How to choose a digital marketing agency.

I've sat on both sides of this table. As a marketing director I hired agencies, briefed them, and occasionally fired them. Now I co-run one. Around 6,600 UK searches a month ask for a "digital marketing agency", and most of the advice those searches find is written by agencies flattering themselves. Here's the version I'd have wanted as a buyer.

Judge them by their questions, not their answers

A good agency's first meeting should feel like a diagnosis, not a pitch. They should ask about your margins, your customer value, your sales process, what's worked before and what hasn't. If they arrive with a proposal before they understand your numbers, they're selling a product, not solving your problem. The pitch deck that never asks a question is the first red flag, and the most common.

Proof over promises

Anyone can promise page one and hockey-stick graphs. Ask instead: show me a client like me, what you did, and what changed, in revenue terms, not impressions. Ask who exactly will work on your account, because the people in the pitch are often not the people doing the work. Ask how they report: if you can't understand their reporting in five minutes, that's not your failing, it's their smokescreen. And check the exit: a confident agency doesn't need to lock you in for eighteen months.

Red flags I'd run from

• Guarantees. Nobody can guarantee rankings or results. Guarantees signal either ignorance or dishonesty; both are expensive.
• Ownership games. Your ad accounts, analytics and website should be yours. If the agency owns them, leaving becomes a hostage negotiation.
• Activity as a deliverable. "Ten posts and four blogs a month" measures effort, not effect. Buy outcomes, not motion.
• One-size retainers. If every client gets the same package, nobody's getting strategy.
• Bad clients spoken about badly. How they talk about the last client is how they'll talk about you.

When you don't need an agency at all

Honestly? Sometimes the right answer is a good freelancer, a training day for your team, or fixing your website before spending on traffic. An agency worth hiring will tell you that in the first meeting, because the relationships that last start with the truth, not the invoice.