How to Tell If Your Marketing Agency Is Actually Working
The Questions Every Contractor Should Be Asking — and the Answers That Should Concern You
You’ve been paying an agency for a few months. You get a report every month. There are graphs and numbers and terms you don’t fully understand.
But you can’t tell if it’s actually working. If you can’t clearly connect what you’re paying for to actual jobs your business has won, the agency may not be delivering. And you have every right to know.
The Problem With Most Agency Reports
Most marketing agencies report on the metrics they can control — clicks, impressions, rankings, website traffic. These numbers can look great while producing very little actual revenue.
- Clicks don’t pay your crew. Jobs do.
- Impressions don’t mean anyone called you. Calls do.
- Rankings don’t mean your phone is ringing. Leads do.
A good agency knows how to connect their work to real business outcomes. A mediocre one hides behind metrics that look impressive but don’t mean anything to your bottom line.
6 Questions to Ask Your Marketing Agency Right Now
1. How Many Calls Came From Our Marketing This Month?
If they can’t answer this, that’s a problem. Call tracking should be set up so you know exactly how many phone calls came from Google Ads, organic search, and any other channel they manage. If they don’t have call tracking in place, they have no idea whether their work is producing results.
2. What Did Those Leads Cost Us?
Cost per lead is one of the most important numbers in your marketing. If you spent $2,000 on ads and got 20 leads, your cost per lead is $100. You need to know this number to make good decisions.
3. Which of Those Leads Turned Into Jobs?
This is where most agencies fall short. They can tell you how many leads came in. They often can’t tell you how many became real booked jobs. If your agency isn’t tracking leads to closed revenue, they’re optimizing for the wrong thing.
4. Where Do You Rank on Google for Our Main Keywords?
If they’re doing SEO, you should be seeing real ranking movement over time — not just for obscure long-tail keywords, but for the searches your actual customers are making. If you’re not on page one after 6 months of work, something isn’t right.
5. What Changed Last Month and Why?
A good agency is making strategic decisions, not just running the same campaigns on autopilot. They should be able to tell you what they tested, what they changed, and why. If the answer is the same every month with no real explanation, they’re on cruise control.
6. What Do You Own If We Stop Working Together?
Your Google Ads account should be in your name. Your website should be on your hosting. Your analytics should be accessible to you. If the agency controls all of these and would take them when you leave, you’re in a bad situation.
Red Flags That Your Agency Isn’t Delivering
- You can’t trace a single specific job back to their work
- Reports are full of graphs but never mention actual leads or calls
- They get defensive when you ask for clarity
- Your Google ranking hasn’t moved after 6+ months
- They’re not running call tracking
- You don’t have access to your own Google Ads account
- They make excuses instead of adjustments when results are poor
- You’re on month 6 and the answer to every question is “it takes time”
What Good Agency Reporting Should Look Like
Every month you should know: how many calls came in from each channel, how many of those calls were qualified leads, what your cost per lead was, where you rank for your main keywords, what changed from the previous month and why, and what the plan is for next month.
You shouldn’t need a marketing degree to understand your monthly report. If you do, something is wrong.
What to Do If Your Agency Isn’t Delivering
First, have a direct conversation. Tell them what you need to see and ask them to explain the results in plain terms. A good agency will welcome the conversation and get more specific.
If they can’t answer your questions, get defensive, or the results stay flat after giving them a chance to improve — it’s time to move on. Your marketing budget is real money. It should produce real results you can see and verify.
Thinking About Making a Switch?
Book a free strategy call with us. We’ll look at what you’re currently running, tell you honestly where the gaps are, and show you what results actually tied to jobs could look like.
