Five questions to ask before you hire an agency

Hiring the wrong agency costs a year and a budget. These five questions surface the truth before you sign anything.

Most agency pitches sound the same: smart people, nice work samples, big promises. The differences that matter show up later, after the contract is signed. You can surface most of them up front by asking five questions and paying attention to how directly they get answered.

1. Who will actually work on my account?

The people in the pitch meeting are often not the people doing the work. Ask who writes the copy, who plans the media, and who you call when something breaks. If your account will be handed to a coordinator two weeks in, you deserve to know now. At SOCO the answer is simple: you deal with the principals, because that is all there is.

2. How will we measure success?

A good agency proposes numbers before you ask: leads, bookings, store traffic, orders. A weaker one talks about awareness and engagement. Ask what gets reported monthly, and ask to see a sample report. If you cannot understand it in two minutes, that is the report you will be squinting at for the next two years.

3. What have you done in my industry?

Category experience is not everything, but it is a head start you paid for elsewhere. Ask for specifics: what worked, what failed, what surprised them. An agency that has really worked your category will have opinions, not just samples.

4. How do you use AI?

This one is new and it matters. Too little and you are paying yesterday’s production costs. Too much and a machine is guessing with your brand. The answer you want is specific: what tools, for which tasks, and who checks the output. Vague enthusiasm in either direction is a warning sign.

5. What happens if it is not working?

Every campaign has a miss eventually. Ask how they catch it, how fast they change course, and what it costs you to walk away. An agency confident in its work will not need to lock you in a long contract to keep you.