Finding a marketing agency you can trust is hard. Most e-commerce brands we speak to have worked with at least one agency before — and the experience left them with more questions than answers.
They’ve spent thousands on an agency that promised the world and delivered a monthly PDF full of meaningless metrics. They’ve been locked into contracts with no clear exit. They’ve had their brand voice butchered by someone who spent 15 minutes looking at their website before writing ad copy.
Whether you’re hiring your first agency or looking for a better one, this guide will help you make the right call.
Here’s what to look for, what to run from, and the questions most founders forget to ask.
Red flags: when to walk away
1. They won’t tell you who does the work
The person on the sales call is polished, knowledgeable, and impressive. You sign the contract. Then you never speak to them again.
Your actual account is managed by a junior who’s been at the agency for three months and is juggling 20+ clients.
Ask: “Who will actually be running my campaigns day-to-day? Can I meet them before I sign?“
2. Long-term contracts
A 6-12 month lock-in benefits the agency, not you. If they’re confident in their ability to deliver results, they shouldn’t need to trap you.
Ask: “What’s your minimum contract length? Can I leave if results aren’t there?”
Month-to-month arrangements exist. Good agencies offer them because they know their work speaks for itself.
3. They won’t share account access
If an agency insists on running ads from their own ad account instead of yours, that’s a problem. It means you can’t see what they’re doing, you don’t own your data, and if you leave, you lose everything — audiences, pixel data, campaign history.
Ask: “Will you work in my ad account? Will I have full access to see everything?“
4. Communication is a monthly report
A PDF sent at the end of each month is not communication. It’s a summary of what already happened — with no chance for you to influence it.
Ask: “How will we communicate day-to-day? How quickly can I expect a response?”
Look for agencies that offer real-time communication — Slack, WhatsApp, or similar. Monthly calls are fine for strategy reviews, but you need to be able to ask questions when they come up.
5. They can’t explain their strategy in plain English
If an agency hides behind jargon — “We’ll leverage programmatic targeting to optimise your acquisition funnel through multi-touch attribution modelling” — they either don’t understand it themselves or they’re trying to sound clever to justify their fees.
Ask: “Can you explain your strategy like I’m a smart person who isn’t a marketer?”
Good agencies make complex things simple. Bad agencies make simple things sound complex.
Green flags: what good looks like
Transparency
You can see everything. Your ad accounts. Your data. Your results. Nothing is hidden. When something isn’t working, they tell you before you have to ask.
Specificity
They don’t sell you a generic package. They look at your brand, your numbers, and your goals, and build a strategy around what you actually need.
Small client roster
If an agency manages 200+ clients, you’re a number. Look for agencies that cap their clients. Fewer clients means more attention, deeper understanding of your brand, and better results.
They care about your brand
Good agencies invest time in understanding your brand voice, your customers, and your values. They build a brand bible. They produce work that feels like you, not like a template.
They think beyond their channel
An ad agency that only talks about ads is missing half the picture. The best agencies think about the entire customer journey — how ads connect to email, how email connects to your site, how it all works as one integrated system.
Real results from real brands
Not vanity metrics. Not “we generated 10 million impressions.” Revenue. ROI. Customer acquisition cost. Repeat purchase rates. Results that actually matter.
Questions to ask on a discovery call
Save these for your first conversation:
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“Who will do the actual work on my account?” Not who’ll manage the relationship — who’ll be in my ad account every day?
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“How many clients do you work with?” If the answer is hundreds, ask how they ensure quality.
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“Can I see my ad accounts and data at any time?” The answer should be an immediate yes.
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“What does communication look like?” Monthly reports? Weekly calls? Daily Slack? Know what you’re getting.
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“What’s your minimum contract?” Month-to-month means they’re confident. 12-month lock-in means they’re worried you’ll leave.
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“How do you learn my brand?” Do they have an onboarding process? Do they create a brand guide? Or do they wing it?
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“What does success look like after 3 months? 6 months?” Vague answers like “increased brand awareness” are a red flag. Specific answers like “reduce your CPA by 20% and grow email revenue to 30% of total” are a green flag.
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“Can you share case studies or client references?” If they can’t show you specific results from brands similar to yours, be cautious.
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“What happens if it’s not working?” Good agencies have a plan. They pivot strategy, test new approaches, and communicate openly. Bad agencies blame the algorithm.
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“Do you work with my other channels or just ads?” The best results come from agencies that think about the whole funnel, not just one piece of it.
The specialist vs full-service question
Should you hire a specialist agency or a full-service one?
Specialist (e.g., social ads only):
- Deep expertise in one area
- Great if you have other channels covered
- Risk: disconnected from the rest of your marketing
Full-service (ads, email, website, creative, everything):
- One team for everything
- Risk: jack of all trades, master of none. Often means different specialists who don’t talk to each other.
The sweet spot: An agency that covers the core channels that drive e-commerce growth — social ads, email marketing, and funnel optimisation — and coordinates them as one system. Deep enough to be expert, broad enough to see the whole picture.
What to expect on pricing
Agency pricing varies wildly, but here’s a rough guide for e-commerce:
| Service | Typical Range |
|---|---|
| Social ad management | £750-3,000/month (plus ad spend) |
| Email marketing | £400-2,000/month |
| Full-service (ads + email + funnel) | £1,500-5,000/month |
Be wary of agencies that are significantly cheaper or more expensive than these ranges. Cheap usually means juniors or templates. Expensive doesn’t always mean better.
Important: The management fee is separate from your ad spend. Make sure you understand both before signing.
Key takeaways
- Always ask who will actually do the work — and meet them before signing
- Avoid long-term contracts. Good agencies don’t need to lock you in.
- Insist on full access to your ad accounts and data
- Look for real-time communication, not just monthly PDF reports
- Choose an agency with a small client roster that invests in understanding your brand
- Ask for specific results, not vague promises
- The best agencies coordinate across channels, not just manage one
Looking for a marketing partner you can trust?
We work with 10-15 brands at a time. No juniors. No lock-in contracts. The people you meet are the people running your campaigns.
Tell us about your brand and we’ll book your free clarity call.