Insight · Working with agenciesBOFU
Red flags in a performance marketing agency proposal
The short answer
A proposal tells you how an agency thinks before it touches your account. The worst ones promise outcomes they can't control, hide the scope behind vague words, and quietly take ownership of your accounts. The best ones show they understood your business, explain their first moves and tell you exactly how they'll be judged.
Red flags
- Guaranteed results — a promised ROAS, cost per lead or #1 ranking before they've seen your data
- No questions about your economics — margins, average order value, close rates, returns
- Vague scope — "management", "optimisation", "growth hacking" with no deliverables
- Agency-owned accounts — ads run from their ad accounts, pixels or Business Manager
- Ad spend routed through the agency with an unexplained markup
- Vanity metrics as the goal — impressions, reach, clicks, followers
- Platform ROAS as the only success measure — no mention of blended results
- Long lock-ins with no review point or exit terms
- No named people — you don't know who will actually run the account
- Copy-paste proposals — the same plan for every industry
- Unexplained "proprietary" tools in place of a clear method
What a good proposal includes
- A summary of your business model and what they understood from your data
- The targets they'd work to, derived from your economics (CAC, break-even ROAS or cost per qualified lead)
- A diagnosis — what's working, what's broken, what's wasted — even if preliminary
- The first 90 days: audit, tracking, launch, testing, with dates
- The scope: channels, creative volume, pages, tracking work, reports and meetings
- The team: names or roles, seniority and time allocated
- How success will be measured, including blended numbers such as MER
- Commercials: fee model, what's extra, notice period and minimum term
- Confirmation that accounts, data and creative stay yours
Why guarantees are a warning
Agencies don't control auctions, competitors, your product, your prices or your sales team. A guarantee before seeing your data either means the target is so low it's meaningless, or that the agency will chase the metric in ways that don't help you — buying cheap, low-quality leads to hit a cost-per-lead promise, or leaning on retargeting and brand search to hit a ROAS number. An honest proposal gives a range, explains the assumptions and commits to a process and to transparency.
Questions to ask in the pitch
- "What would you do in the first 30 days?" — expect specifics: tracking checks, account restructure, first tests.
- "How will you know if something's working?" — expect business metrics and a view on incrementality, not just platform dashboards.
- "Who exactly will run our account?" — and can you meet them?
- "What happens if we part ways?" — accounts, data, creative and notice.
- "What would make you tell us not to spend more?" — good agencies have an answer.
For a broader checklist, see how to choose a performance marketing agency.
Mistakes buyers make
- Choosing on the lowest fee
- Rewarding the most confident promise rather than the clearest plan
- Not asking who will do the work
- Skipping the ownership and exit terms
- Comparing proposals with different scopes as if they were the same
A quick proposal scorecard
Score each proposal from 0 to 2 on each line and compare totals:
- Shows understanding of your business model and economics
- Gives a diagnosis of your current setup, even a preliminary one
- Explains the first 90 days with specific actions
- States the scope: channels, creative volume, pages, tracking, reports
- Names the team and their seniority
- Measures success with business metrics from your data
- Confirms you own accounts, data and creative
- States fees, extras, notice and minimum term clearly
Green flags worth noticing
- They ask hard questions — about margins, returns, sales follow-up
- They say what they won't do — channels or tactics that don't suit you
- They're specific about uncertainty — ranges and assumptions, not promises
- They want to see your data before quoting a plan
- They talk about the next quarter, not only the first month
If you've already signed a bad proposal
Ask for the scope in writing, confirm account ownership, and agree a 30-day review with specific success measures. If the answers aren't satisfactory, use the notice period — and see switching agencies without losing your data.
Frequently asked questions
Is a guaranteed ROAS ever reasonable?
Rarely before an audit. After a stable baseline, a performance-linked fee tied to agreed, honestly measured outcomes can be reasonable — that's different from a guarantee.
Should a proposal include a full audit?
Not necessarily, but it should show the agency looked at your situation. Many agencies offer a written audit before or during the proposal; ours is free — see our marketing audit service.
What if two proposals have very different prices?
Compare scope, people and process line by line. Price differences usually reflect different work.
Is it a red flag if an agency won't share client names?
Not necessarily — many clients don't want to be named. Ask for anonymised examples, the method and a conversation with the people who'd work on your account.
How long should a proposal take?
A useful one usually needs a discovery call and some data. Instant proposals are often templates.
What should we do if an agency promises a specific ROAS?
Ask how they calculated it, what data they used and how it will be measured. If the answer is vague, treat the promise as marketing.
How many proposals should we compare?
Two or three serious ones are usually enough, provided the scopes are comparable.
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