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Free in-home estimateWhat Does a Marketing Agency Do? How to Choose One
A marketing agency plans and runs the work that brings you customers: your website, search, ads, social media, content and follow-up. A full-service agency does all of it with one team, and a specialist does one part. Choose by who does the work, what they report and what you keep.
The article
Many owners look for a marketing agency when they get tired of doing it themselves, or when referrals slow down. Then they get a proposal full of words like “funnels” and “omnichannel”. Here is what the job really is, in plain words, and how to tell a good agency from a bad one.
What a marketing agency does
A marketing agency does the work that makes people find you, trust you and contact you. Depending on the agency, that includes:
- Strategy: who you sell to, what you say to them and where to spend first.
- Your website: the page people judge you by, built to turn a visit into a call.
- Search: local SEO and your Google Business Profile, so you appear when people look for what you do.
- Paid ads: Google, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok ads, from the creative to the budget.
- Content: articles that answer what your customers ask before they buy.
- Social media: posts and reels that keep your business looking alive.
- Follow-up: a CRM and automations that answer every lead fast.
- Reporting: what you spent and what you got for it.
What a normal month looks like
The work is more routine than the proposals make it sound. In a typical month, a good agency:
- Checks last month’s numbers and decides what to change.
- Makes new ads, pauses the ones that stopped working and moves the budget.
- Publishes the posts and articles that were approved.
- Asks for reviews and answers the ones that came in.
- Looks at what happened to each lead, not just how many came in.
- Sends you a short report and talks to you about it.
If your agency only appears once a month with a PDF, ask what they did the other 29 days.
Full-service, specialist or freelancer
| Best when | Watch out for | |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service agency | You want one team responsible for everything | Paying for services you don’t need yet |
| Specialist agency | You already have a team and need one thing done very well | Nobody connects that work with the rest |
| Freelancer | You have one clear job and a small budget | When that person gets busy, the work stops |
A full-service agency isn’t always better. Being able to do everything doesn’t mean you need everything. A good one will tell you what to leave for later.
What an agency can’t do for you
- Guarantee first place on Google. Google says it plainly: nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking. If an agency promises that, find another one.
- Fix an offer nobody wants. Marketing makes a good business easier to find. It doesn’t repair a bad price or bad service.
- Close the sale for you. An agency can bring you the lead and answer it fast. Someone in your business still has to do the job well.
Seven questions to ask before you sign
- Who will work on my account? Ask to meet them, not just the salesperson.
- What do I own if I leave? You should keep your website, your domain, your ad accounts, your Google profile and your customer list.
- How long is the contract, and how do I cancel? Get the answer in writing.
- How much is your fee, and how much goes to ads? They are two separate numbers.
- What will you report? Look for leads, booked appointments and cost per customer, not just clicks and likes.
- Have you worked with a business like mine? Ask to see the work, not just hear about it.
- What happens after a lead comes in? This is where a lot of money gets lost.
Red flags
- A guaranteed result or a guaranteed first place.
- The ad account is in the agency’s name, so you can’t see what was spent.
- Reports full of impressions and followers, with no leads.
- No price until you are on the third call.
- They can’t tell you who is doing the work.
What it costs
It depends on how many services you need and how much work each one takes. We publish our starting prices, so you can compare before you talk to anyone. We’ll go through the numbers in another article.
How we work
We are a full-service team of two founders who stay on the work, in English, Spanish and French. Your accounts stay in your name, and our reports talk about leads and booked calls. If you want to know what we’d do first, and what we’d leave out, book a free 20-minute call.
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- We look at how customers find you and how fast you answer
- You leave with a plan and a price
- In English, Spanish or French
We tell you on the call if we’re a fit. If we’re not, you keep the advice.
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