12 Questions to Ask a Marketing Agency Before You Sign

If you run a trades business and a marketing agency has ever pitched you, you know the calls all start to sound alike. Everyone promises more calls, more jobs, more five star reviews. The questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign are the same ones that separate a real partner from a vendor who just bills you every month and hopes you do not notice nothing changed. You do not need to be a marketing expert to ask good questions. You just need to know what to ask and what a straight answer actually sounds like.

Most owners sign based on a good sales call and a slick deck. Then three months later they are still waiting on a report that makes sense, or they find out the agency owns the domain, or they cannot get anyone to pause the account while business is slow. None of that has to happen. Asking the right questions up front costs you nothing and tells you more than any pitch deck will.

Who actually owns the website and accounts

This is the single most important question and the one owners skip the most. Ask who owns your domain, your Google Business Profile, your hosting, and your content if you ever leave. Some agencies build everything on their own accounts, which means if you part ways, you walk away with nothing and have to start over. A straight answer sounds like this: you own your domain, you own your Google Business Profile, and the content stays yours. If an agency gets vague or changes the subject, that is worth noticing.

How long is the contract

Trades businesses deal with slow seasons, equipment breakdowns, and crews that quit without notice. A twelve month contract with no way out does not account for any of that. Ask how long you are locked in and what happens if you need to pause. A month to month setup, or at least a short initial term with a real exit, gives you room to breathe if the relationship is not working or your business hits a rough patch.

What does reporting actually look like

Ask to see a sample report before you sign, not after. A report full of charts and percentages with no plain explanation of what was done that month is not useful to a business owner running calls between jobs. You want something that tells you in plain language what content went up, what was updated on your Google Business Profile, and how reviews are trending. If the agency cannot show you a sample, that tells you something too.

Who is actually doing the work

Some agencies sell you on a senior strategist during the pitch and then hand your account to a junior team member you never hear from again. Ask who will be writing your service pages, who manages your Google Business Profile, and whether that person understands your trade. A locksmith and a pressure washing company do not get searched the same way, and the content should not read the same either.

What happens with reviews

Review generation is a normal part of trades marketing, but how it is done matters. Google is clear that incentivized reviews, meaning anything offered in exchange for a review, are against its guidelines. Ask how the agency requests reviews and what the process looks like for a customer. A legitimate process makes it easy for a happy customer to leave a review; it does not pay or pressure anyone to do it.

What exit terms look like

Before you sign, ask what happens the day you decide to cancel. Do you keep your website. Do you keep your content. Is there a notice period or a fee. An agency that is confident in its work will have a simple, specific answer. An agency that gets uncomfortable with this question is telling you something about how it expects the relationship to end.

A few more worth asking

A handful of smaller questions round out the list and are worth working into the same conversation.

• Can you see an example of a service page written for another business in your trade
• How often is your Google Business Profile updated and what does that update include
• What happens when a lead or message comes in after hours
• Is there a setup fee and does it change based on contract length
• Who do you call directly if something is not working

None of these questions are tricks. A good agency answers them without hesitation because the answers reflect how they actually work. Companies like Tradesfluence that build their process around trades businesses tend to have straightforward answers to all of this because the work is not a mystery to them, it is just the job.

Practical takeaway

Write these questions down before your next call with an agency, trades focused or otherwise. Ask about ownership, contract length, reporting, who does the work, how reviews are handled, and what happens if you leave. The answers will tell you more in ten minutes than any pitch deck will in an hour, and they will save you from signing something you regret three months in.