How to audit a marketing agency before you hand over the budget.

What changes the week after you sign

San Antonio and the surrounding Hill Country have no shortage of agencies, which makes choosing one harder rather than easier. Most selection processes run the same way: senior people deliver a polished presentation, the slides are good, the promise is awareness.

Then the contract is signed and the senior team moves to the next pitch. The budget, the creative testing and the tracking setup get handed to whoever is available. Nothing in the pitch told you that would happen, because nothing in the pitch was about the work.

Ask what they report, and what they will not

If an agency answers a question about revenue with click-through rate, impressions or engagement, that is the answer. Clicks, impressions and likes describe activity. Net sales, cost per customer and a return you can reconcile describe a business.

• Cost per customer. They should be able to state what it costs to produce one confirmed customer, not one lead.
• How conversions are tracked. Server-side conversions over browser pixels, and a straight answer about what the tracking misses.
• Reconciliation. Their reporting should line up with your own sales figures. If it only ever matches the ad platform, it is measuring the ad platform.

Ask who actually logs in

One question does most of the work in a first call: who is logging into the ad account, setting the tracking up, and moving the budget each week?

If the answer is a tool, or a name you will not meet, the account will drift. The strategist who reads your unit economics in the first meeting should be the person running the account in month six. That is the whole argument on our comparison page, and the reason Rachael leads every engagement here.

Ask us the same questions you would ask anyone else. Request a growth audit.