Seeking out a marketing partner can be a daunting task. If you’ve never worked with an agency before, you may find yourself not knowing how to vet potential partners.

Whatever the case, when hiring a digital marketing agency it’s important to do your homework and ask the right questions to make sure you find the right partner that will help your business succeed.

I have come up with a list of handy questions – they’re ones our clients ask regularly, and a good agency should be able to answer these easily.

1. Do you have official partnerships with the top search engines?
If your agency has a Google Partner badge it means they have employees certified in Google AdWords, have access to their own Google agency team, and keep up with the latest innovations.

2. Do you outsource your work?
It’s important that your agency is transparent about who is doing the work they provide to you. A good agency will handle your work in-house and give you a named point of contact who will always be able to discuss your project or campaign with you.

3. How is your pricing structured?

4. How do you measure results?

5. Examples of relevant work, such as websites and Company samples.

6. How do you keep up to date with industry changes?
If your agency’s team has been there for a long time, that’s great. It shows they’re experienced. But things change very quickly in the world of digital marketing. Ask how they keep on top of these fast-paced changes, and how much time they devote to training.

Besides our investment in ongoing training, we allow our team two days a year for self-learning and continuing professional development. It’s the best way to ensure we’re delivering industry-leading service.

7. What do you think of our brief?
A good agency will challenge your brief, ask the right questions, and dig deeper. Give them the opportunity to feedback on your brief at the earliest opportunity, and this will give you a flavor of their strategic approach.

8. How will you work with us day today?
Who will be your point of contact? What project management software do they use? Will you be allowed to view your ad spend on the relevant interface?

Service and transparency should be as important as the work itself and a good agency will have the systems and processes to ensure these are built into the way they work with you.

9. What are you most proud of?
Aside from the polished case studies on their website, an agency passionate about what they do will easily be able to reel off examples of campaigns that hit the objectives. So put them on the spot and ask them!

10. What metrics are included in your standard reports?
CPC, CTR, ad positions, conversion rates of keywords, and landing pages; your agency should deliver easy-to-read reports that make it clear how your paid search campaigns are performing.

11. How many hours or days will you spend on my campaign?
A good agency will be honest and transparent about the amount of time they are dedicating to managing, monitoring, and optimizing your campaign. If they try and fudge this question, beware.

It’s important that you understand how much of their time you are getting for your fee.

12. What experience do you have working in my sector?
It shouldn’t be a deal-breaker if an agency has little or no experience in your industry or sector.

Often, this can bring a fresh strategic and creative approach. BUT – and it’s a big but – make sure you ask what steps they will take to become an expert on your business or industry and the competitive landscape in which you operate.

13. How will you improve my website’s conversion rate?
Don’t be side-tracked by talk of visibility and traffic. Ask how they’ll deliver more inquiries, conversions, and sales in order to maximize your return on investment. An agency with a web development team could be beneficial when it comes to insight and speed of results.