Marketing agency red flags: signs you're paying for activity, not customers

If you pay an agency every month and can't tell whether it's working, you're right to ask. But "it isn't working" can mean two different things:

The agency isn't doing what you pay for. The work is thin, the reports are vague, and nobody can connect your fee to a single customer.
The agency is doing its part, and customers are lost somewhere else. The right people call or fill in a form, then the call goes to voicemail or the quote goes quiet, and they choose another business.

The red flags below are mostly about the first kind. The last section covers the second, because firing a good agency won't fix a leak that happens after the phone rings.

What red flags should I look for in a marketing agency?

These come from agency experiences owners reported in Alia's research, along with Google's own guidance on hiring help. It's our checklist, not a client result. One red flag on its own may have an innocent explanation. Several together usually don't.

Red flag	What it looks like	Ask this	A straight answer sounds like
1. Reports activity, not customers	Posts, impressions (how many times an ad was shown), clicks and "reach" go up every month; calls and jobs are never mentioned	"How many calls, forms or booked customers came from your work last month?"	A number, and how they counted it
2. You can't see your own accounts	The ad account, Business Profile or website login is in the agency's name, or you've never been given access	"Can you give me Admin access to my ad account and make me an owner of my Business Profile?"	"Yes, today"
3. Guaranteed leads or rankings	"We guarantee 50 leads a month" or "We'll get you #1 on Google"	"What exactly happens if you don't hit it?"	Honest ranges, not promises
4. Nobody can explain the fee	You can't tell how much of your bill is ad spend and how much is their fee	"Of what I paid last month, how much went to ads and how much to you?"	Two numbers that add up to your bill
5. Secret methods	"It's our proprietary system," with no detail on what was changed	"What did you change this month, and why?"	A short list in plain English
6. They never asked about your business	They don't know your average job value, your service area or how busy you are	"What do you think one new customer is worth to me?"	A figure close to yours, because they asked
7. Hard to leave	Long minimum terms, automatic renewal, or a fee to take your own website or accounts with you	"If I cancel, what do I keep, and what does it cost?"	"Everything is yours"

Is my marketing agency ripping me off? How would I know for sure?

You can't know for sure from a feeling, but you can find out in about a month. Ask for one plain report covering the last three months, by month:

what you paid in total, split into ad spend and agency fee;
how many calls, forms or messages their work produced;
how many of those became paying customers, if they track it.

Then check it against your own phone log, and ask each new customer how they heard about you. If the numbers roughly match, you have a real picture. If the agency can't produce the report, or its numbers never show up in your phone or bookings, that tells you something too.

I'm paying thousands a month and nobody can explain what I'm getting. Is that normal?

No. Any agency should be able to tell you what it did and what came of it, in plain English.

People in our research described exactly this. A contractor on Reddit reported paying an agency $2,800 a month with inadequate reporting. A software founder on Reddit wrote that $8,400 over three months got "3 blog posts and zero customers." The pattern to watch: a steady bill, a little visible work, and no customers anyone can point to.

A quick check on your own numbers shows what a monthly fee has to earn. Divide the monthly fee by the profit you make on one typical customer (the price minus your costs for that job, before marketing):

Monthly fee ÷ profit per customer = customers you need each month just to cover the fee.
For example, if the fee is $2,800 and one job leaves you $700 of profit, you need 2,800 ÷ 700 = 4 new customers a month from the agency's work just to break even. That's before any ad spend.

If the agency can't show you anywhere near that many customers, the fee isn't paying for itself, however busy the reports look.

Is it a red flag if my agency won't show me the ad account?

Yes. Your ad account, your website, your domain and your Google Business Profile belong to your business. You should be able to see them at any time.

Google Ads lets an account holder give people different access levels, from Read-only (view campaigns and run reports without changing anything) up to Admin (which can also give and manage access). Our view: you, the owner, should hold Admin access to your own account, and your agency can work under you.

The same goes for your Google Business Profile. Google says a profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Owners have full control, including adding and removing people. Managers can do most things but can't add or remove users or delete the profile. Our view: you should be the primary owner, and your agency can be a manager.

An agency that refuses either is keeping something that belongs to you, which makes it harder to check its work or to leave.

An agency is promising guaranteed leads. Is that a red flag?

Yes, in our view. Nobody controls how many people will want your service next month, so a guaranteed number of leads is either a promise nobody can keep or a promise kept by counting things that aren't real customers. A window-cleaning company owner on Reddit, describing an agency that approached them with promises, titled the thread "Feeling scammed by a marketing agency."

Google is clearer still about search rankings. Its guide to hiring an SEO (search engine optimization, the work of helping your site show up in Google) says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. It warns against anyone who claims to guarantee rankings, claims a "special relationship" with Google, or offers a "priority submit."

I've paid an SEO company for six months and see no more calls. When should I expect results?

Google doesn't publish a timeline, so ask before you start. Google suggests asking any SEO what results you should expect and in what timeframe, and whether they'll share every change they make and explain why.

If you're already six months in, ask for three things:

the list of changes they've made to your site and your Business Profile;
what they expected to see by now, and what they actually see;
whether calls or website contact forms from Google have changed at all.

If they can't show you what they changed, that's red flag 5. Google's own guide puts the stakes plainly: you are ultimately responsible for the actions of any company you hire.

What questions should I ask my agency?

Use these before you sign, at renewal, or any time you're unsure:

How many calls, forms and booked customers did your work bring in last month, and how did you count them?
Of what I paid, how much went to ads and how much to your fee?
Can I have Admin access to my ad account and owner access to my Business Profile?
What did you change this month, and why?
What results do you expect, and by when?
What do you think one of my customers is worth?
If I leave, what do I keep, and is there a fee?

Are most marketing agencies a "scam," or have I just had bad luck?

Most aren't, and it's worth being fair here. When someone on Reddit asked whether marketing agencies are scamming businesses, at least one reply defended good agencies and described what a good one does first. Good agencies exist. They tend to be the ones that answer the questions above without fuss.

It also isn't always the agency. Before you fire one, check what happens after its work does its job:

Are calls answered, or do they go to voicemail during jobs?
Do web forms and messages get a reply the same day?
Does anyone follow up on quotes that go quiet?

If the agency sends the right people and they choose another business at the next step, a new agency will hit the same problem. If you've been burned before, protect yourself next time: keep ownership of your accounts, agree in writing what will be measured, and run the break-even check before you sign.