measured and what the goal is: for example a target CPA, ROAS or number of enquiries per month. Without that, any result can be presented as a success.

A good agency tells you regularly what it has done, why, and what comes next. It explains things in plain English and admits when something isn't working.

6Your agency thinks about your business, not just the settings

The best agencies ask about your margins, average customer value, seasonality and competitors. They suggest changes to your offer or landing page when they can see the problem isn't the ads.

If every conversation comes down to ‘let's increase the budget’, strategy is missing.

A 15-minute check you can do yourself

• The ad accounts, GA4 and GTM are in your company's name.
• You can see the number of enquiries or sales and the cost per enquiry (CPA).
• Conversions in the report roughly match the enquiries or orders you actually received.
• Change history shows changes from the last few weeks.
• You know what the campaign goal is and how close you are to it.
• Your agency can tell you what it plans next month, and why.

Questions worth asking your agency

• Who owns the ad accounts and the data?
• What does one enquiry or sale cost us, and how has that changed over the last three months?
• What did you test last month, and what did we learn?
• How do you know the conversions are real?
• What are you planning next month, and why that?

If you get a clear answer to most of these, you're probably in good hands. If not, it doesn't necessarily mean your agency is doing a bad job, but it's the right time for a serious conversation or a second opinion.